iht installation manual - vipercore.nl · iht will always track its absolute position, ... updates...

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AIC-IHT Inertial Head Tracker installation manual v1.0

AIC-IHT

Inertial Head Tracker

Installation's manual

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Table of contents Table of contents .................................................................................................................................... 2!1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3!2. Hardware installation of the IHT. ......................................................................................................... 5!3. Driver installation. ............................................................................................................................... 8!4. Software installation. ......................................................................................................................... 12!5. Profiles .............................................................................................................................................. 15!6. Using your IHT .................................................................................................................................. 17!7. Updating firmware ............................................................................................................................. 19!8. Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................................ 23!9. Contacts and credits ......................................................................................................................... 35!

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1. Introduction Congratulations with the purchase of your AIC 3DOF Inertial Head Tracker. The IHT is a headtracker, based on the latest advancements in electronics and miniaturisation. It uses a 3-axis magnetometer, 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope. Firmware is bases on Fabio Varesano’s FreeIMU project and Arduino software. Combination (Sensor Fusion) of the output of these sensors makes it possible to acquire the position of an object in 3D space. For now this postion is limited to 3DOF, giving roll, pitch and yaw information. These data is used by the open source FaceTrackNoIR software to emulate headpositioning for most existing and future games. One of the protocols emulated by FaceTrackNoIR is the widely know TrackIR interface. Although limited (for the moment) to 3DOF the main advantage of this headtracker is that it functions independently of external sensors, like cameara’s or infrared light sources. This makes it virtually insensitive to disturbing lightsources. Another advantage is you never get out-of-sensor range. The IHT will always track its absolute position, regardless of the postion in space. One of the inputs for the IHT is the earth magnetic field. This means that the IHT is sensitive to surrounding magnetic fields. Like a compass you cannot mount it to strong magnetic fields. On the band of your headset, in the middle of your headset speakers is no problem for the IHT to function properly. But you cannot mount it near to strong magnets like a buttkicker or so. The IHT also needs to settle itself. After powering it up (connecting it to USB) it can take a few minutes for the IHT to become stable. Once, when stable, it will remain that way, as long as it remains powered by the USB interface. The IHT comes calibrated and normally doesn’t need recalibration. Updates of the firmware can easily be done with the use of Atmel’s FLIP program. This program you can find on the CD. I hope you enjoy using your AIC-IHT as much as I enjoyed designing, building and using it. If you have any comments or questions about your FCC you can mail me at [email protected] Arend “Eagle” van Oosten.

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CAUTION The AIC-IHT printed circuit board is an electrostatic sensitive device. This means you can damage your board if you don’t take precautionary measures. Make sure you are not electro-statically charged before working on the PCB. In normal use you don’t have to worry about damaging the board.

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2. Hardware installation of the IHT. The IHT can be mounted facing any direction you want, as long as the pcb remains horizontal. The most logical way is mounting it on your headset, or inside a helmet, with the usb connector facing left. The AIC-IHT profile for FaceTrackNOIR is set to function properly with the IHT mounted this way. You can mount it using double sided tape, or a piece of duck-tape. Connect the IHT to your computer with a micro-USB cable of sufficient length.

Here is an impression of how I have mounted the IHT:

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When you connect your IHT to your computer the PowerLed on your IHT should turn green.

Next step is installing the device driver.

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3. Driver installation. To be able to use your IHT as a game headtracking device, you need to install the Arduino driver that you can find on the CD. The CD contains the following directories/files:

Place your CD in your CD-drive and connect your IHT to your computer. You should see windows recognizing a new USB device and try to install the driver. This will be unsuccesfull. You have to install the driver manually. Do this by right clicking on “Computer” in the Start Menu and selecting “Properties”. Then select Device Manager. This should bring you the following screen:

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Under Other devices you see the Arduino Leonardo with an exclamation mark. Right-click on the Arduino Leonardo and select “Update Driver Software…”

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Browse to the Arduino driver folder on your CD and click OK

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Windows 7 will ask a security question. Please confirm you want to install the driver. After a couple of seconds the driver will be installed and you will get the following screen:

This means the driver is properly installed. Here you can also see what Com port is assigned to the IHT by Windows. Now go to the next step and install the FaceTrackNoIR software.

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4. Software installation.

The Calibration folder contains the calibration profile for YOUR specific IHT. Don’t loose this file or you will have to send back your device for future firmware updates. Atmel FLIP is the program you can use to update the firmware of your IHT with future releases. Begin by installing FaceTrackNoIR v160 by running setup. After installation of v1.6 you need to update it to the IHT beta version. Do this by copying all the files from the FaceTrackNoIR_IHTUpdate-alpha folder to the folder in which you have installed 1.6. (default: c:\ProgramFiles\..\..). This is atemprarily, until version 1.7 is released. Version 1.7 will support the IHT by default. Now run FaceTrackNoIR.

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Select AIC-IHT.ini as Profile. This will set you up with a basic profile that will get you flying with a good responding tracker. As Game protocol fake TrackIR is selected, since most games support this protocol. However, different protocols are available. Filter is set to Accela Filter Mk2. Tracker source (1st) to AIC IHT. Smoothing to 1. When your IHT is connected properly you should see “Tracking” in the Status bar. Raw input will change when you move your IHT. Translated values are visible in green in the top left part of the screen. Translation depends on the settings of your curves. Adjust them at will, so you get the respons you like best. FaceTrackNoIR makes it possible to set 6DOF with use of an external camera (originally it was designed to function this way ). If you want this set your camera as first tracker source and AIC-IHT as second source. Depending on the orientation of your IHT you can assign the IHT outputs to different axis and/or invert them. You can do this under Tracker Source, Settings:

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Here you can also set the Com port, if you don’t want FaceTrackNoIR to scan for it automatically. If you want to do this, make sure you set it to the Com port as shown in Device Manager. If your IHT is connected, drivers are installed and FaceTrackNoIR is setup properly the TX and RX leds on the IHT should turn orange. This indicates proper tracking.

