FreeTrack Forum
|
I think if you put an IR-led in a white ball (like a Ping Pong ball), you'll get perfect diffuse (IR)-light.
This would be the solution for problems with narrow angle led's. I will try to build this but I don't know what material I should use. A Ping Pong ball is to big. But give good results!  I my search I found some solutions like the polystyrene balls, but I don't know if they give good results.  Anybody have other/better ideas? Or should I use my wife's pearls?   Example of how my builds will look:   edit: Corrected UV=IR ! |
|
|
In my first test I found some packaging-material, white plastic foam.
The results are very good, it's almost impossible to loose tracking, even when you turn the clip 180 degrees.  other material what give good results: cotton wool  chewing gum  |
|
|
Class : Apprenti Off line |
|
|
The intensity of the IR-light is degraded, but not that much.
See the 2 screenshots below. I removed the white foam from the center-led. As you can see in screenshot 1, the treshold-slider is set to 60 %, what is enough for the uncovered led. In screenshot 2, I had to adjust the slider to 35 % to get the same size. For your information: I use a WiiMote as cam. But give it a try on your own build with simple cotton wool! screenshot 1  screenshot 2  |
|
|
I agree that if I had to buy all the hardware and calculate all the hours that I spent on Freetrack (not just building a clip), I could have bought a real TrackIr device.
But if you calculate the real costs I saved € 95.00! (2-3 hours work) WiiMote - € 39.00 BlueTooth Dongle - € 10.00 Material - € 5.00 TrackIr - € 149.00 Besides that it gives me fun to experiment with this technology and gives me a great feeling when I finished a build.  And now that I have a WiiMote / Bluetooth I can do other experiments (Google for Johnny Lee .. WiiMote)For all of you that not like experimenting, here's the link to buy the real TrackIr 5: http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/products/trackir5/ But if you want this model (TrackIR 6 Ultimate ?)  You must build it yourself, because it's not for sale (yet!)  |
|
|
Eureka !
 Some guys on this forum give me an idea. FIMO modelling material was what I needed! Fimo is a sort of soft plastic clay wich hardens in the oven to hard plastic. It feels like a piece of chewing gum. Just Googling around I found out that Fimo nr. 014 is (semi-)transparent and white. Just perfect! In a hobby-store (2 km distance from my home ) they had it in stock. cost about 2.20 euro.Here some pictures of it.  cut off a small layer and cut it in parts with same size  make small balls (rolling between your hands) with different sizes ( 7 mm / 9 mm / 12 mm ......)  then bake it 30 minutes in an oven (110 degrees celsius) and make some holes (5 mm the size of most leds).  middle size (9 mm) placed over my leds.  see the difference between the covered and uncovered leds. (angle about 45 degrees)  Model ready ! now it's time for testing!   As you can see in the last picture the angle can really be 90 degrees. This is the solution for those who can't get the real leds (SFH485P) |
|
|
niceeee my first post on the forums
found this while trolling the net to find "make your own trackir" xD must say im really impressed with everything ive seen people do  and im inspired to try to make my own and your ideas in this post look amazing! definitely going to be adding polymer clay to my shopping list.a few questions about it though... which size ball did you find worked best with the LED's? im thinking if you make it only a bit bigger than the actual LED itself it will keep most of the intensity while spreading it around better. also would you need to reduce the value of the resistor to increase the intensity to make up for the reduction due to the transparent clay? did you flatten the face of the LED before inserting it into the balls or did you leave them unmodified? just wondering if ya tried both to see that would give better consistency and spread of the IR light. thanks |
|
> Stats
1 user(s) connected during the last 10 minutes (0 member(s) and 1 guest(s)).