Garmin Approach R10 Portable Golf Launch Monitor

[lefthack]

This is what I will put together this winter in the garage. R10 + Chromebook with projector and screen.

 

https://chromeunboxed.com/chromebook-chrome-os-golf-simulator-garmin-r10-awesome-golf/

[Simpsonia]

On 8/19/2022 at 10:36 AM, FlashinLeather said:

Got everything setup last night. Super easy with the laser level stand. Had 7.5 feet behind the ball and about 9.5-10 feet in front of the ball.

 

The carry numbers were a bit low and the spin numbers were very very low, which caused total numbers to be off. Was hitting 7 iron which is a 170-175 club. I usually don’t have much roll out on this club but would be guessing as to what my normal spin rate would be.

 

Anyone else experience something similar? I haven’t tried awesome golf yet but that might be the fix for getting the accuracy dialed in.

 

 

 

 

To me the biggest issue I spot is that Vertical Launch angle, which is why the R10 is estimating your spin so low. 11.1* is so ridiculously low, it's essentially what the PGA Tour players average for their driver (10.9*), and hence why you're seeing spin numbers closer to a driver profile than mid-iron. PGA avg for 7-iron is 16.3*. I'd keep playing around with your alignment and positioning until I saw that VLaunch metric come up to a sane number. If you can reliably hit a certain spot/height with your 7-iron, it's pretty simple to do the math to get your true VLaunch angle as a comparison. 

[FlashinLeather]

43 minutes ago, Simpsonia said:

 

 

To me the biggest issue I spot is that Vertical Launch angle, which is why the R10 is estimating your spin so low. 11.1* is so ridiculously low, it's essentially what the PGA Tour players average for their driver (10.9*), and hence why you're seeing spin numbers closer to a driver profile than mid-iron. PGA avg for 7-iron is 16.3*. I'd keep playing around with your alignment and positioning until I saw that VLaunch metric come up to a sane number. If you can reliably hit a certain spot/height with your 7-iron, it's pretty simple to do the math to get your true VLaunch angle as a comparison. 

 

Thanks, I'll give that a try. Yea i'm very steep and have a very low launch - its not usually that low though. I have good lighting in the area but not great, i'm wondering if that could be part of the issue.

[LeftDot]

2 minutes ago, FlashinLeather said:

 

Thanks, I'll give that a try. Yea i'm very steep and have a very low launch - its not usually that low though. I have good lighting in the area but not great, i'm wondering if that could be part of the issue.

 

R10 is a radar-based unit that has no optical components. The amount of light you have does not affect it.

[FlashinLeather]

Not sure what is going on with the R10. Spent about 90 minutes with it today. Downloaded the trial of awesome golf. Moved the unit around from 10ft to 6ft behind the ball. Moved my net around from 7ft to around 12ft. Spin is still very low.

 

I am generally a little steep - 7 iron is a 175 club and spins in the 7-8000s - not much roll out. 56 degree is 100-105 club if I’m trying to get the most out of it - in the screen shot below I was trying to hit it with as much spin as possible. Usually this is a pretty easy club for me to stop on an average Florida green. Both shots were a bit on the long side for carry, very low in spin, which caused a long roll out. 
 

I know this thing is not accurate. I know it can be accurate. I’m running out of ideas on how to dial it in.

 

7 iron and 56 deg screen shots. These were about average for the ones I hit well. Also seems to have a bit of a left bias - my miss is usually right.

 

any help or ideas would be much appreciated.

 

[donuts]

54 minutes ago, FlashinLeather said:

Not sure what is going on with the R10. Spent about 90 minutes with it today. Downloaded the trial of awesome golf. Moved the unit around from 10ft to 6ft behind the ball. Moved my net around from 7ft to around 12ft. Spin is still very low.

 

I am generally a little steep - 7 iron is a 175 club and spins in the 7-8000s - not much roll out. 56 degree is 100-105 club if I’m trying to get the most out of it - in the screen shot below I was trying to hit it with as much spin as possible. Usually this is a pretty easy club for me to stop on an average Florida green. Both shots were a bit on the long side for carry, very low in spin, which caused a long roll out. 
 

I know this thing is not accurate. I know it can be accurate. I’m running out of ideas on how to dial it in.

