Chordata Unboxing and first impressions

Jump

Is there a working timeline on how things are progressing? I know these things take time but this box of parts has been sitting on my shelf for a month now

daylanKifky

Hello Jump
We posted an update in the kickstarter page a few days ago:

⚒ Work in progress: we are working very hard on the new documentation. The old one was done in Wiki format, which, although we liked it a lot, scattered the information. Now we are rewriting it from scratch, to make it much clearer so that our users have a clear idea of how to set up their Chordata Motion kit.

👉🏼 This goes in hand with the general transformation of the system: in recent years we have made a 360º change in usability that you will be able to try very soon! We expect to have the first version of the documentation in 2-3 weeks

Jump

I'm having several problems with building my full motion kit. I'll try to list the issues I've ran into below.
Firstly in the documentation you instruct us to attach the hub socket using screws and 4 Female to Female adapters, but the picture used shows 4 Female to Male adapters, which is what I did initially.

This is a small mistake but I think it's important to fix, as the plastic screws are very fragile and I believe wouldn't survive many rounds of unscrewing.
Next thing I noticed was that the hyperlink on this page is broken. Again a small error.

Jump

The bigger issue I'm having is with the Blender Add-on. Firstly it claims that it needs to install dependencies, which is strange why isn't everything included with the add-on?

This is even more frustrating as in order to connect Blender to the Chordata system you have to join network that is created by the Raspberry Pi, this means you lose access to the internet and are unable to actually install the needed dependencies.

While this is all annoying I at least though that I would be able to just install the dependencies while connected to the internet and then connect to the Chordata system, but this seems to fail as while. At the moment it appears I am stuck and I will be unable to connect to my mocap suit, how can I resolve this?

daylanKifky

Hello Jump! thanks for pointing out the error on the documentation and site, we will fix them asap.

Jump The bigger issue I'm having is with the Blender Add-on. Firstly it claims that it needs to install dependencies, which is strange why isn't everything included with the add-on?

The current addon uses several dependencies which are platform dependent. It's much easier to distribute a unique version of the addon which uses the system's python package manager to install the correct dependencies.
Yes, you need internet connection for this to succeed, but it's only required the first time you use it. We will add that observation to the docs. We are also working on several improvement to the core which will allow the addon, and the clients in general to run without those dependencies.

Jump At the moment it appears I am stuck and I will be unable to connect to my mocap suit, how can I resolve this?

Is this happening after you restart blender? It seems like it's looking for a component which was present in the previous version of the addon

Jump

I believe I will have to shelf this project until after Christmas, although I very much hope I can finish everything well before the new year.

Jump

Oh, and before I forget, the link on your downloads page points to the old documentation.

Jump

Ok so, after restarting Blender things seem to be working. I have encountered more oddities in the process unfortunately.
First the 'Mocap' workspace does not appear by default in blender, and I assumed you needed to use the "Init Chordata Mocap session" option to enable it, as it is the first item in the list.

While this does in fact generate a Mocap workspace it also generates an error. This error occurs even after restarts and I assume it is always broken.

Jump

Another issue with the documentation I noticed is that you reference KCeptors with 'green' dot placed on them. There were no such KCeptors in my kit, instead there were two KCeptors with 'pink' dots. I went back and referenced your unboxing livestream and you correctly referred to them as 'pink' dots. Also this same note mentions kits which feature 5 such KCeptors; I was unaware such kits existed and I have to wonder if this is an outdated description entirely.

Jump

A note on the textile solution which holds the KCeptors: the side of the straps with non removable female ends are too long. This caused me to have to tighten the adjustable side all the way to the KCeptor. I hope this is revised in future iterations.

Jump

One final question. I'm confused on how to attach the foot sensor to my body. There are no pictures of it in the documentation and the description says "Make sure the buckles don't touch the ground,".

Does this mean I cannot step on the band at all?

daylanKifky

Helo @Jump

Thanks for the many obervations and suggestions. We will fix them asap

Regarding the Mocap workspace it should be created when you add a chordata element to the scene, such as an avatar or the KCeptor model. We will take a look at what's happening with the init session operator. It's called internally by the other add operators.

Jump . I'm confused on how to attach the foot sensor to my body.

There's no special position to place the KCeptor on your feet. The only caution you need to take is to avoid the buckle to touch the ground. That might cause the sensor to slip slightly every time your foot touches the ground. The elastic band should go around your foot, you will indeed step on a portion of it

Jump

Progress has been slow as I can only work on this a short time each day. I do have an update on my issue with the textile solution, I found that you can in face get the sewed portion of the strap through the KCeptor mount, making positioning the buckle much easier.

Jump

Also I have experimented with various buckle orientations. This is the way I found that gave the buckle the most grip on the band.

Jump

Update, the cables are both too long and too short. My left side has noticeably less range of motion than my right, and shifting the pi around on the belt can't alleviate the by very much. also having the cables exposed is turning out to be quite the hazard already. I don't have an empty warehouse to use while capturing, it all needs to happen in my apartment. And with the current cable solution every doorknob or cabinet handle, or any number of other obstacles suddenly has become extremely hazardous. I am going to have to look into some solution to bind the excess cable to the straps. Although this also is an issue, as some of cables do not have a lot of extra length to spare in some poses as I mentioned earlier, and I am afraid that any sort of cable management is going to limit that further.

I'm also having some slight problems with the straps loosening due to the buckle not gripping the strap enough. I'm going to look into solutions to better hold the strap at a certain length such as a clip or tie system.

Jump

Update the KCeptors and Pi hurt to fall on. This was user error.

Jump

Update the mocap system is very difficult to take off, as you end up in the middle of a tangled mess. I also have do not have a way to store the system other than as a wad of elastic straps and wires, and I can only imagine it will be a nightmare to put back on.

daylanKifky

Jump

Thanks for your valuable suggestions. We use the feedback that we get from this forum as our main source of ideas when developing our system, so we will for sure take yours into consideration when designing new versions.

The decision of using regular ethernet cables for this revision was explicitly conceived to allow users to get spare cables as easy as possible. So if you prefer other lengths of cables you can get them on any local store. But the set of cables that come with your kit should allow you to connect all the KCeptors while giving a good freedom of movements. We tested them in several body types. Are you following the cable distribution recomendations that can be found in this section of the documentation: https://chordata.gitlab.io/docs/mount-to-body/#different-cable-lenghts ?

Jump

Thank you for the kind words. Please understand I'm merely using this thread as a place to document my thoughts as I am getting used to the system, my goal was never to portray what was likely a very practical decision as invalid.

Jump

(Final?) Update
Unfortunate news, as my system appears to be busted.
To explain, the Pi can no longer detect any KCeptor along the '5' branch. I've narrowed it down to the Pi hat, as the problem persists when changing the cables and KCeptors attached to that port. I have no clue what has happened to it, as the system seemed to work fine when I put it away (all KCeptors were detected and no errors occurred). I can only assume I'll need a new pi hat, and I have no clue what that'll cost- assuming any extras exist to be purchased in the first place. I may try reinstalling the NotochordOS before I give up entirely. What a waste.

daylanKifky

Jump I have no clue what has happened to it, as the system seemed to work fine when I put it away (all KCeptors were detected and no errors occurred).

Oh, that's an extremely unlikely thing to happen. Moreover because of the way the Hub is build, if there's no sign of physical damage in the connector itself it is really hard to explain a unique gate failing.

Please get in touch with us through email or using our contact form and we will try to solve the issue