New Rapsodo Product/Launch?

[golfun]

So minimum just to play any course will cost you an extra $400/year?

[SE Gamer]

1 minute ago, golfun said:

So minimum just to play any course will cost you an extra $400/year?

 

Not necessarily. If you don't mind their cartoonish simulation, you can get by with just the $200 rapsodo membership. Alternatively, I think a lifetime awesome golf license is around $350 (which includes a few courses). If you want to go E6, you're looking at around $300 more each year. So if the latter is your choice, you're gonna be paying $500 a year for the rapsodo sub and E6.

 

In two years, that's Mevo+ money. Which gives you 6 free E6 courses in addition to all the Flightscope software.

[MarcoRolo]

14 hours ago, athill1 said:

Anyone receive an update on when those preorders will start to ship so that we can start getting real world feedback on it?

Mine is in transit with UPS, was shipped from Germany and will be arriving on Friday the 31st (tomorrow). I cannot speak for the US/UK/AU markets but I would assume that they are shipping at the same time. That being said, when they were taking US pre-orders, they were mentioning mid-April deliveries.

[tjl48]

Just got an email this afternoon telling me it was shipping soon. Was hoping for a shipping notification. 

[MarcoRolo]

Dave Maxfield unboxing and first impressions:

 

[ksher84]

They have the Callaway RPT balls up for sale on their site
$70 per box 😬 good lord

[Walkerdb7]

46 minutes ago, MarcoRolo said:

Dave Maxfield unboxing and first impressions:

 

He is our best hope for an honest MLM2Pro vs R10 Video? Or maybe MGS will do it again, but record the RCT balls and leveling stands...

[mktrout]

so even with the rapsodo annual fee you dont get the basic e6 free package with like the range and 6 courses?  Every monitor seems to offer that for free.

[SE Gamer]

2 hours ago, ksher84 said:

They have the Callaway RPT balls up for sale on their site
$70 per box 😬 good lord

 

Yeah. Gonna try to roll my own. There appears to be nothing special about it (material wise). Just the pattern. Will test it with both sharpie and dot stickers.

 

1 hour ago, mktrout said:

so even with the rapsodo annual fee you dont get the basic e6 free package with like the range and 6 courses?  Every monitor seems to offer that for free.

 

Yep. And if quality simulation is your primary goal, the Rapsodo home brewed courses look pretty rough. So you're likely going to want E6 or something else. 

[ksher84]

57 minutes ago, SE Gamer said:

Yeah. Gonna try to roll my own. There appears to be nothing special about it (material wise). Just the pattern. Will test it with both sharpie and dot stickers.

I hope someone makes some kind of 3d printed jig that has the pattern.  That price point is insane for just markings. 

[SE Gamer]

31 minutes ago, ksher84 said:

I hope someone makes some kind of 3d printed jig that has the pattern.  That price point is insane for just markings. 

 

I have a 3d printer. And already have clips like that I've designed for custom marking my gamer balls. So if it's doable, I'll figure it out.

 

[kiwihacker]

Didn't Callaway make a ball with a football (soccer ball) pattern on it? I wonder if that would work with the Rapsodo? 

[SE Gamer]

21 minutes ago, kiwihacker said:

Didn't Callaway make a ball with a football (soccer ball) pattern on it? I wonder if that would work with the Rapsodo? 

Yes. But that ball wouldn't work. Seems like the pattern on the RPT ball is a "fingerprint" of sorts. In that it's a very specific pattern the camera needs to properly read spin/axis. I suspect it'll work if the pattern is replicated. But other patterns will not.

[kiwihacker]

1 minute ago, SE Gamer said:

Yes. But that ball wouldn't work. Seems like the pattern on the RPT ball is a "fingerprint" of sorts. In that it's a very specific pattern the camera needs to properly read spin/axis. I suspect it'll work if the pattern is replicated. But other patterns will not.

Right. 

[sociojeje]

5 hours ago, SE Gamer said:

 

I have a 3d printer. And already have clips like that I've designed for custom marking my gamer balls. So if it's doable, I'll figure it out.

