Voice Caddie SC300 review

[nitram]

Has anyone that's bought one of these things kept it? I'm having a heckuva time getting mine to work consistently.

I received one over the holidays and have used it thrice. Once with limited flight balls at a range and twice with a shagger full of premium balls in the back yard. Not looking for a fitting tool, just looking for consistency and distance control from LW to 8I.

I've tried what was mentioned in this thread and just wondering if I received a lemon.

[rollen]

i only have one session with mine…placement behind the ball seems to affect the shorter clubs significantly more than the longer clubs. It seemed accurate from 8 iron up through driver. However, 9 iron and Gap wedge were reporting extremely short. I was carrying the 9 to a green with a flag at 145 and the device was registering 120-130 yards. It was registering 98 for the Gap wedge and the ball was flying well past the 100 yard flag. Typical yardage for a GW is 115-120. I used a Bushnell laser for the 145 and 100 yard flags, so those distances are accurate. I will try moving the deck d closer for the short irons next session.

is the consensus to place it closer ( 3 ft) for shorter clubs and at 5 feet for longer clubs?

 

 

[Jay28]

I am assuming you set all the lofts of your clubs....?

I place the unit about 5ft behind the ball.

I do get some odd readings with shorter irons, but to be honest I only use this thing for seeing the effect of swing changes on the ball speed. .. so driver and 6 iron are all I am using with it now.

Could have gone for a cheaper unit in all honesty, but it is still great to have instant feedback on swing changes.

[nitram]

Thanks Jay. I finally got it to work like it's designed. I have it exactly 5 ft. from the impact area. It catches 98% of all shots from LW to 8-iron which is the majority of what I work on.

[NavyMustangGolf]

Not sure about the back calculator on spin. Some of mine read 0 which leads me to believe it's something the radar has to pick up. Either way, I find the spin to be a little high on driver, spot on on 3w. Only have one session under the belt, do still using. Will check out on the backyard range and see.

[NavyMustangGolf]

Have been using for a few days now. The spin numbers do appear to be in the ball park. I hit a few cuts and the distance was down, spin up and vice-versa with the draws. Driver spin was right on the mark this session. Range balls are range balls, so I dont expect the unit to give me course numbers on the range, but I do use the unit for a general understanding of what my changes are doing to impact. One thing that I found absolutely wonderful was the smash factor. I used impact tape to track contact, and the unit was spot on. Sweet spot strikes yielded high smash factor whereas the toe/heel strikes were considerably worse. Hitting into the net using the SC300 has allowed me to groove my swing a better with feedback on ball speed and contact. I will be keeping this unit. One last point, the height has to be level with the hitting area. I found that the foam protection in the box was the perfect height for most mats and the box itself made a great stand for the mats at the course.

[dwboston]

 

Thanks. I ordered one a couple of days ago after spending a few weeks reading reviews and watching videos - it's getting delivered today. I'll be using it mostly outdoors at the range, which seems to be the right use case for the SC300. Looking forward to trying it out.

[NavyMustangGolf]

For the elusive spin readout you have to get the app and on the stats page scroll all the wat to the right.

[dwboston]

I took my SC300 to the indoor simulator place today to give it a try, after charging it up last night, doing a firmware update, and syncing it with the Android app. I placed it 5 feet behind the ball, and it didn't pick up the first few swings - the hitting zone in the simulator bay is slightly raised from the rest of the turf area, so it seemed that the SC300 needed to be raised up a little bit. I set it on top of the foam that came in the box and it picked up every swing after that. The simulator place uses the AboutGolf sims, and the readings for carry distance on the SC300 were inline with sim's readings. I only had a few wonky readings (out of about 100 swings) where I felt like a smoked a shot, and the sim reflected that, but the SC300 didn't. I also had a couple of swings that I absolutely crushed where I forgot to change the club on the SC300 (of course one was the best driver swing I made today, with the highest carry and ball speed), and got carry readings on the SC300 far below what the sim showed for those swings.

