Track IR clip preference

Zimmerdylan · February 18, 2016

I am wondering. What do people use and why? I have the reflector track clip that came with my Track IR and it works fine. I have never really had ant troubles with reflective light from the background affecting anything in game. However, I'm not a fan of wearing a baseball cap while flying. I use a headset and was thinking about going track clip pro.

Is there any other advantage to using the LED over the reflective hat clip other than the way it mounts? Other than the obvious interference issues that some folks have with extra reflective light.

cichlidfan · February 18, 2016

Is there any other advantage to using the LED over the reflective hat clip other than the way it mounts? Other than the obvious interference issues that some folks have with extra reflective light.

My untested opinion is that it also handles tilting your head forward and backward a bit better since the leds are spherical on the end while the reflectors only curve in the horizontal plane.

Otherwise, nothing else that I can think of.

jcbak · February 18, 2016

Just installed one of these clips and it works great. Easy to attach to the headset...highly recommended: http://www.delanengineering.com/

cichlidfan · February 18, 2016

Just installed one of these clips and it works great. Easy to attach to the headset...highly recommended: http://www.delanengineering.com/

Agreed. If the OP is not already aware of this item, it is worth looking at instead of the Natural Point version, which is known to be somewhat fragile.

jcbak · February 19, 2016

Agreed. If the OP is not already aware of this item, it is worth looking at instead of the Natural Point version, which is known to be somewhat fragile.

Agreed. My old pro clip had been glued, cable tied and taped before enough was enough.

PoleCat · February 19, 2016

I own 3 of the track clip pros. In a word they suck. To be fair they function properly but if you are unlucky enough to break one (which is very easy) you are left with a pile of unusable plastic and some very messy looking fixes.

I will not purchase another track clip pro now. I have had to purchase and re-purchase them too often in the past due to the shoddy construction (I have at least two broken clip pros in a box that were out of warranty when they broke. I had to pay to replace these). Get the delanclip instead. They obviously will last where the clip pros are junk.

I am ordering one shortly.

Out

Edited February 19, 2016 by PoleCat

Gman109 · February 21, 2016

Regarding the TrackClip Pro, with the little powered LED red lights - the original ones had a mistake made in the formulation of the plastic mold/casing, which caused them to become EXTREMELY fragile when transported and subjected to low tems at high alt/etc.

THis made them apt to break while just breathing on them.

That said, if you get a new one from Natural Point now, they are about 40$, and this problem has been fixed. They are tough as nails compared to the old ones, of which I went through 3 myself, and in every case all taped and glued up. I haven't touched the newest one yet, even after having the cat knock it to the floor umpteen times, which would snap the old ones instantly.

Shez · February 21, 2016

Mine lasted 4+ years until I smacked it with my hand the other night. Swatting flies and track IR PRO clip don't mix!

Johnny Dioxin · February 21, 2016

Still have mine from years ago, too - looks as new.

ApoNOOB · February 22, 2016

Have one, broke it, fixed it, but slowly its getting out of hand in terms of broken parts.^^ Will probably go for the delan thing once it craps out totally.

Martillo1 · February 22, 2016

I still fly capped (y estoy hasta los coj.... de la gorra).

dburne · February 22, 2016

I continue to use the hat clip, which seems to work well for me. Main reason being as I did recently add a good set of headphones, I do not always wear them. I have a good sound system, and often times I prefer to hear through it rather than the headphones. I can use the hat clip whether I wear headphones or not, the Track Clip Pro would require me to always wear the headphones, or else keep changing it out which is a bit of a pain.

Once I get done with this move we are about to begin, in to our new home, that might change and I may use headphones more as I want to get into used Voice Attack, and maybe eventually some MP action. If that happens I may switch to using the Pro Clip.

I really can not tell much if any difference between the two.

Sporg · February 22, 2016

Regarding the TrackClip Pro, with the little powered LED red lights - the original ones had a mistake made in the formulation of the plastic mold/casing, which caused them to become EXTREMELY fragile when transported and subjected to low tems at high alt/etc.

THis made them apt to break while just breathing on them.

That said, if you get a new one from Natural Point now, they are about 40$, and this problem has been fixed. They are tough as nails compared to the old ones, of which I went through 3 myself, and in every case all taped and glued up. I haven't touched the newest one yet, even after having the cat knock it to the floor umpteen times, which would snap the old ones instantly.

