Rapsodo MLM Experience

After some heavy research, I pulled the trigger on a Rapsodo MLM for Christmas. Amazon priced at $380 during Rapsodo's own markdown. Only been out on the range a couple times with it but wanted to provide some feedback and throw some questions/comments out there to see if anyone has anything to add.

App is user friendly and easy to navigate. It is really a matter to clicking around to find the features. It seems as though there is an auto calibration feature now which is good considering it was kind of a pain to follow the calibration instructions. My one complaint is there is no way to export the data to an Excel spreadsheet or anything. That would be very helpful to really analyze the results rather than scrolling through the data on the app. Ok maybe one more complaint, the app has crashed a few times (once during first session and twice during second session). Strange considering I have a iPhone 11 ProMax with plenty of storage, data, signal, etc. and no other apps running. Minimal inconvenience but at the same time frustrating.

Setting the unit up is fairly simple; however, I wonder how accurate the data is if you're not exactly 8 feet from the unit as instructed or how on line you are. When hitting on a range (non-mat) you're not going to be perfectly centered due to divot patterns created and moving around while the unit is stationary. I haven't noticed any inconsistency but it is way too early to tell in the data stored. I try to use 2 alignment sticks to make sure I'm on as best of a line as I can be.

The shot tracer and playback function are fantastic. Takes some getting used to seeing the shot at a lower angle than what you see on tv. The slow motion playback (dragging finger along play bar) is about as slow as you're going to be able to capture with a phone camera.

Very surprised at how well the unit recognizes what club you're holding up to the camera. I do wish there was a way to calibrate each club for loft as it may vary slightly from 1 set of clubs to the next.

As far as I can tell so early on in the data collection, the accuracy seems to be very close as most formal reviews have pointed out.

There is a lot of talk about how short of a distance the unit can pick up. The data that is saved and the inability to manipulate it basically restricts the ability to track anything less than a full swing with your wedges. As an example, I have my PW & 48° as part of my AP1 set and a 52°, 56° and 60° vokeys. I really only hit the 56° and 60° green side, bunker, or less than full swing. There is no way in the app to differentiate between full swing, 3/4, 1/2 etc. For maintaining the integrity of data collected by the app, I wouldn't want to go in with my 52° and start hitting different strength shots. It might be more beneficial to be able to add additional clubs for practice purposes, say if you want to hit that 60-80 yard window.

I've bought one and I think it is a good pesonal monitor for the basic parameter (would like to see also spin that other product like mevo collect).

for the rest is very good and I hope app and firmware is developed further.

I am thinking of buying one but don’t have a lot of available storage on my iPhone so is it possible to use an iPad instead? I would think you would have to mount the iPad as a stand-alone device next to the MLM unit but can someone confirm if this is possible? Thinking I would have to teather my iPad (wifi model) to my iPhone for data access to the cloud though

Thanks

Mark

I bought one yesterday, and my experience was less than stellar. Returning today

I place my giant iPad on the device with no problems at all. Curious why RN4 returned it. My experience has been all positive. I had a Flightscope Ti Tour for a year and for my purposes, this thing gives me everything the Flightscope did for 10% of the price. I dont need club face/path/spin. I can see all of that in the ball. I need carry distances, club and ball speed. This give me those and they are in very close alignment with my flightscope. I am very happy with it.

Just pulled the trigger on this. What model ipad is everyone using? I am going to buy a used iPad but want to make sure it will work. The Rapsodo website says you need ios11 or newer, but they also recommend 2017 models or newer.

I have a gen two iPad pro. Works fine.

my only issue with the MLM is that the launch angle seems to be awfully high (shows driver launch at 23 degrees, when flightscope Xi Tour says 13 degrees) All other metrics are spot on.

Took out my MLM for its maiden voyage, here are my thoughts.

Really happy with this unit. The ability to see the shot shape on the screen is fantastic. Lets you compare to what we see day in day out on the Tour.

Accuracy: good. Distance measures spot on with my rangefinder. Launch angle seems accurate. If anything I think it's a touch on the low side, but I think that the unit may not have been 100% level. I'm going to take a level out next time to check it.

I hit 75 shots and the unit picked up every single shot. No issues there.

I love the ability to save my shots and email or archive.

The graphs provided show you a birds eye view and a side view (to show flight path, height, etc.). Really cool.

I used an old iPad mini 2 I picked up on ebay, and it worked great.

Overall I give it a 9/10 rating. For $500 you get something very comparable to a Trackman.

yeah, maybe the MLM wasn't level. As soon as my sprained wrist heals, I will make a more concerted effort to level it, especially since I will be having a showdown between Mavrik SubZ and TM Sim, both with new Ventus Black shafts!

Have you guys used the ‘Indoor net mode’ that they have supposedly released? Any reviews on that?

didn't know that was out yet. I heard it was coming. Not even really sure how to update the MLM but that would be great if it works.

just checked the website and the splashpage says it CANNOT be used when hitting into a net.

