Meant to be Seen

I would like to try my hands at DIY-ing a magnetic position tracker based on the old Polhemus approach. Unfortunately my google skills are failing and I cannot find any manufacturers that make perpendicular / collocated inductors similar to what you would find in the Hydra :
http://howiem.com/wordpress/index.php/2 ... wn-part-2/

Has anyone here seen these coils for sale?
Hand-winding them just sounds like asking for trouble (i.e. non-uniform field strength).

Id consider buying an old Polhemus or Ascension system off ebay. You can probably get one along with a FlockOfBirds and a sensor for < $200-$300 (think I paid about $300 for my one a couple of years back). Otherwise, id buy a broken Hydra and use that one.

Thank you for your suggestion, WiredEarp. I had checked ebay/amazon but as you pointed out even the broken systems are in the > $200 range. Hard to justify that for components that would be < $40 today.

Yeah, it seems the prices have gone UP, not down, on this old stuff.
I wonder if I can sell my old Ascension gear and make some money back that I can put towards my Vive?

What country are you in? I'll have to check my parts collection, but I had 3 Hydras at one point so I believe I should have a spare base. You could probably have the base station (and likely a handset unit) if you wanted to pay the shipping (which might cost a bit though, since i'm in New Zealand).

WiredEarp,
are any of the "old" magnetic tracking companies still in business?

Hey Haloar

Yes, I think both Polhemus and Ascension are both in business. I tried to get a copy of some drivers for one of my Ascension systems a year or two back and they definitely were still there. Not very helpful though, seeing as they didn't have copies of old drivers and instead tried to sell me a new system.

You can get their gear on ebay, sometimes for around the $300 for a single sensor package (like a Polhemus Fasttrax). It seems the sensors are the most expensive bit though.