PointCTRL - Finger Mounted VR Controller

[MilesD]

On 9/10/2021 at 12:02 AM, DEG said:

Shout out to Miles for awesomeness.  I took a break from DCS for a year or so; finally got my system back up and running, including PointCtrl.  I still marvel at it.  For me, it is a similar leap in immersion that going from monitors to VR was.  Sitting in and operating different cockpits, the way they are supposed to operate.  And to double-up on it, Miles - you continue to share this awesomeness with all of us - we're in your debt! 

Thanks DEG,
I am glad we able able assist our community in making DCS recreation time a bit more more enjoyable. The feedback makes it all worth it!

@ everyone: Here is a rough video showing what you can do when you first get your PointCTRL to become familiar with it.

Thanks,
Miles

[AKA_Clutter]

On 9/9/2021 at 9:02 PM, DEG said:

Shout out to Miles for awesomeness.  I took a break from DCS for a year or so; finally got my system back up and running, including PointCtrl.  I still marvel at it.  For me, it is a similar leap in immersion that going from monitors to VR was.  Sitting in and operating different cockpits, the way they are supposed to operate.  And to double-up on it, Miles - you continue to share this awesomeness with all of us - we're in your debt! 

As an early adopter (I think mine was in the mid-20s) I can not agree more.  Haven't stopped using since the week I got it.  

 

Thanks again MilesD.

[sirrah]

On 9/14/2021 at 3:00 AM, AKA_Clutter said:

As an early adopter (I think mine was in the mid-20s) I can not agree more.  Haven't stopped using since the week I got it.  

 

Thanks again MilesD.

 

Second that. I just don't enjoy DCS anymore without Pointctrl. FCU battery depleted = end of session for me 

 

 

@MilesD quick question for you;

I changed all my light bulbs for LEDs, but they still interfere with Pointctrl when looking in their direction, so they probably still emit infrared light. Are there any specific LED lights I should be using? (I didn't really look into options and just went for the "cheapest" ones)

 

(small side note; I recently moved my VR setup, so that's why this issue popped up only just now)

(second side note; My HP Reverb needs all the light in can get to be able to track, so turning off some lights in the room ain't an option )

 

 

[dburne]

1 hour ago, Draken35 said:

How long does the battery last in average?

 

Good question - I hope it is long as I have been known to put in a few all day sessions with DCS.

[MilesD]

1 hour ago, dburne said:

 

Good question - I hope it is long as I have been known to put in a few all day sessions with DCS.

Hey Draken and Don,

Battery Life depends on a few factors. It should have no problem with a 8 hour session unless you are constantly pressing buttons.

Here are the numbers that effect it.
LiPo Battery capacity = 120mAh or 100mAh  useful
FCU draw when on, but when the IRLED is off = 5 mA or 20 hours continuous

FCU draw with IRLED on = 30 mA or approx. 3 hours continuous
2.4 GHZ transceiver draws 11ma, but only for a few milliseconds when transmitting button change states.
Most users set the LED to turn off 15 seconds after the last button press, and the FCU shuts down completely after 30 minutes of no button presses. Button three turns it back on ,so there is no issue trying to turn it back on while flying.

So if our PointCTRL LED is on 15% of our flight, we would use 9.5mAh of the 100 mAh per hour, so call it 10 hours.

You can use the magnetic chargers while you are flying, but if you top off the batteries ever time nature calls, you should be good for a long time, especially us old guys.

Hope that helps, but I would like to see others jump in and share their experience.

Thanks for the questions,

Miles

Edited September 16, 2021 by MilesD

[dburne]

10 hours ago, MilesD said:

Hey Draken and Don,

Battery Life depends on a few factors. It should have no problem with a 8 hour session unless you are constantly pressing buttons.

Here are the numbers that effect it.
LiPo Battery capacity = 120mAh or 100mAh  useful
FCU draw when on, but when the IRLED is off = 5 mA or 20 hours continuous

FCU draw with IRLED on = 30 mA or approx. 3 hours continuous
2.4 GHZ transceiver draws 11ma, but only for a few milliseconds when transmitting button change states.
Most users set the LED to turn off 15 seconds after the last button press, and the FCU shuts down completely after 30 minutes of no button presses. Button three turns it back on ,so there is no issue trying to turn it back on while flying.

