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Wow! Was that expected from the start? I thought it was supposed to be 300-350 like the DKs were?

Well, I have spent quite a bit of time on these. I've even completely re-done the MS33558 font from scratch. The free one was traced over a fax someone sent a graphic designer so nothing was up to spec. I've re-done it as a parametric cad drawing, with all the thickness/width/height ratios per MS standard, all the letters are in ratio with each other according to MS etc. And imported it to a font designer, and used that for all the lettering. Each dial, each long/short marking, each pointer, every single line is a parametric drawing according to their mil specs. So if you want to take care of the arduino code and save time on designing the unit, you can expect a complete set next week. That's a no-brainer, really. I've built several acrylic bending tools/jigs, until my laser and cnc become operational I have access to industrial size cnc and laser machines at a local entrepreneur startup center. So now I have all I need to manufacture these designs. And make them look real nice, with enclosures, rounded edges, custom backlit rounded buttons etc. This month will be all about panel building...

I don't have time for manufacturing 1-on-1 :D But here's were your thinking should be: Every grip has a few engravings, lettering. Laser cutter is a 20.000$ machine. What's more productive, have that machine engrave grips one day, and sit idle for the rest of the month. Or have it work 24/7 making grips, panels, instruments, tracking clips etc. And what about that cnc mill you need for the threaded connector. Another 20k and what is the machine gonna do after it makes 1.000 connectors in a day? And what about every other saw, drill, lathe, jig and tool? But now you're gonna say, just have it all made. Sure, but than I have a 500$ product like everyone else, earning money for 10 other companies, least of all for me. Not interested. When do you stop? When you have enough to keep each machine running non stop. Which is right about now.

In order to be able to develop all other grips in a reasonable time frame, I need to have the production process streamlined and efficient. Not make every grip by hand, which I can do right now, but I won't. I need to Henry Ford the shit out of this. I can start making them now, but it'll be maybe 50 F-18 grips a month and I'll be working 30 days to manufacture them. So no time for anything else for the next year at last (I personally think, ever). Just look at all the other manufacturers, first product (or a couple similar ones), then straight to sales and then nothing else for years to come. And in order to have them at 60$, I need other products. Instruments, panels and the head tracking clip are waaaay more simpler to manufacture, and they are going to fuel the 60$ grips development. And once I have 60$ grips, the snowball will just keep getting bigger and bigger. That's plan A. Plan B, everything I just said falls to pieces and I start making them at the low level like everyone else. Give me a few more months and we'll know which way we're going.

Yes that's a due. I'm aware of the 4 stepper limit for the Uno, I guess about 16 would be a limit for the Due. But I've already changed the design to use 12 servos + 4 steppers for the 4 mini continuous pointers. There are examples where people drive 80+ servos off a single arduino, with 992 servos being the theoretical limit. Prototype 1.0 will drive the motors straight from the Arduino Due, but Prototype 2.0 will drive all the servos in the A-10 simpit through an I2C channel like this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/815 http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCA9685-16-Channel-12-bit-PWM-Servo-motor-Driver-I2C-Module-For-Arduino-Robot-ft-/321779216291?hash=item4aeb892fa3:g:428AAOSwrklVeD-J With dcs-bios copy/paste style programming I can probably get the 1.0 running myself, but I'd love to ship one out to you if you're still interested, maybe we can get 2.0 to work with the 16-channel I2C driver, so a single arduino could drive all the instruments in A-10? I had a dream of sub 10$ instruments when this began, and now that is true. There are 14 motors in the engine cluster, and I already know it can be sold for less than 140$, if we can get it working on the I2C driver, it could be a sub 100$ component for the pit.

2016 is going to be the year of building: Sorry it took so long but there was a lot of stuff to do. And connecting panels was a fairy tale until now. Now that we have dcs-bios, it's time to go big or go home. Designs have been simplified drastically so you can expect the engine cluster in a month, followed with much, much more.

