Ultimarc Aimtrak lightgun on big screen - is it possible?

[Victorian]

Hello,

I received my Aimtrak light gun today but have some issues with calibration.
The screen is about 80 inches and distance to screen around 7-8 feet.


After calibration the gun is perfectly accurate in upper left corner, but anywhere else it is far from accurate. The gun has problems hitting the last bottom calibration target.


Im assuming the trouble is related to the IR-leds and the size of the screen, has anyone found a solution to this?

[yotsuya]

http://www.arcadeguns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=225&zenid=qj1mhtpmq9mgbonbjfum44otv3

[gamer83]

Like suya posted,you could use the super led.but before you spend some more money,try these things in different combos.go into the aimtrak utility and change the ir gain to 5,see if that helps.try backing up from the screen a bit more if you can and recalibrate.backup to 10 feet.also for the tracking accuracy change the z correction(?) to continuous in the aimtrak util. Hope this helps but the new led bar might be absolutely necessary for that screen.

[Victorian]

Thanks for the tip, I bought my light gun from there but the super ir led bar is no longer available.

I think Ill make my own ir led bar


I did some calculations here.
http://ostermiller.org/calc/triangle.html

I set bottom right angle to 60 degrees.
I set bottom side to half of screen width.
Left side is distance from gun to screen.

According to the manuals, the gun angle (top angle) should be 17 degrees or less for optimal performance.
The gun has 60 degrees sensor width but it needs to see all ir leds and the ir leds are not placed in the center of the screen, thats why the gun can not point 30 degrees to each side.

This means you have 17*2= ~34 degrees of movement freedom of the gun.

In my case, 2 metre wide screen = 3.4metre distance required...

I shall try with a TV tomorrow, its only 104cm wide so a distance of 180cm should be enough.


Seems convincing enough, but I do not understand why custom built ir sensor bars with more distance between leds supposedly work better with big screens. When the sensor bar is made larger the gun cant move as freely to the sides because it still needs to see the led on the other side of the screen.
Wider distance between ir leds would increase resolution and make the sensor more precise, but also increase the minimum required distance.
If my theory is correct, would be great if someone could clarify :-)

[gamer83]

have you tested the ir signal strength with aimtrak utility?not sure if you did,but theres a tab in the utility that can show you exactly where the camera stops seeing the leds.I had similar problems calibrating my guns,if I was too close to the screen the last calibration point on the bottom of the screen would not register,putting more distance between me and the screen fixed it.I have to stand minimum 6 feet from my 27" screen,with your beast 80 incher I dont think 7 - 8 feet is goin to cut it.Backup from the screen and you will decrease the view angle.  up the gain,then use the AT utility and watch the signal strength as you point the gun at all four corners.if its black anytime while pointing it on screen,you need to move back.you gotta find the sweet spot with these 3 variables,distance from screen,height of screen,and height of gun.

[Victorian]

I did test that, and also the other things you mentioned. No luck yet, but Im gonna try with stronger ir leds. After testing Im pretty sure that will solve the problem. Thanks for the help, Ill report back soon

[gamer83]

Thats unfortunate,I was hoping it would work for you.Post a video once you have the higher intensity leds of that screen in action.I would love to play some area 51 on that sucker,lol.

[AndyWarne]

It really should not be necessary to use brighter LEDs for any size of screen. They are already very high brightness. Furthermore if another LED bar is made which simply has the same LEDs at each end (as in the Wii) it will NOT work. It would cause the aim of the gun to jump horizontally at random.

The most common reason for not working with a large screen is being too close, the min distance needs to be approx 2 X the screen width.

[Victorian]

Thanks for the input Andy,

Ill be home tomorrow and test it again, will see if it works with a longer ir sensor bar.

Ill also try placing sensor bar below the screen, if the gun can aim above it also then the bar can be mounted inside the picture instead of above it, that would give more reach to bottom half of screen.

The challenge is to have a big screen in a small room, its far from ideal but I dont want to use a smaller screen or move it to a different location if I can avoid it

[Victorian]

The longer sensor bar did wonders, it works perfectly now.

Thanks for the help!

[codeena]

Hey Victorian,

Glad you got it working well. Are you using that Super IR Sensor Bar? How close can you stand to the screen with accurate results? My screen is 106" but with a row of seats, I have to stand around 8' away from the screen.

Thanks!

[Victorian]

Super IR Sensor bar yes, from ArcadeGuns.com.

I havent spent much time with it yet, but the gun works fine on pc and playstation 2 now.

In aimtrak sensor view check, the dot is now red at all times at a longer distance. With the stock sensor bar, the dot turns yellow already at a closer distance to the screen.

If you are using a large screen, I would say it is definately better.

I dont think it will reduce the minimum required distance.

[Martin0037]

Hi guys. I'm new to the forum and I know this post is old but can anyon help?

I'm having the same issue. I've got a pair of aimtrack light guns and the super IR sensor. My projector screen is 6ft wide.  Nothing I do seems to work. The guns work but the targets are way off. Tried calibrating, again, same issue,  I can hit to the top former targets but not the bottom.

I noticed Victorian you said it was better now you'd got the larger ir bar, which I've got but it's far from accurate.
I've backed up when calibrating at least 8 ft and still doesn't work. If you have to be double the size of the screen away I've just not got enough room and that seems to be a long way off. 

Just wondering if you got it working properly and if you could I ask how you've done it?

Thanks
Martin

[Titchgamer]

The Aim traks sensor is angled slightly upwards.
So keeping that in mind you will need to be quite far back for it to pick up the sensor when aiming low.

If you go into the aimtrak utility you can see what the receiver is picking up.
Move the gun around the screen and the red dot should follow.
If it changes colour it is getting a weak signal.

Also it may help if you sit low down so you aim up to the bottom of your screen.