facetracknoir Inertial Head Tracker: Arduino protocol (2024)

OK, booted into my other, cleaner gaming Windows and still no response in FTNoIR. So I reflashed the FTR firmware and strangely, near the end Windows went looking for a driver on Windows Update, which obviously failed and so did the flash. This was weird as the driver's obviously already installed. So I tried flashing it again and it didn't do it that time.

After that, it finally seems to be working OK in FTNoIR :) There's a bit too much Roll when Yawing, so I'll probably have to leave Roll disabled but at least Yaw and Pitch seem to be OK, so that's pretty nice.

EDIT: Yaw and Pitch worked well in DCS World. It was nice not having to deal with my camera losing track of, or merging the LEDs, although I need to build my clip larger to see if that fixes the latter problem. Rather missed being able to zoom in on the co*ckpit though and I can't use facetracking for that at the moment, as I modified my PS3 Eye to remove the IR filter, so it's completely out of focus now.

For simpler games, where zoom isn't as needed, or where the player is happy to use a rocker or something on their HOTAS to zoom in/out, it seems great though.

I did find that it stopped working once, not whilst in DCS World but when I tried to start FTNoIR there was no input, so I had to unplug/replug the USB lead and then it worked again. Hopefully it doesn't keep doing this, as that would become a bit annoying!

Good to hear that you make it to work. I personally do not use roll as it is quite useless in co*ckpit. One of reasons of yaw drift in roll may be that your board is not center of your head (but on top of it). You can try to see if you getting drift if you hold sensor and roll it (so it is a center of rotation).

Anyway my PS3 Eye is out of focus as well but I can make it focus when switching from far to close (so the switch stay in middle). Another option is to but new one as they are cheap.

If it did stop working it can be transmission problem again (maybe it will be required to go down with speed again). That is why replugging only helps.

I have EDTrack working sort of via the joystick input plugin for opentrack. Only problem being that I have to use an intermediate util to get coordinate date opentrack understands.

I just wrote about it on another thread before finding this one.

https://sourceforge.net/p/facetracknoir/discussion/1150909/thread/e91dadc1/

EDTracker works great and suppors 3DOF with no drift once calibrated properly. It's MUCH better than using a camera and IR clip if you don't mind missing out on the x,y,z transforms and just having rotation.

I'm still trying to get a easy setup and think it might be something really simple stopping the joystick output from edtracker not going directly to opentrack without using a vjoy interpreter.

I'm trying to hook up the HC-05 to use Bluetooth now. Didn't have much luck with it wired, kept disappearing or doing other strange things and the COM port changes often when reconnecting the cable, which is a pain as it means I have to go into the settings in FTNoIR each time to change the port.

Anyway, I'm following this guide http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-2-Way-Bluetooth-Connection-Between-Arduino-a/?ALLSTEPS but it's not the clear, as the first picture has the Arduino 5v wired directly to the HC-05 VCC but further down the page it gives the specs for the HC-05 as 'Power supply: +3.3VDC 50mA' and under Step 3 it says 'Bluetooth Vcc -----> Arduino 3.3V pin but NOT the 5V pin.'.

My Pro Micro doesn't have 3.3v pin, so I tried using the voltage divider, which he's used to lower the Arduino TX from 5v to 3.3v, to also lower the VCC and testing without the HC-05 connected it does read 3.3v between the 2.2k and 1.2k resistors but once the HC-05 is connected, it drops to 1.7v there.

I'm not sure if the HC-05 is meant to have any lights but none come on and it's not detected by the PC USB dongle anyway, so it's clearly not working.

So if anyone can help me out, I'd be grateful.

EDIT: Oh and in the picture here http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-The-HC-05-Bluetooth-Module-Defaults-Using-A/?ALLSTEPS it shows Arduino Pin 9 wired to HC-05 Key and using Pins 10 and 11 instead of TX0 and RX0.

I'm not sure if this http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/SoftwareSerial#.UxIQbXk1jFE means that I should use 10 and 11 instead of TX0 and RX1 (as it's labelled on the Pro Micro)?

Should the HC-05 be transmitting and picked up just as long as it's powered properly though, or does it need the TX/RX from the Arduino wired correctly before it will transmit?

OK, it seems my HC-05 module actually needs 4.5-6v, which it then regulates down to the 3.3v it operates at http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191177490626?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

So taking 5v from the Pro Micro without the voltage divider got it working and detected by my PC. After adding the HC-05 device, Properties shows it has the 'Serial Port (SPP) Dev B' on COM 16. If I look under BT Settings, it shows this as Outgoing and also another line for HC-05 Incoming on COM17.

However, when I run TeraTerm and try and connect to COM16, it gives an error. It connects on COM17 OK but that seems to be the wrong port to test with, as I get no output from the 'send test' sketch I uploaded to the Pro Micro.

Going back to the last link in my previous post, maybe it's because I can't use the RX1 pin and need to use Pin 11 for RX. I think the TX0 pin is usable but it's probably easier to just use Pin 10 for TX to keep them together. I don't think the sketch will work with Pins 10 and 11 without modification though will it? Do I just need to add

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial BTSerial(10, 11); // RX | TX

to the start of the sketch?