 

7 iron and 56 deg screen shots. These were about average for the ones I hit well. Also seems to have a bit of a left bias - my miss is usually right.

 

any help or ideas would be much appreciated.

 

What’s your floor like?  Apparently concrete is bad and they want you to put turf or carpet between the tee and net.   Also some fluorescent lights can affect radar..

[FlashinLeather]

2 hours ago, donuts said:

What’s your floor like?  Apparently concrete is bad and they want you to put turf or carpet between the tee and net.   Also some fluorescent lights can affect radar..

floor is rubber - from an old gym. Full mat on top of that. I have a good size garage that I am hitting out of in the direction of the driveway. Lights are all fluorescent. 

[Bubbtubbs]

30 minutes ago, FlashinLeather said:

floor is rubber - from an old gym. Full mat on top of that. I have a good size garage that I am hitting out of in the direction of the driveway. Lights are all fluorescent. 

The ballasts make a ton of EMF noise. Try it with an led floodlight or set up the same dimensions outdoors and see if it solves the issue.

[JackGatling]

So I’ve scanned through multiple pages and it’s hard to get a general consensus.

I’ve got a net return pro outside on my back porch. I have about 10’ both to the net and behind the ball that I can utilize. I plan to try to nail down some swing changes this off-season, so a decently accurate visualization of ball flight would be very handy.

 

Would the R10 give me reasonable numbers, or should I wait in the hopes that something else comes out around in the same price range that will give me better numbers when hitting into a net?

[hammersia]

12 hours ago, JackGatling said:

So I’ve scanned through multiple pages and it’s hard to get a general consensus.

I’ve got a net return pro outside on my back porch. I have about 10’ both to the net and behind the ball that I can utilize. I plan to try to nail down some swing changes this off-season, so a decently accurate visualization of ball flight would be very handy.

 

Would the R10 give me reasonable numbers, or should I wait in the hopes that something else comes out around in the same price range that will give me better numbers when hitting into a net?

If you check my posts you will see I've tried to produce an objective analysis of how accurate the R10 is. 

 

In summary my numbers show the R10 capable of getting the right shot shape and direction 80% of the time. 

I also found it most accurate for wedges (although it can't deduce spin below 80mph ball speed), and was also good on driver numbers. Irons were less well measured. 

 

So - NOT amazing, and it doesn't match the Garmin accuracy claims (start line within 1% etc.) but far and away the best option for 500 dollars. IMHO there is no chance of anything comparable or better coming out this winter at this price point.

[JackGatling]

7 hours ago, hammersia said:

If you check my posts you will see I've tried to produce an objective analysis of how accurate the R10 is. 

 

In summary my numbers show the R10 capable of getting the right shot shape and direction 80% of the time. 

I also found it most accurate for wedges (although it can't deduce spin below 80mph ball speed), and was also good on driver numbers. Irons were less well measured. 

 

So - NOT amazing, and it doesn't match the Garmin accuracy claims (start line within 1% etc.) but far and away the best option for 500 dollars. IMHO there is no chance of anything comparable or better coming out this winter at this price point.

I figured as much, I guess I just have to decide whether it’s worth waiting a bit to save up for something like a GC3/Bushnell. I really despise the subscription model that everything seems to be going to these days.

[Bubbtubbs]

41 minutes ago, JackGatling said:

I figured as much, I guess I just have to decide whether it’s worth waiting a bit to save up for something like a GC3/Bushnell. I really despise the subscription model that everything seems to be going to these days.

It's primarily Skytrak and Bushnell as anything from Flightscope, Uneekor or Foresight doesn't have subscriptions (third-party software may, of course).

 

I share your loathing of features locked behind obligatory sub walls. If I own a device and own the software, I shouldn't need to pay a recurring fee - however meagre - just to use the two together.

[Mych]

The back of my garage has a step, about 3 inches high. Would the r10 work sitting 3 inches higher than "ground" level? That would give me about 3 more feet of ball-to-net distance to play with. 

Edited September 8, 2022 by Mych

[Mistersandman]

2 hours ago, Mych said:

The back of my garage has a step, about 3 inches high. Would the r10 work sitting 3 inches higher than "ground" level? That would give me about 3 more feet of ball-to-met distance to play with. 

