Diagnosing Shotsope v3 tagging issue

[larrybud]

I thought this might deserve it's own thread rather than polluting the main shotscope thread, but feel free to merge if necessary. I had a tagging issue with my Shotscope v3. Played a round one day and got home and no shots were recorded. I thought that I may have accidentally just started the GPS setting rather than GPS+Track, but when I played a couple of days later, no shots were recorded either. TLDR: issue is that the antenna inside the band had an open circuit, and the fix is to get a new band. Shotscope sent me one for free, but I suspect it will depend on your warranty. 

 

After I got the new band I thought I'd do a little more diagnosis since I wasn't positive on the root cause. First, you can test your tags by going into the Settings -> Tags, and putting a tag near the watch. You can see here it's not finding tags at all.

 

Remove the top watch band and you'll see the RFID antenna connection.  An RFID antenna is a simple loop which uses radio waves to communicate with the tag. If the loop is broken for some reason (the wire inside the band is broken, or the wire broke away from the external connections) it can't read a tag.

 

If I put a multimeter (testing for ohms) across the pins on the band, it reads that it's an open circuit (this particular meter reads 0.L when it's an "open loop"). This verifies the band has a break in it.

 

When testing the new band, it reads between 1 and 2 ohms, this case, 1.6 ohms

once the new band is attached, the tags are found:

 

Testing your tags without the watch.
Newer smartphones have an "NFC" setting/detection built in. All you need is an appropriate app, and to turn on the NFC in your settings. Here on my galaxy S10, I downloaded an app called "NFC Tools" (there's a bunch of them). All you do is put it in "read" mode, and hold a tag up to your phone, and if the tag works, details of the tag are displayed:
 

 

 

 

 

 

[larrybud]

I offered to send the old band back to Shotscope, but they didn't want it. Curious, I wanted to see if I could carefully tear the band apart to see the failure. I was able to do that:

 

[phil75070]

5 hours ago, larrybud said:

or the wire broke away from the external connections) it can't read a tag.

Yes, if the band becomes loose and the connection between the band and watch is lost, the tags won't be read. It is why I bought a Torx screwdriver and occasionally make sure the screws that hold the band to the watch are tight.

[Double K]

Thanks for posting this. 

[larrybud]

On 10/12/2022 at 4:21 PM, phil75070 said:

Yes, if the band becomes loose and the connection between the band and watch is lost, the tags won't be read. It is why I bought a Torx screwdriver and occasionally make sure the screws that hold the band to the watch are tight.

I found that there isn't much movement of the band if both screws are in, tight or not, and that shouldn't affect the connection. The pins on the band are spring loaded so there's a fairly wide tolerance.

 

From the factory there appears to be a touch of locktite on them, so they shouldn't be going anywhere. Just be careful screwing them in, as you're screwing into really tiny brass threads. Very easy to strip.

[Maneaux]

On 10/12/2022 at 4:11 PM, larrybud said:

I thought this might deserve it's own thread rather than polluting the main shotscope thread, but feel free to merge if necessary. I had a tagging issue with my Shotscope v3. Played a round one day and got home and no shots were recorded. I thought that I may have accidentally just started the GPS setting rather than GPS+Track, but when I played a couple of days later, no shots were recorded either. TLDR: issue is that the antenna inside the band had an open circuit, and the fix is to get a new band. Shotscope sent me one for free, but I suspect it will depend on your warranty. 

 

After I got the new band I thought I'd do a little more diagnosis since I wasn't positive on the root cause. First, you can test your tags by going into the Settings -> Tags, and putting a tag near the watch. You can see here it's not finding tags at all.

 

Remove the top watch band and you'll see the RFID antenna connection.  An RFID antenna is a simple loop which uses radio waves to communicate with the tag. If the loop is broken for some reason (the wire inside the band is broken, or the wire broke away from the external connections) it can't read a tag.

 

If I put a multimeter (testing for ohms) across the pins on the band, it reads that it's an open circuit (this particular meter reads 0.L when it's an "open loop"). This verifies the band has a break in it.

 

When testing the new band, it reads between 1 and 2 ohms, this case, 1.6 ohms

once the new band is attached, the tags are found:

 

Testing your tags without the watch.
Newer smartphones have an "NFC" setting/detection built in. All you need is an appropriate app, and to turn on the NFC in your settings. Here on my galaxy S10, I downloaded an app called "NFC Tools" (there's a bunch of them). All you do is put it in "read" mode, and hold a tag up to your phone, and if the tag works, details of the tag are displayed:
 

 

Thanks for posting, this is really helpful. I've tested the watch and tags and it's clear I need to get a new strap. Annoying it should fail after just over two years but it's better than having to buy a new watch. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sammo]

On 4/12/2023 at 11:41 AM, Maneaux said:

 

can you actually get a watch strap separately??. Shotscope support told me my warranty was out as I’ve had it over 2 years so they wouldn’t replace the watch and they didn’t have any V3s in stock. 
 

best they could do was £180 on an X5… 😤

[Brufus]

i just got the exact same rubbish reply to my tracking suddenly stopped working, out of warranty, what a joke