Sonocaddie v300

[chrisfx811]

More rounds under the belt, and a golf buddy of mine has an SG5 now.

1. Sonocaddie's stock maps are not that hot for many courses. I just played a tree lined course, and had very little objects mapped except for bunkers and water. Doglegs, end of fairways, etc were not on the map. By comparison, my friend's sg5 seems to have much more useful information available in stock form.

Now, the fact that I was able to adjust and customize all the holes as I played was a huge plus, just not for today's scoring.
This is a major shortcoming if you're looking for something to be more helpful on courses you may only play once or twice.

2. Battery life is still exceptional
3. Water resistance is NOT. I have had condensation on the inside of my screen on 2 occasions now. I'm going to check the seal and tightness of the screws, but if the problem persists I may have to test Sonocaddie's CS.

4. 6 points is generally enough, but the ability to add a couple more would be useful. Depending on the thoroughness of Skycaddie's personnel. the SG5 may have more information per hole.

[chrisfx811]

Another round where the unit disappointed me. Distances to the green where close to my friend's sg5, which is fine Unfortunately it was the other distances that I felt were less than desirable.
The course in question is a 27 hole facility, and it did not have the overhead hole view feature, just the chart style view.
My gripe is that the distances they chose to log were silly.

an uphill par 3 with bunkers in front of either side of the green. They gave distances to the front of the bunker?!?! On a par 3! How about giving distances to clear either bunker in case of tucked pins?

Couple of doglegs where they gave distances to the front of the inside bunkers, rather than distances to the doglegs, or to clear the bunkers on the inside of the dogleg.

Otoh, my friend's sg5 had much better information available to him. His green slope feature was pretty cool as well.

I hate to say it, but, that is why paying a yearly subscription fee gets you more in return.

Checked out the uPro at the clubhouse, and the images were really nice resolution, but as usual, it was skuggish and time consuming to access the necessary info in the short time I played with it. Unintuitive.

[hacker1]

[quote name='chrisfx811' post='2014344' date='Oct 19 2009, 09:31 AM']Another round where the unit disappointed me. Distances to the green where close to my friend's sg5, which is fine Unfortunately it was the other distances that I felt were less than desirable.
The course in question is a 27 hole facility, and it did not have the overhead hole view feature, just the chart style view.
My gripe is that the distances they chose to log were silly.

an uphill par 3 with bunkers in front of either side of the green. They gave distances to the front of the bunker?!?! On a par 3! How about giving distances to clear either bunker in case of tucked pins?

Couple of doglegs where they gave distances to the front of the inside bunkers, rather than distances to the doglegs, or to clear the bunkers on the inside of the dogleg.

Otoh, my friend's sg5 had much better information available to him. His green slope feature was pretty cool as well.

I hate to say it, but, that is why paying a yearly subscription fee gets you more in return.

Checked out the uPro at the clubhouse, and the images were really nice resolution, but as usual, it was skuggish and time consuming to access the necessary info in the short time I played with it. Unintuitive.[/quote]
These silly distances could easily be deleted and remapped by you, correct? I have run into situations where my course made some changes in bunkers, tees, greens, etc., but didn't find it that troublesome to correct them. Just curious.

[chrisfx811]

[quote name='hacker1' post='2015583' date='Oct 19 2009, 08:43 PM']These silly distances could easily be deleted and remapped by you, correct? I have run into situations where my course made some changes in bunkers, tees, greens, etc., but didn't find it that troublesome to correct them. Just curious.[/quote]
Well, I've played this course twice in the past 3 years, and it's over an hour away, so it's not a situation that I can go in and customize it. Our round this time was on a weekend, and we were put behind some type of junior tournament, so there was no way to take the time to remap it as we played either.

If the sg3.5 were built like the v300, I might rethink my purchase, but since the sg5 feels more durable than the 3.5, I'll still hang on to my v300 considering the deal I got.

I do wonder, going forward, if the Sonocaddie will continue to grow any, or if the big names will eventually make the little guys go stale.
Skycaddie is moving in the right direction, and giving good value for their recurring subscription fees.
uPro was bought by Cally, so I'd be confident in those units.
Garmin, like Sonocaddie, has a unit that depends on the quality of the map that is drawn for the unit, and wether or not it was done by someone who knows golf and what they're looking at.