I have a similar situation but my step is more of a traditional step about 12” deep and about 6” high. It worked fine. As long as it still has a clear view of the ball from the tee position it should still work. 

[hammersia]

7 hours ago, Mistersandman said:

I have a similar situation but my step is more of a traditional step about 12” deep and about 6” high. It worked fine. As long as it still has a clear view of the ball from the tee position it should still work. 

I've not found it sensitive to height however as a sanity check I would take it outside to the range occasionally and check your numbers (e.g. launch angle would be the obvious number to check) are as expected. The last software update wants you to accurately measure the device to ball distance on the setup, so I would have to imagine at some point triangulation of the distance / height becomes a small factor at least. 

[jjschafe]

Big news - Garmin just announced compatibility with the Titleist RCT balls. 

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/newsroom/press-release/sports-fitness/garmin-announces-approach-r10-integration-with-titleist-golf-balls/

 

No mention of when it will actually be rolled out, but the official R10 site already lists it  as a feature (screenshot from the R10 site below), so maybe it is being rolled out right now?   I assume it will have to be a device firmware update.  Either way, super exciting.  Hopefully it is an answer to the low spin issues that I and others have run into.

[Bubbtubbs]

14 minutes ago, jjschafe said:

Big news - Garmin just announced compatibility with the Titleist RCT balls. 

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/newsroom/press-release/sports-fitness/garmin-announces-approach-r10-integration-with-titleist-golf-balls/

 

No mention of when it will actually be rolled out, but the official R10 site already lists it  as a feature (screenshot from the R10 site below), so maybe it is being rolled out right now?   I assume it will have to be a device firmware update.  Either way, super exciting.  Hopefully it is an answer to the low spin issues that I and others have run into.

Considering that it essentially estimates indoor spin, this is pretty big. 

[Dan13]

10 minutes ago, jjschafe said:

Big news - Garmin just announced compatibility with the Titleist RCT balls. 

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/newsroom/press-release/sports-fitness/garmin-announces-approach-r10-integration-with-titleist-golf-balls/

 

No mention of when it will actually be rolled out, but the official R10 site already lists it  as a feature (screenshot from the R10 site below), so maybe it is being rolled out right now?   I assume it will have to be a device firmware update.  Either way, super exciting.  Hopefully it is an answer to the low spin issues that I and others have run into.

That is awesome. Improve spin rate by up to 30X! Got to hand it to Garmin, beat Flightscope getting this out. Improved spin reads indoors by radar units would narrow the gap with camera units significantky (spin axis not withstanding). 

[rlefig]

i am thinking of getting some RCT golf balls

[jjschafe]

Also I have to chuckle at all the people who bought RCT balls for their Garmin without reading the myriads of forums, facebook groups, youtube reviews, etc that said they won't work, then found out they wouldn't work, then got rid of them, and now will have to buy them again! 😆

[rlefig]

they are some pricey balls 🤣

[Bubbtubbs]

9 minutes ago, jjschafe said:

Also I have to chuckle at all the people who bought RCT balls for their Garmin without reading the myriads of forums, facebook groups, youtube reviews, etc that said they won't work, then found out they wouldn't work, then got rid of them, and now will have to buy them again! 😆

Those people were idiots. 

[jjschafe]

Update: looks like firmware 4.30 was just released that includes the RCT ball support. 

[Mistersandman]

No reviews yet on the balls?  I’m disappointed. 🤣

[jjschafe]

2 hours ago, Mistersandman said:

No reviews yet on the balls?  I’m disappointed. 🤣

 

Lol, already out! (I haven't watched yet)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlrHJ2fbNQ0

[hammersia]

9 hours ago, jjschafe said:

 

Lol, already out! (I haven't watched yet)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlrHJ2fbNQ0

Interesting, better than most comparison videos in terms of being able to check the numbers against each other, couple of observations :

 

1) It's against the Uneekor Eye XO, which I believe to be very, very good, BUT it's not the benchmark machine which is obviously the Quad. Launch angles were way off (up to 4-5 degrees) between them on all clubs. 

2) Backspin numbers looked spot on including for chips which the R10 couldn't do before, so that's exciting.

