rosco11
Well-Known Member
I decided to write a "how to" on controlling a quad with your goggles mainly because the information I found was spotty dand incomplete. This is intended to set up your head tracker system to control the yaw/rudder but you can use the same process for pitch and roll too.
Why you would go that far? Think about the applications for amputees and people with other limitations. I just did yaw and I like the results. It is intuitive and precise. At some point i am sure i will want to increase the rate of turn for tighter turns. I will get right to it.
I used a Tanaris with Dominator goggles and the Trinity Head Tracker, you could use any system that allows you to mix channels.
First you need to set up your trainer port.
Turn the tanaris on, then long hold the menu button to enter the transmitter set up. Then page button to page 4 on the x9d (plus) to get to the trainer page. You have more to do for the trainer port in the model set up, but this needs to be done as well.
When you look at the channels you will see symbols pryor to the 4 controll functions. :=, += and off.
The default on mine was :=. This is engineer speak for "trainer has exclusive control." Probably because they could not spell "exclusive" or something someone but them might understand.
You need to set all four channels to +=. This is engineer speak for "trainer added control." Maybe "add" was just one character too many.
What this does.
:= will block any control from your transmitter completely when you activate the trainer port. Fine for when you are actually training as if that would ever happen, but devastating for a head tracker. You loose all controls except what the head tracker is doing through the port.
+= will ADD the head tracker input on top of the transmitter controls. Good for head tracker and what we want to do.
Off - One has to ask why that would be an option at all. Blocks input from the trainer port.
now, go into the model menu and page back to the "special functions" page. Here, pick a number, any number, and press enter. Then + or - to get to the source space and enter. Here you will select "trainer" then enter again and move over to switch and pick a switch. any switch. Then do not forget to check the tiny little box to the far right side to tell the stupid system yes, i really want to activate the trainer port. Just in case you might have been setting up a switch but didn't really mean it.
Both steps must be done to set up and activate the trainer port on a taranis. NOW you are ready to start activating the head tracker.
power up your goggles and plug in the trainer cable and turn on your transmitter. Does not really matter what order.
Go to your model and page back to the mixer page. Scroll down to chanel 4/yaw and long enter to get menu. Here select "insert after" which will add the same information in another line on channel 4 just below the original line. Exit out to make sure it is there, then scroll down, select it, long enter to bring up menu for that line and select edit.
Here you can call it what you want, doesn't matter. Scroll down to source and press enter. use the -/+ keys to scroll UP past the basic channels, switches and if you set up and activated your trainer port correctly, the head tracker inputs. THEY ARE NO LONGER LABELED PMM like every video on the web says. They are cleverly relabeled TR1,TR2, etc. "trinity", get it? TR? They are so smart.
You want channel 5 or TR5 as the source. Scroll down to switch. You can add the same switch as your trainer port. scroll over to multpx and press enter. You have three choices. i picked "replace" and i will tell you why.
I was not sure how the quad would react if it got two inputs on the same channel. Would one override the other? would they cancel each other out? With "replace" it is one or the other. Turn your trainer switch off and control reverts back to the joystick.
After that there is delay up,delay down, move up, move down with no values. I entered .03 here on all four. With a little delay, the control would not be so jumpy with just the smallest turn of your head. I think that is what it does, anyway. Not sure. Could find no information about it anywhere and those clever people at free sky must have ran out of bytes to add useful information to explain what it does on their receiver.
That's it. Your done.
Set up the trainer port, activate the trainer port, mix the channel in your model by adding a line to whatever control you want to use it for.
Works great. Then there is the trial and error setting up the rate or curve depending on how tight you want your turns and the rate/curve of your roll.
This can be done with pitch and roll too. Personally, i like just the yaw. It is natural. But you may know someone with a disability who took a pass because they could not manipulate the transmitter. Set up a foot throttle, mouth throttle, and you could completely ignore the transmitter controls after binding and arming. You could teach someone bound to a wheel chair to fly.
One more thing of importance concerning the Trinity Head Tracker. It is set up for a gimbal on the bottom of a DJI phantom, its most commonly used application. You have to REVERSE the pan controls. IE, out of the box, left is right and right is left. There are directions with the goggles that tell you how to do it. Was a surprise the first time i tried flying.
