Shotscope X5

[chris1967]

20 hours ago, stevestrike said:

Just searched for the X5 to see if anyone else has had the issues I went through, and apparently the answer is 'yes', even though shotscope support indicated to me that this was not a widespread issue. 

 

Got one of the first rounds of watches, and then subsequently replaced it with another one last week.  Both had the same issue: the watch stops detecting any tags, and the crown dial will not scroll.  The only 'fix' is a hard reboot which dumps your round, and you have to start over.  Way to distracting to futz with during a round.  So both watching on the latest and greatest firmware had the same exact issue.

Sent the 2nd watch back yesterday and got a full refund.  I really wanted this product to live up to the potential it has, but I can't trust it on the course.

 

Edit to add that Shotscope support, while a little slow, was great at getting back to me and trying to resolve the issue.  I really like the company and I hope they can get this figured out.  They didn't give me any hassle about the return, or hesitate when it seemed a replacement watch might fix the issue.

This is what I'm afraid of, frankly. My replacement arrives in a few days, and while I am hoping for a better experience, I wouldn't bet my lunch money on it.

 

I have poked around a bit on discussion boards and YT comments, and I simply can't find any glowing reviews or endorsements from anyone AFTER they received and used the watch. The general sentiment seems to be either, "Terrible; useless" or "Seems like it has good potential, BUT ..."

 

So either the "reviewers" who received sample units in advance got hand-picked, debugged versions, or they never tested the devices at all and just based their reviews on marketing copy. Neither would surprise me, but again, seems like a risky brand move to hope that the blowback doesn't spill over into outlets that are more mainstream than a wrx discussion thread.

[phil75070]

3 hours ago, chris1967 said:

This is what I'm afraid of, frankly. My replacement arrives in a few days, and while I am hoping for a better experience, I wouldn't bet my lunch money on it.

 

I have poked around a bit on discussion boards and YT comments, and I simply can't find any glowing reviews or endorsements from anyone AFTER they received and used the watch. The general sentiment seems to be either, "Terrible; useless" or "Seems like it has good potential, BUT ..."

 

So either the "reviewers" who received sample units in advance got hand-picked, debugged versions, or they never tested the devices at all and just based their reviews on marketing copy. Neither would surprise me, but again, seems like a risky brand move to hope that the blowback doesn't spill over into outlets that are more mainstream than a wrx discussion thread.

I'm willing to bet that the positive experiences far outnumber the issues. It is just that the majority of those people don't go looking for places to post about them. Generally, if the item meets expectations, you don't hear about it. You tend to only hear about the extremes, problems on the one hand and exceeding expectations on the other. 

 

There were startup issues with the V3, too, and those got worked out, and I have found it to be very reliable. I've had both good and poor experiences with the X5. I had a flawless experience after doing a factory reset, and I'm hoping that "fix" will last beyond just one round. Unfortunately, I don't get to play again until at least next Tuesday to find out.

[Dave2golf2]

After playing my 4th round with the X5 after upgrading to 2.0.90 it seemed to perform a bit better, although it did take two attempts to get the GPS signal at the start of the round. The other odd thing I noticed is that I'm 100% positive I selected the White tees at the beginning of the round, but the app recorded all my tee shots from the Blue tees instead. Apparently the app/watch is not using the GPS to determine your location on the tee box - instead it appears to be using it's pre-determined idea of where the tee boxes are instead of the GPS. This seemed to be confirmed since the yardages were showing some of my drives in the 300-350 yard range (I typically drive 225-240) so something was definitely off. Looking at the shot tracks in the web app, it clearly shows my drives originating from all the Blue tee box locations in the aerial imagery and the scorecard itself also indicated Blue tees not White, which in some cases on this particular course were 60-80 yards difference. That's not good if the GPS is not using your actual location on the tee box to set your starting location.

[phil75070]

17 minutes ago, Dave2golf2 said:

After playing my 4th round with the X5 after upgrading to 2.0.90 it seemed to perform a bit better, although it did take two attempts to get the GPS signal at the start of the round. The other odd thing I noticed is that I'm 100% positive I selected the White tees at the beginning of the round, but the app recorded all my tee shots from the Blue tees instead. Apparently the app/watch is not using the GPS to determine your location on the tee box - instead it appears to be using it's pre-determined idea of where the tee boxes are instead of the GPS. This seemed to be confirmed since the yardages were showing some of my drives in the 300-350 yard range (I typically drive 225-240) so something was definitely off. Looking at the shot tracks in the web app, it clearly shows my drives originating from all the Blue tee box locations in the aerial imagery and the scorecard itself also indicated Blue tees not White, which in some cases on this particular course were 60-80 yards difference. That's not good if the GPS is not using your actual location on the tee box to set your starting location.