[hacker1]

[quote name='chrisfx811' post='2016245' date='Oct 20 2009, 08:57 AM'][quote name='hacker1' post='2015583' date='Oct 19 2009, 08:43 PM']These silly distances could easily be deleted and remapped by you, correct? I have run into situations where my course made some changes in bunkers, tees, greens, etc., but didn't find it that troublesome to correct them. Just curious.[/quote]
Well, I've played this course twice in the past 3 years, and it's over an hour away, so it's not a situation that I can go in and customize it. Our round this time was on a weekend, and we were put behind some type of junior tournament, so there was no way to take the time to remap it as we played either.

If the sg3.5 were built like the v300, I might rethink my purchase, but since the sg5 feels more durable than the 3.5, I'll still hang on to my v300 considering the deal I got.

I do wonder, going forward, if the Sonocaddie will continue to grow any, or if the big names will eventually make the little guys go stale.
Skycaddie is moving in the right direction, and giving good value for their recurring subscription fees.
uPro was bought by Cally, so I'd be confident in those units.
Garmin, like Sonocaddie, has a unit that depends on the quality of the map that is drawn for the unit, and wether or not it was done by someone who knows golf and what they're looking at.
[/quote]
Yes, I think that a lot of the problems lie in the map makers. I play a small 9 hole course in Jackson, SC., and Sono doesn't have it mapped, and the course has no layout on the card to send. So I just map what I need and get the distances without the overhead view. I play it every Sunday, so no biggie, because I know the course. This course is in nowhere land, and the owner said that skycaddie walked the course. That is impressive, but for what I need, I will stick with my v300, because all of my other courses are mapped. And I refuse to pay an additional annual fee. Just me, tho. I researched every make and model of gps for months before I got my v300, after thousands of user reviews, every one has user issues one way or another from time to time.

[Viking Golfer]

Still happy for my V300

Only play 9 holes a week, and if I ever play a new course, I just map the points, I think is inaccurately mapped by the Sonocaddie guys. Takes me less than 30 seconds to walk to the point, where I prefer the mapping point to be, hit the EDIT button, stand still for 5 seconds and hit the RECORD button. I needed to remap 8 points on the front 9, took me less than 5 minutes total to do this and now I trust the mapping of this course 110% and I double checked it with my Nikon Callaway LR800 laser and it was spot on.

If you want to save on the annual fees, then stop complaining about inaccurate mapping points and instead redo them and record them and share them with your fellow Sonocaddie users - I'm sick of hearing complaining about something that is free to use and instead of sharing them with fellow Sonocaddie users, they just do NOTHING and come up with excuses like 'we ran out of time' or 'we had 4 scratch players behind us' ......Dohhhhhhh

I try to contribute to fellow V300 users by correcting inaccurately mapped courses in my area and load the new recordings up to the Sonocaddie database, so other users can download the new and improved mapped courses.

If other V300 owners did this, we would have the best mapped courses of all units out there.
Not saying that I'm perfect, just saying that people should learn to remap and edit mapped points instead of complaining over a great decice, which suffer from poorly mapped courses.

It's soooo darn easy to remap - everyone, who is willing to, can laern it - unfortunately not all will contribute, which is a shame

[hacker1]

'QUOTE'
If you want to save on the annual fees, then stop complaining about inaccurate mapping points and instead redo them and record them and share them with your fellow Sonocaddie users - I'm sick of hearing complaining about something that is free to use and instead of sharing them with fellow Sonocaddie users, they just do NOTHING and come up with excuses like 'we ran out of time' or 'we had 4 scratch players behind us' ......Dohhhhhhh

I love my v300 2, but where did THAT come from?

[Viking Golfer]

[quote name='hacker1' post='2017546' date='Oct 21 2009, 03:01 AM']'QUOTE'
If you want to save on the annual fees, then stop complaining about inaccurate mapping points and instead redo them and record them and share them with your fellow Sonocaddie users - I'm sick of hearing complaining about something that is free to use and instead of sharing them with fellow Sonocaddie users, they just do NOTHING and come up with excuses like 'we ran out of time' or 'we had 4 scratch players behind us' ......Dohhhhhhh

I love my v300 2, but where did THAT come from? [/quote]


Not aimed at you per se, but aimed at all the many guys who complain about the V300 device because of lack of properly mapped courses, and then they still think the annual fees for Skycaddie membership are too expensive.<B><B>So if everyone learned to correct and edit mapping points with their V300 device, we would have the worlds best mapped courses - for close to free/no annual fees.

