EdTracker - A cheap but great headtracking option

Ben Goymer · Feb 9, 2015

I originally bought an edTracker for use with Elite Dangerous. It's a box about the size of a matchbox that you attach to the top of your headphones and uses an accelerometer/gyroscope to give 3 axis headtracking (pitch/yaw/roll).

I paid £30 for my prebuilt one and it's worth every penny. If you're a bit handy with electronics you can just buy the parts off them and build one yourself. I however am not

This works in conjunction with a piece of software called opentrack, which emulates trackIr calls meaning that with RF2 you simply have to assign the look directions to the device (by looking left/right etc). It's that simple to set up.

EDIT - You don't need to use Opentrack at all for RF2, just assign look left and right bindings with the edTracker.

Well I got on track and tried it. Wow, what a difference headtracking makes. I play on a single screen so sometimes seeing the apex of a tight corner is near impossible (Silverstone - The Loop for example), but with this I can hit the apex nearly every time, as well as get the power down a lot earlier than before.

I wanted to try headtracking but for me TrackIR is just way too expensive. The only downsides I can think for this device are that you have to attach something to your headphones, so not wearing any can be an issue. It also needs to be plugged in via usb so if you hate cables it's probably not your thing.

https://edtracker.org.uk/ is the place to go if you're interested.

Frederic Schornstein · Feb 9, 2015

Sounds interesting. I always thought when seeing something like TrackIR it must be weird to move your head, but still keep the eyes on the screen, which sounds a bit unnatural. But for that price you cant really go wrong. I am still hoping for the oculus rift cv sometime this year.

Ben Goymer · Feb 9, 2015

Frederic Schornstein said:
Sounds interesting. I always thought when seeing something like TrackIR it must be weird to move your head, but still keep the eyes on the screen, which sounds a bit unnatural. But for that price you cant really go wrong. I am still hoping for the oculus rift cv sometime this year.

Yes I thought that as well, so didn't want to spend all that money on TrackIR only to find that I didn't like it. You can adjust the sensitivity of the device to your liking. For me when I tried it yesterday I must have set it up just right as I never once thought it was weird to move my head.

I actually made a conscious effort when driving to work this morning to see when I was just mocing my eyes or actually moving my head, and to my surprise I found that I was generally moving my head rather than moving my eyes. Maybe that has something to do with wearing glasses. For once, a positive to being short sighted!

Bez · Feb 9, 2015

Looks like a great device, I'll be giving one a try for sure, did you go for the version with the mag sensor?

Ben Goymer · Feb 9, 2015

No I was a bit of a cheapskate and went for the cheaper one. I need to do a few long runs to see if yaw drift is going to be an issue, hopefully it won't but I did about 30 minutes last night and didn't see any problems.

Matej Lakota · Feb 9, 2015

I used TrackIR back in "one monitor days" and must say, it is a useful thing when you get use to it, so if you have a chance to use TIR or same similar device, don´t wait too long

Example:

Bez · Feb 9, 2015

i use a 12ft projection screen for my sim racing and think this might work well with the large screen as even when turning your head you will still have screen in front rather than having to shift your eyes to view the smaller centralized monitor.

Ben Goymer · Feb 9, 2015

I think you're right that it'll feel more natural on a larger screen. I'm playing on a 32" screen (old tv) at with a FOV of 38. I can't remember the distance from the screen I'm at but it's pretty close, most calculators come out with a FOV of 35. I might actually move it back to 35 now I've got the headtracking.

I'll try to get a video posted up tonight or tomorrow to show the benefits on a single screen.

Matt Horst · Feb 23, 2015

Frederic Schornstein said:
Sounds interesting. I always thought when seeing something like TrackIR it must be weird to move your head, but still keep the eyes on the screen, which sounds a bit unnatural. But for that price you cant really go wrong. I am still hoping for the oculus rift cv sometime this year.

