Fold up Garage Sim V3 - UK - Par2Pro Stealth / SportScreen

[p3eps]

I’ve been golfing in my garage for a little over 4 and a half years. In this time I’ve been continually evolving my setup - with this being the third “restart”. I have 2 other build threads kicking about on this site. My V2 build thread can be found here: https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum...e-simulator-uk

Here’s a photo of my 95% complete V3 build - which this thread talks about. I use the new Par2Pro “Stealth” setup.



Here is a photo of my V2 build that I’ve upgraded from…



And here’s a photo of how I started - my V1 build…



Let me start off by saying there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with my V2 setup. It worked perfectly for about 2 1/2 years. I still get messages every so often complimenting me on that setup, thanking me for writing about it, and asking for advice. Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read my rant!!


Here is how and why I changed to the V3 setup…

The issue I had with V2 was about the space around me. I felt like I was having to change the swing of my driver due to things behind me. It was subconsciously eating at me knowing that I ‘may’ catch the shelves on my follow through. I’ve only ever done it a handful of times, but it made me change my indoor swing... which then effected my outdoor swing!
I’d been thinking about changing it for a while, and then I read that Par2Pro were collaborating with ‘The SportScreen’ to make a golf solution. I spoke to Cory about it, and he gave me a price for the SportScreen / SQHQ - modified to go with my existing HQ drapes.
It seemed reasonable ( a lot for shipping to UK! ), but it seemed a good solution. I could have potentially done it myself cheaper, however I’d rather pay a bit more and be sure it was going to all integrate together.

The theory was that I could fit the SportScreen in front of my garage door. It rolls up within 15 seconds, and only requires me to clip 2 bungees onto it, then close my drapes. Overall setup time - less than 2 minutes. This means I can go widescreen, and also have significantly more room to swing. My previous setup would take 15-20 mins to put away. It was pretty much permanent, with me retracting it 5 or 6 times a year when going on vacation. It protruded just a bit too much to get the cars in... and even then, I’d be scared a dirty bumper left a big mark on the screen!

The Stealth Screen seemed like a simple solution, but with a lot of work ahead of me. The downside - all of my current setup revolved around me hitting at the back wall. I’m now hitting at the front door, so everything needed to swap around.
My garage needs to be a garage 95% of the time as well as a part time golf sim room - so I have to work round my current storage requirements. The PC needed to be at the other end, my bikes moved from one side of the ceiling to the other, and I had to move some lighting. I had a TV on the wall for watching when playing - which also had to move, along with all aerial / electrical connections, as well as my network sockets.

Doesn’t sound like much - but a lot of hours went into re-shuffling everything!
Some additional shelving brackets were purchased and everything was carefully rearranged to make the best use of the available space.

Then I had to disassemble my existing setup. It was amazing how it took me weeks / months of planning and labour to put this all together, and it took a matter of hours to come down!! I did it with a lot of care to make sure nothing got damaged or touched the floor and got dirty. I managed to sell the extra bits on to another forum member to recoup some of my costs. (Screens / backing net / ceiling net and frame). A fraction of what I’d paid, but better someone getting the use of it than it gathering dust in my loft.

My 2 wooden beams for holding my frame and ceiling net came down, and were modified to be a single one for the SportScreen to go onto. This would ensure that it got screwed into something substantial rather than the drywall on the ceiling.
Once it had all been taken down and repositioned, I had to fill in LOADS of holes in the ceiling and repaint it as it was a total mess!

[p3eps]

Once all the ‘dirty’ work was complete, I attached my SQHQ screen onto the SportScreen. I immediately noticed something was wrong... there was no Velcro to attach my drapes to! It seems this was missed at manufacture. Another one got sent to me - but in the mean time, this gave me a target for aiming my projector at.
I fixed my projector bracket to the ceiling with some more heavy duty drywall fixings, and made use of the trunking from the lights to run my projector cables. Using the test pattern feature on the projector, I managed to get it all lined up without having to use any Keystone.


With an image on the SQHQ, I was able to figure out how much blank space I had at the top. This allowed me to order my ceiling netting the correct size so that it covers the blank space.
Part of using the SportScreen / SQHQ is that it needs to be anchored to the floor. Par2Pro recommend attaching a couple of small eyelet fixings to the floor and connecting a bungee between that and the bottom of the screen.
I have underfloor heating in my garage, so I’m reluctant to drill any holes in the floor - as I might go through a water pipe!
The bottom corners of my screen are right next to my plastic storage drawers. I removed the bottom drawer from each one, and bought some pieces of wood from the local hardware store. I cut and shaped some blocks, and then attached the hooks to these instead. Now, the hooks are as close to (if not closer) than they would be if I’d attached them to the floor as instructed.




