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To set up your Evoke system, complete the following procedures:.

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CheckPulsarfirmware
CheckPulsarfirmware

Check Pulsar firmware

Check the firmware for your Vicon hardware when you first set up your Evoke system and periodically afterwards.

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For information on updating firmware for cameras and Beacons, see Update camera firmware.

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EnsurePulsarsarefullycharged
EnsurePulsarsarefullycharged

Ensure Pulsars are fully charged

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If a Pulsar's status light appears pink or red, the battery is less than 20% charged.

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  • Recharge time to 80%: 1 hr (max)
  • Recharge time to 100%: 3 hr (max)
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KeepmarkerLEDsenabledwhilecharging
KeepmarkerLEDsenabledwhilecharging

Keep marker LEDs enabled while charging

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Evoke can configure Pulsars to keep their IR marker LEDs on while charging. This may be useful if you're using a backpack PC as a power source. The default behavior is to turn off marker LEDs while charging.

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For best performance in VR, choose the High performance plan (or a plan created from the High Performance plan).

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EnsureOptimalLatency
EnsureOptimalLatency

Ensure optimal latency

To ensure optimal latency for all scenarios, be sure to use Low Jitter Mode:

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Note
Caution
Using cameras with a resolution above 5 megapixels may result in sub-optimal latency performance. When using a virtual reality headset, this is not recommended.
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BeaconEnablePairing
BeaconEnablePairing

Turn on the Beacon and enable pairing

Note that if the Pulsars are already paired to the correct Beacon, you can skip these pairing steps.

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Note
When you start pairing or change an allow list configuration, the Beacon's sync broadcast changes. Any Pulsars that are in scan mode may try to pair or connect when they detect the change, but this can take a several seconds (longer if there are a lot of Pulsars or a lot of interference).

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dlgRadioPairing
dlgRadioPairing

About the Radio Pairing dialog box

At the top of the Radio Pairing dialog box, the Radio Host list shows the number of clusters connected to and paired with the radio host, and enables you to choose whether the allow list for the selected Beacon is enabled.

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At the bottom of the Radio Pairing dialog box, the Unassigned Clusters section lists connection or pairing requests, and unpaired Pulsars. This list persists for the lifetime of the application session. To add Pulsars in this list to to the selected radio host's allow list, right-click on the Pulsar(s) and then click Add to Host <hostname> allow list.

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LoadBalance
LoadBalance

Load balancing between hosts

The number of clusters connected to each Beacon must be balanced. If too many clusters are connected to one host then connection stability is reduced, and the time required to send commands to all clusters increases.

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After load balancing, you may find a number of clusters on one host's allow list are paired to a different host. To remove these clusters from the allow list, right-click on the cluster(s) and then click Clean Host <host name> allow list.

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PairPulsarsWithBeacon
PairPulsarsWithBeacon

Pair Pulsars with a Beacon

After you have turned on a Beacon and made sure it is available for pairing, you can pair Pulsars to it.

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UnpairPulsars
UnpairPulsars

Unpair Pulsars from a Beacon

You can unpair Pulsars from a Beacon either by pressing the power button on the Pulsar or (for Pulsars that are connected to Evoke), from within Evoke.

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  1. In Evoke, go to the System panel, ensure the Beacon is selected, right-click on it and then click Radio Pairing.
  2. In the Radio Pairing dialog box, go to the Assigned Clusters list, right-click on one or more selected Pulsars and and then select Unpair.
    The selected Pulsars are unpaired from the selected Beacon.
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TransferPulsars
TransferPulsars

Transfer Pulsars between Beacons

You can transfer a Pulsar between Beacons from within Evoke if:

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  1. Connect the Pulsars that you want to transfer to the PC via USB, either by using the supplied recharging dock or directly, using USB cable(s).
  2. From the Windows Start menu, click Vicon, then Vicon Pulsar Reprogramming Tool.
  3. In the Pulsar Reprogramming Tool window:
    1. Select Pair to a Beacon with Radio Host ID.
    2. In the adjacent field, enter the ID that you noted earlier.
    The Pulsars are paired to the new Beacon and rebooted.
    When they are ready to be unplugged, their status lights blink.
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ClusterErrorIcons
ClusterErrorIcons

Pulsar status icons in Evoke

In the System panel, in the Clusters part of the System tree, Pulsars that are paired with a connected Beacon are displayed. Adjacent icons indicate the status of the Pulsars:

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The following table describes each of the Pulsar status icons that are displayed on the System panel in Evoke.

