Vive tracker 2018 cannot be tracked via USB cable

[littlefox]

I have followed the use case 1 in the HTC VIVE Tracker 2018 Developer Guidelines v1.4 to connect the tracker 2018 to PC via a USB cable only.

The tracker icon in SteamVR, in both version 1.9.16 stable and 1.10.4 beta, keep flashing and cannot be tracked (related log - SteamVR_USB.txt). However, when I connect the tracker via a Bluetooth dongle, the tracker can be tracked successfully (related log – SteamVR_Bluetooth.txt). The situation is same even I set the tracker mode to “held in hand” or “disabled” in SteamVR.

I have tested the usb cable with a Vive Controller 2.0, and the controller can be tracked without any problems.

Is it any settings required for this use case?

 

SteamVR_Bluetooth.txt SteamVR_USB.txt

 

@Synthesis @VibrantNebula

[littlefox]

any suggestions?

[HackPerception]

@littlefox , This behavior isn't modified as far as we're aware. We're still awaiting some clarifications between our internal team and Valve but as far as we can tell, everything works as described in that diagram still.

I just ran a test on 3 different workstations and I was able to use a USB cable to transmit data back to the PC via a USB data cable in each instance without needing to use the dongle. That said, on the newest Vive tracker firmware - I needed to press the power button (the Vive logo) on the tracker to actually turn on the tracker. If I plugged in the tracker into the PC without pressing the button - it would be seen by SteamVR and start flashing to indicate no tracking; when I pressed the button - the tracker would beep and I'd immediately be able to see it tracked accurately within SteamVR.

You could also try a different USB cable. There are USB charge only cables and USB charge + data cables and you'd need one that specifically supported data for this to work. You could have gotten a false positive from your controller - it could have still been sending data via bluetooth rather than the cable.

[littlefox]

thanks for your reply

I have tested the tracker and controller 2.0, via the USB cable and without install any Bluetooth dongles

• Tracker:  the tracking is ok after I pressed the power button. 
• Controller 2.0: the tracking is ok without press the power button

I am wonder why the behaviour are different? 

for the old VIVE tracker (1.0 version? it can only be used with lighthouse 1.0 ), the tracker will turn on when plugged the usb cable, and it can be tracked in SteamVR without pressing the power button. Actually, we implemented the old tracker in our application, now we would like to upgrade the application and the tracker to 2.0. However, the behaviour of the tracker in 2.0 is changed (require user to press the power button, rather than just plugin the cable), it may confuse the user.

Is it possible to modify this behaviour, may be by modifying the device JSON or sending a command to turn on the device programmatically?

Thanks

 

@VibrantNebula

[schy]

@HackPerception will using USB mode increase polling rate?

im doing mixed reality but im having frame matching issues due to my camera having fps of 23.976 and the tracker is 60hz from steamVR.. is there a way to bypass steamVR and access the 1000hz polling rate of the hardware?

[HackPerception]

@schy No, Valve doesn't have any APIs or settings that let you influence how tracking is handled. Alot of people who aren't doing real-time just manually adjust and sync in a standard video editor in post.

In some cases, it may make sense to try and approach framerate issues from within the application, or to capture the video at higher frame rate and then adjust it to a lower target framerate based off the specifics of your project.