Distance from radar to ball in simulations

[Brutaly]

Just wanted to let you guys now that i had a long conversation with the head of sales in Europe regarding Xi and Xi+ earlier today and one thing that came up was distance from ball to radar in a simulation setting.

In a pure simulation setup the radar can stand as close as possible. What will suffer is mainly angle of attack, clubspeed and ofc acceleration-/speedgraphs. He said it will not affect how the radar reads the balldata after impact and all the data needed for a "perfect" simulation is measured after impact. So basically <5,5 meters for a perfect sim setup. So with a shallow swing a bit further and with a steep swing a tad closer. Just dont hit the radar.

[Dax]

I think for sim this is right (see other posts from someone's initial tests with the xi I believe), but getting the club and ball data is great from a practice standpoint.

[Agolfman]

That's great info, thanks for sharing it!

[Si_Berry]

Partly related to the above. How is the "ball origin test" used on the app? I can select it on my Xi+ but nothing else happens other than the diagram coming up. Do I need to hit balls with the test open?

[Skedaddle]

FS should market this more. For the Xi when you just want reliable ball data and space is limited a lot of people probably haven't got the room for 15 between ball and net and 10 feet (or whatever it is) between radar and ball. If you have an average ballspeed of say 135-140 you only need about 8 foot to the net on drives and according to the above very little room behind the ball. This would make it a far more attractive option for the average joe in his garage.

[goatbarn]

Maybe someone with a connection could help with this but what about the spin axis calculation when used indoors.

I was under the assumption that the spin axis is calculated from the club path, aoa, and ball path measurements.

Would the radar being only say 5 feet behind the player hurt any of these measurements enough to distort the ball curvature?

[Dax]

Good point Goatbarn, while testing has shown the FS Xi to be reading shots at these short distances it is hard to speak to what you are losing in terms accuracy on what is being measured. I think if people are tight on space and want to try to make something work they should understand what they will be giving up in terms of accuracy and measurement. For me I think that ideal space for radar would be about 23 feet.

[Brutaly]

Partly related to the above. How is the "ball origin test" used on the app? I can select it on my Xi+ but nothing else happens other than the diagram coming up. Do I need to hit balls with the test open?

Yes you need to hit balls. But to be honest it works just as good to walk three long paces and place the radar and aim it over where you placed the ball towards your target on the field.

I was under the assumption that the spin axis is calculated from the club path, aoa, and ball path measurements.

I asked him a straight forward question but there might be a misunderstanding.

I sent him a mail to clarify this.

[Brutaly]

I asked him a straight forward question but there might be a misunderstanding.

I sent him a mail to clarify this.

I got the answer and according to his experience (been selling FS since the introduction and now head of sales in Europe) the spin axis calculation (regardless if it is calculated pre impact or measured post impact) dont affect simulation game play in a noticible manner. Quote "a perfect setup (radar to ball) is only necessary if we are talking about elite players with very consistent svings" end quote. This might be taken out of context but this is one of the things that really got me intrigued during our conversation.

Sidenote, i can see his point, for practicing and simulation average values are what counts and as soon as the average is the same small anomalies is of less concern.

BUT he will contact HQ to get a clarification regarding spin axis and how its measured/calculated.

[goatbarn]

Great, I'd love to see that info again. I remember it being stated by Zmax or another's conversation with someone at Trackman. That would assume that they measure it similarly, which I would bet they do. Same tech...

My own opinion is that the shot shapes in the game are never unexpected. But I'm at 9' from ball to radar...

[Brutaly]

Just got an answer from him and here is the answer he got from FS support:

"Spin axis outdoors is detemined by measuring ball data during flight.

Spin axis indoors is calculated using club path and launch angle.

Club path is determined right before impact and launch angle is measured after impact."


I sent my contact a new mail this morning to clarify the impact on club path measurements with the radar close to the ball.
.

[Skedaddle]

Thought gear effect was not taken into account indoors, bit of a drawback for FS/TM against say GC2 HMT and obviously always assuming centre strikes

Would be good to know how close radar needs to be for accurate path measurement

[goatbarn]

Yes, that's right. No gear effect indoors.

I always try and hit it in the middle though

[Bubba22]

Just got an answer from him and here is the answer he got from FS support:

&quot;Spin axis outdoors is detemined by measuring ball data during flight.

Spin axis indoors is calculated using club path and launch angle.

Club path is determined right before impact and launch angle is measured after impact.&quot;


I sent my contact a new mail this morning to clarify the impact on club path measurements with the radar close to the ball.
.

Thanks for clarifying. This is similair to Trackman. Without a doubt, outdoors the spin axis measurement would be more accurate than indoors.

[Brutaly]

Now i got a clarification on club path as well. Its not affected by distance from radar to ball.

My own reflection is:
Something thats super important is tee height. We know that a poorly setup tee height messes with AoA and as the distance to the ball decreases this gets increasingly severe. So a proper setup gets more important when you move the radar closer.

What seems to be dependant on proper distance is spin with driver and woods.

My own observation has also seen increasing ball speeds (woods and driver) but the numbers have always been consistent.