[chrisfx811]

Viking-
I don't know who that was directed at, but since hacker and I are basically the only 2 people who have posted in the thread in recent months, I have to think it was directed at one of us.
I'm not complaining, but rather pointing out the differences between devices that I have had the opportunity to compare to my v300. The fact is, none of them are perfect, and for the sake of providing accurate reviews on this site so that others may make decisions based on user reviews I post honestly.

I don't even own a pc, I have a mac, so I tend to just DL the courses I know I'll need then go out and play. All my regular courses are tweaked to my liking, which I have stated extensively is a huge plus to this unit. If I make this map available to others, I'd probably have to email everyone notes to understand them. For ex. why did I map the rock icon on the outside edge of a dogleg? Because the course has a cartpath that closely borders the 1st cut of rough, and hitting beyond that runs into trees and worse rough. No cartpath icon, so I chose the rock.

Everyone's game is different, and considering the v300 can only map 6 points with distances aside from the green, I have to choose things that suit my game. Other players might want different points mapped.
With the stock maps, some of the points are downright useless to me, and some course features are completely omitted, similar to my thoughts on the Garmin unit. Why do I need to now that the distance to enter the creek in front of th eteebox on a par 4 is 36 yds away? It's a 380 yd hole, if I need to know that I can only hit 35yds or less w/o going in the water, I need to quit golf.

Had I paid the full price for this unit, I'd be very disappointed with it out of the box, and as a unit to play courses on a less than regular basis. If one is a golfer who travels a lot and plays various courses, especially during peak busy hours, this is not the unit to get imho.

For <$150, and for folks who play a lot of golf, especially on courses they can tweak to their liking, this may be THE unit to buy.

I mostly fall into the latter case, so I like my purchase overall, but in recent instances where I found myself in the former situation, I was disappointed with the performance of the unit.

[hacker1]

Again... Love my V300. Will not pay annual fees. Mapping/editing not an issue. No gps is perfect. To each his own. Out.

[Viking Golfer]

To Hacker 1 & Chris: Sorry, maybe I got carried away a bit here

Just read a thread in another golf forum about people, who complaint about the way the courses were mapped and that they didn't bother to edit and correct the things they didn't like........ But they STILL WOULD NOT pay for the Skycaddie device and pay for the annual fees, so basically they wanted all for free

<B><B>

Read this thread then, and got a bit carried a way
The V300 is not without faults and far from perfect, and I still use my Callaway Nikon LR 800 divce a lot from 150 yards and in, but I just feel like the V300 could be the best golf GPS EVER, if we all contributed to the course mapping by editing the mapped courses we play, and posted a small comment about why we made the new reference points and so on......

<B><B>

That's all - I would never depend on a Golf GPS alone. My laser range finder is still the best from 150 yards and in, nothing beats it from the shorter distances.......

[mountrushmore]

When I purchased my SonoCaddie V300 in January, I had spent a number of hours trying to determine what I wanted in a Golf GPS. I wanted something waterproof, durable, with a color display and a bright readable screen. Also important, a "realistic" hole overview, what my 3-year cost would be, maturity of the operating system, battery life, customization, available courses, and the ability to add new courses.

In the course of 2009, I have been delighted with the SonoCaddie V300. It has helped my golf game in a number of ways and it has made golf more fun. I believe this device was a great purchase and I look forward to continue to use it. I like the scorecard feature on it too. I thought I would use the "shot tracking" feature more, but I haven't really used it much.

[odieaxp]

I like my V300 very much but I am not as impressed with the customer service. I played a course over a month ago that had the last 7 holes of each nine yardages switched. I requested that they fix this problem and expected that seeing that they had the correct GPS information it just was not attached to the right hole it should be done quickly. They told me It would take the standard 14-21 days. It has now been over 30 days and still no fix. I am ok with fixing a bad hole here or there on my own and have had to do so on a couple of occasions but when you have a major mistake like this, that should be easy to fix, I expect quicker action. I love the unit itself and the features are great but they need to do a better job of mapping. I don't care how cheap the unit was or if the maps are free if I cant get a distance to the green its no more than a hundred dollar paperweight.

[milfordj]

I am very happy with my V-300, but lately have been having a consistent problem with it. I wear it on my belt, using the attached belt clip, and despite being very careful to always grip the unit without touching any buttons when removing it from belt and when reattaching it to belt, it consistently comes up with a different screen than the last one I used (since it does not have automatic hole advance, it should always come up with the same screen as previously used). I do not use any of the features other than yardage screens, but it will frequently come up with either the "Select Hole" screen, or a hole that is no where near the hole I last used the unit on. This requires me to do various button-pushing actions in order to arrive at the shot I am about to hit. I sure wish they had an automatic hole-advance option for persons who are not interested in using the scorecard option, assuming this might fix the problem. Any other V-300 owners with this same problem???