 

Another project? 

[SE Gamer]

3 minutes ago, sociojeje said:

Another project? 

You know it!

[tjl48]

Woke up to a shipping notification today. Says it's supposed to be here tomorrow. 

[Walkerdb7]

Answer coming soon enough… 

[MarcoRolo]

50 minutes ago, Walkerdb7 said:

Answer coming soon enough… 

 

[Walkerdb7]

37 minutes ago, MarcoRolo said:

 

Just watched… 

Seems like RCT + Leveling Stand + Garmin is good 

 

Rapsodo + RPT is good

 

Anyone else take a different conclusion? 

[Simpsonia]

20 hours ago, ksher84 said:

I hope someone makes some kind of 3d printed jig that has the pattern.  That price point is insane for just markings. 
 

 

Gonna be in for a bad time if you use an impact screen. Sharpie rubs off super easily on white screens. If you're just hitting into a net should be fine though. 

 

But that price is ridiculous for a ball with a surface treatment that will be chewed up by short irons and wedges. I bet water transfer decal patterns that people have been using for the Uneekor QED will be the go-to for this. Some people did have some success with auto-body paint pens and/or UV curing paint pens, but I think those still had some minor transfer issues. 

[Dan13]

Seems like where this is going is:

 

MLM 2 - Most accurate for limited flight / sim play. Negatives - Subscription, lose data without RPT balls 

R10 - better for mix use, aka, outdoor + indoor, better value.  Negatives- Typical spin axis issues in limited flight for radar units. 

[ksher84]

1 hour ago, Simpsonia said:

 

Gonna be in for a bad time if you use an impact screen. Sharpie rubs off super easily on white screens. If you're just hitting into a net should be fine though. 

 

good point, I'm just hitting into a net for now (black target screen sheet)
bought a box of the balls 😩 💰🔥

 

have a tracking number now should be here on the 6th

 

 

[rlb4]

4 hours ago, Walkerdb7 said:

Just watched… 

Seems like RCT + Leveling Stand + Garmin is good 

 

Rapsodo + RPT is good

 

Anyone else take a different conclusion? 

Unfortunately he didn't/couldn't use the RCT ball which would make the Garmin more accurate. He had to use the RPT ball in order for the Rapsodo to give spin #'s. It would be better to compare both individually to a GC Quad using each of their RPT/RCT balls and then compare the differences from GC Quad.

[SE Gamer]

4 hours ago, Simpsonia said:

 

Gonna be in for a bad time if you use an impact screen. Sharpie rubs off super easily on white screens. If you're just hitting into a net should be fine though. 

 

But that price is ridiculous for a ball with a surface treatment that will be chewed up by short irons and wedges. I bet water transfer decal patterns that people have been using for the Uneekor QED will be the go-to for this. Some people did have some success with auto-body paint pens and/or UV curing paint pens, but I think those still had some minor transfer issues. 

 

Yeah. If you have a screen it'll potentially cause some issues. I have both (net and screen) and have it kind of set up in a way where all my shots go into the net behind the screen. 

Agree that there still could be an alternative solution of attaching permanent vinyl stickers or similar. There's definitely a solution out there though.

It's funny in the Rapsodo group there are a bunch of people who've made comments like, "It comes with 3 balls, how many do you need?" Would guess these are coming from guys who've never used a LM/sim, or only used one sporadically at best. And have no understanding of how quickly balls can wear out to the point of causing damage to your screen/net. There's also the question of availability. The RPT ball is specific only to Rapsodo. So who know's whether there'll be supply issues.

[kiwihacker]

Yeah I have to say the necessity of using those RPT balls is a disappointing aspect of the Rapsodo. I know you need RCT balls to get the most accurate spin numbers out of the Garmin R10 but I've happily used mine a lot in the past with my normal gamers. 

 

It would be nice if someone brings a device to market that works with any decent ball. Or alternatively someone produces a cheaper RCT type of ball.

 

As SE Gamer mentioned we chew through these balls fairly quickly.  

