Wireless Rift DIY Guide

[Namielus]

Hi!

I have been planning on doing a wireless rift and its working great.
Heres how.

First part you need is :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-WAVI-2-Way ... 0719651643

Its expensive, but really good. It transforms usb and hdmi to a wireless signal.
I can detect no latency, and asus claims the latency added is below 1ms.
Its power supply delivers 12v at 2 amps, but I managed to run it at 10 volts 0.7 amps.
Razer hydra pulls about 5v 0.5 amps and Oculus Rift itself pulls 5v 0.7amps if I am not mistaken.

Thats a total of 13 watts and should run fine from these babies:



three type 18650 3.7volt batteries with 4Ah , total amount of voltage about 11.1v
You can use a voltage regulator if you want to make sure it stays at 12v but I tested it below that and it ran fine.

The Oculus Rift however needs 5V 1000mah according to the box, but will pull less.

I am using this to convert the 11.1 to 5v, but you can use a standard car charger that converts from 12 to 5 volts.



In addition to Razer Hydra and the usb from Oculus Rift, I am using a good old Hillcrest Labs FSM-6 sitting horizontally on the edge of the rift controller box.

Why?

Because it instantly acts as a mouse when connected, so turning in real life will turn your body/walk direction in most of the games and demos for Oculus Rift.
No more controlling walk direction with mouse or stick. It really works




Theres actually room inside the asus wavi box for plenty of batteries and a small passive usb-hub if you need more ports.

My multimeter is not working for some reason, so I wont be able to make a video of how to assemble it all until tomorrow. (I want to triple check so I dont fry my gear)

But more pictures are coming and also a video.

[Namielus]

placeholder for updates

[mahler]

Great! Thanks for sharing.
Nice to see somebody actually using this and describing how to set it up.

[crespo80]

WOW
That's freaking awesome! And you can have wireless audio too by using a USB headset (if you don't have a standard wireless headphone already).
That's the perfect companion to the Virtuix Omni, how long do those batteries last?

[Namielus]

Thats a really small battery pack, but they are capable of delivering about 44 watt hours, and the whole rig runs 13 watt hours.
So that tiny battery pack should last for 3 hours at least.

Obviously you can parallel the batteries and double, triple or even quadruple the amount of juice without noticing a huge
leap in weight.

[RoTaToR]

So for understanding:
* The output from PC (USB + HDMI) go to this Asus Wavi #1
* ~wireless~
* "Asus Wavi #2 + Oculus Box + Razor Station + Hillrest FSM-6 + Batterys" <-- on your back, or backpack
* You are standing with the backpack - wearing the Rift on the Head - an wearing the Razor Hydras in the Hands.

very nice!

...Movie or it didn't happen!

[Namielus]

I still need power for it, until I can get a multimeter to solder the batteries correctly.
Will make a movie tomorrow unless more unexpected challenges arise.

[sunister1]

Is this the same device?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-WAVI-2-Way ... B005GDYXMM

[Namielus]

yes

[topas]

Wow, great idea, but a bit expensive.
You can also think about using LiPo batteries. For example a 3S 8000mAh which delivers 11,1v downside: you need a special charger.

[crespo80]

Or this chinese monster
http://www.ebay.it/itm/12V-Portable-rea ... 221wt_1163

(they also have a massive 40000mah 6 pounds version )

[brantlew]

Very cool Namielus! Hooray for posting a new project around here

[LordJuanlo]

This is really interesting, can't wait for your video!

[Mattijs]

Nice! I had been looking at the exact same wireless lossless link but figured I'd start hacking when I'd get my rift.
I thought about attaching the TX above me on the ceiling so the link wouldn't ever see my body but it might not be necessary.

I'm confused though how the backpack gyros will not fight the tracking from the rift. If you look straight ahead with your body aiming at 0 degrees...and then you make a 45 degree turn with
your head and your torso pointing at +45. Won't the RIFT turn your body 45 from your torso and the hillcrest your torso 45 from 0 resulting in your head having turned 90 in the game?