Was it all 18 holes? The system places the tee shot at the location where you hit the ball from, not the selected tees on the watch (on the V3 you didn't even select tees before playing) unless the area isn't mapped as a tee box, or the club you were using wasn't recognized. Those are the only times with either the V3 or X5 where my tee shot was placed on a different tee box. Were shots other than the tee shots properly recorded?

[Dave2golf2]

Yes- it was all 18 holes. The X5 shot tracks showed my tee shots starting from the blue tee boxes on every hole, and it was clear as day in the aerial imagery that the tee box that was used was the blue tees, there was a significant difference between white and blue on almost every hole. Other than that, yes the other shots were properly recorded. I sent an email to support asking for an explanation.

 

I was poking around the Shot Scope support page and found this:

Why does my tee shot always move to a different tee?

 

From the answer provided in that support post, it appears that Shot Scope is NOT using the GPS to determine your location on the tee box, instead it's relying on pre-mapped locations of expected tee boxes, so if this error happens it's a course mapping error. I don't understand why the app wouldn't just use your GPS location on the tee box? Many times the tees are moved around quite a bit - so maybe there's 20 yards difference between the white tees forward vs. back, so that's going to introduce an accuracy error in your driving distance. This could be avoided if the GPS was used instead of a preset location for tee boxes.

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Dave2golf2

[phil75070]

I played my 2nd round after doing the complete factory reset. I played with it unlocked, and moved it just a little farther up my arm so that the glove would not interfere with it. The performance was flawless! It was also much easier accessing various screens by just pushing the crown button and getting last shot distances just by tapping on the club.

[phil75070]

5 hours ago, Dave2golf2 said:

From the answer provided in that support post, it appears that Shot Scope is NOT using the GPS to determine your location on the tee box, instead it's relying on pre-mapped locations of expected tee boxes, so if this error happens it's a course mapping error. I don't understand why the app wouldn't just use your GPS location on the tee box?

It does use your GPS location even for tee shots, provided that where that GPS location is has been mapped as a tee box! One hole at my course has a temporary tee box. Since that area is not mapped as a tee box, the shot is recorded as taking place from the rough and a tee shot from the closest mapped tee box to the actual location I teed off from is added. It probably has to do with how the data is accumulated for tee shots.

Edited May 16, 2023 by phil75070

[Dave2golf2]

53 minutes ago, phil75070 said:

It does use your GPS location even for tee shots, provided that where that GPS location is has been mapped as a tee box! One hole at my course has a temporary tee box. Since that area is not mapped as a tee box, the shot is recorded as taking place from the rough and a tee shot from the closest mapped tee box to the actual location I teed off from is added. It probably has to do with how the data is accumulated for tee shots.

So I guess I should assume that since the app mapped all of my shots from the blue tees, even though I teed off from the whites, that the white tees are not mapped and it just placed me at the nearest tee box that was mapped?

[phil75070]

22 minutes ago, Dave2golf2 said:

So I guess I should assume that since the app mapped all of my shots from the blue tees, even though I teed off from the whites, that the white tees are not mapped and it just placed me at the nearest tee box that was mapped?

That would be my understanding.

[chris1967]

Well, I hope I don't jinx myself, but QC issues aside, I think I've finally got a working watch.

 

Received the replacement Monday, and straight out of the box, it wouldn't charge. Fortunately, Shot Scope didn't ask for the accessories back on the return, and the problem seems to be with the charging cable, because the old one works perfectly.

 

Went out for a 9-hole league round yesterday and was able to get in four additional holes before dark. Watch found the GPS signal within seconds, and tracked tags almost flawlessly. One error was my own -- I pulled the wrong club walking up to my ball, and when I pulled a second club, it recorded two strokes, so it had me at 56 after 13 holes, when it should have been 55.

 

It also seemed to guess on two other shots, but the guesses were reasonable -- it recorded a 3 hybrid after I overshot a green with a 5 iron and it rolled out almost 220 yds, and it seemed to miss an approach from the right rough (showed me hitting from left fairway) but it guessed 8 iron from 135 yds, when I'd actually hit a punched 9. Everything else was spot on, including number of putts and positioning on the green. Editing took just a couple of minutes.

