Skytrak

[Z4Par]

Got the skytrak on Fri. I have to hit balls in the garage, only place I have a high enough ceiling. I live in Wi. and its cold now. Got a heater in the garage so its about 60*. The skytrak was working great, I got sweaty hitting balls so turned the hearer off. When the garage cooled down to 50* the skytrak started to take 2 or 3 times longer to show shots. Then it started to only register about half the shots. I turned the heater back on, when the garage warmed back up things worked fine again. I made sure the skytrak was level and at the same height as my hitting surface, and aligned correctly. It seemed to be a temperature thing. Anybody ever experience anything like that with their skytrak? I am going to use it again today and see if it happens again. Are these things finicy in that kind of way?

 

Please report back. My ST is on the way and i have the same garage issue. Need to know if i need to get a heater too. Thanks

 

Like I said to the other gentleman I would think I wouldn't want to have a Skytrak sitting in under 50 degree conditions. Not an expert on this but I keep my garage temp at 60 just to avoid any possible issues and keeping the Skytrak out of the cold. I would recommend calling Skytrak and getting a recommendation on if colder temps affect the unit. I myself have not experienced a technical issue with my Skytrak yet. Best of luck to you!

 

i wouldn't need to leave it in the garage when i'm not using it, and i wouldn't be using it for more than an hour or two at a time. generally i'd think the only thing that would be affected by the cold would be the battery, but the anecdotal information is to the contrary. so i'd still like to know if he saw the same issue or if anyone sees a similar issue.

 

seems like a big waste of energy and money to keep the garage at a constant 60 just for your portable skytrak

 

It would be for just a Skytrak. I keep the garage at 60 for several things I store through winter. It is also nice to jump into a warm vehicle in the morning :)

 

I bring the Skytrak indoors in a safe place to charge when I'm done playing. It's a $1,700 piece of equipment

[scotty_2987]

Quick question: I have an iPad 4th generation. The one with Retina display. Does anyone know if skytrak will work with it? It doesn't show it on the website as compatible.

 

Yes as long as it has Retina display I believe that is all you need to use the IPad.

Thanks for the reply. I was reading on another website and several people were saying that it would work on the 4th generation iPad even though it doesn't say it on the website. Some said there might be a slight delay in readings. I just wanted to make sure before I pulled the trigger on one. Don't want to have to get a new iPad as well.

[flap1]

Got the skytrak on Fri. I have to hit balls in the garage, only place I have a high enough ceiling. I live in Wi. and its cold now. Got a heater in the garage so its about 60*. The skytrak was working great, I got sweaty hitting balls so turned the hearer off. When the garage cooled down to 50* the skytrak started to take 2 or 3 times longer to show shots. Then it started to only register about half the shots. I turned the heater back on, when the garage warmed back up things worked fine again. I made sure the skytrak was level and at the same height as my hitting surface, and aligned correctly. It seemed to be a temperature thing. Anybody ever experience anything like that with their skytrak? I am going to use it again today and see if it happens again. Are these things finicy in that kind of way?

 

Please report back. My ST is on the way and i have the same garage issue. Need to know if i need to get a heater too. Thanks

 

Like I said to the other gentleman I would think I wouldn't want to have a Skytrak sitting in under 50 degree conditions. Not an expert on this but I keep my garage temp at 60 just to avoid any possible issues and keeping the Skytrak out of the cold. I would recommend calling Skytrak and getting a recommendation on if colder temps affect the unit. I myself have not experienced a technical issue with my Skytrak yet. Best of luck to you!

 

i wouldn't need to leave it in the garage when i'm not using it, and i wouldn't be using it for more than an hour or two at a time. generally i'd think the only thing that would be affected by the cold would be the battery, but the anecdotal information is to the contrary. so i'd still like to know if he saw the same issue or if anyone sees a similar issue.

