Starting my garage buildout

[Agolfman]

Just a great forum with a ton of useful information! First post here.

I'm beginning my enclosure buildout this week: 8' x 10', 1" EMT, and PR20 impact screen. Wanted to get a sense as to how to estimate the tension required for my impact screen. I've ordered it at exactly 8' x 10' and am planning to use 6" bungees wrapped around the EMT. Nothing too unusual with that, I suppose. But, before I trim down the EMT to 8' height, I was thinking I might need to add 2-4" to provide just a little bit of vertical tension to the screen. Can't really accomplish that on the width, as the EMT is already at 10', so I may be adding waviness by modifying the height differently from the width (in relation to the PR20 sizing).

I figure the three-way corner brackets on the top and bottom add 1" each to the height, so there's a little bit of tension already being added....anyone else experiment with this, or am I just overthinking it?

[Ronsc1985]

You need enough differential between the screen periphery and the attachment points to stretch the cord. How far depends on what cord you are using. Instead of buying fixed length cord just buy a roll of unterminated cord and some adjustable terminations. One place to look for the supplies is http://cord-lock.com/cord-locks.aspx.

My opinion is 1 inch EMT is way too light. At that total weight you will be rocking the enclosure with any kind of ball speed. You need to keep the enclosure fairly fixed or your projected image will be constantly moving and somewhat out of focus. I'd use 1.5 inch minimum and 1.75 is even better. These sizes are readily available but I don't know about in EMT.

You could mount the projector to the enclosure so everything moves together but it would require a lot of bracing to mount a projector to a 1 inch pipe cage. Mine is mounted to the cage but the pipe is 1.75 and it is a full cage 13x9 with 8 foot sides.

The long and short of it is how rigid do you want the enclosure. I'm a fan of fairly rigid as I have had cages made with 1.25 pipe and they moved around a lot. It wasn't a big deal as I was just hitting balls with a launch monitor, not trying to project anything onto the screen.

Another thing to consider is a way to ensure a crooked shot doesn't hit the side or top tubing unless you like dodging golf balls. This can be accomplished by having the netting held in some kind of tension offset 6 or so inches from the frame. This assumes you have side and top netting which in my opinion is necessary, as no matter how good a golfer, you will hit occasional hosel rocket and sky ball occurs. If you plan on use by any occasional or beginning golfers this will be a regular occurrence with 100% certainty.

[Agolfman]

Ronsc1985 - thank you, excellent insights.

I'll take a look now at the cord you suggested. Bummed to hear that the 1" might not be heavy enough....my thinking was to attach the back four corners to my garage wall for bracing purposes. I also wanted to make sure it didn't topple forward inadvertently...we've seen that with youth soccer goals and it's a huge safety concern, which needs more awareness. My enclosure is going to be 48" deep, so I was hopeful it would be sturdy enough, but that has me thinking now. Read that either here of another forum as to its sufficiency.

Point well taken on the projected image....keeping the focal plane constant is going to be important no doubt...I hadn't really thought about image maintenance. Since I'm using a repurposed projector from my first theater build, I'm stuck with the 16-17 foot throw distance (12' ceiling + keystone adjustment will hopefully work without introducing a shadow...I'll be testing that once the screen gets set up...if a short throw is needed I'll go down that path.

Had an idea on the EMT ricochet issue....have bought 1" pipe insulation to see of it's effective...sort of a dense foam that has a seam for the tiedown/bungee to exit from. For all I know, it's going to split at first contact, but it's something. Was planning on covering the sides and top of the cage with black netting and then black velvet type material as a second layer for light control and to help on image quality...figured I'd wrap the whole EMT and insulation and tie that into the netting somehow (maybe grommet it).

Many thanks for the response and guidance! Pictures will be posted as I progress...

[Bubba22]

Yes post some pictures.

[Hoosierdaddy]

Agolf.... If you have not already bought the insulation..... Save your money..... All it does is make the target bigger. It don't slow the ball, deflect it or anything. It just makes the sound a little different. The best bet is a net. If you look at many commercial simulator bays they have a wavy length of netting or heavy material the width of the bay. It is attached at or close to the screen then drooped down a couple feet then attached again and this is repeated. So you end up with a bunch of loops of the material. My thought was if you used a light black carpet, the loops would catch any ball that gets up there. another idea is to hang the carpet in strips to form rows that would catch the balls. Both methods are used in commercial setups. I have a 1" frame enclosure. and I have no problem with it moving around. My projector is not hung from the enclosure so I don't experience the movement of the video frame. If you are only going to use a 4' enclosure you will have to attach it to something.. My enclosure is much bigger and thus has some beef to it. I just have a net that I trimmed down to 2' x 10' and I attached it 1' out from the screen on the top and then angled it back to the screen. Now I don't play dodge ball anymore.

