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Greetings,

 

I have been a long time user of TrackIR 5. I currently use the passive reflector that clips on a hat. I've been looking at the Track Clip Pro, but it is not wireless and my USB ports are mostly used up.

 

There is a company that offers an alternative called TrackHat. The LEDs are imbedded in the cap and are run by a rechargable battery (10 hr use claimed). They also have a clip which is rechargeable and apparently quite sturdy. The website claims full compatibility with TrackIR; although they also offer a modestly priced camera with open source software. I digress.

 

Has anyone checked out, or had experience with the hat?

 

Many thanks in advance.

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Hi Graham,

I have experience of a very similar product called DelanClip - its not the hat you mention but a clip which attaches to the side of a set of headphones.  It too runs using a freeware tracking application and works brilliantly.  for the princely sum of £35 I was up and running with 6dof headtracking and have used it extensively in both driving and flight simulators - from all the videos of TrackIR i've seen in action I can't see anything which makes me think its much more technically advanced (although I may be wrong - I often am!)

 

I also use the old PS3 eye, which is the camera being sold on the Trackhat site, they are cheap and run at between 60 and 120fps depending on resolution so plenty quick enough to track head movement.

 

Andy

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TrackClipPro is not wireless but it does not occupy another USB slot. It's basically a short extension cable with power takeoff for the infrared LED. The clip cable's pretty long as well

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As a TrackIR user of many years both 4 and now 5 I would just stick with the Track clip on the baseball cap. I once owned a Track Clip Pro which I purchased at a later date with expectations of perceptible improvement over the regular track clip but there was none. And it was cumbersome with a cable hanging of your head and down your arm. I also eventually broke it. It was quite fragile and easy to hit.

 

There are three issues with the Baseball hat clip.

 

1. It can lose its reflective quality over time from cleaning. When this occurred it took me a while to figure out what the problem was. I was uninstalling drivers, reinstalling driver and then the penny dropped. The reflective material purchased from NaturalPoint is very expensive! However, I found a generic brand that cost me only Euro7.25 shipped. It called Signal Deco Band and its brand is Kleiber. Its made by 3M. 150cm x 2cm strip. Enough to last even the youngest simmer a lifetime. :wink:  I bought it on ebay.

 

2. You might what to get a suitable sun visor and not a baseball cap. I find that my head gets overheated with a baseball cap. The sun visor is basically a base ball cap with no crown.

 

3. I find ambient light not a problem but I believe if you have a window beside you or behind you it can cause false reading.

 

Not exactly an opinion about your exact question but I am suggesting that the best and cheapest option is the track clip on baseball cap. You know at some point those batteries are going to die at the most inconvenient moment. :smile:

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Maybe wrapping the clip cable around headphone cable would help. I knew this sounds messy, but they would likely get tangled up anyway otherwise.

 

TrackClipPro with camera sensitivity tuned to just about the minimum had worked well for me for a couple years.

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Hi Dave,

 

You mentioned owning the 4 and 5 ?

 

Is there any significant improvement with the 4 over the 5 ?

 

Regards,

Scott


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Hi Dave,

 

You mentioned owning the 4 and 5 ?

 

Is there any significant improvement with the 4 over the 5 ?

 

Regards,

Scott

To the best of my recollection I think I did notice that it was a tad smoother and the range was better but none of us is immune to placebo. It was some time ago that I switched and all I can really say is, that I have found 5 to be completely trouble free where as I can remember having the odd issue with 4's limitation.It is to long ago for me to be more specific. The build quality of the camera is certainly better. Its far more robust. You get used to what you have. I recall the only reason I upgrade to the 5 was because I broke the housing on 4.

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Is there any significant improvement with the 4 over the 5 ?

 

The TrackIR 5 hardware specs are better, notably the resolution and the camera's field of view.


MarkH

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Core i7-7700K / 32Gb DDR4 / Gigabyte GTX1070 / 1080p x 3 x weird / Win7 64 Pro

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Hi Mark,

 

Thanks for your feedback as well - I have the 4 but it doesn't sound like the 5 has anything that would truly warrant an upgrade until it breaks... It gathered dust for years because I thought it was broken - it would make uncommanded movements all the time and would leave me facing out the back of the cockpit - then one day I figured out it did better at night... There was window in its field of view wreaking havoc on the unit - once I figured out to pull down the shade it's been much better and I've been using it quite a bit more... Hopefully it lasts for a while...

 

Regards,

Scott


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+1 on the field of view improvements but you are right Scott if you are not having any problems with 4 then you would be better to spend your Flight Sim Budget elsewhere.

 

EDIT: I just took my own advise and cup the top of my baseball cap to allow the heat to get out of my head and it is far more comfortable. :lol:

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Andy, looked at the Delan clip as well. I understand it is more durable than Naturalpoint's LED clip. I don't use a headset, so I'd have to weld to the side of my head :) Thanks

 

Dave, thanks for the info on the reflective material. If I stay with the passive clip, I'll look into buying that.

 

Jaing, what does the Track Clip Pro connect to? Thanks

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Track Clip Pro connects via USB port, but it also comes with a port of its own on a short extension cable - It basically is an USB extension cable with a somewhat thinner clip cable branching off from the plug, and you can connect anything that does not demand absolutely full power from the port to it, including TrackIR receiver itself.

 

At least that's the one I had from about 2 years ago...Though I don't think things like that would change by much.

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Track Clip Pro connects via USB port, but it also comes with a port of its own on a short extension cable - It basically is an USB extension cable with a somewhat thinner clip cable branching off from the plug, and you can connect anything that does not demand absolutely full power from the port to it, including TrackIR receiver itself.

At least that's the one I had from about 2 years ago...Though I don't think things like that would change by much.

Thank you

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