 

seems like a big waste of energy and money to keep the garage at a constant 60 just for your portable skytrak

OK used the ST in the garage again today. Here's the scenario. The garage is insulated and attached to the house. It's a two car garage that is not normally heated. I have a LP Mr. Heater 30'000 to 60,000 btu torpedo heater. Today it was 29* F outside, it was 42* F in the garage before cranking up the heater. Put the heater on high and in 10 min. it was 63*F in the garage, then put the heater on low. Brought the ST and my PC to the garage and set things up. I hook the ST up to the PC using the USB cable and plug my PC into the wall socket to keep everything charged all the time. Started hitting balls with the air temp at 63* F everything working well. A 3 sec delay to see shot on PC and in 13 or 14 sec everything is ready for next shot. I hit shots for half hour everything stays the same. Now I turned off the heater and continue hitting balls. In about 25 min. the lag time for a shot to come up on PC is 6 or 7 sec and 24 sec for next shot, the garage is now 50* F. I continue hitting balls for another half hour and everything remains the same timewise. The garage is holding at 50* F. So I crank up the heater and in 8 min its 62* f in the garage and the ST is running faster now like it was in the first place. The 24 sec lag time when cold isn't a big deal for me. By the time you look at the shot and the data and set up another ball everything is ready for the next shot anyway. Today I fooled around with the ST and hit balls for 4 hours with the temp at 62* F for the rest of the time and by the end of the session the ST was running slower again. No battery issues, just lots of shots, about 360 shots. I just use the driving rang, don't have anything else, so now I'm wondering about that.

[Z4Par]

Got the skytrak on Fri. I have to hit balls in the garage, only place I have a high enough ceiling. I live in Wi. and its cold now. Got a heater in the garage so its about 60*. The skytrak was working great, I got sweaty hitting balls so turned the hearer off. When the garage cooled down to 50* the skytrak started to take 2 or 3 times longer to show shots. Then it started to only register about half the shots. I turned the heater back on, when the garage warmed back up things worked fine again. I made sure the skytrak was level and at the same height as my hitting surface, and aligned correctly. It seemed to be a temperature thing. Anybody ever experience anything like that with their skytrak? I am going to use it again today and see if it happens again. Are these things finicy in that kind of way?

 

Please report back. My ST is on the way and i have the same garage issue. Need to know if i need to get a heater too. Thanks

 

Like I said to the other gentleman I would think I wouldn't want to have a Skytrak sitting in under 50 degree conditions. Not an expert on this but I keep my garage temp at 60 just to avoid any possible issues and keeping the Skytrak out of the cold. I would recommend calling Skytrak and getting a recommendation on if colder temps affect the unit. I myself have not experienced a technical issue with my Skytrak yet. Best of luck to you!

 

i wouldn't need to leave it in the garage when i'm not using it, and i wouldn't be using it for more than an hour or two at a time. generally i'd think the only thing that would be affected by the cold would be the battery, but the anecdotal information is to the contrary. so i'd still like to know if he saw the same issue or if anyone sees a similar issue.

 

seems like a big waste of energy and money to keep the garage at a constant 60 just for your portable skytrak

OK used the ST in the garage again today. Here's the scenario. The garage is insulated and attached to the house. It's a two car garage that is not normally heated. I have a LP Mr. Heater 30'000 to 60,000 btu torpedo heater. Today it was 29* F outside, it was 42* F in the garage before cranking up the heater. Put the heater on high and in 10 min. it was 63*F in the garage, then put the heater on low. Brought the ST and my PC to the garage and set things up. I hook the ST up to the PC using the USB cable and plug my PC into the wall socket to keep everything charged all the time. Started hitting balls with the air temp at 63* F everything working well. A 3 sec delay to see shot on PC and in 13 or 14 sec everything is ready for next shot. I hit shots for half hour everything stays the same. Now I turned off the heater and continue hitting balls. In about 25 min. the lag time for a shot to come up on PC is 6 or 7 sec and 24 sec for next shot, the garage is now 50* F. I continue hitting balls for another half hour and everything remains the same timewise. The garage is holding at 50* F. So I crank up the heater and in 8 min its 62* f in the garage and the ST is running faster now like it was in the first place. The 24 sec lag time when cold isn't a big deal for me. By the time you look at the shot and the data and set up another ball everything is ready for the next shot anyway. Today I fooled around with the ST and hit balls for 4 hours with the temp at 62* F for the rest of the time and by the end of the session the ST was running slower again. No battery issues, just lots of shots, about 360 shots. I just use the driving rang, don't have anything else, so now I'm wondering about that.

