mevo+ second impressions

[schurlette]

Hi everyone,

so after a week of playing around with the mevo+ (checking settings, placement, inputs, ...), I have to say that the thing is really good for its price.

I do see the occasional misread (who doesn't), but overall it seems to give very accurate numbers and is very close to how I feel I hit the ball. It is also very suitable for sim play (as far as I can tell from playing my home course on TGC2019).

Putting is a bit of an issue, but from what I have heard the update that improves the putting should come out in the next few weeks. I also heard that there will be an update that deals with the fade bias that some users (including me) have seen.

My main take away from the last week is that one needs to be extremely meticulous when setting up the unit, especially when it comes to aligning the unit with the target line. I was told from an FS rep that the camera of the unit needs to be aligned with the target line (see my other post - first impressions - with regards to some discrepancies in the descriptions). I now believe that lot of the issues I saw are down to the set up of the unit.

So if things seem off with the unit check it, re-check it and check it again. I know that there might be many factors that can influence the readings (refrigerator, metal, oven, ...), but mostly the issues are resolved when setting up the unit poperly (whatever properly means, given the semi-clear instruction by FS). Make sure that the unit really is in line with with your hitting strip. If things seem off, take a thread and strech it from the net to the unit and make sure the your intendend club path is in line.

I am very much looking forward to the updated firmware that improves the putting (and short chips) as it seems to work quite well as demonstrated by some users in this forum (beta .9??)

[Meziane]

Hi ! on your first opinion you had problems with the angle of the pitch of your driver, is it resolved?

[schurlette]

Yes, I do not see the extreme high launch angles anymore. Again it almost certainly was a setup issue, however I can't pinpoint it to exactly one or two things I did in the setup.

[tonybrown32]

Totally agree on the setup being critical... Just got mine back from repair, and is much improved after a recalibration. I have a hard time understanding when aligning the unit, should the camera be in line with the ball/target or should the middle of the unit be more aligned with the ball/target... I played around with both after having some really high driver launches... and taking my time to set it up by measuring distance from ball more exact, inputing that distance into the E6 setup screen, using the camera alignment etc... I resolved the launch issues with driver but much like schurlette, can't pinpoint what was the most impactful..

Would love some better detail from Flightscope on best practices to align the unit... if you align the camera with ball/target you can get a straighter line in the alignment setup screen.. if you align more to the center of the Mevo, your aligment line in the setup screen is always slightly angled through my hitting area to target to get them to line up.. which is the proper way to make sure it's aligned best?

There's a Mevo+ webinar coming up next week put on by Flightscope, i'll try to ask that question if I attend.

[Alex.Morgan]

When did your order your Mevo +
ive got one on order and trying to work out if I will get it this year :P

[jvh42]

schurlette where are you located that you got it last week?

[schurlette]

I am based in Europe and I assume that they were able to ship a batch out to Europe before the lockdown, but couldn't ship the next batch to the US in time.

[jvh42]

schurlette was just curious, I did hear that they got one to Europe but not the USA before the lockdown.

[trumb1mj]

On the setup, that's interesting. I have to align my mevo line (in e6 connect) to the left of my centerline of my net in order for it to read correctly. I will echo your thoughts on setup though--it's absolutely critical. Without proper and consistent setup you'll have a frustrating time.

[linkkingx]

Did you guys happen to see this youtube video from Scott Hogan about his Mevo+? He mentions that he was having all kinds of crazy problems and it came down to not using the stock cord that comes with the unit. He also says he uses a power bank to plug in the unit which is also interesting and something I never really considered before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB7gHOHg-iU

[tonybrown32]

pwade3 Yup.. exactly on the HLA. A lot of the time Skytrak HLA was within reason but had so many times where my impact mark on the screen would be obviously right of center, and Skytrak would show me a significantly left start line... I just grew to use it in a way where, if I saw it start left, even though it visibly started right, dismissed it as a misread completely.. no bother. With HLA that was easy to do, since it's such an obvious visual confirmation of error..

