7 replies to this topic

[schmidt61059]

Hello everyone,

I’m seeking advice as a potential SkyTrak buyer. I ventured into golf sims several weeks ago with an R-Motion. For the price, it’s a great value, but there are lots of drawbacks as well. I’d also very much like to use JNPG rather than TGC as the sim (who wouldn’t!).  I already have a decent version of my home course designed for JNPG, and TGC/GNCD makes me want to break my computer. I’m just trying to figure out if SkyTrak is, well, 7x better or just 7x more expensive. I’ve read lots of reviews, but I have a few specific questions remaining. (Sorry if this duplicates other posts.)

1. Accuracy of mishits: R-motion is all over the place on this. I presume a real launch monitor like ST will be more or less on the mark since it’s looking at the ball rather than the club. Is that what people experience? It may sound odd, but I want a topped shot to be a topped shot.

2. Chipping and short game: R-motion is very inaccurate here. I’ve read a post or two claiming ST is as well. Is that a general experience?

3. Setup/alignment/non-reads: R-motion is very touchy, both as a Bluetooth device and with what it believes is a “square” club face at address. I’ve read that there are alignment issues with ST as well as problems with non-reads. How common would you say these problems are? I don’t want to trade one set of issues for another.

4. Almost Golf balls: I’m using these with RM, so I’ve had minimal/no costs for screen, net, etc. It doesn’t really matter since RM tracks club not ball, so all it needs is something to impact. I’ve seen a few posts and videos on using Almost Golf with ST. Has anyone used them consistently? If so, what has been your experience with distance loss and other impacts on realism? If they are a no-go with ST, I’d have to figure in the cost of real safety equipment as well.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[zmax - sim]

Since you're looking for a real simulator, I'm not going to waste time talking about the R-Motion. 

 

Almost golf balls read ok with wedges/short irons.  After that, you loose too much ball speed.  Build yourself a cage with net and then screen.  Skytrak is a great launch monitor for the price.  It's accurate but you have to hit from same spot and there are things you have to do to make it work efficiently.  A lot of these tips can be found on OGT JNPG Discord chat once you join OGT Tour.  We have over 200 simulator players. 

 

There's a very small $20 donation fee every 6 months to help pay server cost.  

[shimonko]

There's a cost entry point in simulators and that starts at SkyTrak - it's the cheapest device that can give an enjoyable experience and it is revolutionising home simulators. Anything less is simply not worth the frustration - it's better to play with a mouse or controller.

Simulation software relies on launch parameters, not club data. Using an R-motion with TGC is giving you three sources of inaccuracies, all adding up:

1. The inaccuracies of an on club sensor system

2. The inaccuracies of converting club and swing data into ball launch data, and

3. The inaccuracies of TGC's physics model.

The SkyTrak will solve 1 and 2, JNPG will solve 3. SkyTrak has its limitations of course, but overall, it's good enough.

R-motion and all other club sensor systems simply know there's a huge market of people willing to try something at that price - and then say "What do you expect for the price?".

I found the SkyTrak extremely reliable on chipping and putting - the very occasional pitch would leave me scratching my head though. The day it cost me a match was the day I upgraded to a GC2 and you will likely feel that too at some stage. Long game I found my swing changed in order to avoid physically hitting the SkyTrak unit so can't comment on its long game accuracy, although an 8 iron was comparing favorably with a Trackman 4 when I had both going once.

 

There are lots of teething problems with SkyTrak - we have tons of things to watch out for in the SkyTrak channel on OGT and have helped probably 30 people get happy in the past few months. SkyTrak was very good at picking up bad shots too - it would get cold tops and shanks. 

 

Almost Golf Balls claim to launch with the same spin and velocity, and that may be true, but the SkyTrak doesn't measure the ball's velocity at impact. Close to it, but if Almost's claim is true, then this would account for the distance loss people notice with them. As Zmax said, wedges, fine, but you're looking at 10-20% distance loss as you get into the higher irons.