[Simpsonia]

2 hours ago, kiwihacker said:

Yeah I have to say the necessity of using those RPT balls is a disappointing aspect of the Rapsodo. I know you need RCT balls to get the most accurate spin numbers out of the Garmin R10 but I've happily used mine a lot in the past with my normal gamers. 

 

It would be nice if someone brings a device to market that works with any decent ball. Or alternatively someone produces a cheaper RCT type of ball.

 

As SE Gamer mentioned we chew through these balls fairly quickly.  

 

I mean I get it, we're kind of at the limit of technology that's unencumbered by patents right now. Rapsodo came up with a novel method of using low speed cameras (sub 1k FPS) to determine spin by using balls that have unique patterns on each different hemisphere. You get the ball speed from the radar and have two pictures with patterns showing and work backward from there. It's ingeniously simple if you think about it. All the other optical methods of determining spin require much more expensive high-speed cameras and/or are covered by patents from Foresight, or are potentially covered by the Skytrak contract Rapsodo is under with GolfTec. 

 

It's the same reason the R10 can't directly measure spin axis, because Trackman and Flightscope patents likely have all the radar-specific methods covered. 

 

Edit as for a cheaper RCT ball, you can just buy sheets of metal dots from ebay for super cheap and apply to any ball you want to get the same effect. 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Simpsonia

[Bubbtubbs]

26 minutes ago, Simpsonia said:

 

I mean I get it, we're kind of at the limit of technology that's unencumbered by patents right now. Rapsodo came up with a novel method of using low speed cameras (sub 1k FPS) to determine spin by using balls that have unique patterns on each different hemisphere. You get the ball speed from the radar and have two pictures with patterns showing and work backward from there. It's ingeniously simple if you think about it. All the other optical methods of determining spin require much more expensive high-speed cameras and/or are covered by patents from Foresight, or are potentially covered by the Skytrak contract Rapsodo is under with GolfTec. 

 

It's the same reason the R10 can't directly measure spin axis, because Trackman and Flightscope patents likely have all the radar-specific methods covered. 

 

Edit as for a cheaper RCT ball, you can just buy sheets of metal dots from ebay for super cheap and apply to any ball you want to get the same effect. 

It's been a while since I read about the hardware, but I think Skytrak isn't even using a proper camera but infrared CMOS image sensors instead. 

[Walkerdb7]

4 hours ago, SE Gamer said:

 

It's funny in the Rapsodo group there are a bunch of people who've made comments like, "It comes with 3 balls, how many do you need?" Would guess these are coming from guys who've never used a LM/sim, or only used one sporadically at best.

I bought a sleeve of RCT on eBay for Garmin because of my scrutiny I’d use this after the honeymoon phase and trying to minimize my investment. 
 

I had the same logic. Hit a ball, grab it, and reset… it’ll keep me from from just over swinging too quickly and getting bad habbits. Never thought about durability 

5 hours ago, rlb4 said:

Unfortunately he didn't/couldn't use the RCT ball which would make the Garmin more accurate. He had to use the RPT ball in order for the Rapsodo to give spin #'s. It would be better to compare both individually to a GC Quad using each of their RPT/RCT balls and then compare the differences from GC Quad.

He did a few shots with RCT to highlight to newbies that the Garmin works better with them. 

 

But, I completely agree, his control should have been a fitter level launch monitor.
 

hopefully MGS does one too and does it right. Would be awesome to have 2 professionally done shootouts 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Walkerdb7

[Walkerdb7]

On 3/29/2023 at 8:28 PM, SE Gamer said:

 

Not necessarily. If you don't mind their cartoonish simulation, you can get by with just the $200 rapsodo membership. Alternatively, I think a lifetime awesome golf license is around $350 (which includes a few courses). If you want to go E6, you're looking at around $300 more each year. So if the latter is your choice, you're gonna be paying $500 a year for the rapsodo sub and E6.

 

In two years, that's Mevo+ money. Which gives you 6 free E6 courses in addition to all the Flightscope software.

What happens if you pay $0? Do you at least get the driving range?