ES Tour Plus : How to install it correctly?

[Ykaar]

Hello all,

I have an indoor facility with Skytrak. I wanna give a chance to the ES Tour Plus and test it again the skytrak.

I cannot make it work correctly yet ... I am well aware of alignment, leveling, lighting etc with Skytrak. So I do the same for the ES Tour Plus. But a lot of no read and miss read. I do the calibration several times in the exact same spot I play.

I read the topic here where there are a lot of advice about ball placement and apply these tips unsuccesfully. I wonder if there is people here with ES Tour Plus working well ? Any tips about calibration, light, leveling, etc please ?

Thanks for the help ;-)

[nickfisher47]

You probably tried all this, but I know I had to calibrate it in the place where I used it. When I calibrated it in my living room then brought it out to the garage, it didn't work.
I have had more success with a Srixon ball than I did with my TaylorMade, which was also supposed to be a good ball to use. Titleist felt like there was no chance for a read.
If there's any daylight, I'm having no luck. It really has to be non-sun light.

It should be noted that I had to return my first unit b/c it was flat out broken, my second unit is working much better. I just say that b/c it's not out of the realm of possibility it's a faulty unit.

[Ykaar]

Thank you for the reply.

I have no daylight in my venue :-( I will try to figure out a way to get it work better.

Something I cannot understand is the difference between a 7 iron tag as a 7 iron and a 7 iron tag as a Driver. This is a photometric system, this should give us a ball flight based on what the unit mesure. How the club selection can change the balll flight ?

I have only 240cm ball to screen, can this explain my issue with this unit ?

[Chuck]

I love my ESTourPlus, but I can agree it is really finicky. The first is ball type. Be sure to get a ball that has a simple straight bold logo. Srixon works well, and make sure the label is facing the unit. The second is ball placement. It's critical. 7" from the front corner of the feet for irons, 9" for woods and driver. When using CHP it's 10-11" and for PUTT it's 11"-12". See my earlier posts on that. The calibration is important, but beware if you have a window the sun's position can alter the calibration. Hopefully, you can get consistent lighting for calibration and play. If your playing on E6 Connect, beware of the freakingly maddening CHP mode bug with the Autocaddy enabled; if you are the first person at the tee after the last putt, ES will select CHP as the club. CHP mode is the all-optical mode used for chips at 75ft or less. In CHP mode, any full-swing regardless of the club will give a no-read. ES has yet to fix this bug although they have acknowledged it. Lastly, it will no-read if you hit the ball FAT (*hit the ground before the ball*) in any way or form for any club. This is really the only issue with ES-tour-plus that is unfortunate as it doesn't capture 'real-life' the results of a 'Fat' shot. The ESTourPlus is *incredibly* sensitive to this. In E6 Connect, you basically get an embarrassing do-over if you're in online play. It is a challenge with several clubs, but wedges and woods off-the-deck have to be struck perfect to read.

All said though, if you are not in CHP or PTT mode, you can tell a good swing if you get full club data along with ball flight data and spin. Besides the no-reads, there is a rare issue where the radar will read an SW as being open when it was hit square (hard to reproduce but happens).

So those are all of the ways you can mess up with the ES16 and get the dreaded NO-READ. I was told the CHP bug may exist in TGC2019 as well. Maybe someone could verify that.

[dzaneclarkcpa]

Greetings all -

I am a new user with simulators and chose the ES TourPlus because I was not patient enough to wait for a Skytrak.

I had a similar problem with my initial unit in that one of the doplar's was installed upside down and it would not read anything hit lowish. I have not had issues since then with missing shots.

Ykaar, I would suggest trying a different golf ball. I use a Snell ball and it works great picking up either the logo or the alignment aid (arrow).

[Jdent83]

I lucked out and picked up the original ES16 Tour a couple months ago for a great deal and I must say it works damn near flawlessly. Ernest reps told me I could send it in for a $500 upgrade and I had planned to do so but after reading some issues here I think I’ll stay with what works. My unit works 95% of the time with a Srixon ball logo facing the unit and I do not have to adjust the placement per club. Maybe I lucked out but I’m very satisfied with the unit and the only issues I have is that when playing TGC 19 it auto switches LW to chip mode and really only reads chips out of chip mode and not using say a 8 iron...

