TrackIR | the view jumps unexpectedly

[Black Viking]

I’ve been using TrackIR for about a year now. While I’ve managed to create head-movement curves that suit me, I still face a recurring and annoying issue.

For no apparent reason, the view orientation suddenly jumps. I can go from an HUD view to an extreme head-angle view in an instant. Sometimes the view returns to normal, sometimes it doesn’t.

 

I thought it might be the room’s lighting, but apparently not. The TrackIR unit is properly positioned above the screen, and the three sensors on my head are correctly aligned.

 

Can you help me? It really spoils the enjoyment of the game and makes air-to-air combat very difficult…

[razo+r]

I had this when the sun was shining into the sensor either directly or with reflections. Is that the case for your setup?

[Hiob]

Do you have the control lights enabled? Sounds to me that either you loose tracking when moving to far from line of sight (one of the lights will go dark) or what razor said….

[scommander2]

battery low may cause the issue sometimes.... 

[rob10]

Pull up the screen in TIR that shows you what it's seeing when it happens next time.  I have had a weird and intermittent issue similar to that.  Only happened certain times of the year and certain time of day.  Still not sure exactly the cause because sun is on the other side of the house and windows that way are blacked out pretty well.  But somehow there is some crazy reflection coming from opposite side of house through a window when the sun is at the right angle.  It really wasn't obvious until I pulled up the screen in TIR and saw the spot.

[Black Viking]

2 hours ago, rob10 said:

Pull up the screen in TIR that shows you what it's seeing when it happens next time.  I have had a weird and intermittent issue similar to that.  Only happened certain times of the year and certain time of day.  Still not sure exactly the cause because sun is on the other side of the house and windows that way are blacked out pretty well.  But somehow there is some crazy reflection coming from opposite side of house through a window when the sun is at the right angle.  It really wasn't obvious until I pulled up the screen in TIR and saw the spot.

Not sure to fully understand what you mean by « pull up the screen in TIR that shws you what it’s seeing ». Could you detail please?

[razo+r]

42 minutes ago, Black Viking said:

Not sure to fully understand what you mean by « pull up the screen in TIR that shws you what it’s seeing ». Could you detail please?

In the TrackIR software there is a window that shows you where it sees the tracking spots. If you look at that, you could see if some other potential sources pop up that TrackIR detects, causing your issue.

And like I said, check your sensor position together with the sun and sun reflections. Try darkening your room if it happens.

[buur]

I had such problems while smoking a cigarette during flight 

[Black Viking]

Thank you. I will try asap.

[rob10]

22 hours ago, Black Viking said:

Not sure to fully understand what you mean by « pull up the screen in TIR that shws you what it’s seeing ». Could you detail please?

Yep, what Black Viking s/b raz+or said above.  And the light source may not be obvious at all or coming from a direction you think it is.  If one shows up trying moving your hand or body around until you can block/unblock it to get an idea where it's coming from.

And it's the tiny little dropdown in the top left corner of the screen that shows the globe/where you're pointing that says "DISPLAY".  Click on it and choose "CAMERA VIEW" rather than "3D view".

Edited yesterday at 10:02 PM by rob10

[Black Viking]

2 hours ago, rob10 said:

Yep, what Black Viking said above.  And the light source may not be obvious at all or coming from a direction you think it is.  If one shows up trying moving your hand or body around until you can block/unblock it to get an idea where it's coming from.

And it's the tiny little dropdown in the top left corner of the screen that shows the globe/where you're pointing that says "DISPLAY".  Click on it and choose "CAMERA VIEW" rather than "3D view".

Clear, thanx. I’ll perform tests tomorrow evening.

[Black Viking]

I believe I have found some keys to the solution. Unfortunately, there is no generic fix, and the settings depend on the space available, the lighting, and the range of movement of our head.
I have identified at least three singularities that cause view jumps.

1. When the lower-left or lower-right sensor hides the upper sensor, the three green indicators turn red and the signal is temporarily lost, which causes a major view jump.
   This happens when you try to look up-left or up-right with too much head movement.
   Proposed solution: On the pitch axis, after keeping a soft central zone to comfortably look at the cockpit, do not hesitate to increase the values so that you can look 90° upward before the three sensors align horizontally (see below).

2. When you raise your head enough for the three sensors to align horizontally, the light reflection level may suddenly change. The three indicators turn red and the signal is lost.
   Proposed solution:

   1. Same as above.

   2. The documentation suggests increasing the Light Filter Threshold and IR Brightness values. I disagree. I solved this signal-loss issue by returning to reasonable values (200 and 13). But this depends on my office lighting. Better settings are probably possible.

3. Wearing glasses creates strong reflection sources, which appear as red spots. When these cover the green indicators of any of the three sensors, all three indicators turn red and the signal is lost.
   Proposed solution: Nothing ideal, but I notice that increasing the distance between the TrackIR and the glasses significantly reduces interference. The documentation says to keep a distance between 60 cm and 90 cm, which matches my observations. You may need to move the screen or the TrackIR backward…

That is the current state of my findings… In my opinion, the most difficult part remains adjusting the pitch.

[rob10]

You're using TIR PRO (with the active LED's)?  If so in the settings turn down/off the emitters in the camera.  You only need it on if you're using the reflector version and it sounds like it's causing reflection off your glasses.  I've never had that issue with my glasses.

The other thing to do if you haven't is to make sure the camera IS NOT in the middle of your screen but offset to whichever side of your head the emitters are on.  That gives you a lot better range without masking the emitters.  So mine is attached on the right side of my headphones so I have the camera almost at the right edge of my screen (basically such that the LED's are looking directly at the camera when I'm looking forward).

[Black Viking]

No, I use the classic one with 3 sensors. Is there a major difference with TrackIrclippro?