 

You are exactly right! Personally I like the brief delay in between shots. My swing gets no better hitting ball after ball like artillery fire. It is interesting the longer delay when the garage gets cooler. I suppose anything is possible. However even though I don't have that long of a delay I still wouldn't mind it if that was the case (I like a good amount of time in between shots).

 

I am also still at the stage of just testing out the range. I am going to get the $99 package next to unlock the range features and try a few other things out. It will be nice to have some greens to hit into! I don't plan to get or use the simulator portion of Skytrak. I personally just wanted the system to work on ball striking and to keep from starting my swing over again in the spring. I love getting in golf holes in real life versus the range but the simulator aspect just wouldn't do anything for me I don't think.

 

 

[ruffellprefley]

for those that have bought the simulator packages and play real courses, how does the putting work, with regard to lining up the putt? assuming the skytrak picks up the speed of the putt based on the spin the same way it does a normal shot

[Z4Par]

A few photos below after downloading WGT on the IPad last night (decided to pull the trigger, I was bored). For those that want to get an idea and have not seen what it looks like. I gathered right away that there is NO multiplayer setting with WGT. This is not a big deal. An easy way around this would be to play even and odd holes if playing with a partner.

 

 

 

This is a pre-hole summary of the hole before teeing off.

 

 

This is what the screen looks like before teeing off on a hole.

 

 

This is a screen shot showing average total distance from a session hitting the specified club during that session. This data I pulled up on my iPhone using the SkyGolf 360 app. You can pull up almost any kind of data from any session, pretty cool.

[ruffellprefley]

How's putting with the WGT? How do you aim?

[Z4Par]

How's putting with the WGT? How do you aim?

 

This I don't know yet. Have not hit any shots/putts with WGT. I will sometime this week and let you know. Based on this read they are claiming that the putting is consistent (better than I thought it'd be).

 

http://www.wgt.com/forums/t/559.aspx

[ruffellprefley]

is that forum putting with skytrak though? i used to play WGT with my mouse and keyboard, and that thread doesn't mention anything about a launch monitor.

[Z4Par]

is that forum putting with skytrak though? i used to play WGT with my mouse and keyboard, and that thread doesn't mention anything about a launch monitor.

 

It's not, it's the "game". Disregard, update you when I play.

[Z4Par]

How's putting with the WGT? How do you aim?

 

Played my first 18 holes on WGT on Pebble Beach today. My thoughts..

 

I didn't putt out except one hole just to say I tried it. It was only a 5 footer and I made it :). The putt was straight so I didn't have to adjust the line but it looks as though it is no different then changing your aim point in the fairway which is simply grabbing the aim point and dragging it to your desired location on the screen. Im an auto putt guy on simulators to be honest though.

 

This was my 3rd time testing Skytrak and first time with WGT. To be quite honest I am not a huge fan of WGT. It just doesn't do much for me. I feel with simulators in general you can only be so accurate with wedges inside of 50 yards when you miss the green. I am much of a feel player around the greens and trying to get this off a mat and picture the shot through a TV is hard for me to grasp.

 

I continue to love the basic range. I even tested out the long drive challenge and closest to the pin. I will admit I do enjoy this and would be worth the $99 package (try to stick your shots in the bullseye on closest to the pin and hit 3 or 6 consecutive drives to stack up against your past long 8 drives). My opinion would be to just go the route of the $99 package. I know there are several that drool over the simulator portion of Skytrak however it just is not my cup of tea. This is coming from a guy that skips the driving range and goes straight to the course to play as many holes as he can (I hate the range in real life).

 

My ball striking with irons was not sharp today. I will admit that it was a last minute decision to play and I wasn't really geared to play golf today (kinda sluggish from sitting around over the holidays yet). However I was happy to pick up an 8 iron when I was done and figure out what my flaw was with the irons. Given I was not striking it with the correct mechanics with the irons I was 15 yards short the entire session from my yardages I keep track of on the course. Driver, 3W and both hybrids were spot on though (MAYBE 5 yards short at times with the driver; hybrids are dead on). I fully believe that I could easily make up at least 10 yards with the flaw I was grooving today in the irons. I still have no intentions to return my Skytrak.

