Treadgaming PCB rev6_RF

I just wanted to show you the brand new PCB board!

So, this is just a render though. If all is well, I will do a 10 batch of the board so I can see that it's working. Also, I think I will do it in shiny black. :) And, update the firmware for it.

Notice the addition of extra switch, 2 Wii Nunchuck connections, and the RF antenna there on the right.

So, this board is basically done. I'm just currently going through it, to see if there is anything missing or if I can improve something. But, otherwise this is basically it! The guy at odesk that routed this, seemed to really know RF as he made the antenna and a bunch of other things that you only do if you know what you are doing. Or if you are crazy. But, I believe he knows what he is doing.

All possible pins are exposed as well.

Treadgaming PCB is being upgraded!

Since I did the firmware, and tested in games, I realized that, even-though I have headers on the PCB, I really wanted to make it easier to, out-of-box, also navigate around, not only walk back and forth. That is why the new PCB will have Wii Nunchuck pads (just like the Video Game Shield)  where you can just connect the Wii Nunchuck straight into the PCB and it will work. I also have 2, one for each hand, if wanted.

The Nunchuck might not be the best controller out there, but it is cheap, has a joystick, a few buttons, and a accelerometer, which is great for this. You can just hold it in your hand to look around, and walk that way on the treadmill.

Yes, I know it's not like the Razer Hydra, but still. Actually, one might be able to use the Razer Hydra with mine, if the game allows it.

While I'm updating the PCB, I'm also including RF (2.4Ghz) support which opens up for even more fun additions in the future. Now, it will only be included in the commercial one, if this happens to end up being popular as the FCC certification (which I need to sell with RF in USA) is quite expensive. But, I figured, I include RF support in the PCB now. That way, I can at a later stage decide if I can include the RF components or not, and I don't have to pay extra for a new PCB. It will just be a matter of including the components or not when manufacturing the board, everything will be ready for it. I think this is quite smart. :)

The idea with RF is also that in the future I could always do my own "Nunchuck" solution, with better hardware, and wire free (using a rechargeable battery)! Others are also welcome to play around with it! Such as making 2 Treadgaming PCBs communicate for some crazy reason.

This time around I'm also exposing every possible pin, even though I use it. This way, the pins are multifunctional. For instance, one might not use both nunchucks, which frees those pins up, and since they are exposed, they can be used for other things.

I'm also doubling the CPU frequency. It's even overclock-able to squeeze even more out of it.

Omni Treadmills

I posted about the Omni way back (which now also is on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1944625487/omni-move-naturally-in-your-favorite-game ), and apparently another just popped up: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/654506511/wizdish-exercise-and-vr-omni-directional-treadmill

I even backed the Delta Six: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/356540105/delta-six-a-new-kind-of-game-controller which actually works better with my project as with the others you have to use a headset and you can't see the gun (and look through the scope for instance).

Personally, between the two above, I prefer the Omni. That way you don't have to moonwalk. I backed both though, as I think they are both cool in their own way. Seems I should had released this project last year though. Anyway, hopefully those other projects will get people more into this, and help me too hopefully. This should be much cheaper. Especially if you already have a treadmill/exercise bike.

Firmware Calibration Mode

After a lot of back and forth with the guy over at oDesk, we are now very close to finish this up. He has added filtering and the calibration mode! He has gone way beyond what I expected as well. Not only is the LEDs indicating in a nice way what is going on, he just now also added the Joystick USB descriptor which will send the filtered and scaled data over the USB as if it was a joystick/gamepad.

 LEDs explained:

Normal operation:
- green led on.
- yellow led blinks on motion detection.
- red led is off if all is fine, otherwise it's on to show some error occurred.

Calibration mode:
- the green led start blinking.
- the red led is off until you start moving and no stable value is found
- when running the red led blinks if there is no stable value
- when moving the red led is always on if a stable signal is detected
- the green led stops blinking if the calibration is done (stable for more than 5sec).

It will time out after 25sec if it doesn't finding a stable value.

He has added so it responds quickly (150ms), and from what I've tested in a joystick test application it really behaves beautifully! It outputs 16 bit values so value range is  −32768 to 32767 and I get around 3000-5000 when sneaking, 14000-16000 when walking, 22000-24000 when walking a little faster, and maximizing at 32767 when running. I love it!

Here are some graphs of data, and one can clearly see that it can handle noise and variations beautifully. What I did was walking, and then stop, and then run.

Omni Treadmill by Virtuix

A college of mine gave me a link to this cool project:



This is basically the vision I've had in my head for a long time with my own project here. Other things has kept me too busy though.

This will be a Kickstarter project later this year. May or so. I really hope it won't be expensive. However, I will probably back this on Kickstarter anyway, because it's what I want as well. Hell, it's why I'm doing this project in the first place!

This project of mine will still be ongoing. If nothing else, it will be a much less expensive alternative. With my solution, you can already use your existing treadmill or exercise bike. And besides, my PCB has other uses as well. Virtuix Omni Treadmill is much more intuitive though. Especially with Oculus Rift which is helping them out as well. Combining those two and you have a whole 360 degree virtual world. Mine is more 90 degrees. Also, Virtuix is more of a business, this is more of a hobby. At least so far.

Firmware Improvements - Behind The Scenes!

So, you might be wondering what progress is made since I hired the guy at Odesk? Well, here are some early photos from the guy himself:

And this is images from a few days ago:

Man, isn't that awesome!? Talk about dedication!

During the process, he send me the .hex file (compiled firmware), ready to flash on the device to use.

So, what I did was, flash mine with it, put it on my treadmill, and started recording the data that was send over serial connection. I first start walking for a while. Then I stop. And then I run/jog on the treadmill.

First firmware I got gave this result:

This isn't all bad, but not particularly good either, as it basically is the same kind of noisy data I got. Only difference here is the higher values.

Second firmware I got gave me this:

I have no idea what happened here (averaging too much?), but this is obviously bad. I did walk first, and run second, but they are at the same height and way too blocky...

Third firmware I got gave me this:

Wow! Look at that! I'm quite pleased with that result right there! Best I've gotten ever! Almost no noise at all, and seems quite stable!

And now, he is working on the "calibration mode" which will make it possible to teach the device what this data actually means!

Slinky on a Treadmill