Free Track

[Flyboy583]

Hi Guys,

I came across this today

Free Track http://www.free-track.net/english/freetrack/qu-est-ce-que-c-est.php

An alternative to TRACK IR.. and best of all, it is free!! Uses your webcam!

Has anybody tried it?

[Crash]

Hi Guys,

I came across this today

Free Track http://www.free-track.net/english/freetrack/qu-est-ce-que-c-est.php

An alternative to TRACK IR.. and best of all, it is free!! Uses your webcam!

Has anybody tried it?

Hi, I know that a couple of dogz have used it and I think there is a how to build thread where here. General feeling is not quite as good as TrackIR, not as easy to set up as TrackIR, but it does work and it is CHEAP

[Flyboy583]

Cheers Mutt My PC build is going over budget and my spare £££ that was reserved for my TRACK IR has vanished So I think I will have a go until I can justify the £120!!

Rgds

Leon

Hi Guys,

I came across this today

Free Track http://www.free-trac...e-que-c-est.php

An alternative to TRACK IR.. and best of all, it is free!! Uses your webcam!

Has anybody tried it?

Hi, I know that a couple of dogz have used it and I think there is a how to build thread where here. General feeling is not quite as good as TrackIR, not as easy to set up as TrackIR, but it does work and it is CHEAP

[Mayhem]

Love it. If you like doing things yourself and don't mind tinkering it is a fun project. With the right camera and settings it works perfectly and hasn't let me down yet. The camera and head device you choose goes a long way towards the results you will achieve. I use a Microsoft Lifecam VX1000 which works very well. As far as the head device I would recommend a cap rather then a clip. I've tried both and the hat is much more accurate, not that the clip wasn't good, but a hat or visor is superior in my experience and make the setup a bit easier. Overall, I spent around $24 US making mine and have been using it for several years now with few problems. TrackIR has a few issues occasionally too from what I've heard. I think the newer version of TrackIR have less little issues then the older versions. Either solution will work well, it really depends on how you feel and if you like or feel comfortable making it yourself or just go the super easy route and buy TrackIR.

[Flyboy583]

Cheers Mayhem.

I think I will have a go at making one.... never minded a little project

Thanks for the heads up re: cap... I found a tutorial on Youtube and the guy suggested the same! This will give me something to do until My new PC is built!! Ill go down to Maplins this weekend and buy all the necessary bits!!

Ill keep you posted!

Love it. If you like doing things yourself and don't mind tinkering it is a fun project. With the right camera and settings it works perfectly and hasn't let me down yet. The camera and head device you choose goes a long way towards the results you will achieve. I use a Microsoft Lifecam VX1000 which works very well. As far as the head device I would recommend a cap rather then a clip. I've tried both and the hat is much more accurate, not that the clip wasn't good, but a hat or visor is superior in my experience and make the setup a bit easier. Overall, I spent around $24 US making mine and have been using it for several years now with few problems. TrackIR has a few issues occasionally too from what I've heard. I think the newer version of TrackIR have less little issues then the older versions. Either solution will work well, it really depends on how you feel and if you like or feel comfortable making it yourself or just go the super easy route and buy TrackIR.

[PropNut]

Hi Leon,

I have built a dozen or so Freetrack setups for various people, I make the head clip as a duplicate for the Track Clip Pro (so it works with Track IR as well) on my CNC machine. I use a USB port for the 5v power and 5mm 940nm IR LEDs that I grind down myself so they have a wider range of beam. I have used many different webcams, pretty much anything that has a removable IR filter (be careful as many webcams do not have a removable filter). The lifecam as Mayhem points out is a very good choice, but whichever cam you find to use make sure you find references for it on Freetrack's forums. This is the best way to safely remove the filter, having someone else figure it out for you first, lol (ok, that usually works for me anyway).

Here is my favorite circuit for wiring the LEDs:

and a picture of one of my clips, this is an old picture, my new CNC units do not look nearly so crude. I use a large jaw spring type paper clip (the type used for large stacks of papers) to hold it to my headset.

I have to admit that I now use TrackIR (5) as I was convinced by a couple of friends to purchase it...to be honest, other than the issues with setting up the software to work well with the camera (tweaking can be a pain) they work pretty much exactly the same as far as I can tell. If you like tweaking and tinkering you will love your freetrack system.