 

Today's setup and first time hooked up to the TV :)

 

[ruffellprefley]

thanks for the feedback!

[Whiskey_fire]

I wouldn't bother with anything other then the range part unless I hd a projector and hitting screen

[ruffellprefley]

Yeah, my main reason for purchase was to be able to see ball flight so that im not engraining a big slice or big hook into my muscle memory while hitting in the garage

[wbond]

Wgt is not good and shouldn't be considered as sim software. Go with tgc or jnpg. I hav tgc and putting is fairly good for being a sim. It's best to move the aiming stick to adjust for the break and putt straight. Speed is also adjustable which is a nice feature to mimic what you usually play.

[Saskwatch]

I've got a Skytrak enroute. I'm very fortunate to say I've got an excellent garage for practice purposes. It's got 11.5ft ceilings and forced-air heating. In the fligid Canadian winters (-33*C today as I type this) the heat is a great luxury. I keep the garage around 13*C but I will run it up to 16-18*C for practice purposes.

 

Like others in this thread, I'll be using the skytrak primarily for the range function. There is a good chance I'll purchase the game improvement package in due time. My goal is to keep my swing "alive" this winter while simultaneously playing hockey and finally getting seriously back into resistance training. This is going to be an awesome winter!!

 

 

[tdeutmeyer]

Has anyone tried running SkyTrak through a Motorola Moto Z phone with the Projector attachment?

Supposedly, it can project screen images up to 70". In my not tech mind, this sounds like an ideal setup?....

[SDL]

Wgt is not good and shouldn't be considered as sim software. Go with tgc or jnpg. I hav tgc and putting is fairly good for being a sim. It's best to move the aiming stick to adjust for the break and putt straight. Speed is also adjustable which is a nice feature to mimic what you usually play.

 

I agree with everything wbond said. WGT is more about photos of famous golf courses than immersive sim play. TGC or JNPG are the best options for sim play with SkyTrak, and both are good. I prefer JNPG, and the putting is good for a sim. If you just want to auto-putt, that is an option as well.

 

I can understand why ST users might be happy with the basic launch monitor features, at least at first, but the use of JNPG or TGC with a projector and impact screen get you pretty close to playing real golf. I switch off between sim play for fun and range time to work on my swing or test equipment, but just like IRL playing golf on a course is more fun than banging balls on a range - at least for me. JNPG has a user-created version of Cypress Point that is fantastic, so I've been doing most of my practicing on the back 9 at Cypress the past few days.

[Z4Par]

Wgt is not good and shouldn't be considered as sim software. Go with tgc or jnpg. I hav tgc and putting is fairly good for being a sim. It's best to move the aiming stick to adjust for the break and putt straight. Speed is also adjustable which is a nice feature to mimic what you usually play.

 

I agree with everything wbond said. WGT is more about photos of famous golf courses than immersive sim play. TGC or JNPG are the best options for sim play with SkyTrak, and both are good. I prefer JNPG, and the putting is good for a sim. If you just want to auto-putt, that is an option as well.

 

I can understand why ST users might be happy with the basic launch monitor features, at least at first, but the use of JNPG or TGC with a projector and impact screen get you pretty close to playing real golf. I switch off between sim play for fun and range time to work on my swing or test equipment, but just like IRL playing golf on a course is more fun than banging balls on a range - at least for me. JNPG has a user-created version of Cypress Point that is fantastic, so I've been doing most of my practicing on the back 9 at Cypress the past few days.

 

''TGC or JNPG are the best options for sim play with SkyTrak.'' SDL when you say this what do you mean exactly? Is it graphics that are simply better or does the Skytrak seem to function better (in other words more accurate) than WGT? It seems to me that I can hit some of the same shots on the Skytrak basic range and then incorporate this same shot on WGT when playing a round and it ends up differently. Curious on this. My assumption is that the Skytrak is going to read a shot the same on any software (and the software is simply just to change the courses played, games, etc.) but I'm not a computer/software expert either, Thanks!

[bradski]

Wgt is not good and shouldn't be considered as sim software. Go with tgc or jnpg. I hav tgc and putting is fairly good for being a sim. It's best to move the aiming stick to adjust for the break and putt straight. Speed is also adjustable which is a nice feature to mimic what you usually play.