So if our PointCTRL LED is on 15% of our flight, we would use 9.5mAh of the 100 mAh per hour, so call it 10 hours.

You can use the magnetic chargers while you are flying, but if you top off the batteries ever time nature calls, you should be good for a long time, especially us old guys.

Hope that helps, but I would like to see others jump in and share their experience.

Thanks for the questions,

Miles

 

 

Great to know thanks! I should be good for my longer sessions.

[MilesD]

4 hours ago, Draken35 said:

LOL

 

Thank you for the detailed answer! I wish I could have 8 hours DCS sessions!  

Yea, I am lucky to get 8 hours a month, and I am supposed to be retired!

[dburne]

2 hours ago, MilesD said:

Yea, I am lucky to get 8 hours a month, and I am supposed to be retired!

 

Lol I am retired also and is why I can get 8 hours of flying in a day.

I try and tempo it to about 6. I golf three days a week and can only get a couple on those days.

Tough life.

[MilesD]

On 9/15/2021 at 2:06 AM, sirrah said:

 

Second that. I just don't enjoy DCS anymore without Pointctrl. FCU battery depleted = end of session for me 

 

 

@MilesD quick question for you;

I changed all my light bulbs for LEDs, but they still interfere with Pointctrl when looking in their direction, so they probably still emit infrared light. Are there any specific LED lights I should be using? (I didn't really look into options and just went for the "cheapest" ones)

 

(small side note; I recently moved my VR setup, so that's why this issue popped up only just now)

(second side note; My HP Reverb needs all the light in can get to be able to track, so turning off some lights in the room ain't an option )

 

 

Sirrah!!!!
Its been a while, I hope all is well. Apologies I missed your question.
 

The LED bulbs light wavelengths vary greatly. If you can find ones with specs, we want ones with the least amount light in the 850nm range. I originally thought that  cool bright white would be better than the warmer colors because yellow and orange are closer to the IR spectrum, but I had cool white ones that interfered, and warm that did not.

Its kind of a crap shoot. I should probably conduct some testing and on different brands and post the results. I am working on an updated GUI that will have slider and check boxes for various setting and adjustments. You will be able to adjust the sensors sensitivity for a compromise of resolution vs interference.
 

I wish I had a better answer for you, unfortunately its kind of trial and error with the bulbs. In the mean time, I would try to position the room lights behind you if possible, to avoid looking and pointing directly directly at the lights.

Take care, and let us know how you make out. 

Miles

P.S.  I think I will take a HMS to the hardware store light displays and take video of pointing the HMS at different types of lights.

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by MilesD

[sirrah]

48 minutes ago, MilesD said:

Sirrah!!!!
Its been a while, I hope all is well. Apologies I missed your question.
 

The LED bulbs light wavelengths vary greatly. If you can find ones with specs, we want ones with the least amount light in the 850nm range. I originally thought that  cool bright white would be better than the warmer colors because yellow and orange are closer to the IR spectrum, but I had cool white ones that interfered, and warm that did not.

Its kind of a crap shoot. I should probably conduct some testing and on different brands and post the results. I am working on an updated GUI that will have slider and check boxes for various setting and adjustments. You will be able to adjust the sensors sensitivity for a compromise of resolution vs interference.
 

I wish I had a better answer for you, unfortunately its kind of trial and error with the bulbs. In the mean time, I would try to position the room lights behind you if possible, to avoid looking and pointing directly directly at the lights.

Take care, and let us know how you make out. 

Miles

P.S.  I think I will take a HMS to the hardware store light displays and take video of pointing the HMS at different types of lights.

 

 

Thanks for the extended answer as always Miles.

Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever seen nanometers mentioned on any of the LED light bulb boxes in store.

But I'll try switching out some LEDs from other rooms (which are probably different brands) and see if they give better results.

 

 

A new GUI? Cool. Please consider making the GUI window resizable (or add a scroll bar), for low res monitor users

 

[MilesD]

6 hours ago, sirrah said:

Thanks for the extended answer as always Miles.

Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever seen nanometers mentioned on any of the LED light bulb boxes in store.

