Help Understanding Radar Interference for Mevo+

[Gresh12]

I saw on a Facebook post that someone had a TV and stand about 3-4' right of their hitting position and they were getting a bunch of misreads that stopped when they moved the stand further away. The Mevo+ manual does illustrate that air conditioners, fluorescent lights, fans, computers/tvs and fridges may cause interference but it the manual doesn't say very specifically where the problem zones are (it says to put these things behind which in my case isn't an option as my garage door is behind).

My unit seems to be working pretty well in my garage but does have some crazy low spin on some shots (probably more that I'd like, acknowledging misreads will always happen on occasion). I'm now wondering if I have to try to figure out changes to my setup.

- I had a fan sitting behind my net which was metal but not turned on. I can easily remove this.
- I have a light bulb that's in front of the Mevo+ but probably 4' in front and 10' left. I can't recall if the bulb is fluorescent or LED but I do need to light the space in the evenings. I can replace bulb easily but unsure if something that far away will present issues.
- I have a fridge (that wasn't on because it died recently but I'm planning to replace it) that is in front of the unit and about 6' left of my target. Then there is a deep freeze (that was on) which sits next to the fridge. I'm not clear if there is a signal coming off the fridge that disrupts or simply the fact it's got metal on it that is the problem. I'm now wondering if I have a setup issue as original I figured those were nowhere near an issue based on being off to the side but maybe anything in front is a problem.

I have some time this weekend to play with it but Flightscope support is closed so thought I'd start here to see if anyone knows.

[tonybrown32]

We have similar weekend activities. Tearing apart my garage as we speak to do some testing with as little metal as possible in the vicinity. Will report back after some testing.

[Gresh12]

Keep me posted. I’ll start a similar exercise tonight once my kids are in bed.

[Tom919]

If possible if you can distinguish the difference between static metal objects and those moving?

im looking to buy a Mevo+ where the screen will be directly in front of my steel garage door....

thanks

[tonybrown32]

So far, after moving some shelving, and a refrigerator... not seeing any real meaningful differences. But will explain it in more detail later.

[Dax]

fRom TM experience hitting into a net or screen that is in front of a metal garage door is not a good idea.

[Woosie]

I also have a metal garage door immediately behind my impact screen, so am looking for solutions myself. There are 3 options:

1. absorb the microwaves
2. deflect the microwaves (so they do not reflect directly back towards the Mevo+)
3. diffract the microwaves

There are very expensive professional solutions for #1. Alternatively, water is an excellent absorber of microwaves (hence why microwaves are used for cooking).. if you can figure out a way to build a vertical wall of water 2-3cm deep.

An angled board covered with metal foil (or foil-backed plasterboard) should be sufficient reflect the microwaves, say upwards towards the roof. This assumes your roof isn't metal also! 😉

There have been reports of success with using metal mesh to diffract the microwaves. This approach will reduce (but not entirely eliminate) the signal reflected directly back from the door. The size of the gaps in the mesh will need to be similar to the wavelength of the microwaves, which for the Mevo+ are about 12mm (about half an inch).

[Woosie]

There is more discussion here:

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/golf-simulator-forum/simulator-builds/241150-reducing-radar-reflections

[Tom919]

Yeah it was your thread that made me hesitate in buying the Mevo+ already!

I would love to hear from Flightscope directly that adding a mesh on the garage door is an effective solution. They must be aware of the problem given so many people would be looking to use this as a garage setup.

[Gresh12]

I made some changes and hit some balls but will get back to it later. Thought I'd update given positive progress.

- Changes I made: remove metal fan from behind net even though it wasn't in use, take down towel I had hanging to aim at (I didn't trust SkyTrak HLA), no computer in front of unit and no lights turned on
- Potential remaining disruptors: my net is on an aluminum frame but covered by the sleeve/net, there is a fridge (not running) still 6 feet left of the centre line and a freezer (running) left of that another 3-4 feet

I hit 70 balls, 5 driver, 5 hybrid (more on these later) and the rest spread over 5i, 7i, 9i, PW, 60*. For the irons:
-

I had a metal dot on for all shots
-

I had 1 9i that I hit a bit heavy where spin was 5500 which is low for me even catching it heavy
- Every well struck iron was ~1k times club plus or minus 500 which is my typical
- Heavy and thin shots knocked ~1k to ~1.5k off which is also my typical (other than the 1 9i that seemed very low but was very heavy)
- I bat close to 100% on guessing shot shape by feel on the course and on Trackman (that I take lessons on once a week), all iron shots hit today went directionally the way I expected (both HLA and shape) but a few went further right than I would have guessed based on feel. However, I find the FS app makes an offline ball look very far offline (I'm on a small iPhone screen) compared to reality. Some of the "way right" 5 irons were 22y right, not a good shot but they looked OB to me on the screen (SkyTrak/Trackman feel like the range is way wider to me). This means the offline is probably pretty reasonable and it was mostly perception to me.