 

I agree with everything wbond said. WGT is more about photos of famous golf courses than immersive sim play. TGC or JNPG are the best options for sim play with SkyTrak, and both are good. I prefer JNPG, and the putting is good for a sim. If you just want to auto-putt, that is an option as well.

 

I can understand why ST users might be happy with the basic launch monitor features, at least at first, but the use of JNPG or TGC with a projector and impact screen get you pretty close to playing real golf. I switch off between sim play for fun and range time to work on my swing or test equipment, but just like IRL playing golf on a course is more fun than banging balls on a range - at least for me. JNPG has a user-created version of Cypress Point that is fantastic, so I've been doing most of my practicing on the back 9 at Cypress the past few days.

 

''TGC or JNPG are the best options for sim play with SkyTrak.'' SDL when you say this what do you mean exactly? Is it graphics that are simply better or does the Skytrak seem to function better (in other words more accurate) than WGT? It seems to me that I can hit some of the same shots on the Skytrak basic range and then incorporate this same shot on WGT when playing a round and it ends up differently. Curious on this. My assumption is that the Skytrak is going to read a shot the same on any software (and the software is simply just to change the courses played, games, etc.) but I'm not a computer/software expert either, Thanks!

 

it has everything to do with how the data translates from the machine and is implemented(does the ball sit on the green with a shot with spin). How realistic is the software based on the data it is receiving. Graphics are 10x better with the other two also.

[bk24bk]

So I got my skytrak and connected it to the network and got the laser lit. The WGT software says to hard close the Skytrak app and open WGT. So I do that and it doesn't discover the skytrak. Any idea what I am doing wrong? Thanks!!

[SDL]

Wgt is not good and shouldn't be considered as sim software. Go with tgc or jnpg. I hav tgc and putting is fairly good for being a sim. It's best to move the aiming stick to adjust for the break and putt straight. Speed is also adjustable which is a nice feature to mimic what you usually play.

 

I agree with everything wbond said. WGT is more about photos of famous golf courses than immersive sim play. TGC or JNPG are the best options for sim play with SkyTrak, and both are good. I prefer JNPG, and the putting is good for a sim. If you just want to auto-putt, that is an option as well.

 

I can understand why ST users might be happy with the basic launch monitor features, at least at first, but the use of JNPG or TGC with a projector and impact screen get you pretty close to playing real golf. I switch off between sim play for fun and range time to work on my swing or test equipment, but just like IRL playing golf on a course is more fun than banging balls on a range - at least for me. JNPG has a user-created version of Cypress Point that is fantastic, so I've been doing most of my practicing on the back 9 at Cypress the past few days.

 

''TGC or JNPG are the best options for sim play with SkyTrak.'' SDL when you say this what do you mean exactly? Is it graphics that are simply better or does the Skytrak seem to function better (in other words more accurate) than WGT? It seems to me that I can hit some of the same shots on the Skytrak basic range and then incorporate this same shot on WGT when playing a round and it ends up differently. Curious on this. My assumption is that the Skytrak is going to read a shot the same on any software (and the software is simply just to change the courses played, games, etc.) but I'm not a computer/software expert either, Thanks!

 

The visuals in WGT are photo-based so it's sort of like piecing together a puzzle of different pieces of a larger photo when you play a course. Unfortunately, that means that your lie may be in a spot were everything doesn't line up correctly and you are hitting from a side view area rather than straight at your line of flight. I rarely felt that I was actually standing on the course in WGT since the point of view was not consistent. Also, each of the sim programs has to take the data that the SkyTrak actually measures (like ball speed, spin, and launch angle) and convert it to the ball flight that gets displayed in the game. The algorithms used to do this are a little different in each game so they don't match up perfectly. The ball flight calculations in JNPG seem pretty natural to me. As others have suggested, the graphics in JNPG and TGC are more fluid and natural than other sim software, although some of the WGT views do look more like pictures - because they actually are pictures.

