Keither5150 is building a new sim room.... I mean house.

[keither5150]

And I thought that I was going to die in my current house. The wife wants a new house, so we are building a new house. She asked me if I was going to design a golf sim room again..... Me walking away laughing was my answer. Picked the house today and now am looking for a lot. Sim room will be 16 x 23 x 10 foot ceilings. Basement, with sound proofing and a seating area at the far end. I was thinking of hitting 11 feet away from my screen, which is the distance that I am now with a 9 foot screen.. I may be selling my old sim with the house. If I do, I will be buying a GC2 or another PX5 system. Leaning towards the PX5 because of putting. Lots to think about.... I did design my current room in a way that I can rip out the sim an fix everything like it was never there..... I have flooring and ceiling material on hand. My current room is 14 x 29 or so. 16 feet wide will be a big improvement.

[Daddio]

In my not so humble opinion, if you are starting from scratch and are allowed to, I would hit from 16' away,
Congrats on the new crib though!!!!!

[StanMI]

Why from 16' ???? What are the advantages ????

[Daddio]

I hit from 17ft, I have a big area, 16x12ft screen, I think it feels more realistic and I think the putting is easier to get a feel for.
I don't know if there are advantages, but I like it better.

[keither5150]

Thanks I am actually 12 feet from the 8'9" screen. If I move 3 feet further back, I will still be fine. I am looking forward to having a little more width as well.

[dclindner]

Keither5150, I'm interested to hear your opinions of the PX5 over the Protee system. While they seem to use similar technologies, I'm intrigued by the camera systems in the PX5. What is your experience with the PX5 camera set-up? Are they as finicky as the Protee system?

[keither5150]

I have never had a protee system so I can only speak of GSA. My understanding of ProTee is that it is the same tech as GSA with a few exceptions. GSA uses a camera to trigger the Hcam and Vcam. This LS cam works perfectly. GSA uses the Hcam for putting. During my putting rail tests, I found that all 8 balls rolled down the rail were within 0.04 and 0.06 degrees left of center. So the cameras are extremely accurate. Setting them up is rather easy. Follow the set up diagrams. I am assuming that ProTee has a plethora of settings for speed and spin calibration. Once you understand how these adjustments work, it is not that difficult to calibrate a PX5 system. GSA has recently redid all of their speed calibration charts.....so that the right amount of speed is added or taken away for off center shots. It is close to perfect..... however, since every enclosure will have the cameras mounted slightly different than the next, fine tuning of the speed is sometimes needed. For example. As my shots go higher in LA I find that my speed is slightly too high. There is an adjustment for this. Currently, If I carry 4 yard in the basement, it goes 4 yards in the game. My full shots go as far as IRL with exception of driver and woods. I handicap my driver/ woods by 4% so that it eliminates my elevation advantage. My irons and wedges are set to match my real life distances at my elevation. I am sure that I could calibrate a PX5 system within 100 shots or so. And I would be very very close after about 10-15 shots.

Compared to launch monitors, ProTee and GSA are more complicated to set up. But once set up, you never have to touch the cameras again. I can see how newbies could find this overwhelming. IMO, Protee and GSA are incredibly accurate for the money.

I am sure that ProTee has similar adjustments. All cameras need to run off of a discrete port and should be on USB 3.0. Even though the cameras are 2.0 cameras, they will never disconnect or drop with 3.0. My cameras never had an issue since I changed to 3.0 over 2 years ago.

I have thought long and hard whether I would change sims if I build again. I have decided that I am sticking with GSA as the putting advantages are important to me. As great as the GC2 is, it still relies on putting forgiveness settings. I can add ball spin measurement to my system for as little as $1500 . At that point, all data would be measured. I am not sure that it is worth the money as, IMO, the PX5 does a fantastic job calculating spin. Ball spin would be nice to have for different types of wedge shots around the green. Outside of that, I probably wouldn't notice the difference.

So to answer your question...... my experience with GSA is good enough that I will do it again, if I sell my sim along with the house.

[dclindner]

Thanks! That was very helpful. Good luck on your new build. :-)

[keither5150]

Daddio

If the budget allows, I will be installing a 14 x 20 putting mat. I will cut out an area for the PX2 mat. Check it out.
Hopefully, it can double as a stance mat. Fiberbuilt Calgary is only about 20 minutes from me. I will have to pay them a visit.

[keither5150]

So I went to Fiberbuilt. Their mats are nothing short of awesome. However the sample given to me is far too reflective for use with my sim. So that means black carpet. After playing around on their huge 14x14 putting mat, I am really liking the green putting surface with real holes. So this means that I will consider a GC2 if I sell my sim with the house. If I don't sell the sim with the house, I will move the PX5 system and go with black flooring like I have now. The GC2 would mean 14x20 putting green looks great. I would insert a hitting strip down the middle. 8-9 months to decide....