PuckIR OpenTrack DCS or me issues.

Hello,

So I jumped into the Flight Sim experience recently and need some help with keeping my head tracker working.

I bought the PuckIR from GrassMonkey and it works OK but sometimes it does some weird stuff. I'm not sure if the problem is me, the unit, DCS or all of the them.

When I turn the unit on and start openTrack the LEDs are picked up and I can see my head movement in the window. My problem is when I'm in a plane.

Here are a few of the problems:

1 - will not do anything.

--- I can move my head and see the LEDs moving in the OpenTrack program but nothing happens within DCS.

2 - When I start inside a plane the view snaps all the way in one direction

---- mostly either down or all the way to the right

3 - Auto center keyboard command

---- sometimes when the PuckIR is working good I may need to re-center my view. If I hit my auto-center keyboard command it locks the view looking forward. I can see my head movements in the open track window but nothing moves within DCS. ALT-C to view with the mouse won't even work.

---- I've figured out that if I click out of DCS and back into it a few times it starts tracking my head movement again but by that time, I've been shot down.

4 - Left head movement

---- The LEDs get lost when I move my head to the left

---- I've moved the camera from the center of my monitor all the way to the right and it didn't help

My set up.

1 - My room is on the East side of the house and I play in the late afternoon or when its dark outside. There's a heavy dark curtain over the window too. The only light in the room is from a lamp that shines up onto the wall behind my computer. So that should rule out sunlight or direct lighting as a problem.

2 - OpenTrack is open and running on another monitor next to the monitor with DCS on

3 - openTrack running as Admin

4 - DCS running as Admin

Questions:

1 - I wear glasses.

---- Would the glare from the computer screens onto my glasses cause a problem?

2 - DCS TrackIR settings

---- under Options should I delete all of the TrackIR settings, since I don't have a TrackIR?

3- I deleted the files in \Saved Games\DCS\Config\Input\[plane_name]\trackir folders, just in case they were a problem.

--- didn't help

Thanks for reading and hopefully somebody has ran across this before and has an easy button to fix it. :)

Till the next cloud takes you....fly safe,

Ozmandi

1. I suggest to test outside DCS the camera and tracking view and all possible moves. That way you see when and where you lose tracking. I believe some images reflected from the glasses can be mistaken for additional iR dots. If happens in game try to retest same situation without glasses on.

2. What options? Opentrack software works by pretending to be TrackIR.

3. These are just your custom control settings if you change any for TrackIR.

About problem #4 what is your leds setup? I have 3 leds on left side of the head. I put camera exactly straight against the leds - a little higher because of monitor but it is calibrated for in options/position.

1. I suggest to test outside DCS the camera and tracking view and all possible moves. That way you see when and where you lose tracking. I believe some images reflected from the glasses can be mistaken for additional iR dots. If happens in game try to retest same situation without glasses on.

2. What options? Opentrack software works by pretending to be TrackIR.

3. These are just your custom control settings if you change any for TrackIR.

 

About problem #4 what is your leds setup? I have 3 leds on left side of the head. I put camera exactly straight against the leds - a little higher because of monitor but it is calibrated for in options/position.

Hey draconus, thanks!

I'll try to test it outside DCS.

yeah, I have 3 LEDs on the RIGHT side attached to my head-set. Camera is slightly off-center to the right.

One of the things that is so frustrating is that sometimes it works great and sometimes it doesn't. Last Tuesday night it worked great, I had no problems or issues with it. The next night when I moved my head the image would bounce around with a jerking motion. It was never centered on the screen and if I used the auto-center keyboard commands it would center the view but that also shuts off the head tracker. In order for the head-tracker to work again I have to ALT-TAB out, stop open-track and start it up twice in order for it to start working in DCS again.

To me it seems like something is interfering with the head-tracker. I've even tested it with my ceiling fan on and off. LOL

I'm thinking of running the Repair on DCS and re-installing open-track at this point.

It's simple. The camera have to register all 3 leds and only 3 all the time. If not you will have tracking problems. If it's less then 3 - you're too far or batteries are dead. If it's more than 3 you have some light in the camera fov - can be reflection too. If you alttab frequently I noticed that shortcuts for Opentrack stop working or only work with Ctrl.

You know its usually the simplest solution that works.

Replacing the battery solved my problem.

Since I could see the lights in the open track window I thought everything was operating as it should. But when I installed a new battery I immediately recognized the lights were a lot brighter and didn't disappear when I turned my head.

Head-tracking in DCS is working great now!

Thanks for your help draconus!