[irul&ublo]

[quote name='milfordj' post='2028560' date='Oct 27 2009, 08:32 AM']I am very happy with my V-300, but lately have been having a consistent problem with it. I wear it on my belt, using the attached belt clip, and despite being very careful to always grip the unit without touching any buttons when removing it from belt and when reattaching it to belt, it consistently comes up with a different screen than the last one I used (since it does not have automatic hole advance, it should always come up with the same screen as previously used). I do not use any of the features other than yardage screens, but it will frequently come up with either the "Select Hole" screen, or a hole that is no where near the hole I last used the unit on. This requires me to do various button-pushing actions in order to arrive at the shot I am about to hit. I sure wish they had an automatic hole-advance option for persons who are not interested in using the scorecard option, assuming this might fix the problem. Any other V-300 owners with this same problem???[/quote]


Nope. Mjne has been fine. I love it BTW.

[Fred99x]

I've just purchased the v300 but can't use it until next spring. I have some questions in regards to the online folder where you store your data.
1. If you create new points or changes to a course, this is saved on the gps unit and in your online folder when you upload. If you delete the course from your gps, does this delete the course from your online folders?
2. Can you keep more than 30 courses (for the birdie membership) in your online folder and thus keep all the courses that you may have created custom points on?
3. If you create points for a course not in their database and then the course does become available, will downloading the course over write the custom points?

Thanks for any input.

[frozen_rope]

1) Yes, uploading saves your marks. Deleting from unit does not delete from folder.
2) Yes.
3)Downloading a course will be in addition to one already stored on your unit. If you wanted to, you could have the same course stored 30 different ways in your unit.

I've used a V300 for two years and probably only added a mark 3 or 4 times, so don't expect personal marks is going to be a something you're doing all the time.

[quote name='Fred99x' post='2068419' date='Nov 16 2009, 11:07 PM']I've just purchased the v300 but can't use it until next spring. I have some questions in regards to the online folder where you store your data.
1. If you create new points or changes to a course, this is saved on the gps unit and in your online folder when you upload. If you delete the course from your gps, does this delete the course from your online folders?
2. Can you keep more than 30 courses (for the birdie membership) in your online folder and thus keep all the courses that you may have created custom points on?
3. If you create points for a course not in their database and then the course does become available, will downloading the course over write the custom points?

Thanks for any input.[/quote]

[Buddyjay]

Just an update on my V300. I bought it about 5 months ago and have used it for over 25 rounds. As all owners of the v300 know, the battery life is sensational. About 4 rounds for me. I don't use the shot tracking feature as much as I thought I would but it's still a nice feature.

I have used the edit feature about 5 times since I have been playing the same four courses and it's stock information has been close to perfect. I have no complaints on the yardage info., and I compare it sometimes with sprinkler heads, etc...

In the beginning, I used to track my scores and stats with it but have been using Oobgolf tracking stats so I have gotten away from this feature. But still, it's a nice added feature.

But my main reason for buying the V300 and STILL it's best feature is the entire hole display. This, to me, is where the unit really shines. That's why I don't understand why so many buy the Golf Buddy, Sky Caddie, etc. They only give you partial info and no hole view. The "true green" is nice, but that's about it.

Callaway UPRO is nice also, but I have heard many complaints about viewing it in the sun. Here too the V300 is outstanding; In direct sunlight, since it is NOT true video, you can easily see the screen...even with the backlight off.
Anyway, just my opinion. Overall still happy with the GPS.

[milfordj]

"I've used a V300 for two years and probably only added a mark 3 or 4 times, so don't expect personal marks is going to be a something you're doing all the time."

My only disappointments with the V-300 are (a) No Automatic Hole Advance, and (b) No Front / Back Green Measurements from Golfer's Location vs Middle of Fairway, and © No Measurement to Anywhere on the hole (for locating distance to a particular "Lay-Up" location). I partially solved the © short-coming by personally standing on the 100 yd blocks on each hole of my home course and "Mapping" that as a Lay-Up point. I also did this for TWO Lay-up spots on a Par-5 for (1) Best Location to hit my second shot for Approach Shot over the water, and (2) a "Lay-up" location for my third shot in case I cannot get close enough to my first spot due to a poor tee-shot or second shot. It's a spot where you can "bite-off" a portion of the lake and then have a closer "Lay-up" location to green (water prevents 100-yd Lay-up location on this hole.