Some early arrivals: Still waiting on the most important parts, LiPo batteries, charging circuits, filters, milling bits for the cnc etc...

There are no patents on a clip with 3 ir leds. There are also no patents on an ir camera/sensor as it is an off the shelf product. And that's all I'll be selling. There are already 2 other sellers doing it for quite some time, DelanClip and TrackHat but at 2x and 3x the price. Patents were for software, and even there they couldn't patent anything because patents already existed and were expired. So they patented "software that displays real and virtual head position positions at the same time". Which has nothing at all to do with head tracking. Just an unnecessary feature to obtain a patent where there is none. Open source solutions got rid of the "at the same time" part and voila, no longer patent infringing. Anyway, in their initial marketing they were promising a 20$ head tracking unit for people with disabilities. Go check how much their non-gaming device costs now, I'll wait...it's 500$. So much for "no greed". Sure it's business and I don't blame them. But I will also not give them any divine praise for "helping out" us simmers. They did nothing of the sort, they took a nice chunk of cash for a product they developed, that's all. They deserve your money, not your worship. But I really couldn't care less about any of that. All I know is I wanted a wireless, detachable, affordable device that doesn't look like something I'd be ashamed to have on my headset. There weren't any.

Yes, ps3 (which is 120fps) eye with my own lens and filter. And the first thing I'll do is get hold of the open source developers and see what can be done to make things better, and perfectly legal.

Actually it's called progress, and it happend to every invention ever created. I'm only making the wireless mechanical clip, and a filter for ps3 eye camera. How you get your software is up to you. Or should we ban computers because someone might try to run it with pirated windows.

Haha you really put my hopes up. I actually thought I wouldn't have to go through the trouble of making my own, but again it's a let down. It's not wireless, not detachable and uses the same crappy diy IR-filter. For a few extra $$ you could have at least bought a DelanClip made out of steel. I hate fused filament 3d printed parts. That finish looks so horrible I would hide it away if I had another simmer come by...

Thanks Milan for pitching in. I realized as soon as I got into ir-filter research, that software is not the first key to flawless tracking. Actually it's the last. And that's not my opinion, it's fact. Numbers and data don't lie. As posted before, here are some graphs to illustrate my point. Regardless of camera or software used, here are the differences between 3 filters. These graphs are very close approximations based on the numbers I got from my research. So it's not yet 100% exact science, but will be when I get all of my components and start testing everything there is. For now, even if not completely accurate, it shows very obvious differences between the three. 1) Floppy disk filter - under the black area is the range of light a floppy disk filter lets through. You can clearly see that, first of all, it cuts off the majority of ir-LED light! Not only that, but the IR that it actually lets through, is completely mixed in with the IR from the sun, and even the room/monitor light! How is the software supposed to distinguish between background and points? Complete and utter garbage. Period. So any kind of device any of you (me included!) might have built in the past... if you used a floppy disk filter, you made garbage. Not to mention the software was far weaker years ago, cameras were far weaker, pc's were from the stone age. I made an approximation of 30% filter efficiency for IR transmittance, but actually it's 0%. Since all the LED IR light is mixed in with the background IR light. Plus, the filter is see-through!! It actually lets through vissible light which is the worst part of it all. 2) Developed photographic film - Much better!Under the black area, you can see the filter let's through most of the IR from the LEDs. But still, it cuts off the brightest, most valuable part of it! And that's just the numbers for the film I have. Who knows how many kinds of the film there are, and what kind you used. You can also see that most of the IR that goes through, maybe even 80%, is mixed in with the sunlight IR and room/monitor IR. Again, very hard for the camera/software to distinguish between points and background. Plus, again the filter is see-through!! It actually lets through vissible light which is the worst part of it all. 3) Now here is the industrial IR filter I'm going to use: Not only does it let through 100% of the LED IR light along with the brightest range of it, but a big chunk of this IR light is completely above the sunlight and room/monitor IR range. Best part of it all, the filter blocks 100% of visible light. You will not find that in any kind of commercially available filters. They are all see-through. Not this one, it's like looking through steel. You can put a billion watt light bulb behind it, and you won't see a thing. Until you point an IR camera at it, and it's completely transparent! Much, much easier for the camera/software to distinguish between tracking points and background light. Couple all of that with the fact that I can manufacture my own lenses, for both the camera and LEDs, and the fact that software, cameras and pc's are all light years ahead from where they were just years ago... this should be as close to trackIR as possible, if not better. Long story short, comparing what anyone has built themselves (or bought!), now or a few years back, would be like saying: "Windows 7 sucks on Pentium 4". Sure! But is the problem Win7 (software) or Pentium4 (hardware)??? And on top of all that, everyone is talking about freetrack. Freetrack is dead, long gone. Opentrack is the successor. The newest, actively developing open source head tracking software. And to my research, people are already using it flawlessly with any sim, including DCS. So if it works (what is today considered) flawlessly, with the crappy filters and out of focus cameras, I cannot wait to see what it will be like when I pair it with the best hardware possible. Which is why i ordered everything. From the cheapest 1.99$ 30fps webcams, 1080p webcams, up to the 187fps PS3 eye, and beyond to 45$ usb cmos boards and 100$+ monochrome IR sensor boards. And I cannot wait to prove that a 1.99$ (or a 6$ ps3 eye included in the price) camera works just as good as a 100$+ custom IR sensor, if the hardware is designed right.

