Trackir with P3D and 737 NGXu

[BobKinSTL 5]

I received the Trackir 5 with the pro clip and have spent a lot of time learning the interface, how to configure, etc.  I feel I have all the profiles for yaw, pitch, roll set up properly and my head movements are comfortable for the most part, although you have to get used to looking with your head as much as with your eyes.  I think this is a fine product and this post should not be considered a criticism.  Having said all that, I don't think it is great for commercial aircraft and I'm looking for any tips others have used before I box it up and return it.  My biggest issue is turning knobs and flipping switches, I can't smooth it out enough to make that easy, slight head movements move the knob away from the cursor.  So my solution for that was to continue using chaseplane camera presets with trackir turned off for MCP, overhead, pedestal views, etc. and only use trackir for my "captain" setting...basically when I'm flying the plane.  But that's fine.  I also find final approaches a bit wonky when I'm making a lot of inputs to stay on the vertical/horizontal glidepath and my head is also moving a little.  It gets to be a lot of motion.  My feeling is this is probably great for fighters during combat.  So.....before I box it up and send it back, anybody else have the same experience and any advice?  Thanks.

Bob Koehler

[joergalv 6]

If you haven't enabled Precision mode (F7) in TrackIR, try this. This is essential.
or further tune (bring them down) the curves near the horizontal centerline.

Make sure you have disabled / reduced the artificial camera movements in ChasePlane.

I use TrackIR for years now..and no issues .. 

Take your time to tune your setup. It's worth it.

[mokeiko 39]

I assigned a pause (example: key F10, or program a button to pause TrackIR) when I use the dials, then un-pause when I'm done.

fly safe

Edited January 21, 2021 by mokeiko

[BobKinSTL 5]

1 hour ago, joergalv said:

If you haven't enabled Precision mode (F7) in TrackIR, try this. This is essential.
or further tune (bring them down) the curves near the horizontal centerline.

Make sure you have disabled / reduced the artificial camera movements in ChasePlane.

I use TrackIR for years now..and no issues .. 

Take your time to tune your setup. It's worth it.

All good tips, thank you.  I have precision mode enabled, I'll check on camera movement settings in chaseplane, I can see where that would add a lot of bouncing around.  When you say bring down the curves, if I do that when fine tuning yaw won't that increase the amount of head movement I need to make to look to the sides?  When setting it up, I looked comfortably at each side of my monitor and brought the curves up above the vertical redline to achieve the desired degree of turning within the sim.  

[vadriver 248]

55 minutes ago, BobKinSTL said:

All good tips

Bob

Indeed they are.

I would add that using TIR alongside MCE & / or assigning core switches / rotaries to hardware will give one a "mouse free" cockpit with benefits to all flight phases. I doubt I could use TIR with a mouse.

[BobKinSTL 5]

19 minutes ago, vadriver said:

I would add that using TIR alongside MCE & / or assigning core switches / rotaries to hardware will give one a "mouse free" cockpit with benefits to all flight phases. I doubt I could use TIR with a mouse.

Sorry, but what is MCE?  I recently got the Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant and have some rotaries and switches assigned, mainly the MCP, which eliminates some need for the mouse.  But it's like relearning the cockpit set up, I've been flying for so long with chaseplane views assigned to a number keypad and using the mouse for switches and dials that it has become second nature.  I feel for me it either needs to get easier for TIR and the mouse to get along, or it's just not the setup for me.  But I do want to give it a good effort!  Thanks.

[vadriver 248]

5 hours ago, BobKinSTL said:

what is MCE?

http://www.multicrewxp.com/ ...... demo to try & supported well https://www.avsim.com/forums/forum/548-the-multi-crew-experience-mce-support-forum/ 

Essentially a voice activated copilot, preset to your aircraft + / or used with your own "calls" (voicescript / voxkey functions).

[joergalv 6]

13 hours ago, BobKinSTL said:

if I do that when fine tuning yaw won't that increase the amount of head movement I need to make to look to the sides? 

yes, indeed. But that's what you need if you want the same head movement to translate in less movement of the mouse pointer. It's easier and more important to achieve this near the vertical center of the monitor as to it's edges. There are clearly limits.. 

13 hours ago, BobKinSTL said:

I looked comfortably at each side of my monitor

to keep this as you like, just leave the left / right outer points on the curve as is, and concentrate on the 'inner' points.

You're need to adjust is different if you 'only' want to look around, or if you need to operate buttons / switches in the VC. One ChasePlane Camera to fit all will most likely not work.

For example, if you are the captain and want to operate switches at the upper part of the overhead panel.. you'll most likely need to setup a second CP-camera to look at the center of the overhead if you have TiR centered as well.. And if you want to operate the (M)CDU, it's probably a good idea to setup a dedicated CP-camera preset for this, and disable TiR for that preset. You can enable / disable TiR per CP camera preset, which makes CP + TiR a powerful combination. I sometimes just have the same CP preset twice. One with TiR enabled, the second with TiR disabled. 

Edited January 22, 2021 by joergalv