I played around with Mevo+ a bit yesterday again, moving it a few inches left or right, always using the alignment screen to align through the ball to a point on my screen, just doing it with the Mevo a little left, or a little right by a few inches, just angling the face of the Mevo+ a little to compensate... to be honest, I didn't notice a very big difference regardless of how I aligned it behind me as long as hit the screen where the alignment line was shown in the setup screen.. I also hit balls from about 6" of either side of where the alignment line would be on my hitting mat/strip. Seemed like that may have made a slight difference in reads, but really hard to say since putting your ball 6" away from the center line, visually impacts where you "think" the target line is on the screen... regardless, it was not significant enough to concern me. Essentially seemed about the same regardless of if my Mevo+ was an inch or two left or right of center.. or if my ball was 6" off the center line... as long as you lined up the alignement line in the camer setup screen through the ball, to a point on the screen, and you aim/hit at that point of the screen..

Hope that makes sense...

Driver though... still not convinced I'm fading the majority of my drivers like Mevo+ tells me... but again, that has been my experience on other Flightscopes indoors at my fitter and lessons, so it's not suprising.. and I'm not ruling out indoor swing syndrome with my driver, since I rarely hit it indoors. I do just think spin inaccuracies may increase as the ball speeds increase for me perhaps.. example, most of my driver shots read 2300-2900 rpm total spin.. that's about normal for me, maybe even a few revs low... but i'll have the occasional 4000+ spin shot show up, that I don't think is right... same with right spin axis, usually just a few degrees right axis, but the occasional 30 degree shows up and doesn't feel like I hit it that poorly... but there are going to be some misreads indoors, no question.. we also can't expect 100% perfection and a zero misread experience at $2k when you don't even get that experience at $15K with an X3 or Trackman.

Still standing by improvement after re-calibration... but not eliminated completely especially in the Driver/FW metals... I'm comfortable with it at the moment given the limitations of spin reading indoors with radar... and comfortable trading left misreads on Skytrak for right misreads on Mevo+, given that the rest of the data and the overall package fits my needs better with Mevo+

[pwade3]

tonybrown32. Interesting about hitting from 6” over. I never really thought about that, but it does change the alignment of where your hitting to the screen . I don’t know by how much but if your hitting from 8 to 10 ft from the screen its might be a few degrees. Will have to think about that.
I had to laugh as I was reading your comments and got to the part where you printed “Driver though” and I thought to myself, do I actually want to read this considering all the issues I’ve had with my M+ and driver!!!!!! Lol 😂. It gave me pause anyway. I read it. I’m still concerned. I’m glad I still have my ST to test against even though as you say the ST is left bias a bit. I don’t find find the ST to start left, just their algorithm to be too strong on either draws or fades. I will know soon enough.👀. If it doesn’t work, I won’t need to post, you should be able to hear me scream!!😡. Thanks for the update.

[tonybrown32]

pwade3 yeah, I was only really messing around hitting from 6" on either side of the center alignment line for 2 reasons...

1. My daughter hates the fiberbuilt strip... so she hits off the stance matt which is a much tighter lie... but I like the fiberbuilt.. so we can do both if we can still get accurate data within about 6" from the center line.
2. I was hitting driver and using a rubber tee in my fiberbuilt strip. I was lazy, and didn't want to insert and remove the rubber tee... so wanted to hit drivers off the tee for a bit, and irons off the matt... and hitting irons with the rubber teen in necessitated me moving the ball 6" forward or back from the tee... so I aligned to somewhere between where I hit off the matt, and the rubber tee...

Was good that it didn't seem to give me any worse readings that I could tell... but visually, ball impacted in a different spot than center by nature of ball placement, which totally messes with my head when I'm thinking I need to impact the center of my screen... lol..