EDIT: Actually, the Pro Micro doesn't have a Pin 11, so could I just use this instead?

SoftwareSerial BTSerial(10, 14); // RX | TX

I don't have the Sparkfun Pro Micro but I think it's the same as this one https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/pro-micro--fio-v3-hookup-guide/hardware-overview-pro-micro

Well I tried using

SoftwareSerial BTSerial(10, 15); // RX | TX

with 10 going to BT TX and 15 to BT RX as I couldn't get a good connection for the jumper cable on Pin 14. Testing with TeraTerm on Com14, which is the USB port, the sketch works fine and shows the Counter whilst the LED flashes on the Arduino. I still get the error trying to connect to COM16 and no output on COM17 though.

Sorry Petter but I've got no idea why it's not working, if you've flashed the DIY_Headtracker firmware, then calibrated, then flashed the FTR firmware it should work but I had problems with the PC not even recognising the device, which I think I worked around by booting into a different Windows, so maybe the driver gets messed up.

Just now I've just flashed some firmware and the device has changed to USB IO Board and I can't find a driver that will install to get it working :(

Hi Guys I know it's been a while but I finally have some time to start again.

I have the Pro Micro Arduino and GY 80.

I tried to follow Sebatians setup guide and only get as far as Doveman did

When I run HeadTrackerGUI.exe and click connect it gives the same error
'Error updating UI from settings...'.
You also get this error if you connect to the wrong port so I wonder if it's even seeing it, it does see the port in the list.

also what does number 3 Download mean, download what to where?

I even tried both GY85 and GY80 sketches and both give the same error when trying to connect HeadTracker.

I've tried reading more posts but it gets very confusing.

Any Ideas where I go from here?

Cheers.

Thanks, Pins are correct.

I've even gone back to trying MultiWii which will calibrate, so it is working.
But after completing the second sketch upload FTNoIR can't seem to find any input.

I'll try again tomorrow using XP in case there is a W7 64bit issue going on.

Odd it also won't work in XP using a software I have used before.

Again it works in MultiWii but when testing with FTNoIR I get nothing.
I have noticed the steady green flashing light does change to a rapid almost permanently on light.

It must be something I'm doing wrong but I can't think what it can be.

I've also tried Headtracker again in XP and get the same result with the same error 'Error updating UI from settings...'

I could understand a hardware fault if it failed in MultiWii but that works fine.

I also see an output using serial monitor so the board is running

I'm actually on Win8.1 Update 1 now, so I thought I'd try with Win7 (I have a dual-boot still) and that showed the device with a driver installed, not USB IO Board, even with the same VID_1B4F&PID_9206&MI_00 as it was showing under Win8.1. I think the problem is that I had to add that to the driver .inf file as it wasn't there by default and Win8.1 is more strict about security and editing .inf files.

Anyway, after flashing the code from http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-The-HC-05-Bluetooth-Module-Defaults-Using-A/?ALLSTEPS it's now changed to USB\VID_2341&PID_8036&REV_0100&MI_00 so I'm not sure how it decides what to use.

I couldn't get the HC-05 light to flash every two seconds before, as it should do according to the guide but when I switched to my Pro Micro/MPU board instead of my Pro Micro/GY-85 board it did, so it's probably important to make sure nothing else is connected to the Pro Micro when setting up the HC-05 and reconnect the GY-85 afterwards. So I'll see if I can get any further now.

EDIT: Nope, still getting no response when I type AT in the serial monitor. Wiring seems to be OK as the HC-05 is getting power and must be getting the Key signal from pin 9, as the LED is flashing every two seconds, signifying it's in AT mode. I'll have to double-check the RX/TX wires on pins 10 and 14 and maybe solder them to make a more secure connection than I've got with jumper wires.

I've re-installed all my software and it's working again using the multiwii version. headtracker still won't work.

It is remembering the settings after unplugging so that's a major plus.

I still can't work out the correct orientation, it always seems to move in two directions at the same time.
I have done it once so it's going to be trial and error.

Hey guys, I dont watch this topic so often now as there was no questions lately but when I noticed you are here I will try to help :)

@Petter
I am on Win 7 64 bits so it has nothing to do with it.
With GY 85 AND mirco you have to use this file for micro http://sourceforge.net/projects/gy80facetrack/files/DIY_headtracker_micro_ver0.1.zip/download

I see you already made calibration so now you should use software from GY85\FTR\DIY_Headtracker\ to load it into arduino. Than FTRNoIR should work with it (mapping of axis may be different than with MPU

In my case GY80 orientation of the sensor was diffrent but you can see what is your proper orientation in calibration software if all axes behave properly than you good to go.

If you are able to calibrate the board using software from that file than you are on right track.

@Sel
GY-80 from file I linked above for Petter should also work but I never tested it as I do not have micro (got Uno).
First thing you should use exe from linked file for calibration!!! If you get error of updating ui it means arduino does not connect to software (make sure to use Arduino software from folder GY-80\Calibration Software first. Do not use Gy-85 as it will not work.