But I'll try switching out some LEDs from other rooms (which are probably different brands) and see if they give better results.

 

 

A new GUI? Cool. Please consider making the GUI window resizable (or add a scroll bar), for low res monitor users

 

You usually have to do an internet search to get it, but you can find them  for most lights.

 

Generally speaking the higher the light temp in kelvins, which is usually what you see on the box, the whiter the light, and the lower the wavelength. Its kind of intuitively backwards that what is called "warm light" is actually cooler in kelvins compared to "cool light" which has a higher temp. I believe it backwards because it's more about the warmer colors giving off more heat and the cooler ones retaining it.

 

Anyways enough geeking on physics, here is pic, and I would generally try for the higher temp 5000k cool white lights.


 

Edited September 17, 2021 by MilesD

[sirrah]

4 hours ago, MilesD said:

You usually have to do an internet search to get it, but you can find them  for most lights.

 

Generally speaking the higher the light temp in kelvins, which is usually what you see on the box, the whiter the light, and the lower the wavelength. Its kind of intuitively backwards that what is called "warm light" is actually cooler in kelvins compared to "cool light" which has a higher temp. I believe it backwards because it's more about the warmer colors giving off more heat and the cooler ones retaining it.

 

Anyways enough geeking on physics, here is pic, and I would generally try for the higher temp 5000k cool white lights.


 

 

We all like "geek" stuff here Miles 

 

This helps! So the higher the K value, the better (I kinda would have expected it to be the other way around, but your explanation makes sense)

[Dr. Anti-Vehicle]

Hi Miles, what's the lead time like for US customers on the V2?

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

Received my unit, however I can't fly dcs to getting home by next week. 

The device feels solid, the pushbuttons provide a nice feedback. 

Can't wait, and once again can't enough echoes how supportive @MilesDhas been during the whole process. 

[MilesD]

FireCats waiting list of 560 early adopters is finally complete. We have moved onto the website Pre-Orders, starting with 2020/11/20. Production is slowly increasing, and having the order date that we are currently shipping should help get rough ETAs.
 

As always thanks for everyone's support and patience.

Miles

[nessuno0505]

Great news! I should have ordered in december, can't wait! I preordered a Rift s mount but now I have upgraded with a Reverb g2. Is it possibile to change the helmet mounted device? Thanks.

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

1 hour ago, nessuno0505 said:

Great news! I should have ordered in december, can't wait! I preordered a Rift s mount but now I have upgraded with a Reverb g2. Is it possibile to change the helmet mounted device? Thanks.

Yes it is, you just need to warn them before the actual shipping

[MilesD]

Calibration Video,

 

 

[Jarhead0331]

On 9/22/2021 at 9:42 PM, MilesD said:

FireCats waiting list of 560 early adopters is finally complete. We have moved onto the website Pre-Orders, starting with 2020/11/20. Production is slowly increasing, and having the order date that we are currently shipping should help get rough ETAs.
 

As always thanks for everyone's support and patience.

Miles

 

OMG. I'm April 2021...how many years before mine ships?

[AKA_Clutter]

1 hour ago, Jarhead0331 said:

 

OMG. I'm April 2021...how many years before mine ships?

Given my experience it will be worth it!

[nessuno0505]

I preordered via website on the 19th of december, 2020.

Is it possible to have an ETA?

Thanks.

[MilesD]

10 hours ago, nessuno0505 said:

I preordered via website on the 19th of december, 2020.

Is it possible to have an ETA?

Thanks.

We should be mailing invoices for Pre-Order dates thru 20 Dec 2020 any day now.

 

Thanks for your patience.

 

Miles

Edited October 7, 2021 by MilesD

[Norman Ng]

Any chance PointCTRL can be used for MSFS 2020 also?

[Lt_Jaeger]

1 hour ago, Norman Ng said:

Any chance PointCTRL can be used for MSFS 2020 also?

Not yet, might be developed later

[nessuno0505]

I've received my invoice today, and I have upgraded my order by submitting a new preorder form on the website, indicating the date of my first pre-purchase. The site returned "preorder submitted" but I have not received a confirmation email. Is this correct? Should I wait for a new invoice now? I'm sorry but I do not use Discord. Thanks.

Edited October 9, 2021 by nessuno0505