There is no way to make a regular mini joystick compatible with warthog's electronics. So it will have to be: A) a mechanism to increase the travel of the original 2d sensor. B) a separate, off the shelf, mini joystick (3d), connected to an arduino. I will make and test both, but it's tied up to my other projects as they all use the same machining and electronics so I can prototype them all together.

The mechanical arm has 5dof of positioning the clip. Headtracking is of course 6dof. Led positions are the same as TrackIr.

Yes you are right, but that was in the old days. I tried it too, 7 years ago. But it really wouldn't be fair judging by that. First of all, if you used ANY kind diy IR filter, you got a crappy solution, then the 320p webcam and weak processors etc. Today, there is no need at all for an on board image processing chip, which is about 6x more expensive then a webcam. And 1080p camera sensors are the norm. If you couple that with the industrial IR filter, it should not even be comparable. So a few years back you couldn't really judge software, as the hardware to use it properly was basically non existent. It would be like an Android OS without existence of smartphones. You'd would consider it quite crappy on your nokia 3310 right?

DelanClip and TrackHat both use customized opentrack and already work remarkably well and trouble free. So the only question is how much further can I take it. We will see :)

I can manufacture my own led lenses in quantities. 180° LEDs will be one of my first experiments. With diffusor caps over the leds, maybe even 270°. But that's all to be experimented with first. I will be getting TrackIR and comparing my design directly to it.

Prototypes immediately after the hollydays. Products weeks after that. Unlike my grip project, this does not use any sci-fi manufacturing processes, just plain old cnc machining and off the shelf components, so they're really ready to go. OpenTrack/FreeTrack are the only open source head tracking as far as I know. Problems are everyone is using different DIY hardware so each has to be individually set up. The crappy home made hardware just adds to the problem. With unified hardware, setups can be pre-made for true plug'n'play. It's in the works. There are 4 magnets in the system, so it's a 3-piece magnetically detachable device. You can detach the IR clip, and the mounting arm. The third piece, tiny magnetic base, is zip tied to your headset.

