Tobii 4C IR lights don't turn off

[Joseph]

Hello Tobii,

I am having an issue with my Tobii 4C eye tracker. I’m using the latest software download core from your website 2.13. My issue is if I use the Tobii 4C in any of my games it seems to work properly. Hooray!

However, after I turn Tobii off and shut down my PC for the day with the software slider using the applet down by the clock, and I turn my PC off for the night, the two center IR lights directly in the center of the Tobii eye tracking hardware remain lit. Specifically I’m speaking of the three IR lights placed in the center of the eye tracker and placed vertically into two columns for a total of six IR lights. The IR lights remain lit until I unplug the eye tracker USB connector from my powered Pluggable USB docking station. Interestingly, it’s only the center IR lights that remain lit. If I immediately plug the USB wire back in to the Pluggable docking station all of the the IR lights remain off.

I did not have this problem with the Tobii 2.11 software. Any suggestions on how I can have my Tobii 4C turn itself off properly after I disable it? I don’t want the IR lights to remain on all night.

I have a Windows 10 Pro PC and a Gigabyte Radeon AMD 570 4GB graphics card and 8 GB of DDR 4 memory and a Samsung 256 GB SSD. I have all of the latest Windows patches and using Windows 10 antivirus and latest Radeon graphics card drivers.

Thanks, Joseph

[Grant [Tobii]]

Hi @f3head, thanks for reporting this issue. I have created the appropriate incident report and should hopefully have some advice for you soon. May I ask if the problem continues if you have the tracker connected directly without going via the USB HUB? Also, do all the lights turn off if you disable the tracker via the system tray icon?

[Joseph]

I’m not sure if the problem occurs if connected directly to the without USB hub. I have it plug directly into the Pluggable powered USB adapter. It’s a little bit too far away to get to the back of my PC at the moment to plug it in directly to its USB ports. If I turn the tracker off with the system tray Tobii icon, it’s only the center six LED lights that remain on. The IR LED lights on either end turn themselves off properly. The Tobii USB cable is really quite short. I’ll double check and get back to you.

Thanks, Joseph

[Grant [Tobii]]

Thanks for that @f3head, its’ certainly highly unusual that the lights will remain on if the device has been deactivated via the System Tray.. please let me know about the powered hub. I myself have the latest version of the Core Software also and cannot reproduce this issue. Might be worth updating the USB Chipset Drivers?

[Joseph]

I doubt is the chipset drivers because I did not have this problem with any of the previous software updates from Tobii. I unplugged and reseated everything. I have a JPEG image of the IR lights but I can’t seem to upload them or embed them into this message. Is there any way I can upload an image to the website or maybe tech support?

Thanks, Joseph

[Grant [Tobii]]

Thanks @f3head, you can upload via imugrl and post the link here.. I also will send you by PM a slightly older version
of the Tobii Core Software that you can test against this to best determine the most likely cause of the problem. Any news about the USB hub? Would be good to know.

[Joseph]

Hello, and thank you for trying to help. I was able to try some of the tips you provided in the previous exchanges over the Easter weekend. If I hook my Tobii 4C directly to the USB port on my Asrock H 170 Pro4 Intel-based motherboard 3.0 USB port and then use the eyetracker, everything seems to perform properly. And as you suggested, I am able to exit the Tobii 2.2 software and the IR lights remain off. Furthermore, I hooked up a 10 ft. 3.0 USB extension cable to the eyetracker and directly to the USB port and again I was able to use the eyetracker and shut down the software and my computer without the IR lights remaining on.

For further testing I plugged the 4C back into my powered Pluggable USB port as before and repeated using the eyetracker and software. Just as before, when I shut down my PC for the night, just the two center IR lights on the eyetracker remain lit. The IR lights on either end of the eyetracker are off. I was afraid to downgrade the software and firmware to an earlier version because the 4C works fine other than the IR lights remaining on. I’ll probably live with it until the next software/firmware upgrade see if that fixes it. You guys are pretty efficient in providing updates to the firmware and software. Unfortunately there are no new software drivers for the USB ports or my Asrock motherboard. I will try turning off power management in the USB hub under devices and Windows 10 and see what that will do. I’m puzzled by the powered Pluggable USB multi-port adapter because originally the 4C required a specifically powered USB port. I’m a relatively early adopter of the 4C and had no previous problems with the power USB port.

Thanks, Joseph

[Grant [Tobii]]

Hi @f3head, thanks for your report…indeed quite puzzling and good to know that you found a workaround. I have not been able to reproduce the issue. Might be useful to know exactly the model of the USB Hub, it seems to be overpowering the unit possibly.
At any rate, it seems like your extension cable solution is holding for now, so please bear with us whilst I try to find a software solution we can integrate into a forthcoming release. Thanks.

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