 

Another issue to be aware of is that different launch monitors have different accuracy levels in measuring ball movement at the extremes we encounter in playing golf. Generally, GC2 is more accurate with very low launch or very high launch shots than SkyTrak is, which is one of the reasons GC2 costs a lot more money than SkyTrak. ST has trouble reading wormburners that launch below the limits of its cameras, and really high launch lob shots may not always be picked up well either. If the ST doesn't read those shots accurately, it may fail to respond or show a more limited ball flight than you would see in real life. These are minor problems that don't affect practice or game play very often, but it's just something to keep in mind if you run into this issue. I for one don't mind very much if my ST ignores a horrible wormburner and gives me a second chance at the shot.

[ruffellprefley]

i got my skytrak in, and i've never been on a launch monitor before so i'm hoping that someone can help interpret this.

 

The side spin. I started the ball left of target with a counter clockwise ball spin. in my mind, I had it that this would create a right to left ball flight (draw) but the ball ends up right of the target line. Do I have my idea of spin backward? With an in to out club head path, the friction of the club would in my mind, create that counter clockwise ball spin. OR am I leaving the face way too open and even though I'm in to out, it's still creating a fade despite the club head path?

 

 

I suppose I need to focus more on closing the face... and read up on "D Plane"

[Buddha]

i got my skytrak in, and i've never been on a launch monitor before so i'm hoping that someone can help interpret this.

 

The side spin. I started the ball left of target with a counter clockwise ball spin. in my mind, I had it that this would create a right to left ball flight (draw) but the ball ends up right of the target line. Do I have my idea of spin backward? With an in to out club head path, the friction of the club would in my mind, create that counter clockwise ball spin. OR am I leaving the face way too open and even though I'm in to out, it's still creating a fade despite the club head path?

 

 

I suppose I need to focus more on closing the face... and read up on "D Plane"

 

While it looks like counter clockwise spin, because of the way the arrow is wrapping around the ball, you will notice the arrow beside the spin number pointing right, thus indicating fade/clockwise/right spin.

[ruffellprefley]

I found this interesting, a post from the golf simulator forum.

 

As the ball is a 2D image it can be perceived as rotating either way, so Willy, you are not wrong. Look at the arrow pointing to the left on the ball which represents side spin and imagine that the 'back' of the ball is rotating to the left. Alternatively a top down view of the same image of the ball would be rotating anticlockwise. Even easier because the arrow is pointing left, expect the ball flight to be left as you have drawn the ball as a right handed player. For anyone who sees the 'front' of the ball rotating left they would expect to see a fade shape to their shot. This could be fixed by altering the arrow to a 3D graphic, or even better, simply remove the arrows from the balls.

[ruffellprefley]

 

While it looks like counter clockwise spin, because of the way the arrow is wrapping around the ball, you will notice the arrow beside the spin number pointing right, thus indicating fade/clockwise/right spin.

 

Thanks. Im sure youre right. Thanks!

[jgonz69]

Anybody using their Skytrak naked? Ive been read about cases and how you need protection, and from watching videos, it looked like the ball is fairly close to the unit. But when I set up my unit and the red dot showed up, I was suprised to see how far away it is from the unit. I know my game pretty well, and I am pretty much 100% convinced I cannot shank a shot bad enough to strike the unit.

[ruffellprefley]

Anybody using their Skytrak naked? Ive been read about cases and how you need protection, and from watching videos, it looked like the ball is fairly close to the unit. But when I set up my unit and the red dot showed up, I was suprised to see how far away it is from the unit. I know my game pretty well, and I am pretty much 100% convinced I cannot shank a shot bad enough to strike the unit.

 

yes, but i'm looking to get or make something for when others are trying it out

[Keir]

Anybody using their Skytrak naked? Ive been read about cases and how you need protection, and from watching videos, it looked like the ball is fairly close to the unit. But when I set up my unit and the red dot showed up, I was suprised to see how far away it is from the unit. I know my game pretty well, and I am pretty much 100% convinced I cannot shank a shot bad enough to strike the unit.

 

I was an early adaptor to Skytrak, had it since Dec 2014. I've never come close to hitting it and don't have any protection on it. I don't, however, let anyone use it that I would have any fear of having them hit it. When my son is old enough to hit balls using it, I will be getting some protection or making some.

[ruffellprefley]

I just ordered a "Full Metal Jacket" skytrak protector from eBay..