For the hybrids:
- I have 8' ceilings so I can hit my 4h choked down to the bottom of grip but holding it properly I hit the ceiling
- All shots registered exactly as I would have expected based on feel

For the driver:
- As noted above, I have 8' ceilings so I can't hit my regular driver
- My club fitter took an old driver of mine and a senior ladies shaft (or something like that) and cut it down to 5i length then weighted the head to get the swing weight and feel "reasonable"
- All 5 shots had way too much backspin and went way right but I gave up pretty quickly as I decided a funky club I've never really mastered weren't great for testing

Based on my session I feel pretty good that my refrigerator (at least while not running) isn't an issue where it is and the misreads I was getting were from one of the changes I made as about 15% of shots looked off in the first few sessions I had (and we're talking driver spins on mid to short irons off) so I would have definitely had more than 1 slightly low in 60 shots. I didn't try TGC as my perception was I had more misreads the other day in TGC but that could be because a 9i that goes 200 is more annoying in a sim round than on the driving range. I'll go back down later tonight and turn the light on and see if the misreads come back (if so I'll get a bulb I know is a LED and test that) and hopefully when the fridge gets replaced and runs it doesn't cause issue.

[mcgirkke]

My screen is going to be just below a metal structural I-beam in my basement. Originally my plan for more aesthetic/safety/sound reasons was going to be to box it in with 1x6 pine boards with some insulation stuffed in there, but after thinking about the interference possibilities I may fill up some PVC pipes with water and cap them off at both ends and stack them in the I-beam’s cavity on the side that faces the mevo+ just to cover all my bases.

I feel like I am back in college where I got to do the oh-so-fun Michelson interferometer experiment with microwaves instead of lasers where our mirrors were chicken wire (much longer wavelength microwaves used.

The projector fan issues are concerning for me, because I do not have the setup flexibility to go away from a short throw. I am wondering if a reflective element for the microwaves behind the projector angled slightly upwards in line between the unit and the projector would be enough to negate the fan issues.

Might end up looking like tin foil anti-mind control hats hung all over the place... wife will love it.

[Woosie]

A single 60cm/24-inch square microwave absorbing tile costs approximately £/$60. One of these should be sufficient to fix the projector interference problem.

[tonybrown32]

Alright, after a day of re-organizing and hitting balls in my garage, trying to evaluate my Mevo+ setups.. I found no apparent differences. I started with simple adjustments, hoping something would make a difference without having to move things that were going to take a little more work... the theme trying to get as many metal objects out of the radar viewing area as possible.

My list of suspect items were, the metal rails on the bottom of my fiberbuilt hitting strips, the caster wheels and metal handle on my movable hitting platform, shelving and tool chest behind my screen, refrigerator off to the side of my screen.

As a reminder, I feel like my Mevo+ is falsely reading right spin axis on draw shots that start right of center line. That's the only real inconsistency I'm having. I will also re-iterate I have not been able to confirm my shot shape outdoors, as we still have snow, and no ranges are open yet. I haven not yet ruled myself out as the culprit for sure until I can hit some shots outdoors.

I had a Skytrak the past 3 years, and did not see this. Honeslty, with my Skytrak I had the opposite problem, as I found it incredibly difficult to re-produce a fade on my Skytrak and generally it over-reported my draw..

Here were my steps, hitting balls after each environment change. Used iPad and FS Golf app. Did not have my overhead projector turned on:

1. Removed my fiberbuilt hitting strip and hit of my stance mat
   • Slightly lower launch and distance compared to my fiberbuilt strip, attributed to tighter lie
   • no noticeable differences in spin axis
2. Moved my entire platform with caster wheels and metal handle, just laying my stance mat on the garage floor
   • I adjusted my tee height in FS Golf to accommodate
   • I noticed some differences again with ower launch angle and less distance, but attribute this to the much tighter lie having my mat without any cushion directly on the concrete
   • Again, no differences in spin axis readings
3. Removed everything from my shelving unit behind the screen and moved it as far as I could in the space I have (a couple feet outside the left side of my screen). Also moved my metal wheeled tool chest from behind my screen and placed it along a wall behind my hitting space
   • Again, no differences in spin axis
4. My refrigerator was about 4 feet outside the right edge of my screen... I moved that about 10 feet further right into the third stall of my garage
   • No noticeable differences in spin axis results

The only things I could not easily move, were my Benq 671 projector mounted at about 8.5ft high just in front of my hitting area, my garage door opener that is right next to the projector, and the metal faced exterior door that leads into my house that is just on the outside right edge of my screen. I did try to move the Mevo as close to me as possible, and moved my hitting area as close to the screen as I could so I was more directly under the projector/opener, still giving 8 feet of ball flight.. again no differences in spin axis.

So to summarize, after a number of environmental changes, none of them seemed to result in any notable differences in any of the metrics I was monitoring (spin, spin axis, HLA). An interesting confirmation is that your mat/hitting surface can make a very significant impact in your data.

It's down to the projector/garage opener, entrance door, or my swing. Can't wait to try the Mevo outside.

[Gresh12]

I hit a bunch more balls last night with my lights turned back on and in ~75 shots I had one 7 iron read at 2500 spin but the other 74 all read spin as I would have expected in terms of total spin on well struck shots, thin and heavy. Shapes felt correct but magnitude of curve I have no definitive data except it feels more like my game than SkyTrak did.

I brought it to the range this morning before my round (frost delay which is why I’m typing this now) and the shot shapes were accurate outside (expected) and very consistent with what I saw inside last night.

I should be on Trackman Thursday and I’ll take my Mevo. Not sure how well dual setup will work with 2 radars but I’ll give it a go.

[trumb1mj]

I read somewhere that lighting can mess with radar units. Can anyone confirm? Maybe this is the source of some issues...