Yupiteru GST7-BLE Golf Swing Trainer

[nkurz]

There's a good thread from a couple years ago about the Yupiteru launch monitor: 

 

But there's nothing specific yet for the more recent Bluetooth enabled model GST7-BLE: https://www.yupiteru.co.jp/products/golf_trainer/gst-7ble/

 

If you are not familiar with it, this a low priced but seemingly accurate Japanese-made launch monitor.  It measures swing speed (with or without a ball) and ball speed (net or free flight).  It estimates distance based on a simple algorithm and what club you tell it you are using.  It calculates Smash Factor, but does not measure launch direction, launch angle, or spin.  

 

Its main pluses are that it's compact, seemingly accurate, and inexpensive.  Its main minuses are that the interface is only in Japanese, and it's generally only available direct from Japan.  I bought mine late last year from an Ebay seller (tenpurasamurai_tps) for about $140.  It was a little slow to ship because of holidays, but otherwise a very smooth transaction.  

 

I haven't used it a lot, but I've been very satisfied with it so far.  It's replacing a much older BEL Swing Mate that gave up the ghost.  While the Yupiteru features are limited compared to modern more expensive launch monitors, compared to the BEL it's pretty advanced, being able to measure both swing speed and ball speed.  And it seems like many of the much fancier models aren't able to measure swing speed without a ball!

 

The Japanese-only interface isn't ideal, but I haven't actually ran into major issues with it.  It's definitely not for everyone, though.  I don't read Japanese, but I did live in Japan for a bit, so I'm capable of memorizing a few things and not scared of being surrounded by unfamiliar characters.  If you think you'd be put off by being surrounded by things you don't understand, this probably would be a reason to skip it.   

 

In addition to the characters, all the speeds are measured only in meters/second.  This is fine if you are starting from scratch, but can be troublesome if you already have a baseline of miles/hour.    Estimated distances can be switched between meters or yards.  Individual clubs can be assigned a different "multiplier" if you find the estimates consistently wrong.  I'm not certain the absolute speeds are right,  but they are within the range of what charts tell me I should expect and for what I've seen measured on other devices.  Smash Factor seems to accurately correspond to impact location on the face as measured with "foot spray".  

 

As you might guess from the name, there is a phone app that can connect to the device to provide a different readout.  It also gives you easier access to some of the more complex settings.  The official apps (only in Japanese) are available for Apple and Android.  I was able to install the Android version without much difficulty.  There seems to be a third-party Apple app "Golf Vision" that adds the ability to do video swing capture.  And closer to home, user @BarfordGolf says he's been working on an English language version of the app for both Apple and Android that offers miles/hour measurements.  

 

English versions of the manuals don't officially exist, but mostly readable versions can made on demand with Google Translate.  I've attached the ones I made here.   If you prefer video, there's a nice Youtube introduction to most of the functionality: 

 

GST-7BLE_GST-App_quickguide-English.pdf GST-7BLE-English.pdf GST-7BLE_quickguide-English.pdf