Anyway, just wanted to indicate V-300 shortcomings (a--c above) and a Big Advantage -- ability to very easily "map" additional areas on each hole.

I'm still on the look-out for a Golf GPS that will meet my specific needs -- none presently available as they are currently programmed.

[OptomMN]

Addressing lack of automatic hole advancement: If you use the scorecard, after inputting your score, putts, sand,... if you advance to the next hole on the card (which is one more button push) the unit will have advanced on the entire hole view screen . It would be great if if did it automatically but the manual work around (one button depressed) isn't to difficult.

[phil75070]

[quote name='DAMolineOD' post='2107818' date='Dec 6 2009, 05:07 PM']Addressing lack of automatic hole advancement: If you use the scorecard, after inputting your score, putts, sand,... if you advance to the next hole on the card (which is one more button push) the unit will have advanced on the entire hole view screen . It would be great if if did it automatically but the manual work around (one button depressed) isn't to difficult.[/quote]

If you have to use the scorecard feature and input score, putts, etc., that is more than a "one button pressed" work around.

[frozen_rope]

#1, the scorecard feature is great and it takes two seconds, it's quicker and cleaner than using a pencil to a piece of cardboard.
#2, if you don't want to use the scorecard feature you don't have to, and you can just press one button to move you to the next hole.
[quote name='phil75070' post='2108355' date='Dec 6 2009, 10:39 PM']If you have to use the scorecard feature and input score, putts, etc., that is more than a "one button pressed" work around. [/quote]

[OptomMN]

Agreed... just press the right arrow once (while in hole view) and it moves to the next hole.... again, one button pressed. You can even go back by pressing the left arrow. Pretty simple... one button.

[milfordj]

I didn't purchase a golf GPS for scorekeeping and do not use that function. I also do not use my V300 on every hole of each course I play. This is what makes it difficult to advance to the hole for which I need readings. I use my rangefinder more often than my GPS.

[OptomMN]

[quote name='milfordj' post='2109638' date='Dec 7 2009, 04:26 PM']I didn't purchase a golf GPS for scorekeeping and do not use that function. I also do not use my V300 on every hole of each course I play. This is what makes it difficult to advance to the hole for which I need readings. I use my rangefinder more often than my GPS.[/quote]

I can understand this as I still occasionally use my Nikon 500G rangefinder. Skipping holes would require the user to advance the unit manually by cycling through the holes.

The V300 might not meet everybody's needs but I don't know if a "perfect" GPS unit exists yet. Phil75070's enthusiastic endorsement of the Golf Guru in a different thread almost led me to purchase one but I felt the V300 best met my needs.

Hope this helped anybody considering the Sonocaddie.

[Buddyjay]

[quote name='milfordj' post='2109638' date='Dec 7 2009, 03:26 PM']I didn't purchase a golf GPS for scorekeeping and do not use that function. I also do not use my V300 on every hole of each course I play. [b]This is what makes it difficult[/b] to advance to the hole for which I need readings. I use my rangefinder more often than my GPS.[/quote]


Some of you guys are making it sound like you have to have an engineering degree to advance the unit to the next hole or holess. The above poster said "this is what makes it difficult...".

i.e... if you are using the unit on the 3rd hole and don't use it again till the 18th hole, you could use the advance button to cycle through all the holes to 18. But easier yet, why don't you just use the back button which brings you to the [b]list[/b] of ALL the holes and then just pick 18? This is difficult? I don't use my unit for every hole also. But when I need it, I do the above suggestion and it takes 3 seconds to get the readings I need.

[milfordj]

Guess I'd better be more careful with my wording. I didn't mean it literally in terms of being difficult; I meant it in comparison to units with automatic hole advance (as mentioned in my earlier post). I turn on my U-Pro and see it automatically going to whichever hole I happen to be on, and wish the V-300 had this same ability. Period!!! As I said originally, I merely wanted to point out things the V-300 does NOT do, that I wished it DID do. And I still prefer it to the U-Pro because of the mapping advantage and longer battery-life, as well as being able to see it easily in ANY lighting conditions.

[OptomMN]

I agree it would be nice to have the automatic hole advance feature. If we could add this and the ability to measure to any spot on the hole the V300 would be just about perfect. I wonder if a software update could address these issues. Maybe if enough individuals contacted Sonocaddie they would consider upgrading...