The daughter boards are now available. This is the situation at the moment. I have previously expressed an interest on the Elite forums so I have received a PM. It reads as follows:
Hello there, according to our list you have expressed an interest in a DIY EDTracker board and I am pleased to inform you they are now available! At the moment we are having to scrub off some artwork to keep 3rd parties happy from a legal perspective, however the boards themselves are completely functional and it is a cosmetic change only.
A board by itself is £5 and this includes postage within the UK; if you are further afield then let us know and we can calculate shipping and advise a total.
We are also offering a limited service of fully made-up boards, offered on a ""best endeavours"" basis, should you wish to have a complete unit made up. This includes the board, the Arduino, the MPU and a switch. We are asking for £25+P&P to cover the obvious time/effort that is needed to make them up, flash them and test them. If you want a full board, let us know and we will advise you on how long it will be before it's ready (it will depend on stock of components and time available).
Payment can be arranged by various means - PayPal or direct bank transfer - details of which will follow.
If you are still interested, please respond with items required and an address, and we can finalise price and payment.
To save you having to read through
the whole thread this is what you will need to make a DIY head tracker:
- One of the circuit boards from above (£5 inc postage in the UK)
- Hobby Components head tracker kit (they created this due to the demand for the parts). You will just throw away the circuit board that comes in the kit. This is £8.99 + postage (2nd class is £2.30, 1st is £2.70)
That's it other than a soldering iron and some patience. All the instructions are available to build the device. Here are the important ones if you need them. I grabbed them from the
1st post in the thread.
What you end up with is a joystick (as far as windows is concerned).
If you are interested then I suggest you
sign up to the Frontier forums and PM one of the following usernames (they each have approx. 300 boards to sell for £5 inc UK postage):
- Pocketmoon (Rob)
- Brumster (Dan)
- Dead Fred (Dorian)
Alternatively if anyone is not willing / able to DIY it then they offer (as per the quote above) to make one for you for £25 + P&P on a case by case basis (as it says in the quote).
Mine is on order already
Total cost is approx £17. Yes I know this isn't £10. You can make it for just about £10 by just purchasing the kit for Hobby components (as that is all you need). This comes to £11.29 with 2nd class postage included. I think the extra £5 is worth it for the custom circuit board as this results in a much more compact device. It still doesn't have a box or anything but you might be able to fashion something yourselves. They are looking at making a custom enclosure but that will be some time in the future. It should be compatible with anything you purchase now anyway.
Only warning is to be careful as the USB connection does not take much force. As there is no enclosure any force applied to the cable applies stress to the circuit board on the Arduino.
Enjoy.
Jim