 

Keeping my fingers crossed, because if it works like it did yesterday, it's a real asset both on the course and afterward, in identifying areas for improvement. 

[phil75070]

9 hours ago, Ex Blade User said:

My watch all of a sudden stopped tracking shots and will not find the tags when I try that in settings 

Do a reset by holding the crown button in. You will see a countdown, then the X5 logo screen. Release the crown button at that point.

[phil75070]

42 minutes ago, Ex Blade User said:

Doesn’t help. Also did factory reset. Wrote them and still haven’t heard back 

So strange that so many of us have such different experiences with the same device. The reset worked for me, but not for you. Go figure!

[Teebs]

I do wish the crown wasn't so sensitive. I use the screen lock to prevent accidents but it's forever thinking i'm trying to do something.

[FG123]

New firmware 2.1.13 out today - fingers crossed.  New features look good and hopefully bug fixes improve things, still not very happy with mine.

[Sp4zRX]

1 hour ago, FG123 said:

New firmware 2.1.13 out today - fingers crossed.  New features look good and hopefully bug fixes improve things, still not very happy with mine.

Where do you find information on the firmware updates? Do you have a link to a page that describes the bug fixed and new features? I can’t seem to find this info anywhere. 

[Sp4zRX]

Does the score you record transfer over to your round in the app so you can know which holes have strokes missing?

 

The scoring feature was one of the main reasons I upgraded but it’s kind of pointless if I have to keep a separate score anyway. I have gone back to the V3 but considering giving the X5 another try after the firmware updates. 

[FG123]

1 hour ago, Sp4zRX said:

Where do you find information on the firmware updates? Do you have a link to a page that describes the bug fixed and new features? I can’t seem to find this info anywhere. 

Received an email, assume you can subscribe somehow?  Can't find a webpage either.  Here's a summary anyway: -

 

What's New?

- Fixes reboot bug (rounds crashing/ending unexpectedly)

- New F/M/B screen to improve swiping to other screens

- New last shot widget to improve readability (based on user feedback)

- Penalties shortcut added to scoring widget (based on user feedback)

[Sp4zRX]

3 hours ago, FG123 said:

Received an email, assume you can subscribe somehow?  Can't find a webpage either.  Here's a summary anyway: -

 

 

Thanks. I am subscribed. I saw the email after reading your post. 

[phil75070]

5 hours ago, Sp4zRX said:

Does the score you record transfer over to your round in the app so you can know which holes have strokes missing?

 

The scoring feature was one of the main reasons I upgraded but it’s kind of pointless if I have to keep a separate score anyway. I have gone back to the V3 but considering giving the X5 another try after the firmware updates. 

Scoring and tracking are not connected; they are supposedly working on that. 

 

Played a round this morning with the new firmware. No issues, flawless execution, no missed shots. Playing tomorrow and Friday. Will see if the new firmware holds up for multiple rounds.

[dodgyman]

1 hour ago, phil75070 said:

Scoring and tracking are not connected; they are supposedly working on that. 

 

Played a round this morning with the new firmware. No issues, flawless execution, no missed shots. Playing tomorrow and Friday. Will see if the new firmware holds up for multiple rounds.

 

Agreed that linking scoring and tracking would be nice, but I'm happy they're focusing on the damn thing just working. Fingers crossed the crashes and missed shots are addressed, this thing is killing me. I want to love it.. I really do.

[Teebs]

Played on the new software tonight and no issues. Also seemed to pick GPS up better...

[chris1967]

Just a public service message: Apparently you can do a hard reset mid-round without losing tracking data already recorded. Touch screen stopped responding half way through last night's league round. Did a hard reset, which reset the scoring function, but I went on to play another five or six holes. When I synced with my phone after the round, data both pre- and post-reset came through as part of a single, uninterrupted round. Good to know.

 

Also noted: Just going to have to get in the habit of tapping the tags on the band of the watch before I hit a shot. When I forget, the watch detects the tag less than half the time. 

[phil75070]

10 hours ago, chris1967 said:

Just a public service message: Apparently you can do a hard reset mid-round without losing tracking data already recorded. Touch screen stopped responding half way through last night's league round. Did a hard reset, which reset the scoring function, but I went on to play another five or six holes. When I synced with my phone after the round, data both pre- and post-reset came through as part of a single, uninterrupted round. Good to know.

