MilesD

Hey Guys, Sorry for the comms blackout. I don’t like to overshare, but I understand the growing frustration out there with the lack of production, so I will overshare a bit here. Only waste the next few minutes of your life if you’re really bored, mad at me for not making more PointCTRLs, or are just curious how I started making these damn things. As many of you know, PointCTRL is not a business for me. Following an injury in Iraq, where I served on a SFODA, also known as “Green Berets”, and a few years of surgeries and rehab, the Army eventually sent me to the glue factory aka the “Permanently Disabled Retirement List”. I did my best to stay in the Army… (Insert your own Monty Python Black Knight meme here). My friend “Los”, who was my Team Sergeant/Mentor earlier in my SF career, encouraged me to try VR flying with him. So, we bought a bunch of hardware, built 2 systems, and fired up our newly released CV1s. I was immediately hooked on inserting and extracting troops with the Huey. But the crazy thing was, the very first time I took off my VR headset, I noticed something was wrong. I sat for a minute trying to figure out what the hell was going on with me and this feeling that I couldn’t identify. I remember I was about to call out to my wife because I thought VR had somehow broken my brain. It wasn’t until I stood up and felt the ever-present burning nerve pain and muscle spasms return that I realized what had happened. I remember like it was yesterday, me looking at the CV1 now sitting by my side and saying to no one in particular, “Holy <profanity>… that thing takes away all the fucking pain when you’re in it.” There I was for the next few months flying around this virtual world, in a half broken body full of titanium rods, screws, and bolts, in what felt like a new virtual body. Unfortunately as I became more accustomed to VR, the pain and discomfort slowly crept back in, but there was always some degree of escape from it. Like everyone else experiencing VR for the first time, I continued to physically reach for switches and knobs only to remind myself “Hey, you have to use the mouse, dumbass”. One day, my wife Carol, who was now accustomed to me seeing me in the corner of our dining room flying away in my own little world, tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Hey…stick out your hand.” I did as instructed, and I was rewarded with the feeling of a nice cold unsolicited beer in my hand. I am lucky to have a great supportive wife who always encourages me to fly more. After drinking a bit of it, I promptly placed the beer on the center console of the Huey, where it immediately dropped to the real-world floor, spilling beer all over it. After cleaning up the beer, I thought, “I can fix this.” So I found a low table the same height as the Huey’s center console, and placed it to my left. I went back into VR, touched the virtual center console and was rewarded with the feel of a hard object right where it should be. I yelled to Carol that I fixed the problem, I was again rewarded with another unsolicited cold beer, this time when I placed it on the Huey virtual console, it stayed. My simple mind was proud of itself, and the very next time I reached for a switch that I could not move, I thought, “ Hey I just made a place to put my real beer down in a virtual world, surely I can make something so I can just reach out and flip the virtual switches in my cockpit. So it started… Those that are familiar with SFODAs, the 18Bs or “Weapons Guys” are usually known as the knuckle draggers of the bunch. However, I always had an interest in all things mechanical, electro-mechanical, electronics, as well as computers when they started coming out in the early 80s. So I set about looking at different ways to make something I could wear on my finger, that would not interfere with my flight stick or throttle, and allow me to press a button or flip a switch. This is getting way too long, if anyone is interested, I will finish the development process another time. For now, I will just skip to the part you probably came here for. Important Part: Several months ago, I took down the PointCTRL shop and began relocating everything to another house my wife and I purchased so we could care for my elderly Mother. There was renovation involved, but not too much to get settled and start production again in a much larger dedicated space for PointCTRL. Not to have pity party here, I know I am luckier than many, but unfortunately the old injury that put me out of the Army had created other issues that were expected from the beginning. With treatment, things are slowly getting sorted, and I am getting somewhat more mobile with bursts of real productivity. I am working on getting the shop to a minimal functional state today. I hope to have the production crew running in the next few weeks. Well that’s it, no PointCTRLs because the shops not set up yet, I am old, we are still trying to sort the new house, and get the previous house sold. So yea, two weeks… MilesD

It's great to see all of this detailed user feedback. Many of us truly appreciate all of your effort in gathering, compiling, evaluating and submitting the flight data to assist ED to improve the UH1's FM. It's also great to see ED (BigNewy) right in here coordinating, consolidating, and forwarding the appropriate information to make our Huey better. Thanks Guys!!!

Updated calibration reference

That's strange D. Are you sure the cursor has not become overly sensitive? The HotFix for the latest patch is on the website.

Important Notice: It looks like the last DCS update changed the ratio of the mouse cursor desktop to VR display. This now allows mouse cursor movement over the entire VR FOV. Previously, on high resolution VR headsets like the G2, you were limited to the upper portion of the VR FOV. PointCTRL will require a recalibration of both cursor targets and 5 point calibration. The current issue is the cursor graphic representations of the menu items is not visible now. I will be pushing out an update tonight that will make the menu items visible again. Thanks Miles

Thanks Scoobie! I did not now about this either.

Awesome! Let me know if you need anything.

Did I send it with new Aux Buttons?

Ahh, that's the problem, they have a different harness. DM you address and I will drop some in the mail.

Hey Dutch, Did you update v1 with the v2 firmware?