David

[Flyboy583]

Hey David,

Thanks for your details reply.. As always a great source of information!!

I am most definitely going to tackle this as my short term project!! Ill go down to the local electric store on Saturday and buy the bits I need... Ill most definitely follow your advice and I am sure I will be back with some questions, and hopefully pictures of my progress!!!

[PropNut]

Let me know if you want some help, I would be happy to do so if I can.

David

[PropNut]

Here are the type of IR LEDs that I use, you can pick them up at Maplin's there in Northhampton:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/ld271-infrared-emitter-2262

[BadAim]

One thing I would add here is you need a camera with a good framerate to be effective with freetrack. My first camera was way to slow, and freetrack worked like crap with it. I then went out and got the camera for PS3, which is made for motion capture work and it really works good. I am still using the headset clip setup, but I can see where the cap would work better. I'm just not sure I want to be tethered to my seat by two different devices!

PPS: if you by LED's that don't have a visible light, do yourself a favor and get an extra visible led so that you won't forget to turn your clip of several times in a row and start burning out LED's.

[Mayhem]

One thing I would add here is you need a camera with a good framerate to be effective with freetrack. My first camera was way to slow, and freetrack worked like crap with it. I then went out and got the camera for PS3, which is made for motion capture work and it really works good. I am still using the headset clip setup, but I can see where the cap would work better. I'm just not sure I want to be tethered to my seat by two different devices!

PPS: if you by LED's that don't have a visible light, do yourself a favor and get an extra visible led so that you won't forget to turn your clip of several times in a row and start burning out LED's.

If you're burning out LEDs you are probably overvoltaging them. I would suggest a larger resistor. When I first made mine I was running my LEDs at the max rating which was totally unnecessary and just puts more wear and tare on them. I now run them about half or two thirds the rated voltage and my batteries last several months of hardcore flight simming. I believe the life expectancy of IR LED is not quite as high as normal visible spectrum kinds but the rating are assessed at max voltage correct me if I am wrong. Running them at a lower voltage then rated has no ill effect and will make your lights last a long time. I'm thinking in the order of 10 years or more.

This is what I am using right here. Deal Extreme 3 bucks for 20 and they work great. They have a wide spread so there is no need to file them flat. Free shipping too and while the site might look a little shifty, I can assure you they are legit as I have ordered many parts for projects from them and always been satisfied. I even ordered a steering servo with metal gears for my Nitro stadium truggy. It was cheap, free shipping and it works great with a lot of torque. This site is a little know goldmine. I recommend checking out the DIY project section of the site. They have replacement parts for Sony Playstation 2, cell phones and a whole bunch of that stuff.

Its funny too cause the parts are shipped straight from China, Bangkok if I remember correctly. You know they say in China R&D stands for 'receive and duplicate'. I have found many parts for name-brand items where it seems the factory that the originating company farmed the production out to, had left over units or had stamped out too many, so they just resell them with or without the name-brand labeling. For instant they sell network card antenna not sold as under any brand name but when you get them they have D-Link stamped on the them. Another thing is the Gameboys SPs knock offs they sell. They have the same Nintendo casing but the units contained bootlegged games on a built in mem card or you can by cards with several games already on them.

If you look around the DIY section you will also probably notice heat sinks and fans for name-brand video cards like Sapphire and Leadtek. I always get a kick out of it when I run across something of that nature. Its definitely a great site if you're looking to for project parts for say a robot or whatever.

P.S. Like this here. Where else are you going to find one of these this cheap. This would be great for making RC foamy 3D airplanes. You can also find the Lipo battery packs, ESC, receivers and mini servos all really inexpensively on this site. Go buy a few dollars worth of foam and start designing your own RC aircraft. 2.4Ghz Transmitter and propeller not included.

Well I found this Transmitter, it's for a car or boat but it comes with the receiver. Still an great deal. All that craps made is China anyways. When I bought my Nitro Truggy there was a range issue on the Cirrus receiver which is supposed to be a decent brand. I opened it up found half the solder joints inside done by hand by someone with no ability whatsoever. One of the legs of the output amplifier transistor wasn't soldered in all the way, so I fixed it and it's great now. The point is all that crap is made in China anyways so I wouldn't worry about the quality so much.

I'm sorry, am I babbling again???