 

Also noted: Just going to have to get in the habit of tapping the tags on the band of the watch before I hit a shot. When I forget, the watch detects the tag less than half the time. 

Was this with the latest firmware update, 2.1.13?

[mc2]

Earlier in this thread I said I wasn't convinced on the X5 as an upgrade from the V3 and I wasn't going to buy one. 

 

3 days later I bought one (LOL).

 

6 weeks later I've had enough and I've sent it back for a refund.

 

The software bugs are annoying, but honestly I just find the X5 incredibly frustrating and unintuitive. The touch screen, the jog wheel and the software - all of it sucks. 

 

I went back to my V3 yesterday and man it was such a god damn relief. So simple and perfect. 

 

 

[phil75070]

3 hours ago, mc2 said:

Earlier in this thread I said I wasn't convinced on the X5 as an upgrade from the V3 and I wasn't going to buy one. 

 

3 days later I bought one (LOL).

 

6 weeks later I've had enough and I've sent it back for a refund.

 

The software bugs are annoying, but honestly I just find the X5 incredibly frustrating and unintuitive. The touch screen, the jog wheel and the software - all of it sucks. 

 

I went back to my V3 yesterday and man it was such a god damn relief. So simple and perfect. 

 

 

That's too bad, because this latest firmware release, granted based on only two rounds, has resolved every issue I have had with the X5. Two flawless rounds completed - no missed shots, no stopping of tag recognition, no wild placement of shots, no wrong clubs indicated, no reverting to the watch face....

[Teebs]

5 minutes ago, phil75070 said:

That's too bad, because this latest firmware release, granted based on only two rounds, has resolved every issue I have had with the X5. Two flawless rounds completed - no missed shots, no stopping of tag recognition, no wild placement of shots, no wrong clubs indicated, no reverting to the watch face....

 

Same for me, zero issues

[chris1967]

6 hours ago, phil75070 said:

Was this with the latest firmware update, 2.1.13?

Nope, got the update notice later that same evening. Did the update with no problem, but haven't had a round since then. Will test this weekend.

[Glock917]

Sorry to see a lot of post being mainly about issues but I guess that’s what these boards are for. 
 

So to turn the narratives my X5 has been as expected. I’ve updated firmware every time I got the email diligently. I maybe had one crash and very few missed shots nor phantom placement of shots. I actually get additional shots tagged when I’m just carrying a couple clubs across the green getting to my ball and I’m just swinging one handed haha. 
 

ive never had the X3 as I’ve had the handheld H4 which I had to manually tag each club and turned into me tagging 1 in every 4 times lol. So it’s nice to have like >95% be uploaded correctly with a few minor adjustments. 
 

biggest gripe is definitively the operating system feedback and speed. I basically try not to go into the menu during the round cause it’s a bit clunky. That’s why I don’t pause the tagging cause I don’t like going into the menu. Only time is when I need to change the pin position for correct yardage. 
 

but overall it’s doing as expected I’m sure if my unit has some of the on here I’ll be hesitant to keep and look elsewhere. However if it wasn’t for the early bird special I’ll be hard pressed to pay $300 retail for this unit YMMV

[Miker20890]

any way to get a longer band for the x5?

[phil75070]

10 hours ago, Ex Blade User said:

Very disappointed in the customer service. Now a second message about the tags not reading and after 4 days still zero response. So a total of 2 weeks of no responses. Seems weird as they used to be very quick and helpful. Maybe they’re overwhelmed because the x5 has way too many issues. 

Is this "not reading tags" on the course? Have you tested using the Read Tags function in Settings? Mine once stopped reading tags on the 16th hole during one round and wouldn't recognize any tags, new or old, when I used that setting when I got home. A hard reset, hold the crown button in until you see the X5 logo screen, resolved that problem for me.

 

You can also try a complete factory reset, where you continue to hold the crown button in until you are presented with three choices. Let go of the crown button, then press it twice to choose factory reset, the bottom of the three options listed. Then push in the bottom button to confirm. It will ask you to connect to the app (keep your phone awake). It'll take roughly 5 minutes to reset and apply the latest firmware. You will then have to go through the setup process (all except Bluetooth pairing) just like it came out of the box.

 

This, with the latest firmware, resolved all of my problems. Now, if none of that works, you have a bad watch. Give it a try. What do you have to lose?