I just purchased a new Rapsodo launch monitor. On the outer wrapper is a large decal that says "No Calibration Required". However when reading the instruction sheet step 4 states to calibrate the camera unit. ??? Is this possibly an updated unit (outer wrapper decal) but the instruction sheet hasn't been updated? If anyone has recently purchased a unit recently or contacted Rapsodo can you shed some light? When viewing online video's of the Rapsodo they say to calibrate but those videos are 8-9 months old. Thanks.

Edit: Problem solved. Rapsodo upgraded their product but not the enclosed instruction sheet. The latest instructions are available on their web site. This looks like a great unit that does virtually everything except give spin numbers. Apparently you need to put stickers on the clubhead AND the ball to get a spin number. Attached is a video showing the unit in action.

I'm about 3 range sessions in with this, and so far it's awesome. It's missed a couple shots, but for the most part if I put the ball around the aim line on the screen, I can hit over and over and over and it picks up every shot and does a pretty good job tracking it. What I've done to try and eliminate some of the concern over it not being level is I take out the MLM, zip up the hardshell case it came in, and then put the unit on top of the case. It seems to help to have it slightly elevated from the ground. 

Having the video is VERY cool. The pro tracer is legit, but I think my favorite features are the spray charts and dispersion charts. Very easy to see trends, miss tendencies, and range of shots. I delete the really poor ones as outliers, but leave the ones that are just a little fat or just a little thin, so I get a clear picture of what to expect from each club. 

I know some people doubt the reliability of a $500 unit, but Rapsodo seems to be a pretty reputable company and as a former college baseball player, I'm very aware of their popularity and success tracking speed, spin, axis, etc. in baseball. 

The app is pretty slick, but I think what would REALLY set it apart, would be some kind of partnership with an app like 18Birdies, The Grint, SwingU, etc. so it was easier to take it to the tee with you on every hole. Right now, you can maneuver the 'practice' mode and manipulate it so that it's reading your location for GPS, but then you have to 'spin' the heading so it knows which direction you're teeing off in, which is a pain, esp if wearing a golf glove and/or tape on your fingers as I do when I play. 

If there was a practice and a 'play' mode, which integrated with an on-course GPS and it knew which direction you were going from the teebox and all you had to do was set it up hit, and then when the scoring app (Grint, SwingU, 18 Birdies, etc.) advanced to the next hole, the Rapsodo would advance as well. I'm sure there are some hoops to jump through there in terms of tech and integrations, but it would be sweet to grab it and throw it down before every shot or at least every tee shot. I think that seems to be the upside of the MEVO, though the video integration isn't as slick, IMO. 

Is it possible to have multiple users in one app? Lets say a friend wanted to try it but you dont want his data mixed in with yours. 

Has anyone hit into a net with this? Will it give you an estimated ball flight direction?

On 7/23/2020 at 7:02 PM, cristphoto said:

I just purchased a new Rapsodo launch monitor. On the outer wrapper is a large decal that says "No Calibration Required". However when reading the instruction sheet step 4 states to calibrate the camera unit. ??? Is this possibly an updated unit (outer wrapper decal) but the instruction sheet hasn't been updated? If anyone has recently purchased a unit recently or contacted Rapsodo can you shed some light? When viewing online video's of the Rapsodo they say to calibrate but those videos are 8-9 months old. Thanks.

Edit: Problem solved. Rapsodo upgraded their product but not the enclosed instruction sheet. The latest instructions are available on their web site. This looks like a great unit that does virtually everything except give spin numbers. Apparently you need to put stickers on the clubhead AND the ball to get a spin number. Attached is a video showing the unit in action.

 

 

 I scanned through the video a few times, but didn't see any mention of being able to get spin numbers with dots, where did you find this out?

5 hours ago, venturagolfer87 said:

 I scanned through the video a few times, but didn't see any mention of being able to get spin numbers with dots, where did you find this out?

As my post stated it does everything except give spin numbers.  To get spin numbers usually the device would sit at the side of the golfer (not behind) and you need a sticker on the ball and clubface to calculate spin.  

On 9/20/2020 at 2:27 AM, Mikc1 said:

Is it possible to have multiple users in one app? Lets say a friend wanted to try it but you dont want his data mixed in with yours. 

I think there are two solutions to letting other people use your MLM but not mix data. The easiest way is to simply add to club to your bag in the app that you don't actually use. Then whenever your friend wants to hit a shot just switch it to that club. You'll still get stats and it will be easy to delete later (if you want to of course). The other option is option is what I did with my wife. We both downloaded the app and created accounts and just switch phones on top of the MLM during the practice session. It only takes maybe 10-20 seconds to re-pair the MLM with a new phone so it isn't a problem (you wouldn't want to do it between every shot, but for a decent length session it's fine).