[Flyboy583]

Excellent!! Ill pop over on Saturday and go buy a couple I might come back to you about connecting the LED`s to a USB cable

Ill take some photos and give you an update of my progress!!

Here are the type of IR LEDs that I use, you can pick them up at Maplin's there in Northhampton:

http://www.maplin.co...ed-emitter-2262

[Flyboy583]

Mayhem... What a gem of a post!!! I love it and will deffo do a bit more rooting on those sites

[PropNut]

I have been doing some experimentating with a PS3 Eye camera that I picked up from Ebay for 15.00 (came with the monitor clip so it will sit on top of LED monitors).

This camera is one of the "bad" ones in that you cannot easily remove the IR filter as it sits between two focus lenses.

So...I tried it without the removal of the IR filter. Much to my surprise it picked up the light from my home made Track Clip Pro. As a matter of fact it did so very well. It still picked up other light though, even with the threshold set very low but only once in a while when my bald spot reflected the track lighting.

So....I put a piece of floppy disk film over the lens, set the FOV on the camera to closeup (you can do so by twisting the lens on the camera) and putting both gain and contrast sliders to the middle. The threshold slider I put in the middle also.

I now have three nice large red dots with no other interference. PERFECT!!

I set the stream settings to 640x480 @ 60fps, you can do 320x240 @125 but 60fps at a greater resolution seems to work better.

Then of course you set the sensitivity and curves to your liking (profiles).

Two computer sitting side by side, one using TrackIR5 the other using my new PS3 Eye Cam Freetrack Rig, no discernible difference in smoothness or tracking.....my likey!

PS3 Eye Cam - 20.00 with shipping

940nm 5mm IR LEDs - .30 (bought a package of two dozen for about 2.00 on Ebay)

Wires - junk drawer free

USB cord - pulled from a junk USB device - Free

Floppy disk film - used one that my wife had saved her dissertation data on from when she worked on her PhD (Woops!!!) FREE!

22ohm resistor - .01 from a miscellaneous pack purchased on Ebay for abou 1.50

Doctor bill for severely burned fingers from soldering iron - 2200.00 (kidding, I know how to burn myself for much less money).

Total cost: 20.31

[Flyboy583]

Thanks for a great post David!!

It just shows how much you can save with a little bit of research and determination!!

I have to admit I have not even started my free track system yet Have the bits, just need the time.... This weekend is looking good though!!!

[PropNut]

Jediteo and I were looking at Ebay.UK last night and the PS3 eye cam is even cheaper there then it is here. You should have no problems getting one cheap. You might also look at local game stores to see if they have one used for slightly more (but more convenient) than Ebay.

[Flyboy583]

Is this the one?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OFFICIAL-SONY-PLAYSTATION-3-PS3-EYETOY-CAMERA-WEBCAM-/250899983667?pt=UK_Motion_Sensors_Cameras&hash=item3a6acded33

[BadAim]

Yep, that's the one. Excellent all around camera too.......

[PropNut]

As BA said, yep, thats the one. But that one is expensive.

Edit: There are cheaper ones on Ebay though. Most are 9.99 with free shipping or 1.99 shipping.

And you will want to get a clip for it also (so it sits on your LCD monitor) like this one, they are cheap:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TV-Clip-Mount-Holder-Stand-PS3-Move-Eye-Camera-NEW-/250886447731?pt=UK_VideoGames_VideoGameAccessories_VideoGameAccessories_JN&hash=item3a69ff6273

David

[PropNut]

Here is a drawing of the dimensions for the Track Clip Pro (from TrackIR) so you can make one. This will work with both freetrack and TrackIR.

untitled.bmp

[Flyboy583]

Thanks guys.. Ill order one.. Dont think Ill get it in time for the weekend, but could always start on the infrared circuit this weekend... Im going to a computer fair in Birmingham this weekend, so might pick one up cheaply there??

[Jabo]

Is that the one at the Motorcycle Museum Leon?

That's all of 10 minutes from me.

Jabo

[Flyboy583]

Yes Jabo.. I have never been, and as I am busy building a computer, thought it would be a good opportunity to go scout for parts lol

http://www.excaliburcomputerfairs.co.uk/component/rsevents/event/282-excalibur-computer-fair

Im going at 10am

Is that the one at the Motorcycle Museum Leon?

That's all of 10 minutes from me.

Jabo