By all means. I will ask for much more help with exposure, but after I get several prototypes into the hands of testers with both open source and trackIR. Which should be very soon as, unlike my grip project, these use very common manufacturing methods so everything is ready. I know, right? I was so mad after reading it, that I started all of this :D The boxes in the renders are a presentation for retailers. The ones I sell myself go into a simple bubble wrap envelope as the package is 6 (six) millimeters thick actually, and under 200 grams. Some styrofoam protection on the bottom and top and it's nothing more than a very thick letter. I'm not 100% on it yet, but some number crunching shows 10$ shipping to Usa. Yes and no. No because the only 2 alternatives right now are Delan Clip and TrackHat, with prices of 60$ and 90$ respectively, and they both use the same open source software you have to set up to your preferences. 90$ and more than 1000 units sold. It cost all three of us under 18$ to make, including the camera. So "90$-18$ x 1.000", I would call that very successful. That would pay for all the machinery I plan to build, 3 times over. Yes because the only reason I get into something, is when I see a way for a major improvement. After making sure I can cut the price 2-3 times, I know I can sell 10x more of them, which will in turn allow me to share much of the profits with the software makers. And after successful hardware tests, that will be my No.1 priority. That I do understand, because I tried to make my own frankenstein freetrack 7 years ago, and gave up for the same reasons. But as I understand, freetrack is an old and dead platform. Opentrack is it's successor and to my research, it works remarkably, even with the frankenstein home made hardware. It's also an active development. So with the improvements that I have in mind, it should be flawless and perfect. And when I throw a bunch of money at the software developers, it should be even better. The reason why many are having problems with open source solutions like freetrack and opentrack, is because of their home made hardware. I attached a picture with 3 graphs, showing curves for light waves, combined with a floppy disk film filter, a photographic film filter, and then my custom made industrial IR filter. The differences are huge. The floppy disk film filter, wich is the most common one among DIY builders, is absolute garbage. It doesn't let through any of the high intensity IR light. So any IR that get's through, is mixed in with the sunlight and room light. Photographic film is much better, but combined with most commonly used LEDs, it still blocks 50% of the "high intensity - interference free" range those LEDs emit. And most important, both of them are actually see through. Put them in front of a light bulb and it shows through. Not at all what you want in a visible light filter, a complete fail. Not my filter. My filter is industrial grade, 100% "780nm and under" light blocking. The thing is solid black, like looking at a rock, yet completely see-though when filmed with an IR camera. Actual manufacturers specification sheet says 0.00% ( that's zero with two decimals) visible light transmittance, up to 780nm. And 90% light transmittance from 800 - 1000 nm. It's a multi billion $$ company so I trust their specs. There are even better narrow band filters, but cost crazy money, this one I'm getting for free in unlimited quantities. According to the numbers, it should work much better then both options currently in use, and that's all I need.

Behind those renders is a parametric cad model, and G-codes that go into cnc machines, laser cutters and 3d printers. It takes 5-6 hours to make a model and render it. It then takes me 500 - 600 hours to prepare that model for manufacturing. Several times that if it's a complicated model like a grip. But I can't show you lines of g-code. I never render what I don't have prepared for manufacturing. You can notice other small manufacturers presenting their early WIP models, something you will never see from me, because that is just what you are referring to, a pretty picture, wishful thinking. And you can never be sure a pretty picture will evolve into a product. I post my renders only after the designs are fully ready for manufacturing. You can see a prototype of the grip in the first post. I would have posted one for the irTrack, but the hollydays got me.I have probably more then 20 products prepared by now, most of them have renders, but you only see ones that have those 500 hours spent on making the models manufacturing ready. Prototyping costs money, and I can't spend 100k$ on prototyping 10 products, but I can sure prepare them all the way, then after I am sure that they can be made, I can also develop my own machinery and be sure they will keep it busy 24/7. I only need to press a button to make an actual grip from the "picture" you see, the same goes for the irTrack model. I can't manufacture first, then go look for customers. It should be the other way around, like this.The grips were developed by accident so it might seem like a very long time, but the rTrack will be a product within a month or two.

Here you can see where the last 2 weeks of my time went: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=2612432#post2612432 Another project?? Yes, but it will only add to the affordability of the grips. This is the only way to keep the prices at the level of the big companies, have many products and spread my profit margin over them all, combined. It's also the only way to justify developing and building my own machinery. This is why I won't have to put 200$ on top of my rudder pedals (if I decide to make them), or put 100$ on top of my grips. I will earn 15$ on every grip and not only survive, but grow. Because I'll earn the rest of the 100$ on the 20 other products I have ready for my machines, and the 200 others I cannot wait to get to once I put my army of henchmen to work. Merry Christmas!