I felt the swing speed readings on the SC300 were a bit low, but the carry distance & ball speed readings were reasonably close to the sim's. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it so far. Once I have a lot of data from practice sessions, it will be great to know my real carry distances for every club. I'm looking forward to getting it outside to the range once the weather gets better.

[hack2489]

For club gapping and carry distance calculation, I use actual golf balls (same brand / model as I use on course) and hit 10x of them onto a range area at my local golf course. I measure the average distance, taking out obvious outliers.

I do 5x sets of 10 for each club. I get average of those for each club. I get my dispersion and distance gapping for each club.

Why would I need or use a swing caddie? Or other launch monitor?

To know my swing speed? What's the point of that other than ego?

My actual ball flight, distance and dispersion is more important to me. I get a lesson if I can't figure out why I miss hit shots, or a particular club.

Why use a launch monitor?

[dwboston]

Shagging your own golf balls on a driving range sounds like loads of fun, and a complete waste of time. The range at my course has quality Titleist balls so the distances are pretty close to the balls I normally play. Also, you get more info from the launch monitors than just swing speed and carry distance - info that's useful for swing analysis and helps if you are working on swing changes.

If you don't see the need and just want to bash people that do, then why are you posting in the thread? I'm no golf snob, but it's funny that a 15 hcp is questioning launch monitors somewhat incredulously. To each his own I guess.

[hack2489]

Passive aggressive reference to handicap vs your self description of snobbery aside, let's debate the ISSUE.

What exactly can you get from a base level launch monitor like the swing caddie that can actually help with swing changes that actual ball flight can not?

Swing path?

Face to path?

I'm open to the debate on actual benefits.

Heck, if you convince me I might get one and become a scratch golfer!

 

[dwboston]

You're the skeptic. Do some reading and educate yourself. Using your logic, Tour pros and teaching pros should only be looking at ball flight and not focusing on any numbers like launch angle, apex, spin rate, ball speed, etc.

I'm not looking for a debate, and it's not my job to convince you to buy one or not. Enjoy shagging golf balls at the range.

[NavyMustangGolf]

Usefulness is totally up to you. I have been as low as a 5Hcp and currently (following 3 years at sea) I'm down to an 11. I use the data that I trust the most. This unit is hella accurate with short shots. Well, as accurate as I expect a unit to be for this price point. I am a grinder on the range and this gives me feedback. I make a small adjustment and I get the feedback of ball speed and smash factor. Past 170 yds, I dont put too much into the ranges. Grooving my shorter swings has helped me to dial in my wedge yardage. On course, I feel a ton more comfortable staring down a 60yd shot than I did before incorporating the sc300 into my practice sessions. Last point, it is nice to hit a drive and have the unit announce 300, haha. That's purely ego.

[rollen]

did some more testing.... for chips/pitches in the 15-30 yard range, it seems to be spot on. I am still having issues with the 90-150 yard shots. I moved the device between 3 and 5 ft and raised and lowered it. The shots between 90 and 150 all seem to register shorter than actual. Hitting to a small practice green at 98 yards according to a Bushnell laser, shots that land within a few yards of the flag are registering almost 10 yards shorter. I have not checked the accuracy of the laser, that is the next item to check.

Other that checking driver carry distances, which are tough to see at the range I use, my main purpose was to dial in the 90-150 yard distances. Especially the in-between club distances. Not sure I trust it yet,

Has anyone else experienced these issues? And if so, what did you do to get better readings?

[Mags15]

Does anyone know how your suppose to set the driver loft? So for example I play my 10.5 SIM on the lower setting so my driver face is 4* open... It's not actually changing the static loft of the club it's just changing the dynamic loft... So what I'm asking is should I have the setting on 10.5? Or 8.5?

 

Thanks guys!

[Russ757]

I'm in the market for a PLM and looking for some opinions.