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IconMeaning

Cyan

Connected but not assigned a marker pattern

Yellow

Connected but disabled

Gray

Automatically disabled as not linked to a smart object

Green

Enabled and assigned a valid marker pattern

Red

Disconnected

Yellow battery

Battery has low charge (less than 20%)

Red battery

Battery has very low charge (less than 10%)

Lightning bolt

Plugged in for recharging

Update

Evoke has queued or sent new settings to the Pulsar but has not yet received a response

Gray

Loaded from a previous Evoke session but not yet connected to this instance of Evoke

Note that the overall system charge is determined by the device with the lowest charge (unless recharging – see the following note), which is shown at the top of the Clusters section in the System panel.

The number of devices on charge is also displayed here.

Info
Note
The information displayed by the Lowest Battery Charge indicator depends on the number of devices that are currently charging:
  • If some connected devices are currently charging, they are ignored, as they aren't at risk of running out of charge.
  • If all of the connected devices are recharging (indicated by a lightning bolt icon on the charge bar), they are included, so that you know when they are ready for use.

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In the following image, the red battery icon to the right of the Pulsar name indicates that the battery of the relevant Pulsar is low. The Lowest Battery Charge indicator shows that the Pulsar with the lowest charge is almost at 0%, ie, almost fully discharged (a Pulsar whose battery is fully discharged can no longer communicate with Evoke and disconnects, and the Lowest Battery Charge indicator then displays the Pulsar with the next lowest battery).

In the following image, the yellow lightning icons to the right of the Pulsar names indicate that the batteries of the relevant Pulsars are charging (and the yellow battery icon indicates that the charge is still low). The Lowest Battery Charge indicator shows that the Pulsar with the lowest charge is now at 19%.

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EnableTracking
EnableTracking

Enable Evoke to track Pulsars and props

Both smart objects and basic objects define a pattern of markers that Evoke can locate from camera centroid detections.

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CreateSmartObjects
CreateSmartObjects

Create smart objects

A smart object is the representation in Evoke of a type of object that has programmable active markers (eg, a Pulsar). Pulsars are smart in that they communicate with the Evoke PC via a Beacon. This enables a Pulsar to set its marker pattern, sync to the Viper cameras and report its battery level back to the PC.

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Evoke 1.6 - Basic Objects

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ManageTrackingConfig
ManageTrackingConfig

Manage your tracking configuration

When you have finished setting up your smart objects and basic objects, you can save the whole tracking configuration (including all basic and smart objects) in MCP format for future use.

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  1. Position your cameras around the volume, ensuring that two or more cameras can see every point in the volume in which you intend to track motion.
  2. Place Pulsars around the floor to outline your volume.
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CheckVolumeCoverage
CheckVolumeCoverage

Check volume coverage

After you have positioned cameras and Pulsars in the volume, ensure that the cameras can see the whole of the volume.

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Tip
Tip
For Viper cameras, we recommend that you leave the camera at its factory setting, even if you are using Preview Mode.
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Video Preview Mode FPS
Video Preview Mode FPS

Video Preview Mode frame rates

All supported cameras can use Video Preview mode but their performance is dependent on frame rate:

  • Valkyrie VK16 and VK26 cameras support Video Preview mode from 30–900Hz. At frame rates above a Valkyrie camera's full frame rate (see Compare Range towards the bottom of the Vicon Valkyrie web page ), Video Preview mode uses windowing to display the same field of view as optical mode.
  • Valkyrie VK8 cameras support Video Preview mode from 30–300Hz at a reduced resolution of 3232 x 2176.
  • Vantage Vero and Viper cameras support Video Preview mode from 30–60Hz. At frame rates above this, an image may be displayed but this has not been tested.Vantage, Vero and Viper cameras do not use windowing in Video Preview mode.

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  1. In the Tracking panel (or for smart objects, the System panel), select the object.
  2. Do either of the following:
    1. In the properties below, clear the Enabled check box.

    2. In the Tracking tree, clear the relevant check box.

    If you selected a smart object (Pulsar), in the Clusters section of the System panel, the Pulsar connection status turns yellow.
    The linked device is deactivated so the marker LEDs turn off, which reduces power consumption.
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UpdateFirmware
UpdateFirmware

Update camera firmware

Vicon hardware is programmed with firmware to control its operation. Periodically, Vicon supplies firmware updates to correct or improve device functionality. You apply these firmware updates to your Vicon cameras and Beacon(s) via the Vicon Ethernet network using the Vicon Firmware Manager, as described below.

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