Reserved for further details about the project. ETA: After the hollydays for the prototypes, and then products weeks after, as soon as testers confirm all is ok. The camera inside is a PS3 eye for now. I will try everything from the cheapest 2$ 30fps webcams up to 45$ custom made monochrome IR cmos sensor boards. P.S. I should note that behind these "pretty pictures" is a parametric cad model, fully "manufacture ready" at the push of a button. But the hollydays got me, so that will have to wait a week or two. I had the renders a few weeks ago. I posted them here only after sourcing all the components, tools and jigs, and g-codes for the cnc and laser machines.

Hi everyone. You might know some of my projects here, like the TM compatible F-18 grips and A-10 usb instruments. Those started as a hobby experiment, but have since grown into a full consumer product project, at least that is the plan. As I shifted my research & development from designing a product, to designing machinery needed to manufacture it, I needed to go back, and design more products in order to justify developing and building the machinery. Quite soon you realize that no machinery can survive without multiple products to keep it busy, and no product can be, without the multiple machines it takes to make it. This is the answer to all the questions of "why so long", "why not just the grips" etc. I will not go down the road of (many) projects and small manufacturers by "putting all my eggs in a single basket". That is the double death sentence of being stuck delivering that single product, and not having time nor energy to develop any other that are supposed to fuel your growth. I currently have a couple projects presented here (which I stopped updating once I moved my focus to machinery), and I will add quite a few more because that is the only way to succeed. Many eggs, many baskets. My grips, bases and instruments have gone quite far ahead and I will show you the progress in due time. But first, let me introduce you to my latest little gizmo, that will probably be the first thing to hit the shelves. A few weeks ago I decided to get some kind of head tracking device. After searching the net, I became familiar with the desperate situation that exists. A professional solution that is way too expensive and has many problems on one hand, and a great open source software accompanied by not so great hardware. So, I decided to develop my own. I will fill in the details a bit later, but here are just a few: - completely wireless with 10h battery life. Can be extended to 30h with a slightly larger case. - magnetically attached mounting arm with 5 degrees of freedom of movement so you can attach it to any headset out there. -IR device is both left and right side compatible with the same mounting arm. The device itself also has a magnetic quick connect/disconnect -auto on/off switch. Snap it on and LEDs turn on, snap it off and LEDs turn off -custom made lens and IR-filter that should deliver unparalleled performance -120 degree LEDs, instead of 80° used by all the competitors -120fps IR sensor that comes with a monitor mount, that also doubles as a charging dock for the clip This will go to the machines in the first weeks of the new year, so you can expect product pictures real soon, along with comparisons to competitors. You won't be expected to fork out any doe until I show you that this is the best one by a mile. Much research, development and component searching went into this, so worst case scenario, it'll be slightly better then the best one out there. Oh, almost forgot the best part about it. 35.00$ for the whole set (minus the headset of course). Yep, that's right, 300% cheaper then the next best thing, and more than 5x cheaper than trackIR. I will also dedicate much of the profits to the current open source software development and improvement. I started this after reading a blog about TrackIR, you will find it if you google "TrackIR Anticompetition", it's the first result. I was appalled, shocked and disgusted after an hour of reading there. So I think it's time head tracking goes to everyone, not just the ones that have 200$ to spare. No pre-orders, no kickstarters, no waiting lists. News, tests and reviews as soon as we get the hollydays behind us. Merry Christmas!

Well, what do you care what it costs me to make :) All you need to know is that I will price it less than anything else on the market.

Yes, that's a "2 springs acting against each other" system, on each axis. Exactly the same type of mechanism that I'm using in my design. But instead of plane old springs, I'm using 2 hydraulic shocks per axis, with adjustable spring pre-load, replaceable springs for different forces and adjustable oil dampers.