[.041 Safety Wire]

If you dont want to drop 160.00 for head tracking a system can be assembled for probably less than 60.00 using freetrack software, webcam and home made IR transmitter. I use single point tracking and find that it works quite well and adds a certain level of realism to the flight sims that support it. You can also get 6DOF with a three point system.

http://www.free-track.net/

what is the diference betwen a 3 point system and between a 4 point sys.?

No difference four point was the old system it is now three point with 6DOF. Single point or 2DOF is probably the most precise and gives you movement on the yaw and pitch axis which is the most head movement in a real aircraft. I spent many years flying before I retired and most of the movement of your head in flight centers around these axis. I dont recall leaning forward a lot unless I dropped my chart or candy bar and had to retrieve it. With the single point system I have mapped my FOV to the hat switch in case I want to get a closer look at the panel or gunsight but that is rare. To build system you acquire a webcam and remove the IR filter which is quite simple in the Microsoft series of cameras. Build a IR transmitter using a childs LED nitelite and replace normal LED with an IR LED. Download software from Freetrack and you are ready to rock and roll. It takes some adjusting but once it is set up it sure adds immensely to the sim. With my system I took kind of the backward approach and mounted the cam on my headset and the IR transmitter by my monitor. IR LED is in left engine nacelle and I left regular LED in cockpit to signal when system is active. Camera is a VX-3000 with IR filter removed and a visible light filter installed. Visible light filter can be a piece of film negative or old floppy disc.

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CH Products Flightstick pro with a first generation thrustmaster hardwired to it, CH is probably 10 yrs old and thrustmaster is 15 yrs old but the pots are all still good. All is tied together thru a set of CH rudder pedals to give you an idea of their age all still have gameport 15 pin connectors but I route them thru a usb adapter.