I picked up the Rapsodo MLM when it was $100 off on Prime Day and used it for the first time over the weekend. Overall I could not be much happier with my purchase. It's very easy to use and seems quite accurate, my distances by club where closely aligned to my actual expectations. I have a Garmin S20 watch that I use on the course that tracks all of my shots so I feel like I generally have a good idea of the ranges that I hit my clubs and the Rapsodo was pretty much in the correct range every time on a decent strike. The stats are great and I love the videos and the overhead shot dispersion view. My wife has already made good use of the MLM by using it to compare shot performance on different head settings on her TS1 and I'm looking forward to doing the same with my driver the next time I go to the range. While $500 (or $400 on promo) is not cheap, I think what you get is an outstanding piece of technology and I'm sure it's only going to get better over time as they add new features.

The only thing that I am not in love with so far is the fact that you have to pay extra ($100/year) for Pro mode. Pro mode gives you storage for 10K videos (free version is 100 videos I believe), slow motion replay, and the apex point of your shots. $100/year seems steep for those added features so hopefully they are going to add more soon (I'll probably pay for it anyway, but I think they can add more value here).

Anyway, the Rapsodo MLM is a super cool device, I definitely recommend giving it a look if you're in a the market for a (relatively) inexpensive launch monitor.

Thanks for the write-up and insight mkuether! Almost pulled the trigger on that Prime Day deal as well

Any information on indoor use and how much room one needs?

On 10/7/2020 at 8:46 AM, cristphoto said:

 

As my post stated it does everything except give spin numbers.  To get spin numbers usually the device would sit at the side of the golfer (not behind) and you need a sticker on the ball and clubface to calculate spin.  

Any launch monitor would need to calculate spin, in order to calculate the correct distance.  e.g.  if you have huge backspin, the flight would balloon upwards and shorten the distance.  So, you cant accurately calculate distance without calculating spin.  Therefore MLM has to somehow try to calculate spin.  I saw in one thread that it supposedly does, but that Rapsodo feels it is not accurate enough to display, so they dont show it.  This doesnt make sense.   If the spin isnt accurate enough to show, how can the distances be accurate?   

I have the unit and have been a bit disappointed with it.  I have seen some say it is fairly accurate for them, but I have not found that to be the case, at least for all clubs.   It seems to be decently accurate for wedges and shorter shots, but the longer the shots get, the more off the readings are, with readings on driver seem to often be 10-20% off.   And the app crashes about 5% of the time (iPad or iPhone),  and the unit misses reading a shot about 5 of the time and the unit gives a total crazy reading about 5%-10% of the time, which means about 2 shouts out of every 10 shots that have a major issue.  Some have had better luck than me, but so far,  I am not impressed.  I have tried adjusting different distances of the unit behind the ball,  and will try to play with that more to see if that helps,  but have tried 6-8 ft and elevating the unit an inch or two to make same level as the mat.  

So I got one of these, and I'm one of the people getting super low distances in net mode. It's so universal, to me the issue is clearly that whatever assumptions are built into the software work for one set of launch conditions, and not for another. Has Rapsodo ever actually addressed what the problem is, or just said "We're working on it"? Like, if I'm wrong, is it a lighting issue in my setup or background etc.?

For the record, like other people here I set it up with a tape measure and a level and have adjusted both distances with no change in results.

I have a Mevo and at first thought I was not going to be able to download the data.  Flightscope has a "myflightscope" that saves all data to the cloud that can be exported to .csv.   Does Rapsodo have something similar?

I had one and hitting into a net the distances seemed to be fairly accurate.  However it does not produce a flight path obviously because it hit the net.  So when I took it out to the range a couple of times I was less than impressed.  It missed several shots (and I verified each time I was lined up correctly and was the correct distance away) and even got an email from them saying hey we noticed we missed some shots since it uses the microphone to pick up the shot.  I sent it back and got a Skytrack.  I have a shaded area in the back yard where I setup the net that allows me to use it outside with no problems (as I really did not care to use it on the range).  

I consider buying a Rapsodo MLM too but I only have a Wifi only iPad. I know that i can see my shots on the driving range but how would that work Without a GPS signal? 

Could I use my phone as a hotspot? 

Anyone with a wifi only Ipad who can give feedback?

On 3/17/2021 at 9:01 AM, LHGolf4 said:

I had one and hitting into a net the distances seemed to be fairly accurate.  However it does not produce a flight path obviously because it hit the net.  So when I took it out to the range a couple of times I was less than impressed.  It missed several shots (and I verified each time I was lined up correctly and was the correct distance away) and even got an email from them saying hey we noticed we missed some shots since it uses the microphone to pick up the shot.  I sent it back and got a Skytrack.  I have a shaded area in the back yard where I setup the net that allows me to use it outside with no problems (as I really did not care to use it on the range).  

LHGolf4 - does your Skytrack show you the flight path when you hit into a net?  I'm also curious if these monitors can be used with softer/practice golf balls when using a net?

Thanks,

Adam

Yes, Skytrack does show the flight path when hitting into the net (and you can choose different camera angles).   I have not used a softer practice type ball, but I would guess to get the most accurate numbers you want to use a regular golf ball.