3) Shot shape, start direction honestly looked pretty hopeless on the R10. Consistently read a straight push, have to believe when the reviewer is saying he definitely drew it, and the Uneekor agrees, that the Garmin is struggling. 

[Simpsonia]

7 hours ago, hammersia said:

Interesting, better than most comparison videos in terms of being able to check the numbers against each other, couple of observations :

 

1) It's against the Uneekor Eye XO, which I believe to be very, very good, BUT it's not the benchmark machine which is obviously the Quad. Launch angles were way off (up to 4-5 degrees) between them on all clubs. 

2) Backspin numbers looked spot on including for chips which the R10 couldn't do before, so that's exciting.

3) Shot shape, start direction honestly looked pretty hopeless on the R10. Consistently read a straight push, have to believe when the reviewer is saying he definitely drew it, and the Uneekor agrees, that the Garmin is struggling. 

 

The extreme fade bias in the video makes me wonder if there might have been some small alignment issue with his R10 setup. I mean I know that this guy is more knowledgeable than most when it comes to all things sims, but even when he purposefully hit huge looping draws, almost hooks, he was getting pushes with the R10 which makes me think something might have been off.  As for launch angle, he did mention that overhead units are consistently always higher with launch angle than every floor level monitor, though the degree did seem high, usually it's only a degree or two, vs the 4-5 degrees in the video. 

 

Still the consistent accuracy in backspin is a huge addition for the R10. 

[hammersia]

8 minutes ago, Simpsonia said:

 

The extreme fade bias in the video makes me wonder if there might have been some small alignment issue with his R10 setup. I mean I know that this guy is more knowledgeable than most when it comes to all things sims, but even when he purposefully hit huge looping draws, almost hooks, he was getting pushes with the R10 which makes me think something might have been off.  As for launch angle, he did mention that overhead units are consistently always higher with launch angle than every floor level monitor, though the degree did seem high, usually it's only a degree or two, vs the 4-5 degrees in the video. 

 

Still the consistent accuracy in backspin is a huge addition for the R10. 

He's a bit frustrating in his videos, he's done 6 or 7 on the R10 and never seems to show his setup, is there a leveling stand, laser alignment etc. etc.

[jjschafe]

44 minutes ago, Simpsonia said:

 

The extreme fade bias in the video makes me wonder if there might have been some small alignment issue with his R10 setup. I mean I know that this guy is more knowledgeable than most when it comes to all things sims, but even when he purposefully hit huge looping draws, almost hooks, he was getting pushes with the R10 which makes me think something might have been off.  As for launch angle, he did mention that overhead units are consistently always higher with launch angle than every floor level monitor, though the degree did seem high, usually it's only a degree or two, vs the 4-5 degrees in the video. 

 

Still the consistent accuracy in backspin is a huge addition for the R10. 

 

Even more telling to me is his wedge shots. Seems clear that the Garmin is aimed a few degrees to the right. That adjustment would put the two systems dead on with a wedge, and no doubt closer with driver. Pull fades and push draws are always going to be a struggle with the garmin though, no getting around that.

 

I asked him on Facebook if he would test regular pro-v vs RCT. That to me is the real way to tell the improvement with this update.

[Simpsonia]

On 9/9/2022 at 9:41 AM, hammersia said:

He's a bit frustrating in his videos, he's done 6 or 7 on the R10 and never seems to show his setup, is there a leveling stand, laser alignment etc. etc.

 

I posted a question on his youtube page, he replied that the R10 was in a leveling stand, was laser aligned, and calibrated through the app, so about as good as it can get I guess. In the start of the video if you watch the chip shots, the R10 is reading a good 3* further right horizontal launch than the Uneekor.

 

I'm starting to wonder if each R10 has it's own sweet spot for alignment based on mediocre to poor manufacturing tolerances internally in the unit. It wouldn't surprise me if there were up to a couple degrees of play within the unit or on the soldering of the radar unit internally which could create some small variances even given a perfect alignment of the external case via laser. 

 

The original R10 manual said that the way to calibrate was to align it and calibrate with short pitch shots and adjust until the output matched your chip exactly, which may or may not be perfectly aligned via the external case. I wonder if he could play around with the alignment to try and get the HLaunch to match the Uneekor.