Something else I realised when waiting for the replacement screen was that my hitting area suffered from multiple shadows due to me having 8 ceiling spot lights. I needed a single light focussed on my mat. I bought a surface mounted spotlight from Amazon and wired it up to the plugs on the ceiling. I purchased another Amazon smart plug too, and added it to my ‘Alexa, play golf’ routine. Now when I say that, my 8 Hue bulbs dim to a green colour, the LED strip lights go off, and the single spotlight comes on. The spotlight was aimed at the hitting mat, and solves the shadow issue - without compromising the projector brightness on the screen.


The replacement SQHQ screen arrived and was fitted. I the set the limits of the SportScreen so that it stops rolling up and down at the correct points. This makes the whole operation much smoother, as I simple press up or down, and the screen stops in the correct place. Trying to get the SportScreen roller to stop with the screen in the exact perfect spot was tricky... but now it does it automatically!!

With Velcro now on the screen, it was time to attach the drapes. They make a great seal on the Velcro... too good in fact! It was very difficult to undo the seal with the SQHQ only anchored at the bottom... and about 9ft of 2” Velcro attached!
I decided it would be easier if it wasn’t attached for the top 2ft, and a couple of spots in the middle. The easy way to do this was to stick some sticky back ‘loop’ Velcro to the ‘hook’ of my drape - so that it wouldn’t stick at those points.
Once I realised this would work, I peeled off the backing of the sticky back, and stuck it to a black refuse sack. It now has a non stick surface!
When the drapes are ‘closed’ to the SQHQ screen they make a good seal... but are now much easier to pull apart.

The final part of the puzzle was the ceiling protection arriving from Par2Pro. Thankfully it managed to escape import duties. I have a couple of speakers on my ceiling, so the net had to be short enough to not interfere with that.
I asked Cory for advice, and he gave me a couple of options. The one I chose was the ‘swag’ method, with an additional deflection flap.


The ceiling net had a load of eyelets, so I screwed every second one into the ceiling directly above the SportScreen.
I attached a 2 x 3ft long pieces of wood that were 4” wide and 2” tall ontop of each other to the ceiling at both sides.
The ceiling net was then attached to the wood like in the diagram from Par2Pro - pulling it as tightly as possible across the way to stop it sagging.




I’m don’t think the net across the ceiling would stand up to a direct blow from a ball, but I don’t think there is any chance of that actually happening. What it does offer is protection of the SportScreen roller with the swag. It also stops balls hit with anything more lofted than an 8iron from deflecting upwards off the screen and bouncing off the ceiling. They bounce into the swag, and fall straight to the floor. Prior to fitting this, they’d bang off the ceiling and then come flying back at me!

[p3eps]

My SportScreen and Par2Pro screen were sent as 2 separate shipments. The SportScreen was shipped from Canada on a Friday and arrived in the UK on Monday! The SQHQ screen took nearly a week. Despite it arriving in a box that must’ve been about 2m tall, the SportScreen managed to miss any import duty! The downside was that it arrived with some incorrect pieces and the main roller was dented. Credit to them - this was resolved and new parts were with me in the UK within a week.
The SQHQ screen wasn’t quite so lucky with customs, and cost me an additional £68 in duties / tax.

Once I had the SportScreen, I was able to remove the motor and see the specs of it. This allowed me to buy a suitable ‘stepdown convertor’ to make the SportScreen work at 240V in the UK. It came from Amazon and was about £25.


With some careful measuring, the SportScreen brackets were fitted to my wooden beam - and with 5 mins help from my wife, the assembled roller was placed into the brackets. You can see the Velcro strip on the roller.




With another 5 mins help, the SportScreen backing screen was attached to the Velcro on the roller. You can see how excessively long the SportScreen backing is… and where the extra strip of Velcro has been sewn on to. This allows the SportScreen backing to do well over a full rotation before the screen is attached - which secures it on.


The next step was for me to put my drapes up. My existing tracks and drapes went up using some heavy duty drywall fixings. I bought a whole stack of cheap curtain tie backs off eBay, and fixed them onto the wall in pairs. These allow me to slot my drapes when not in use and keep them tucked against the wall and completely out of the way.




The other half of my garage was changed to Philips Hue lighting. I no longer have a curtain separating the 2 halves so I need to dim them all. The downside to the Hue bulbs (other then costing about £50 each) is that they’re not that bright. Even though I have 8, they don’t light up my garage enough for using it as an actual garage.

I bought a couple of LED strip lights from Amazon to brighten it up. These were wired into the socket for my projector as wiring into the lighting circuit would have involved tearing the walls / ceiling apart. The next problem was that I needed a ladder or pole to switch them on / off from the socket on the ceiling. A simple solution was to buy an Amazon Echo and Amazon smart socket in the Black Friday sale. For £35, I am now able to control the lights by voice via Alexa. The Echo also works well for controlling my Sonos amp out there, so £35 well spent!