I'm eager to hear your own comparison between Mevo+ and your Skytrak when you get yours back... also, don't take my driver comments as it still being horrible... I have hit a significantly higher percentage of straight driver shots or mild fades compared to pre-calibration. Pre-calibration, almost every driver shot was a 30-40 degree spin axis slice... post calibration, driver is improved to just the occasional 30 degreeish right spin axis slice with driver... most shots being more like 5-15 degree right spin axis with driver... a vast improvement.. I've not seen any right spin axis over 30 or so with driver so far... pre-calibration, over 30 was almost the norm some sessions.

A few weeks of daily indoor hitting, and then comparing to what I see on course over the coming weekends and evenings as I play outside, will help me confirm or be suspicious of what Mevo+ is giving me... Took me a while to believe my Skytrak in regards to carry distances too when I first got it.. turned out Skytrak was closer than I gave it credit for.

[Gresh12]

I've been tinkering and testing a lot lately and like others the more I pay attention to setup the better the results are but narrowing down exactly what is doing the trick is difficult. Getting the height of the unit right seems to have made the biggest difference for me though. I built a stand for the device with adjustable legs so I can make it the exact same height as my mat (and eventually take it places once leaving my house is a thing again). Ever since I've done this I have had zero questionable launch angles and the only no reads I get are really awful skulls (and most of them read just maybe 1-2 missed balls out of 50 and always on bad shots).

I have a different experience than tonybrown32 coming from Skytrak. I had to fiddle with my SkyTrak for a long time to fell like it was reading a zero HLA as straight. I probably just should have acknowledged it wasn't great at HLA and been less finicky but I had a string hung centered in my net and I could hit the string and get anywhere from -3 to +3 HLA over a series of shots without moving the unit and all hitting the string. Whereas Mevo+ I put a ball down, stand at my net in the middle and eyeball that the camera of the Mevo+ is straight down the path (I've felt camera being centered is best but that's not definitive) and then from there I use the software to move the center line if I need to. I'm using the software usually 1 or 2 "clicks" at most though. SkyTrak I had days after 10 minutes of hitting at a string I wasn't sure I was square and Mevo+ I'm comfortable with setup in under a minute (barring my one caveat later in this post).

My HLA using the above setup method appears very accurate (this was the part of SkyTrak that drove me nuts). I don't have a protractor out checking the angles but visually the ball hits the net and the HLA always matches the eye test. My VLA also always passes the eye test of where the ball hits on the net (I have done a few one off measurements to check and it's been spot on). Similarly ball speed never seems off and I get the extremely uncommon super high club speed read (120 mph with 7 iron as an example) but that is a once every few days thing.

The only area I lack total confidence is spin (which I know is the potential limitation of the device indoors). I can only hit irons and I have decent ball speed but not crazy high with 9' of flight using dots. After a lot of time on SkyTrak, Trackman and now Mevo+ the numbers coming out don't feel impossible (the ball flight almost aligns with my feel within reason) but I have suspicion on "shots moving towards the center line". I have a pretty neutral swing path (after a year of getting rid of a massive inside path) I'm almost at 0* with variation being almost always within 2* of zero either way measured on multiple Trackman sessions. So my ball flight really follows face angle and I fight a steep AoA so it's not uncommon for me to have a pull draw or push fade (rarely are they pull hooks or push slices so my dispersion is ok but shot shape could be either way). I give this as background because I'm not normally hitting push draws or pull fades; however, these are the shots I really can't produce on my Mevo+. I can get a push with draw spin but it really just flies as a push and similar on the fade side. I'm a decent enough ballstriker that I can hit a big cut or draw when I need to around a tree and I have to work almost impossibly hard to get a ball to move across the center line (i.e., whatever side of center the ball starts on it's almost certainly going to finish there on my Mevo+).

I've heard a couple people reference calibration after sending it back to Flightscope but I really don't want to send mine in. First off, I'm in Canada and shipping it back to Florida is a massive pain in general (even ignoring COVID-19 challenges) and likely to be a long time without the device. What I'm really curious on is if these "fixes" are a universal thing that will be handled via firmware for all at some point or if they are isolated to specific units and mine could have somewhat unique issue (that I am not even certain I have). My attempt at Flightscope chat was not super helpful so I'm likely to just leave it for now but I guess I should also look up what the warranty period is so I don't wait too long.