[RoTaToR]

I'm confused though how the backpack gyros will not fight the tracking from the rift. If you look straight ahead with your body aiming at 0 degrees...and then you make a 45 degree turn with
your head and your torso pointing at +45. Won't the RIFT turn your body 45 from your torso and the hillcrest your torso 45 from 0 resulting in your head having turned 90 in the game?

Not quite sure i understand detailed what you say, but thinking about it bring me to a the following conclusion/solution(?):

* Hillcrest -> on the ass -> Rotation of the Hip/Haunch
* Rift -> on the head -> Rotation of the Head
* Hydra -> beetween the shoulders -> for relative Hand movement

[Namielus]

Imagine a body with a neck, and the cameras in the game attached as a head.
The rift controls the head but not the body, and the mouse controls the body.
The Hillcrest FSM-6 is set to function as a mouse moving x-axis only so it does not interfere with oculus rift head movement
just like a mouse.

[gray]

This is such a great project, my only major gripe with the DK is the wiring. Meaning you still have to use a traditional controller/mouse/etc to control yaw or risk ripping the wires out of the control box. (Immersion breaking, but obviously doesn't interfere with development itself so not critical for a DK)

[Mattijs]

Imagine a body with a neck, and the cameras in the game attached as a head.
The rift controls the head but not the body, and the mouse controls the body.
The Hillcrest FSM-6 is set to function as a mouse moving x-axis only so it does not interfere with oculus rift head movement
just like a mouse.

I understood that part correctly but wasn't sure why the yaw changes wouldn't get registered and added.
Probably this doesn't happen because the output of the API's of both the rift and the hillcrest give absolute data...an angle...and not an angular velocity.

I actually made a sort of head tracker once to play DIRT out of model heli gyros and pic microcontrollers and there i remembered having issues combining many mems gyros which lead to crazy rotational speeds.
Never thought about magnetometers back than to do the fusion and thought i'd make some sort of Wii type calibration device...but never came around doing it so it ended up being useful for 10 seconds
before drift got too bad...Fun project though.

Either way...we wanna see a video ...

[alekki]

Awesome! Can't wait to see it in action. I wonder how well the Hydra works when the base station isn't on a stable surface.

I'd love to have something like this, but it's a bit too expensive. If the consumer version will be wired, then maybe I'll consider doing this.

[RoTaToR]

Sixsence released a beta SDK in witch you can change the orientation of the Base Station (Because someone wanted to mount it unter the table)
http://sixense.com/forum/vbulletin/show ... down/page2

I think its perfekt, because its easier to mount the Hydra Base Station beetween the shoulders - when the green glowing ball looks in the backward direction.

View from the side:
|
|
|||
|||O <- Hydra Base station
|||
|
|

[Namielus]

Haleluja! Now they just need to release the source/assets for hydra tuscany

[JoeReMi]

Please excuse my ignorance, but are there pre-built options for powering a wireless setup like this? Are the packs used for portable charging of phones etc suitable at all, for example:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Trent-IMP12 ... omputers_5
Or something like this maybe?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Energenie-20000 ... ttery+pack

Thanks for your reply. I remember reading an article last year where several gaming industry figures were asked what they thought were the most important innovations in gaming in their lifetime. More than one commented on wireless controllers. I 'd love a wireless rift, but I don't have your skillset

[Namielus]

Yes you can use stuff like that and I will help you if you decide to get it

[WhoIsRich]

As I have been working on something similar, I wanted to share some useful info. When it comes to attaching all this to your back, I found it very hard to find a rucksack to put it all in, considering it needs to be compact, comfortable, and stable for the hydra. After lots of searching I stumbled across a parkour forum post that gave the solution.

Hydration Packs!

You get them in a variety of different sizes, basic ones are cheap, have proper shoulder straps, and even provide a hole for cables

[JoeReMi]

Wow thank you that's very kind! I love reading though these forums for all the tech discussion I can't really understand, but it's even better to know people are willing to share their expertise. I'm hoping to take delivery of my rift in the next month or so. I'll look into buying the hdmi sender then and get back to you for your advice about powering it and the rift.
Thanks again!

