I’ve never owned a head tracking device before, and I was never keen on having something with lights on the side of my head (not sure why, really). Therefore, when I found out about EDTracker, which is a fan-made device that uses an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer, I figured I had to try it and take the plunge. These devices can be ordered in separate parts for self-assembly, or pre-built (which is what I did). After calibrating it, I’ve been taking it for a spin in Elite: Dangerous, and the results have been nothing short of spectacular. In this video, I put it through it’s paces while docking, taking off, combat and so on. I hope you enjoy this first hardware review of mine, and thank you for watching! :)
Grr… I ordered the parts from three separate places, they all finally arrived, I had a sparky friend of mine solder the parts together, just so I knew they were done right, as opposed to if I had done it – haven’t raised a soldering iron in earnest in over a decade – and I’m STILL waiting on the friend with access to a 3D printer to print the casing. That friend is even the one the second device is FOR! And he still won’t get around to it. Rassafrassinmuttergrumble…
Oh man, that stinks. I hope you get it all done soon! It’s awesome@
You sold me. Now I just have to convince the wife that this is a must buy.
Hahaha, yay!
Glad you enjoy it just as much as I do! Hard to go back to playing without it – I can’t even remember what the buttons are for accessing the left and right panels any more :D
Hahah, I actually replaced the UI Focus button with Headlook Toggle. ;)
Great review, Brian. I’m going to have to think about Voice Attack, too, after seeing you using that. I’ve never flown with bells & whistles like those – may take getting used to, if I drop the cash.
So, say, about how many kills/bounties was that, Mr. Competent? Ranking charts I’ve looked up tend to have no data as yet for the various level thresholds.
Voice Attack is very much worth it. Been using it myself with the Astra voicepack, very tempted to buy the personalized voicepack too. Plus, making custom commands is easy (I have a command that deploys hardpoints, puts me at half impulse, then finally puts all power to weapons with one spoken command so I can focus on the murder).
Hmmm, I’m not sure if the ranks are bound to a credit amount or a kill amount. IIRC, I’m up to maybe 300 bounties turned in and 2 million credits in bounties raised. Maybe. I’d have to look when I get home to confirm.
Is anyone else getting a 404? :(
Hah, someone else mentioned the site being down on YouTube, but apparently it was up “enough” to allow you to comment! ;) Seems to be all working now though. I hope.
I meant the EDTracker site. XD I was hella excited to give it a look (and see if my wallet would allow it), but the site seemed to be down. It’s up now, though, awesome time for a hiccup.
Your site hasn’t failed me once, so no worries on that front.
Great Vid! Thanks for the review.
We we’re down for maintenance :) Hosting company upgraded our server.
Rob – EDTracker.org.uk
Hello Rob, and welcome. Thanks for helping to make such an awesome device! :)
Oohhh, okay, yeah, they were down for maintenance but should be back up now. :)
Watching this, the thing I noticed during the intro was that you have both the Firefly board game and Space Hulk – that’s Space Hulk, right?
Anyway, good taste in board games, man! Have you tried Eclipse: A New Dawn for the Galaxy?
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/72125/eclipse
It’s basically a space 4X, like MoO or GalCiv, only a board game. And unlike the other good game that fits that description, Twilight Imperium, it doesn’t take three days and your entire apartment’s floor to play!
Derp, not Space Hulk. Now that I actually _think_, it’s more likely to be Horus Heresy, or actually Twilight Imperium – which means I jokingly insulted something you like and play. Dammit. To clarify, I think TI is a good game, I just can’t convince anyone to play my copy with me – they’re intimidated by it and would prefer to play damn near anything else I own.
Ah, under Firefly is a game I got as a gift called Asteroyds or some such, which I’ve yet to play.
I have heard of this game. Haven’t played it, but what you see there is the entirety of the board games I own. ;)
Great review video, Brian. You just convinced me to get one.
I have a question about the head tracker that perhaps you could answer. Currently, my “Head look” is bound to a thumbstick that, when not toggled, controls roll and vertical thrust (xbox 360 gamepad). So typically in combat situations, I don’t use “head look” often because I cannot use roll/vert thrust simultaneously. My question: with EDtracker, can I use “head look” simultaneously with roll/vert thrust? I’d imagine you can bind it as a separate control, but I was hoping you could confirm.
Also, damn dude, those were some NICE bounties. I gotta head over to that system. I rarely find bounties upwards of 12k on cobras.
Hey Johnny, welcome! Sadly I can’t confirm your question as I use a Saitek X45 HOTAS and have yet to play the game with a gamepad, and have my thrusters mapped to a hat on the throttle, which works great with EDTracker.