The problem with the current Track Clip Pros is that the foam securing them to the headset gets out of shape relatively quick.

This means that you cannot use them on a headset with a thinner frame, and over time they will even sit loose on the headset they were first mounted on.

I concur with the recommendation of the DelanClip, it sits much better and has more powerful LEDs.

I felt a much better precision when switching from the Track Clip Pro.

As for LED clip versus reflector clip, I used to play with a friend who used reflector.

The reflector clip was much more sensitive to lighting conditions than the LED clip.

With more light in the background his clip "gave up" much faster than my LED clip.

Eventually he switched to LED clip as well. ;)

cichlidfan · February 22, 2016

The problem with the current Track Clip Pros is that the foam securing them to the headset gets out of shape relatively quick.

This means that you cannot use them on a headset with a thinner frame, and over time they will even sit loose on the headset they were first mounted on.

I thought I was the only one annoyed by that! :thumbup:

Ayindi · March 4, 2016

Just a remark using the delan clip instsead of the Track Clip Pro. I bought it as well but it does not work as expected. It is detected without any flaw. However, the third (bottom) LED light is like 6 mm "nearer" to the IR camera as the original bottom LED light from the Track Clip Pro. This results in a severe Z-Axis Movement when I just turn my head. I think this comes from the different dimensions. You could work around this by setting a big deadzone for the z-axis, but this will basically criple all z-axis movement. This may be ok for some, but I use it to "zoom" in on my A10 MFDs.

Len62 · March 4, 2016

However, the third (bottom) LED light is like 6 mm "nearer" to the IR camera as the original bottom LED light from the Track Clip Pro.

Can't you change the dimensions in TrackIR ? Should be a setting somewhere to do that. I don't use TrackIR but it should be doable.

xaoslaad · March 4, 2016

Maybe try moving the TIR camera more leftward if you can. This helped with the Trackhat Pro clip which I felt had a similar issue.

Not necessarily because it caused movement problems, except that it didn't take much at all to send the bottom led out of view.

Fiddling with the camera position made the led grouping much tighter and gave a lot more leeway to move

jcbak · March 4, 2016

Just a remark using the delan clip instsead of the Track Clip Pro. I bought it as well but it does not work as expected. It is detected without any flaw. However, the third (bottom) LED light is like 6 mm "nearer" to the IR camera as the original bottom LED light from the Track Clip Pro. This results in a severe Z-Axis Movement when I just turn my head. I think this comes from the different dimensions. You could work around this by setting a big deadzone for the z-axis, but this will basically criple all z-axis movement. This may be ok for some, but I use it to "zoom" in on my A10 MFDs.

I'm using the Delanclip without any issues whatsoever. You might want to check the CAMERA tab. You have a choice between Precision and Standard. If you bring up the CAMERA view, you will notice that the LEDs are read as larger withh Precision enabled which can cause a collision between the lights. Change to standard, the LEDs are seen as smaller and no collision.

Sporg · March 4, 2016

Just a remark using the delan clip instsead of the Track Clip Pro. I bought it as well but it does not work as expected. It is detected without any flaw. However, the third (bottom) LED light is like 6 mm "nearer" to the IR camera as the original bottom LED light from the Track Clip Pro. This results in a severe Z-Axis Movement when I just turn my head. I think this comes from the different dimensions. You could work around this by setting a big deadzone for the z-axis, but this will basically criple all z-axis movement. This may be ok for some, but I use it to "zoom" in on my A10 MFDs.

I have not had such issues.

However, I have a question:

Do you possibly have the DelanClip mounted on the right side of your headset?

This would produce a Z-axis movement when turning your head, because TrackIR is set up to a clip sitting on the left side as standard.

I have not tested if you can change this in the settings, but I noticed it when deciding where to place the clip.

So mine is placed to the left.

Ayindi · March 4, 2016

Thanks for your input guys.

First, I think I cannot change the dimensions for the Track Clip / Delan Clip as far as I know (I expect that this is the problem) I know that that this is possible for the Free Track Software, but I guess the Track IR guys did not include this in their software not wanting to support 3rd party solutions... :( Also some guides to build your own "active clip" mention to exactly copy the ProClip dimensions so I think this is probably of some importance.