Primarily will be used off a mat into a net either in garage or outdoors. I do go to the range about 2x a week. Main reason is just to regroove my swing thanks to an extended deployment. But I would like to maximize the benefits of practice. Alos having 3 kids, I'd like something that is easy to use.

So is the 300 that much of an upgrade to justify the extra $150

Any other thoughts are appreciated.

[nitram]

Russ,

I haven't used mine hitting into a net so I really can't say.

In all honesty IDK if the 300 is worth $150 more than the 200 but given the choice (and I was) I'd go with the 300. The thing I really like about the 200 is the practice mode. The 300 doesn't offer it but has other features and the app that are more attractive. The more I've used the 300. the more I appreciate how good it is for what it costs.

[Russ757]

Nitram thank you. For what I need and the practice mode as you mentioned, I'm leaning towards the 200. But I also have a feeling the practice mode will be a update eventually

[Ramsgolf]

Slightly off topic. Just got my SC300 today. Wanted to use for me, wife & daughter. Heard can only use one login per device & clubs will aggregate together. Makes sense. But then I tried to add more clubs on the app and appeared to work. My 6I, Val 6I, Lindsay 6I, etc., for each club. So, now when I use the app to toggle thru clubs, they’re all there. And when selected, they change on the screen.

That said, should we be able to keep our stats from aggregating together by utilizing this method? Any idea on the number of clubs you can create on the app?

Thoughts?

 

 

[nitram]

^^^ I have no idea. ^^^ Welcome to Wrx.

[Jbardet]

How did you like your swing caddie?

[Russ757]

Well ended up with grabbing a 300. 30 days return and with the mevo having a 3 week or more delay.. I'll have time to test it out.

 

 

Annnd traded for a mevo to compare

[rollen]

Anyone notice that the accuracy diminishes as the battery level goes down ?

[Russ757]

Haven't but that just electronics. Phones, remotes

Just correlated to power draw vs power available

[rollen]

Tested some more today. Turns out it is really sensitive to being level with the ball. I’ve been hitting off grass, not mats which makes it tougher to be exactly level. Re-reading the users manual, it claims an inch can make a difference. When not exactly level 15 yards registered around 13 yards ( it was always shorter than actual). After being meticulous about the level, it was registering to within a 1/2 yard at worst.

[Daniel Eason]

Im loving my device, although matter of truth being shown in my figures not so much.

Portability of this is what I like, its nice to know I can just chuck it on the tee and see real shot data with decent balls. It's also brilliant that it doesn't need the app to do this and stores them locally.

Questions I've got if anyone else has answered;

I posted on another post about whether its possible to get the data extracted into a spreadsheet, has anyone worked out a way? I'm sure. saw someone did a blog about this but can't find it now.I've tried with Pelz balls but figures just don't compare to real balls as I'd expect, however wouldn't Clubhead speed ? Is Apex calculated? I've noticed it has a lens of some sort at the top of the device I wonder what this is, or is this the barometer?Real negatives on mine so far;

App on Android doesn't do landscape so a PITA to keep scrollingApp also shows the last month of shots so again a bit painful to need to sort this every time.Shame it doesn't do W/9I spin figures.

[Hellstorm]

I've used mine a few times now and I am pretty happy with it. I got it to practice short game stuff and it seems pretty accurate for that. I have only used it on the grass but it seems to work well as long as the grass is shorter. I think its only going to help my game out. I have had trouble with the Android app getting it to register....maybe the customer service is out due to the pandemic.

[shadymg]

i've been using one for a week now, and i love this thing. I still haven't gotten around to actually using the App DURING the practice session, but i guess that's next on the to-do. I wish the stats side showed total in addition to carry. Kinda weird it doesn't.

 

Also, i really wish there was a way to view your stats via the website or even the windows/mac app (without connecting the swingcaddie, just syncing online), but minor quibbles.

[Hellstorm]

I haven't even messed with the app yet. I had it out today and messed with the target mode, which was a much different way to practice for me. I get a few people stopping over to check it out while I'm hitting balls. They are lasering the landing spots to check if its accurate.