 

All I can really say that if you get a SkyTrak and start enjoying 10 or so events per week at OGT - scrambles, short game tests, approach tests, tour events, long drive, closest the pins, knockout tournaments, .... you'll think it's the best thing you've ever done. You won't fear going to the next (and ultimate) level (a used GC2 at 2x the price of a SkyTrak) as you've proven to yourself you love this stuff and it's worth investing in. Hence a SkyTrak is a great way to test the waters.

[grumpter]

My take:

 

1) For most shots I think the SKyTrak is on the mark. Occasionally I have one that does something odd but not that often. One area I see the strangest results is with the lob wedge. Other users results may vary. By your comments I assume you found the SkyTrak portion of the Golf Sim Forums which is where I would suggest you go to read about potential drawbacks.

 

2) At first I thought the chipping and short game were off drastically but as I got used to it I got more comfortable with it. I setup a little practice facility and started working on short chips from 40 feet up to 100. Once I got the feel down I was getting much better results. Not sure how that will translate to an actual course as I just got the SkyTrak late last year. The putting is still not that great IMO and the speed of the greens in JNPG are faster even at the lowest settings than many public courses I have played in real life.

 

3) I have read about a lot of problems and have experienced my own. Right now my unit has been sent back for testing and I have no idea how long it will take them to return the unit. I estimate I will lose at least 5% of the warranty period for them to test it. The warranty is only 6 months which might set alarm bells off for you or maybe not. I have issues with no reads and connection problems as well.

 

4) I haven't used the AlmostGolf balls consistently but did test them out. Spin and distances were reduced. You can possibly make up for the distance on the SkyTrak range by tweaking the altitude, temperature and humidity. however, the spin you cannot tweak to my knowledge. There is no direct way in JNPG to adjust for the AlmostGolf balls distance loss but you might be able to get around some of that by designing your own course at significant altitude. The spin would still be an issue and most courses are designed at lower altitudes so wouldn't be of much use.

 

When the SkyTrak works correctly it is great but the very limited warranty and reported problems would leave me more cautious if I had to do it over again. Hopefully my unit comes back with all issues resolved then I can sing the praises of how great it is.

[zmax - sim]

schmidt61059, 

 

Here's a link to last weeks tournament.  You'll see that a Skytrak player finished in 2nd place Gross, behind golf instructor Shankygolf.  Many other Skytrak players did well also.  You should also know that the Skytrak behaves a little differently in JNPG compared to skytrak app.  JNPG has assists for short game and putting to help with the limited Skytrak hardware.

 

http://simulation.on...1532&show=gross

[shimonko]

Know that the putting assists work out quite realistic though - it's rare a good putt will miss, yet it bad putts still will.

[schmidt61059]

Hi all,

Thanks a lot. That's very helpful. 

Re: "you've proven to yourself you love this stuff and it's worth investing in." Totally agree. Of course, it's not me that requires convincing.

A few other questions crossed my mind:

1. Do any of you have decent solutions to the lefty problem? My wife (the one who needs convincing) is an occasional golfer, and unfortunately, she plays left-handed (she writes right-handed, so go figure). I've seen various solutions; none seem ideal. Does anyone here regularly play with a left-hander? If so, how do you handle it?

2. Does anyone have good cheap ideas for nets/enclosures and such? Again, I've done a lot of reading, but it's hard to find much that isn't going to be several hundred dollars at least. If I was good, all I'd need is a screen or basic net, I guess. Unfortunately, I'm not. Or put another way, if I joined the OGT tour, those people who tied for 50th last week had better worry.

3. Putting assists? Do you just mean alignment aids and such or something else? It's funny: I would say R-Motion is pretty decent for putting, even with Almost Golf. It's quite close to what I feel like any particular putt should have gone distance-wise. 

Thanks again.

[zmax - sim]

I built my cage with net for around $100 I think. You can check out OGT Simulator build section below.

http://onlinegolftou...wforum.php?f=37


Also, connect to our Discord chat and ask your questions.

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