For me, even with my small lack of confidence in spin I find the Mevo+ a better experience than my SkyTrak. It gives more measured data (and for someone working on AoA that is huge) and I just don't get any shots that I say afterwards "that is not at all the shot I hit". The spin confidence is me wondering if that should have come back a bit more whereas with my SkyTrak I could hit the ball left of my centre string and see a HLA way off to the right on occasion. I will say I still want the SkyTrak range app back though.

[Gresh12]

I played golf outside for the first time in over a month as courses starting to open with some modified distancing rules.

No driving range so I only hit the shots during my round (i.e., the sample size was very small and far from credible) but my on course experience matched my inside Mevo+ experience. I hit some pushes and some pulls and neither really came back towards centre. The pushes were weak fades (which I'm seeing on Mevo+) and the pulls were generally straight. Even the big draw I thought I hit perfect around a tree barely came back.

Effectively I think my much more neutral path is resulting in very little curve and misses are based on face angle at impact mostly. I felt like I hit the ball pretty poorly but I rarely missed a green by more than a few paces. Apparently the off season work/lessons paid off.

In short my on course flight mirrored what I'm seeing in my garage based on a very small sample size.

[pwade3]

Gresh12. that’s awesome. Very encouraging to hear that. Sounds like you got a good unit.

[tonybrown32]

Gresh12 good to hear! If it's the same for me, its going to be a bit of an adjustment if the off season work results in straight shots or little curvature.. it's a good thing dont get me wrong.. just have to work out some alignment and play my misses a little different that's all..

Got 18 scheduled Sat and Sun, league starts wednesday and will probably get another 9 in Tues and Thurs evenings.. should be a good comparison.

[schurlette]

I am using the alignment tool that came with TGC2019 (Flightscope interface - picture is from when I had the mevo+ below the surface of the hitting mat - so the horizontal line does not work out). As I am using a putting mat with a centre line it is quite easy to align the mevo+, as I just make sure that the projected centre line covers the line of the putting mat (and that only works out if the camera of mevo+ is in the centre - otherwise there will be an angle. Alignment in E6 is by far not as accurate as it only gives a rough indication (although I am only using the demo version of E6connect on PC as I do not have a iOS device - so I can't comment on FSGolf/FSSkills/E6connect for iOS). I am not entirely sure who "owns" the TGC2019 interface - and what it exactly does, but I believe it would be a great help for mevo+ users if they could just use it as an alignment help (if anyone from Flighscope or ProTee reads this: would that be feasible?. If I play in E6connect I use the tool to set up the mevo+ and then proceed to E6connect.

Gresh12 : I tried unit on the floor (2" below hitting surface) vs. unitl level with hitting area: unit level with hitting surface is much better as on the floor I saw readings where ball speed equals club head speed and a massive slice. I don't get those if the unit is level with the hitting surface. If I needed to state two things where I think the unit might be slightly off it is VLA and wedge disances (but that might be connected). I see a difference of roughly 3 degrees (session of 15 shots with 6 iron) compared to the impact location on the screen (mevo+ showing 14 instead of 17). Spin in that session was between 4015 and 4660. So I am quite confident in total spin, but just as you I am sometimes not quote sure about spin axis. Wedge distances are roughly one club too long. I hit the 60 degree wedge as far as the 56 degree wedge in real life. I totally agree with your assessment that a unit should perform in way that one can't tell anymore if it was a bad shot or a mis-read - then I am happy. Those "no it didn't go that way" readings are most frustrating. I am quite happy with the "didn't feel that way, but it could happen" readings. Apparently there is some firmware update on the way - so that might help with the problems you are seeing.

[tonybrown32]

I really need to get my putting mat out and do this... my WellPutt matt has a center line as well... great idea!

Also... totally concur with your comment and I am also "quite happy with the didn't feel that way, but it could happen" readings I'm getting. I had far more "no, it didn't go that way" or "no, there is no possible way it curved that much" shots prior to my recalibration.