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5. Profiles The way your “game head” responds to your real head-motions depends on the way you have set the translation of raw-input to game-input. You can adjust these translations using curves and filters and store them to a profile for future use. The AIC-IHT.ini sets the curves as follows

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With the IHT you get the best results using the Accela Mk2 Filter with the following settings:

Feel free to experiment at will.

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6. Using your IHT To be able to use your IHT you need to run FaceTrackNoIR. FaceTrackNoIR is an open source program that can emulate several game protocols, including the TrackIR protocol. You can setup curves and filtering to your liking, combine two tracker sources, and enable or disable axis.

In the Tracker Source window you can select the settings fort hat source.

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Here you can select where you want the device axis-output to go to. This depend on the way you mount your IHT device. The AIC-IHT.ini is setup correctly with the USB connector facing lef tand the big chip facing down. If you don’t get the responses you want, try different setting here. Reaction to head movement can be adjusted in the curves screen.

Feel free to setup the respons the way you like it best. Just make sure you select the Accela filter, otherwise output will be very unstable. After a “cold start” i.e. powering up your IHT, the IHT needs time to settle itself. You notice this by constantly changing yaw values. This can take up to two minutes. When the IHT remains powered (green pwr led is on) it will remain settled, until power is disconnected. So it is recommended to leave it plugged into your USB port. Most computers keep powering their USB ports. Even when shut-down. As long as you don’t switch of your mains switch the IHT will remain stable. We wish you happy gaming

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7. Installing Atmel FLIP Flip is the Atmel program you can use to update/change the firmware in the IHT processor. The firmware of your IHT can be upgraded/changed using the Atmel Flip program. To install this run the Atmel Flip installer from the CD. Next you have to install the Atmega32U4 driver. To do this first connect the IHT to your computer in Bootmode. To do this disconnect the IHT from the USB connector. Next press and hold the little button besides the Atmel chip. While holding the switch pressed, plug in the USB connector. Now open Windows device manager. To do this right click on Computer, then click on Properties.

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Click on Device Manager

Now you see under “Other devices” the ATm32U4. Right click and select “Update Driver Software”

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Now browse to the directory in which you installed the Atmel Flip software.

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Click “Next” Click “Install”

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Now device manager should show the device driver is properly installed.

Now you can update/change the firmware inside the IHT using Atmel Flip.

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8. Updating/loading firmware To update/change the firmware, start the IHT in bootloader mode by pressing the small button besides the large Atmel chip and, while holding it pressed, connect it to the USB connector. The IHT is now in bootloader mode. Start FLIP. Set communication to USB.

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Load the hex-file you want to upload.

Click “Run” and your firmware will be uploaded.

To run the firmware, re-connect the IHT to the USB connector, without pressing the switch on the board.

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9. Calibrating the IHT In some cases it can be necessary to recalibrate the IHT. This requires several steps: First you have to determine on which COM-port the IHT is connected. You can check this in Windows Device Manager. Make sure the IHT is connected to the USB bus and is not in Bootload mode (i.e. connect it to the USB bus, without pressing the switch on the board). Now open Device Manager. (Start / Computer / <right click> / Properties / Device Manager)

In this case the IHT (Arduino Leonardo) is connected to COM3. Write this down. Now you have to upload the Calibration.hex file in the IHT with FLIP. To do this, first start the IHT in Bootloader mode. Do this by re-connecting it to the USB bus with the button on the IHT board pressed. Start Atmel Flip and check the device:

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Next load the Calibration.hex file. You can find this file in the Calibration GUI / Hex files folder

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Press OK

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Click “Run” and the Calibration firmware will be uploaded. Re-connect the IHT board from the USB connector to run the calibration firmware. You should now see the PWR and TX leds light up. Next start the Calibration software by double-clicking “Calibration.bat” in the Calibration GUI folder. You should get two windows:

And one black dos box. Now fill in the COM port your IHT is connected to. In this case com3, and click on “Connect” You should get the following message in the DOS box:

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Now click “Start Sampling” and perform the 3 360 degrees rotations as shown on the (youtube) movie.

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When you have performed the calibration properly you should see the above pictures. If that is the case you can click “calibrate”. Your calibrated figures should look similar like these:

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Now save the calibration filr (calibration.h) to a location you want and mail it to me. I will use the calibration file to create new calibrated firmware and send it back to you to upload it to your IHT. Do the Upload with FLIP, as you did with the calibration.hex file. Good luck.

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10. Troubleshooting If your IHT will not track first make sure the USB cable is connected properly and receives power from your computer. If powered properly the Power led should turn on.

Next make sure the drivers are installed and FaceTrackNoIR is set to auto connect to the serial port. When connected properly you should see the following information:

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When tracking properly, you should see the tx and rx leds on the IHT light up and the word “Tracking” should show a steady state in the FaceTrackNoIR window.

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11. Contacts and credits

All questions about your IHT should be directed to this email address: [email protected] Or via the Viperpits.org forum.

Project Manager

Arend “Eagle" van Oosten.

Software developer

Wim Vriend

Special Thanks: Fabio Varesano For his freeIMU project

Cars “Falcas” Burgers

Manual template: Thomas "tom2" Wälti

iht installation manual - vipercore.nl · iht will always track its absolute position, ... updates...

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