Hey Tim< Do you get things sorted with all of your devices? Yea, they are bonded now with thick CA and hardener. The piggyback board was jst supposed to be temporarry, I have a dedicated board prototype complete, I just want to finish the PNP machine before I put it into production. I am looking at a pro version, but that is still a ways off. New HMS outbound Hey Fennec, Unfortunately as of now PointCTRL is still DCS only, You can check the Discord for other sim updates. Thanks

Tim, I responded in Discord also, I would check if you have an excessive amount of devices that were plugged in, but are no longer being used. The below pic should help if your not familiar with it. After removing the devices you may want to unplug PointCTRL ( at the PC, not the HMS) and uninstall it also. It should reinstall to a lower, or next available COM port. Let us know how you make out. Miles

Hey Tim, Does PointCTRL appear in the windows "Set Up USB controllers" panel, and/or the "Blue Tooth and other devices"? It should be in both. Lets try and do voice on Discord to get it sorted.

For me, the key was to slowly reduce the multiplier to the point where you can just see the black edge tangent to you circular FOV, and then slowly increase it until you can no longer see that edge. It's also important to do this while looking straight ahead and try to notice the black edge using your peripheral vision. If you move your eyeball and look/focus at the edge of the FOV, you will not notice it as much, because your line of sight to the edge is reduced due to the pupils lateral movement. Again, All of this is dependent on eyeball placement relative to the lenses, essentially how close we can get the lenses to them. This setting Is probably most helpful for those with deep eye sockets, wear glasses, or using prescription inserts. Miles

Yes, I think you are correct, and I would assume it varies significantly per individual. My head and eye socket structure put my eyeballs a bit further back from the lenses than most. I upped the diopter a bit on my distance prescription for my DIY lens inserts to help with that. I am sure my visible pixel density is less than yours.

Hey Tomcatz, Did you see this option in your headset on start-up..."Allow connected device to access files" ? followed by... "Enable Oculus Link" ? MilesD

Hey all Quest 2 users, I am sure this has been talked about, but I missed it, so someone else may have. I was messing about with the Oculus Debug Tool "FOV-Tangent Multiplier", which is used to independently adjust the horizontal and vertical rendered area of the headset. I was surprised to find that I was able to set this to 0.8;0.7 and not cut off any viewable area in my FOV. This reduced the rendered area by 80% in the horizontal x 70% in the vertical, for a total reduction of 58% (I think) without any apparent tradeoff. With this one setting I was able to increase my framerate about 20FPS, from 38 to 58, on a i7@4.4gHz running a 1080ti. I am now able to turn on MSAA again without having to turn down any other graphic settings. I can also stay above the critical 36 FPS for a headset refresh rate setting of 72MHZ to have smooth ASW. MilesD

No need to throw away. I am sure we can sort it. There are still a lot of v1s still going strong out there. I was really just more concerned about the batteries after 3 years. Hit me up on the PointCTRL Discord and we can voice. Miles

Talk to me Ganesh, So it's the original v1 that's missing button presses? That thing must be going on 3 years now. The v2 with the latest firmware has more accuracy and is a smother experience. I would mount the whole v2 set up. Miles

Did I send you tracking info?

Well that won't work, v1 or v2?

I wanted to share Stri][kers video. While the wood is not required, it really does add to the immersion and ease of use. I had a plexiglass panel I was using before I moved my pit, and I do miss it. I have to get back on that. Thanks Stri][ker!

I understand the frustration, I did not expect there to be this much interest in PointCTRL for so long. However, PointCTRL is still a very niche product, and it's not like there are several thousand back orders. A large part of the initial delay was supply chain issues, which I have mostly resolved by going directly to manufactures. The most time consuming (and enjoyable) part of PointCTRL is the customer service. The next most time consuming parts are assembling the finished PCBs, inspections, testing, and continual firmware updates, all of which would be difficult to outsource - especially with the low production numbers required. PointCTRL is made up of 7 different PCBs, with both reflowed and hand soldered components. The steps that would be most easily outsourced are the ones that take us the least amount of time. Those components, along with the cases, are always way ahead of shipping. My 3D printers are mostly idle because of the speed I can pump out the enclosures, and populating the boards with components is not an issue either. It's the Point of Sale and service, something I can't really outsource, that are the reason why things aren't going out faster. The PointCTRL community is stepping up and helping each other more, and better video and instructions would help mitigate some of the customer service. It's just that I really don't want to sell more than I can support. I currently have very little to do with the PCB assemblies, and in the upcoming months I am going to focus on developing a GUI and better instructions and videos. As those of you that have seen my videos can confirm, it's not my strong suit. Moving forward, having better directions and instructional videos would significantly increase the ship rate. I would not be happy selling a product that I could not effectively support. Thanks, Miles

In addition to what was said about about checking the unknown sources under the settings menu on the desktop app, here is what I have to do every time. It only takes about 5 seconds. When first turning on your quest you should see the following. 1) "Allow connected device to access files" ..... Click Allow 2) "Confirm Guardian".....Click Confirm 3) Click on the Quick Settings box.... Its the lower left hand corner with the time, battery life, and Wi-Fi signal 4) Turn off air link here, if your using the cable 5) Click on the Quest Link - Rift Box 6) Click Launch Your desktop should change and you can click on DCS if you see it on the left. Just be sure "use VRs checked" in DCS. I always just launch from Skatezillas utility so I can pick VR or Flat screen. I hope that helps. Miles

Hey A.F. You should have received tracking, it may be in your spam.. I sent you another link in Discord a few days ago and It looks like it was on the plane. Thanks for your patience! Miles