[jjrh]

Very cool.

One of the big benefits of the smaller batteries is that you can position them over your body distributing the weight. You may even want to have half the weight on the front and half on the back.

How do you move though? (like walk forward and backwards)

[JoeReMi]

I've been reading a lot about VR treadmill solutions this past few days,what with the omni Kickstarter and everything. It seems like a wireless rift is pretty essential for this to work, am I wrong??

[Lookforyourhands]

Wireless connectivity is essential for the consumer version. Essential.

[blazespinnaker]

Wireless connectivity is essential for the consumer version. Essential.

It might hurt the price point though. It'd be ideal though, I agree. Hard to do anything standing up with out it.

[Namielus]

or half way there: A wireless peripheral

[blazespinnaker]

so, did you get this to work nameilus?

What I've been doing in my DIY ODT is putting my laptop in a backpack and running a power cable down from the ceiling. Works, but hardly ideal.

I'd like to do this. Too bad it's so expensive.

Also, looks like you can't pump audio into this? Is that right?

[blindboxes]

so, did you get this to work nameilus?

What I've been doing in my DIY ODT is putting my laptop in a backpack and running a power cable down from the ceiling. Works, but hardly ideal.

I'd like to do this. Too bad it's so expensive.

Also, looks like you can't pump audio into this? Is that right?

You can plug a cheap DAC into the USB host port and play your music from there. Less than ideal but it works.

[Namielus]

it has audio over hdmi, but you would still need a device to get that audio.
So either a usb device (those are cheap), a wireless headsett or hdmi.

I havent experimented on how many devices the wireless usb can handle.

My problem is that I only have one rift available and only one hydra is in my hands at the moment.
So I have to take apart the rig every time I need to test other stuff.

[crespo80]

A wireless Rift is absolutely a must and you're doing great in exploring this territory!
Altough Oculus has always said they want to sell a single model because developers love to develop for a single hardware, I think it would be awesome to have at least a wireless and a wired models, the HMD itself would be exactly the same with the same features, but users with an Omni-like device could unleash the full potential of their ODT.
To keep costs down, allow upgrading and have a single manufacturing line, they can make the two HMD models exactly the same, with the same wireless receiver built-in and then sell the wireless version with a bundled transmitter and battery pack, and the wired one with just a detachable cord (maybe with a MagSafe plug so the user doesn't risk to get tangled) so it could be made wireless by simply buying the transmitter/battery pack later

[TTakala]

I can detect no latency, and asus claims the latency added is below 1ms.

Have you tested if blocking the line-of-sight between Wavi receiver and sender affect the latency?
We will do some user testing with the Rift in our lab. I'm curious about when a chubby user turns around and blocks the line-of-sight, whether that affects the latency.
Anyway, interesting project you have here!

[BOLL]

Just to use a separate tracker for body orientation makes me go at this Turning with a joystick is currently one of the things that causes me turn green! And to be untethered is also crazy awesome! Makes a wireless Rift not seem too distant! Awesome work Mr Namielus!

[cybereality]

@Namielus: Does the Asus Wavi support 1280x800 or 1920x1200? If not, what resolution are you using and does it look OK?

[WhoIsRich]

I got my Asus Wavi pair today, from my quick tests I can tell you:

1920x1200 does not work, the devices refuse to link.
1920x1080 works fine.
1280x800 is not usable as the bottom 1/3 is filled with tetris like blocks.

I expected the Wavi to act like a generic USB hub, but you have to install drivers for USB to work.

In the next couple of days, will test how long it runs on a battery pack compared to the SkyVision / USB server combo.

[Namielus]

I get those tetris like blocks too sometimes, but I have always managed to solve it.

[shent1080]

Have you tried unplugging your monitor when using with the wavi device, maybe that is what is stopping it working in 1920x1200, just a thought.