having problems with trackir 4 pro

[burgerface]

yesterday i tried out my recently purchased trackir 4pro.

got it mainly for armed assault, but i also have fsx and lock on: modern air combat as well.

The problem is that i am finding the trackir4pro will move about all over the place even without the headtracker in sight.

for example in lock on modern air combat i cannot face forwards because the view is constantly facing towards the back of the plane on the right hand side.. moving my head around you might move but they are such drastic jumps and always end up in the same spot.


for armed assault I can look right and left but it keeps snapping back to the center view when i look left. I find that i cant run in the game and other movements and so forth with trackir on because it seems to cancel out running and i end up all over the pace.

after this i decided to remove the headtracker completely and put it in another room for good measure and still find that the soldiers head is moving all over the place at times.

All i have behind me is a leather chair, a white pedestle fan on my side and a wooden cupboard.

although its been problematic i have had a few runs of armed assaults' training mission when it was not that bad, but today games are just unplayable with it on.

running xp pro sp2
3600+ amd64 processor
6800GS pci express video with 512mb memory.
1 gig ram


do you have any diagnostic software (like that moving head model you like to use) that i can run and see whats going on? or have any suggestions. I really need a software enviroment to test it in - much like how joysticks have their calibration software.

track ir software is installed with the latest software from your site.

i also live in australia

thanks

[burgerface]

i think i may have solved the problem.


I went into the device manager and found a device called "inbuilt infared devices" and then i changed its "maximum connection rate" to 2400


Prehaps this is some feature built into my motherboard and it was conflicting with the trackir.

In lockon everything seems very smooth again.. but if ido have more problems i will do some further testing (eg. try on different machine) and let youknow how it goes.

thanks

[VincentG]

Also look at the tracking screen, under view tracking, this will show you what the camera is seeing. Generally erratic movement can be tied to more than the 3 green dots appearing on the Tracking screen.

[burgerface]

i am still having some problems with the track ir. I had a look under view tracking and can see my three green dots - but much of the time i see some red comming into the picture (like its reflecting off my cap or the sides of my headphones or face) and then sometimes those red patches will turn green and one of the top tracking dots may turn red.

here's an image i made of it - you can clearly see my face in the bad shot becoming all green and the tracking dots being red: [img=http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/4468 ... tq9.th.jpg]


EDIT: In the nighttime i have it showing properly but the games center is still way off




after trying to see what the problem is last night i noticed:


[*]sometimes the trackir will work fine for 15 minutes and then start gettign jumpy.

[*]right from the start in armed assault your soldiers head is always bent back like he is looking behind himself.

[*]It changes sides so one time the soldiers head is all the way left (when i look center). If this occurs I will not be able to look right (and vice versa) - and moving my head all the way right will only just bring it to center.

the same occurs in lock on as well.

[*]at times the issue may not be so bad and i can find that tilting my cap upwards and slightly to the right (or left depending) it can be on center.

[*]sometimes there is no problem looking left and right but the problem will be the zoom in/out having issues


I ended up disabling that inbuilt infared device on mymotherboard to no avail. still have not tried it on my other machine yet but will do so later today after some more testing.

[burgerface]

tried the track ir on my second machine and although all the lights are on, and the software detects that "lock on: modern air combat" is running i was unable to get the pilots head to move - i'm not so concerned about that as the headtracking software did detect my head movements.

i had another shot on my original system and things seem to be runnign very smoothly. When i recalibrate the heads to center it does seem to help but it wont stay calbrated for very long.

its rather difficult to pinpoint what is going on as it can work smoothly like its doing right now.

next thing i might do is whack in a spare harddrive and do a new install of windows and ArmA, trackIR and give it a test.

[Rosgillies]

Lightfiltering? See if it is set to about or on 100, if not set it to 100. It can cure the jumping about.

[burgerface]

i've got it set on 100 now. I haven't really had toomuch problem withjumping aboutlately though.. its mainly looking forward thats the problem as the characters head is constantly forced back to the far left or right.

if i center the heads in the trackir software then i will be certain that the players head will be way off center. I have to either wear the cap all the way to the side or play the game looking at the side of the screen. although it tends to mean if the guys head is always on theleft or right of the screen i wont be able to look to the other side.

however sometimes it will work and will be fine for short periods. I am notsure. I might post a fraps video of how it looks soon enough.. i just have to not use the trackir because its unplayable with it on 90% of the time.

[VincentG]

Are you plugging in directly to the system, or are you using a hub?

Have you tried isolating the device on the USB ports?

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 then select properties. On the power management tab, uncheck the box that allows the computer to turn off the USB port to save power (i.e. uncheck the box). Sometimes that has an impact on the connectivity of the devices.

Could you attach a screen shot of your device manager (showing USB), and tracking screen (TrackIR software)?

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.

[burgerface]

Are you plugging in directly to the system, or are you using a hub?

plugging it directly to the system. i have tried both the front case usb's and the back motherboard usb's

Have you tried isolating the device on the USB ports?

Yes with no result.

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

yes each of the usb ports has the power saving feature off.

Could you attach a screen shot of your device manager (showing USB), and tracking screen (TrackIR software)?

here is the screenshot you requested:

http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... kirtw8.jpg




you will notice that the head tracking in the above picture is off center. amazingly i can find that when the tracking heads are off center like this often (but not always) the trackir software will translate the movements correctly in armed assault - even better than when the heads are properly centered!


here is another screenshot of what happens in armed assault when i look forward after centering the screen.. note the soldiers head is all the way left when i am looking forward.note in this example it means i will not be able to look too the far right.

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/259/ ... ingxr5.jpg


finally here is a screenshot of the "gauges" section as well as the "tracking settings" just in case something is wrong here:

http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... ngsqk2.jpg



Notes:

• centering the trackir heads makes no difference to the problem it either works perfectly well off center, or fails miserably
• the heads generally need centering constantly, after 5 minutes of playing the trackir will be way off center even though it was centered before the game start

[VincentG]

What type of motherboard are you using?

Do you have the latest system bios and chipset drivers installed?