Sudden Loss of Forward Focus

Post Reply
drjazz
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:46 am

Sudden Loss of Forward Focus

Post by drjazz »

I have had TrackIR (Pro) for a year or more and have a very irritating problem.

First I should mention that I gave up on the Pro attachment and switched to the supposedly inferior reflector hat attachment with more satisfactory head movement control.

My system is fairly powerful ( 3.2GHz Q9550 etc, Vista Ultimate 32bit).

My problem is:
Every so often the TrackIR suddenly loses its forward focus and one is looking downwards at the (empty) pilots seat cushion. This of course happens at the most crucial times eg flight sim landing approach.
The only way of curing the problems is to have one of my
yoke triggers assigned to the reset viewpoint function and to quickly press it at the crucial moments. This of course destroys the illusion/concentration of whatever simulation is active.

Is there anything that can done to cure this problem??
VincentG
Posts: 7728
Joined: Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:00 am
Location: Corvallis, Oregon

Re: Sudden Loss of Forward Focus

Post by VincentG »

When this occurs, what do you see on the tracking screen, any red?
drjazz
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:46 am

Re: Sudden Loss of Forward Focus

Post by drjazz »

Hi Vincent, thanks for the question.

I usually operate full-screen for my FSX app, so dont have any TrackIR windows visible. I presume your question is because there may be something else in the room apart from my hat that is producing a signal from one side and hence causing the TIR view to flip.
I dont believe this is the case since my room is usually dark and anyway I replaced my light bulb with a low watt fluorescent one.
I should mention further that once the view has flipped downwards, it stays so and head movements cause me to get various views relative to the pilots seat cushion! until I do the view reset (F12).
I will do further tests with the TrackIR test windows visible on-screen and report back.
drjazz
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:46 am

Re: Sudden Loss of Forward Focus

Post by drjazz »

Vincent,

Further to my reply above, I did some tests with the TrackIR
tracking window active alongside the FSX window. I did see on occasions a tiny red dot appearing alongside the three larger green reflector markers. The culprit was a a large paper clip (the triangular type with black metal and chrome wire levers ) which I was using to clamp the reflector on my cap. The clip wasnt really necessary the reflector seem secure enough without it. Removing did improve things but not 100% so my suspicions moved on to my glasses. Maybe they can occasionally produce a rogue signal.

I did notice that the flip away from forward vision will recover itself after perhaps 10 secs or more, but that is obviously unsatisfactory.

The net of all this is, that I will go back to trying my Pro attachment. It obviously doesnt suffer from reflection problems and maybe I can get it to give more acceptable head movement responses.

Thanks for the helpful response
Post Reply