TrackIR is very natural once you get used to it.You can adjust in the profiles how much you have to turn your head so it can be a lot or very little head movement required to look around.I find it most useful for seeing the corner entry,apex and exit much better than i could with a locked view.Looking full left or right to see another car along side of you is the only time you would have to turn your head a lot witch is somewhat a strain on your eyes depending on the sensitivity of your settings.Most of the time i don't even realize i am using it,for me it's as natural as driving in a real car.For a single screen setup i can't imagine racing without it.

vee10 · Mar 6, 2015

Been running EdTracker a few days in RF2 after Ben's recommendation. Thoroughly impressed, feels wrong without it now. I am not running it through opentrack as I am not sure if RF2 needs it, after looking at some setup guides on youtube. I have just mapped the axis to the camera's.

Few laps of me trying it out, excuse some of the driving (no setups just playing around) but I feel like apex hunting is more natural than before.

Ben Goymer · Mar 6, 2015

Yes, sorry about not replying sooner. I was having issues with drift because I was doing the calibration incorrectly

, plus a month long ear infection put paid to getting much time with this.

You don't actually need to use opentrack at all if you can bind the keys, I use opentrack for AC but don't need too for RF2. Will amend the first post with this info.

vee10 · Mar 6, 2015

Ben Goymer said:
Yes, sorry about not replying sooner. I was having issues with drift because I was doing the calibration incorrectly , plus a month long ear infection put paid to getting much time with this.

You don't actually need to use opentrack at all if you can bind the keys, I use opentrack for AC but don't need too for RF2. Will amend the first post with this info.

Funny first day I got it I had conjunctivitis that was fun! My head was scrambled after 30 minutes.

I really appreciate you pointing this out Ben, it's brilliant. I have Elite as well so hopefully I will get that running when I get chance. Could you post how you set it up for AC in opentrack. The laser scanned Nords will be fun with this.

I cant imagine driving without it now.

Ben Goymer · Mar 6, 2015

For AC it's pretty simple, follow the instructions here https://edtracker.org.uk/index.php/using/opentrack

For AC I had to invert the yaw but I have my USB port on the left so it may have to do something with that. Just tweak all the settings in opentrack until you are happy then press Start. I turned roll off as it was just annoying.

PaulH · Mar 6, 2015

I got one of these on order, hopefully comes tomorrow so I got the weekend to mess about with it

Ben Goymer · Mar 6, 2015

PaulH said:
I got one of these on order, hopefully comes tomorrow so I got the weekend to mess about with it

Just make sure that you do the drift calibration. I know they say that you shouldn't need to if it's a prebuilt device but I think with being transported and stuff it can get set out of whack.

vee10 · Mar 6, 2015

PaulH said:
I got one of these on order, hopefully comes tomorrow so I got the weekend to mess about with it

I have the magnetometer version so had to re cal anyway as it does not come calibrated. Its real easy to do.

Hope you enjoy Paul. Let us know how you get on.

PaulH · Mar 6, 2015

Lazarou said:
I have the magnetometer version so had to re cal anyway as it does not come calibrated. Its real easy to do.

Hope you enjoy Paul. Let us know how you get on.

Yeah will do, I went for the magnetometer version too, so I know who to torture now if I have problems

vee10 · Mar 6, 2015

PaulH said:
Yeah will do, I went for the magnetometer version too, so I know who to torture now if I have problems

This video is worth a watch Paul regarding calibration of the unit. It's the guide I followed.

PaulH · Mar 7, 2015

Well I've set mine up eventually, still having a few problems though, not as easy to setup as I hoped. Got it working with RF2, RF1 & GSCE ok, they were pretty straight forward. Will take a bit of getting used to racing with it though, seems weird at the moment

But my main issue is the jitter I keep getting, I've reflashed it, reset the gyro(that seems to solve it best), but the jitter still returns, very frustrating

I'm giving up tonight try a fresh again tomorrow

PaulH · Mar 7, 2015

Update: Seems like the USB cable supplied is faulty, was getting that USB disconnect/connect sound, tried a different cable(although too short to mount) it solved the jitter straight away, I hope, just got to get a new longer cable now

Contacted EDtracker to see what they say......