[Rob Langley]

As previously stated the Tour Plus is very sensitive to fat shots. Hit the mat behind the ball and you won't get a read.
I use Srixon balls as well as they seem to read the best.
Once I figured out the CHP mode it reads consistently for partial swings.
It occasionally misses the club selection from TGC 2019 and I have to toggle clubs until they sync up.
Other than that it is a reasonable unit for the price and gives me more data that I need to correct my swing than the Skytrack.
Rob

[BrewsLee]

I am also a Tour Plus user and I went through the same learning curve experience. If it is any help, my lessons learned were:
1) Don't use white tees. I am currently using birdtees in black and green both seeming to work fine.
2) I think to much white on your shoes will cause occasional issues. I since switched to black shoes and have had way less misreads.
3) I almost never get complete misreads, usually only missing club data which results in a straight flight in the direction hit. aka no spin data.
4) Ball placement and logo placement are crucial. My trick was to draw a couple dots on top of the ball so I can look down when I place the ball and know that I have alignment correct as opposed to trying to gauge the ball from the side. (Srixon balls here as well btw. Kirkland signature for me also seems to work just as well but I sharpie the work kirkland since I am only hitting into a net with a flat screen tv mounted to the wall.
5) Depending on your hitting strip too much light can be an issue. i.e. my CCE mat had almost no problem but when I switched to fiberbuilt, it seems to generate more glare I think which caused some problems with my spot light. I turned of the spot light and it seems to work fine. (Might not be a a real thing, just something that worked or me.)
6) Don't hit the ball too fat and expect good reads.
7) Make the unit as level as possible with your hitting surface.
8) CHP mode is very important for anything less that 50ft carry I feel like.
9) Keep your expectations in check. This list sounds like alot but honestly my ball placement is second nature now and I just had to get my environment right once. For the extra few hundred dollars over a skytrak I wanted to the calculated club data even though the more complex calculations may result in more misreads. The next closest options will start you around 7k I think.

My driver currently is the only club I really expect misreads on now after what I have learned and I probably average 4 or 5 an 18 hole round. So I chose to either take the superstraight rocket of a drive in E6 as a bonus or I just hit the mulligan button and give her another go.

That being said, for people who purchased the tour plus within the last 6 months, they are doing a 100% trade in value if you want to upgrade to the 2020 which I think is currently discounted to 7k. I gave them a call and they are going to let me keep the 2 side by side for a couple weeks to compare and depending what I am happy with, I can either send the tour plus or the 2020 back and either get refunded my deposit or pay my remaining balance if it is in fact the bees knees. They are 4-6 Weeks out so I will start a new thread once I have the 2 together and share my experience. A GC2 with HMT even used is way more than 7k so if this works well I will feel like I am winning. I don't have the proper space for any uneekor units which I think would be the next closest in value, so this will hopefully be the perfect setup for me.

[Rob Langley]

Hey BrewsLee,
Please let me know how the 2020 compares to the TourPlus. Very curious if it is worth the extra $$$.
Thanks Rob

[BrewsLee]

Rob,

I am still waiting on mine to ship. They are waiting on chips to come in like alot of other tech companies right now. Thanks bitcoin! lol I will post a review for sure though.

[Deaddawg101]

Spent 5 hours today trying to get the app to read shots but no luck. So far I tried removing bulbs from lighting , tried different distances from the net and even different heights. Different balls also.The app reads the club i select on the LM but no shots. I calibrated in the room im using it in. Still nothing on the pc. Does anyone have a clue what im doing wrong?

[Deaddawg101]

Never mind, I talked to the support guy and figured out the mic is not working. Should have a replacement by thanksgiving break.

[Deaddawg101]

Update: returned es tour to bestbuy for a refund. I ordered a skytrak because I did not want to deal with more issues.

[wbond]

Excellent decision. There are some quirks with the skytrak, but they are all usually easy to overcome.

Update: returned es tour to bestbuy for a refund. I ordered a skytrak because I did not want to deal with more issues.