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Hi,

I suddenly and for no obvious reason got a very strange problem with my TrackIR 3 with the vector expansion, from one day to the other the tracking/movement became very erratic to a point where it's now almost impossible to use the TrackIR and I can't understand why this happened since nothing has changed in my setup. Up until yesterday everything was working just fine with very nice and smooth movement and then yesterday the view when I move my head jumps all over the place...for instance when I slowly move my head down and to the right all of a sudden the view jumps upside down and then equally fast switches back again?! I haven't changed anything in the settings or with my setup in general and the physical environment is also exactly the very same...no changes done when it comes to other light sources etc that might confuse Track-IR. First I thought maybe a simple reboot of the computer might do the trick but to no avail I also checked under View-Tracking that the device "sees" all tracking points (using the Track-IR hat with the vector expansion attached to it) and all looks fine. What I do notice however is that the green tracking points switch to red for a split second at the same time the erratic behaviour occours, guess this indicates that the device looses it's tracking of that tracking point...?

I read this under the troubleshooting section:

"3. Erratic tracking and/or cursor movement.

Solution :
Click the Advanced Settings icon on your NaturalPoint� software screen. Open the Data Window and click Run and Highlight Active Object. You should see one green dot. If you see more than one object in this window, or the green dot jumps from one dot to another, check for mislaid dots in the TrackIR's 50 degree field of view. If there are no other dots in the field of view and the problem persists, check for highly reflective items or direct light sources in the background. Move these objects, or reposition your computer.


You may be outside the TrackIR�s field of view. Click the Advanced Settings icon on your NaturalPoint software screen. Place a dot on your forehead, or TrackHAT on your head, and aim the unit at the object you wish to track. Continue adjusting the unit until a green dot appears near the center of the Data window.


If using Windows XP this could also be a permissions issue. Insure you are logged on with administrative privileges."

First of all I don't know where to find this Advanced Settings Icon? When I start the Track-IR software all I see is a window with 3 tabs (Main, Profiles, News) and 5 menus (File, View, Options, Tools, Help) - the reported version is 4.1 build 28.

Then secondly I really can't understand how this can happen all of a sudden when I changed absolutely nothing in my setup or in my use of Track-IR, could it be possible that my Track-IR device has broke down in some physical way?

Haven't used the Track-IR that much since I bought it since I found it very hard to get used to it and to fine-tune it to suit me but then I thought I should give it a final go and really put some time into learning to get used to it and I did and I really love the sensation flying in Level-D's 767 virtual cockpit in FS9 with Track-IR and then this happens when I only enjoyed it for a couple of days

Very greatful for any tips on how to get the movement smooth and stable again!!

All the best,

Richard

I'm happy to say my TIR works fine again with the same smooth movement I'm used to after unplugging and then plugging the TIR back in again after seeing this tip in some other threads here on the forum.

Are there any special reasons why this happens so you know what to avoid to have crawling behind your PC too often...?

Advanced settings are located in the following location.

View, Tracking, Settings.

Could you attach a screen shot of your tracking screen?

To make Print Screen work, you must save an image of what's displayed on-screen to the clipboard and then paste it into a document where it can be printed.

Windows Help: Print Screen

To do this, follow this procedure:

1. Maximize the window you'd like to capture.
2. To copy/capture the current window, hold down ALT + Print Scrn at the same time. To capture the entire screen, just press Print Scrn alone.
3. Open a new document in MS Paint, MS Word, MS Photo Editor, or Adobe PhotoShop.
4. Paste the screen shot by holding down CTRL and V at the same time.
5. Save the document as a .JPG or .JPEG file and send it in

Thanks for your reply!

Maybe you didn't see I already solved the issue by simply unplugging and then plugging the TIR back in again and after that the movement is perfect and all erratic motion is gone. However...do you know why this happens, is there something you should be aware of so this doesn't happen in the first place?

Anyway, below is a screenshot of my tracking screen but again...all is working just fine now after the procedure described above.

[image]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/We ... hot060.jpg[/image]

Sometimes the USB portion of windows gets a "glitch", i.e. doesn't give the TrackIR enough power, doesn't full initialize the drivers, etc..

Switching USB ports, or unplugging it, and re-plugging it back in causes the system to redetect the unit, and reinitialize the USB portion of the system.

Something else to check -

Have you tried turn off any kind of power save feature for your USB ports?

In the "Device Manager" you can right click the "USB Hub"(s) that show and turn off the power saving feature that turn those ports off when idle. Sometimes that has an impact on the connectivity of the devices.


Also, do you have the TrackIR unit mounted upside-down?

Hi,

Thanks for your tip about turning power saving off for USB ports, sounds that could likely be part of these kinds of problems - will be very interesting to see if it works better from now on!

And yes, I have the TIR mounted upside-down to the underside of the shelf I have my printer on since I couldn't find a good way to mount the TIR to my flat monitor. Did you ask just out of curiosity after seeing my tracking screen or could that also be part of the problem that you have it mounted upside-down?

Looking at the Tracking screen, the reflectors are upside down, justwanted to make sure it was doing that on purpose,

OK, yeah...it's on purpose and would for sure be interesting to use the TIR otherwise...

Disabled the power saving features on the USB ports and so far all is good, no more strange "glitches" with my TrackIR - thanks again for the tip!!

No issues, glad I could help out.