[Agolfman]

First photo (sorry it's sideways, not sure how to adjust that yet): right side of a two car garage, plenty of space to swing, based on last winter's indoor net. As I mentioned, going with 8' x 10', so it should cover the entire side. Bikes are being moved, wreaths 😉 (boss makes that call) and skis are staying on the wall.

You can see the roll of carpeting that I glued to the floor (about a foot or so). My plan is to have a good size putting surface, but one that I could roll into the enclosure when not being used. I figure you need to practice the short game more than the long game...the mat will go down right on top of it...and be stored out of the way as well.

Somewhat of a pain, but I can keep the bay open for my boss' car, when not in use. Takes 10 seconds to roll it out and a bit longer to roll it up...I cut it to just inside of ten feet so it will roll right inside the 4 foot enclosure space when I need to get a car in the garage (nightly). Might be good, might not, but a good risk to take given it was about $0.40 per foot at HD. It's 10'sh x 22' in length. Probably runs about a 12, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

Going to start trimming the EMT to size next.

[Agolfman]

Just finished framing up the cage, seems stable and well balanced, level, etc. Rolled out the carpet for this shot...time to move some bikes...still haven't figured out the picture orientation yet, will work on that...

Still waiting for the PR20 to arrive, that's probably going to be another few days.

[SwingMotor]

If you use Windows open your pic's with Windows Live Gallery and then you can reorient your pic's right side up.

[Agolfman]

Been gathering and setting up some odds and ends over the past week:

- pulled the trigger on a Skytrak, arrives in two days...pretty psyched actually about the possibilities on the horizon. Well read now on the frustrations of some of the users, and seems like most would still go down the same path

- getting my PR20 also in two days, so there'll be some more progress soon!

- hung my projector (Infocus 7210) approximately 20 feet back from the screen. Made some test swings, no shadows, and a fairly good image quality on the second layer white tarp I'm hanging in back of the PR20. Hung it slightly off from center due to the garage door opener, but that worked out well (got lucky) as it shoots where a lefty player would stand which is not an issue in my household....

- bought and installed an AppleTV for AirPlay purposes via my iPad. Tested and ready to go.

- decided I had a bunch of golf related gear (I do my own equipment builds), and figured I needed something to put the iPad on anyway, so I bought/assembled one of these: http://t.harborfreight.com/580-lb-ca...kduckgo.com%2F
It looks really great...adds a "studio" feel to the garage build....added a small fluorescent light underneath to have some lighting for the mat when the tool cart is rolled next to it...that way I don't have to have too many lights on in the garage when I practice, washing out the screen

- to that end, added a couple of window shades for the exterior windows and bought some fabric to Velcro over the garage door windows, to reduce ambient light. Pretty cool stuff, it's "chalkboard" fabric from Jo-Ann's, fairly rigid and 100% light blocking. Cut the fabric into 48" lengths and velcroed onto the garage doors...worked great.

Have a feeling I'll be done in two days and ready for some live swings...just hopeful now that the backend of Skygolf360 is functional.

[Bubba22]

Sounds like its all coming together well. Post some pic when you get a chance.

[wbond]

agolfman-can you post a pic of what you are doing for the garage door windows. I need a solution for mine and this sounds like a great idea.

For the skygolf, are you referring to the shots showing up on the website? Mine are all logged, but it looks like others aren't so lucky.

[Agolfman]

Hope this helps...Cut into 48" sections, approx 28" high. Material is called "chalkboard fabric" and goes for about $4.99 per yard.

On the second question, yes, was referring to logging (and subsequently viewing) shots on the website.

[Agolfman]

Current state of my build...impact screen scheduled for delivery tomorrow.

[Agolfman]

Finished and am live tonight. Golf balls are in the air.

Will post pics tomorrow. Very happy with most of the setup. Made one important change already....the idea of a white tap behind the PR20 had the intended picture quality gain, but at the expense of noise. As many have pointed out here and in other places, it's just too loud. I removed it and probably reduced 80% of the noise on impact. As was mentioned, softer blackout cloth will probably be a better choice.

Had a number of challenges/learnings with the SkyTrak unit. Mostly around initial configuration on my network. The iPad struggled with finding the ST and it took a couple of iPad restarts to get it right. I'll add to the ST forum as well. I think the data is decent, but shot pickup was hit to miss, particularly with my son's shots. 60/40 for him, more like 85/15 for me.

I can imagine the driving range might get old....and the Sim integration is a must have....

Anyway, I appreciate the help and guidance of the good folks on this forum and thread, all of whom helped immeasurably! Thank you!

[Bubba22]

Awesome. Coming along well. Sim play is a nice option to have. Keep us posted.