FreeTrack Forum

hello not my first post but hello to the community

been really impressed with this software so far and been researching on the forums and love the ideas that people have been coming up with.

I aim for this thread to be basically a build log that i'll keep up to date with almost step by step pics of what i am doing

lets start with some specs of what i have. well im running windows 7 64bit, downloaded the  2.2 version software.

i have a creative live! optia web cam, it's not the pro or AF model, just the standard white version, not sure if it has a IR filter or not

i have tested the software and cam just turning the auto exposure off and reducing the exposure and playing about with the threshold i've managed to get it tracking my virgin tv remote

here is a pic of it picking up my remote and some settings:



and here are the source options, i only have the one setting for the source type, and resolution can go up to 640x480:



Right now onto the planning side of things

going to go for the 3 point Cap model. got a baseball cap that im going to use.

going to use these IR LED's from maplin "LD271 Infrared Emitter"
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=2262

I'm hoping these will be decent, they can go up to 130mA xD

but im aiming to use a Nintendo DSL battery off ebay, 3.7v and 1500-2000mAh rating so they shoudl last for a while,
NDS BATTERY
here is a basic diagram of what the circuit will look like:

Battery 3.7v
LED v= 1.3v
Current = 75mA (i think, although might make it go a little higher)
resistors =3x 33 ohms
little slider switch for power on and off
24AWG cable or similar from maplin


additions to this will be a female mini usb port so i can charge the battery off usb when im not using it or if its going low i can just plug it in and use it to power and charge. and with this also have a little red led to show the charge status, being illuminated whilst charging and then switch off to indicate that the battery is fully charged...(but i need to figure out the circuitry for this first )

going to run thecables through the material of the hat to keep it as tidy as possible and then mouth the battery, LED, usb port, switch and resistors in a suitable small enclosure probably also bought from maplin or B&Q


stealing the idea from another thread im going to get some transparent white polymer clay and make little diffusion balls as they seemed to have good results. and on this note thats why the current will be 75mA or possibly thinking about taking it higher... what ya think?

as for the web cam i will just try with this creative one for now but im still researching into the wiimote and the ps3 eye toy, but not sure which would be better to be honest, would rather use the eye toy as it would be on usb so save on batteries and not have to get a bluetooth dongle also but like i said, not sure about results. opinions welcome.

so yes..... thats pretty much my plans... now for a quick summary of some questions i wouldn't mind getting some feed back on..

1) will these LED's be suitable for the task at hand? and should i file them down to give a wider angle to possibly illuminate the diffusion balls more evenly? am going to buy a hand full of them so if i botch it up there's no biggie :P

2)intensity of the LED's,. now these can go up to 130mA and wave length of 950nm... is this better? should i squeeze a little more say 90mA out from them so that i can adjust the threshold so there should be less interference from anything else?

3)USB charging, im pretty much dead set on this as it is the easiest option for me, doing the charging wiring is easy, but im not sure about what needs to be inplace for the red LED to illuminate while charging and then off once charged, i know its some sort of bridge that checks the current and once the current stops the light will go out... if anyone can help me with a diagram it would be very much appreciated

4) still on the USB charging, now reading from other threads about USB powering, to protect the motherboard you suggest using a ummm..... cant remember what it's called now and i can;t find the post xP, but it was some sort of fuse. should i incorporate this into my charging loop as a safety measure or think it's not needed? (i have a rather expensive pc so would rather not blow it )

5)webcam........ as i said goign to try out with my creative live! optia for now but might look into a wiimote or ps3 eye toy.... opinions would be welcome.

6) just looked at that nintendo battery a bit more, not too sure about this now, because onf the metal connectors on it, if i were to solder onto them it may damage the battery :\ any suggestions on how to attach wires to this or a similar battery?


i shall keep updating this thread the best i can with my thoughts and ideas as i think of them and put them into practice

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There is so much to read...  

right well i've managed to snap up a ps3 eye camera for 8£ delivered so guess that's going to be my camera of choice... although i might use it as my main cam if its better than my creative and use the creative for the IR :P

also been looking for a battery similar to the NDS one and found come li-ion ones on CPC website so going to look at those some more.

think im going to mount the electronics on a little PCB as got spare laying about so i might see if there's a battery i can put onto a circuit board or ill find the right connectors for them.

still not sure if i need anything special to be able to charge it via usb so thoughts on that?

right got my PS3 cam working on the pc.... seems like ill have to remove the IR filter and ad the floppy disk film filter as it really likes to pick up light sources on anything xD

i had it configured and then when i brought my hand up the light reflecting off my ring was picked up haha :P might fiddle a bit and possibly stick to using my creative optia for it as it seemed to work pretty much instantly and use this for skype and msn


also anyone else who uses the ps3 eye camera... have you noticed input lag? when i use the ps3 viewer with the drivers its fine and prefect response.... but when i use it in msn or free track there's about a .5-1 second delay between my actions and them happening. also, bit off topic, but in msn i can't seem to do the audio/video settings as it makes msn crash :\