Using the Track IR camera view shows three perfect dots, that seems fine. I use the precision mode. To be honest I cannot say if I placed the Delan Clip left or right, I have to look this up... :D I did not mount it to a Headset, but to a baseball cap. But if I remember correctly I also tried both sides by just holding it against my left / right side of the head. If I place it on the left side, I think movement to left was ok, but when moving it to the right it starts strongly moving with the z-axis (or wise versa not sure). It seems logical to me since the bottom LED does move "more in 3d space" than the standard ProClip. Therefor I can understand this behavior. However, I wonder that you do not notice this. Maybe you dont use such strong z-axis movement settings as I do. I did set the forward movement pretty agressively so zoom into the MFDs without moving my head too far forward.

Len62 · March 4, 2016

Can you adjust the dead zone w/TrackIR ? If so, you may want to experiment with it on the Z axis.

jcbak · March 4, 2016

Thanks for your input guys.

First, I think I cannot change the dimensions for the Track Clip / Delan Clip as far as I know (I expect that this is the problem) I know that that this is possible for the Free Track Software, but I guess the Track IR guys did not include this in their software not wanting to support 3rd party solutions... :( Also some guides to build your own "active clip" mention to exactly copy the ProClip dimensions so I think this is probably of some importance.

Using the Track IR camera view shows three perfect dots, that seems fine. I use the precision mode. To be honest I cannot say if I placed the Delan Clip left or right, I have to look this up... :D I did not mount it to a Headset, but to a baseball cap. But if I remember correctly I also tried both sides by just holding it against my left / right side of the head. If I place it on the left side, I think movement to left was ok, but when moving it to the right it starts strongly moving with the z-axis (or wise versa not sure). It seems logical to me since the bottom LED does move "more in 3d space" than the standard ProClip. Therefor I can understand this behavior. However, I wonder that you do not notice this. Maybe you dont use such strong z-axis movement settings as I do. I did set the forward movement pretty agressively so zoom into the MFDs without moving my head too far forward.

Try using the STANDARD mode........just try it.

Edited March 4, 2016 by jcbak

Ayindi · March 4, 2016

I attached a screenshot. Maybe it makes is a little more clear. It seems that the Delan Clip is the "center" and not assumed to be on the right or left side of my head. it behaves as if I would turn my head around the Delan Clip and not the other way...

Also tried "standard" precision, but no impact. From the camera view everything is detected perfectly fine. It just seems that it is not interpreted correctly. If I could somehow plug the delan Clip in front and center of my face everything would be fine... :megalol:

PS just by the way of course I centered via the appropriate key before doing the screenshots! ;)

Edited March 4, 2016 by Ayindi

Sporg · March 4, 2016

I attached a screenshot. Maybe it makes is a little more clear. It seems that the Delan Clip is the "center" and not assumed to be on the right or left side of my head. it behaves as if I would turn my head around the Delan Clip and not the other way...
Also tried "standard" precision, but no impact. From the camera view everything is detected perfectly fine. It just seems that it is not interpreted correctly. If I could somehow plug the delan Clip in front and center of my face everything would be fine... :megalol:

PS just by the way of course I centered via the appropriate key before doing the screenshots! ;)

There is something very weird with your setup.

I only get thís "head on the wrong side" when I use the clip on the right side.

On the left side the head is centered fine in the middle.

Btw. my camera is located to the left as well, so it is centered with the clip.

About the Z-axis, I only use so much zoom so that it feels like natural head movement.

I have the zoom axis in DCS set up on the Trim slider on my throttle and use this to zoom very close in to instruments /MFDs as well.

FeistyLemur · March 5, 2016

I avoided the track clip pro for ages because people said it was too fragile. But I finally got one and there's no comparison to the hat clip. It was a massive noticeable improvement for me.

And it fits the steelseries headsets really well, which I have. I've had no problems at all with the foam getting too loose, or with the clip. It does look delicate and could easily break if you drop the headset, but overall I'm extremely happy with it. If the latch does beak like some people say it does, a wrap of electrical tape will solve that issue. As for the foam, if it does develop issues I would probably just cut some packing foam to size and replace it.

I thought of making my own because it's not really that hard. But in the end I went lazy and just bought one.

Edited March 5, 2016 by FeistyLemur

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