Why you would go that far? Think about the applications for amputees and people with other limitations. I just did yaw and I like the results. It is intuitive and precise. At some point i am sure i will want to increase the rate of turn for tighter turns. I will get right to it.
I used a Tanaris with Dominator goggles and the Trinity Head Tracker, you could use any system that allows you to mix channels.
First you need to set up your trainer port.
Turn the tanaris on, then long hold the menu button to enter the transmitter set up. Then page button to page 4 on the x9d (plus) to get to the trainer page. You have more to do for the trainer port in the model set up, but this needs to be done as well.
When you look at the channels you will see symbols pryor to the 4 controll functions. :=, += and off.
The default on mine was :=. This is engineer speak for "trainer has exclusive control." Probably because they could not spell "exclusive" or something someone but them might understand.
You need to set all four channels to +=. This is engineer speak for "trainer added control." Maybe "add" was just one character too many.
What this does.
:= will block any control from your transmitter completely when you activate the trainer port. Fine for when you are actually training as if that would ever happen, but devastating for a head tracker. You loose all controls except what the head tracker is doing through the port.
+= will ADD the head tracker input on top of the transmitter controls. Good for head tracker and what we want to do.
Off - One has to ask why that would be an option at all. Blocks input from the trainer port.
now, go into the model menu and page back to the "special functions" page. Here, pick a number, any number, and press enter. Then + or - to get to the source space and enter. Here you will select "trainer" then enter again and move over to switch and pick a switch. any switch. Then do not forget to check the tiny little box to the far right side to tell the stupid system yes, i really want to activate the trainer port. Just in case you might have been setting up a switch but didn't really mean it.
Both steps must be done to set up and activate the trainer port on a taranis. NOW you are ready to start activating the head tracker.
power up your goggles and plug in the trainer cable and turn on your transmitter. Does not really matter what order.
Go to your model and page back to the mixer page. Scroll down to chanel 4/yaw and long enter to get menu. Here select "insert after" which will add the same information in another line on channel 4 just below the original line. Exit out to make sure it is there, then scroll down, select it, long enter to bring up menu for that line and select edit.
Here you can call it what you want, doesn't matter. Scroll down to source and press enter. use the -/+ keys to scroll UP past the basic channels, switches and if you set up and activated your trainer port correctly, the head tracker inputs. THEY ARE NO LONGER LABELED PMM like every video on the web says. They are cleverly relabeled TR1,TR2, etc. "trinity", get it? TR? They are so smart.
You want channel 5 or TR5 as the source. Scroll down to switch. You can add the same switch as your trainer port. scroll over to multpx and press enter. You have three choices. i picked "replace" and i will tell you why.
I was not sure how the quad would react if it got two inputs on the same channel. Would one override the other? would they cancel each other out? With "replace" it is one or the other. Turn your trainer switch off and control reverts back to the joystick.
After that there is delay up,delay down, move up, move down with no values. I entered .03 here on all four. With a little delay, the control would not be so jumpy with just the smallest turn of your head. I think that is what it does, anyway. Not sure. Could find no information about it anywhere and those clever people at free sky must have ran out of bytes to add useful information to explain what it does on their receiver.
That's it. Your done.
Set up the trainer port, activate the trainer port, mix the channel in your model by adding a line to whatever control you want to use it for.
Works great. Then there is the trial and error setting up the rate or curve depending on how tight you want your turns and the rate/curve of your roll.
This can be done with pitch and roll too. Personally, i like just the yaw. It is natural. But you may know someone with a disability who took a pass because they could not manipulate the transmitter. Set up a foot throttle, mouth throttle, and you could completely ignore the transmitter controls after binding and arming. You could teach someone bound to a wheel chair to fly.
One more thing of importance concerning the Trinity Head Tracker. It is set up for a gimbal on the bottom of a DJI phantom, its most commonly used application. You have to REVERSE the pan controls. IE, out of the box, left is right and right is left. There are directions with the goggles that tell you how to do it. Was a surprise the first time i tried flying.
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