I'm Joining the R10 movement.

[Chuck]

Just decided it would be a cool device to bring to the range and the garage.

[dirojx1113]

Can't go wrong for the price

[Chuck]

Well I'm glad I've been able to try it. My sim environment just isn't friendly for a radar system like this. I was impressed with what I saw, a very fast response, a realist ball flight, and fast turn around between tee-shot-tee. Had some struggles with sandwedges and no putting obviously. But app and the Middleware go between are annoyingly needy of intervention when a radar issues shows, requiring an OK press to continue and other dialogs similarly done for sleep, and connectivity issues. I think some sort of analog display of radar strength would be far more informative and useful. Similarly with the other intrusive dialogs.

Because of that, I just be using this on the range. I still have my ES Tour Plus that does an excellent job with nearly everything, and is perfectly matched to TGC2019 for putting. It is also a radar device with cameras. It doesn't require the space the R10 does. Anyway it was worth a try, but without the clear garage space required for the R10 it might not be a good fit as a sim LM. I'm taking it to the range Sat. Hopefully it will pull it's weight.

[Chuck]

Well, I got them the range and tried the system out with a bucket of balls and I have to say I was very impressed. Every swing was recorded accurately it seemed to be displaying values pretty close to the real thing. It seemed to pick up all the values correctly for every single ball in the bucket! I was really impressed at how it would record the distance before the ball actually hit the ground. My brother was even impressed by that. Is almost kind of spooky. You do need to keep the unit level with the tee box. I had to stay in the unit up on an empty ball bucket just to get it flush with the striking mat provided. But it worked and it got to entertain some of the other folks that were next to me when my phone would speak out the total distance.

I also did some experimenting in the garage and found that the source causing all the interference is my PC. Which could be from all the RF from Wi-Fi adapters, Bluetooth adapters, keyboard adapters, and wireless mouse adapters. etcetera. At least I know, generally' what is causing it now. Not sure how to solve it.

[bubbtubbs]

More likely it's the PSU and all the fans in the case.

[Chuck]

It could be bubbtubbs. I was just testing with the app by itself and it was working fine until I turned on the PC. That is when I lost connection. However, that gaming PC is pretty far away from the r10. I think the corner of the garage was acting like a corner cube reflector for the radar signal. So it would get a lot of interference I am certain now.

[Chuck]

I tried something new to get the R10 working in my garage. I moved the unit out away from the corner about 3ft, and move my tee-up position about 7.6ft from the screen and exactly 6ft from the R10. After about a half hour of messing with the Garmin app, I finally got everything to syn and play nice. I actually got through 18 holes of some excellent and fine sim golf. Apparently, it's interference with the cinder block walls. It has to be away from the walls. So I think I finally have it going as long as the software behaves. It's still pretty needy as far as the dialogs go and I'm not a fan of using my phone as the go-between the PC and the R10, but I give it a try and see how it goes.

[rbarthle17]

So I'm wondering if I have the space for this. I can get to 6.5-7' from the unit to the ball. But I can't get more than 5.5-6' from ball to net. And it's a net not a screen I don't know if that makes a difference. The net sits in front of the garage door. The unit could be at most a foot from the back wall which is your standard indoor drywall not cinder. Likely a bit closer. Is that worth trying as returning?

[rbarthle17]

Bubbtubbs I can hit full shots into the net and it won't hit the wall behind it so hopefully that will make a difference

[Chuck]

I would just try it and see. I'm actually having more trouble with Garmin's middleware just dropping out and the unit going blue unexpectedly. Distance to screen may affect ball speed, but it should get your club data and swing path which are good numbers to know.

[Brettster]

I don't think you're going to get very accurate readings that close... I did everything I could to get 8'-9' ball->screen and I'm still adding 5,000 feet in Elevation to every course to try to get true distance of my clubs. You may be able to pull it off - but you can only increase elevation to 10,000 feet - I think.

[Brettster]

Hey Chuck - Congrats on the move! I'm using Garmin Approach R10 and have been for about 6 months now. I like the portability of taking it to the range, and then comparing those measurements to my indoor sim, to see how they match up...

You're right though, giving up putting is a real pain for me... so I'll be using it off/on as I go back to my ProTee setup once I get a computer that can run it properly (my Lenovo Desktop cannot handle the USB camera inputs properly making it unusable).

[Chuck]

Hey Brettster. Yeah, still trying to get good numbers on the Garmin. I've been able to at least make it stable where I have the blinking green LED consistently. The downside is that driver distances are very low. So typical driver for me is 220+/-10 yards. My longest drives have been in the 270 range. What I get out of the Garmin at 7.6ft ball-to-screen 6ft Ball-to-Garmin is 152+/-10 on drives. That is with an altitude of 600ft. At 5000ft, I get the 210+/-20 yards so it's pretty close. So the best I can do with the current configuration is 6ft to Garmin-to-ball and 9ft ball-to screen but it will typically miss swings when the R10 is so close to the wall (shows a mostly red LED that blinks green) I have to say that I really do miss the putting too, so most of the time, I'm still on my ES16 Tour Plus and TGC2019. I find that combo I find it has amazingly accurate putting but you need to change up according to green speeds.

[Brettster]

Chuck - hi,

That is with an altitude of 600ft. At 5000ft, I get the 210+/-20 yards so it's pretty close.

Yes, and there's a tip up here from Golf Nerd suggesting to add 5,000 feet to the real course elevation, and get the most accurate numbers. I've not been doing that and wondered why some courses I was doing fine with yardages, while others I was short again.

So the best I can do with the current configuration is 6ft to Garmin-to-ball and 9ft ball-to screen but it will typically miss swings when the R10 is so close to the wall (shows a mostly red LED that blinks green)

That's strange, I don't get any of those errors and I'm nearly exactly same distances 6' Garmin-to-ball and 9' ball-to-screen. My R10 is recessed into the back wall, with a hole and an 'access panel' that I put in. Also, I've been raising mine up on a leveling stand. I rarely see the red LED - I wonder if that's something to do with newer model hardware, I bought mine over 1 year ago now.

I have to say that I really do miss the putting too

I really can't imagine playing all these courses without putting - I'm just hoping that Garmin eventually adds putting to this unit, or produces a better unit that can read putts and charges more to offer putting. Putting is so much of the game - it feels like 1/2 a game when I play on the Garmin R10 sadly. I've mentioned this several times in the Garmin support forums for R10 with no mention yet of it will be added ;(

[erikfig]

I have it setup on my garage and I can hit every club including driver. Lots of fun. For putting I just practice on my putting mat or hit the course.

[Brettster]

I agree, you can putt on a mat and some software will let you choose to 'Enter Putts' or hit putts yourself and enter how many putts you took. That's one option, but not the best option.

I'm hoping that Garmin will eventually be able to figure this out and allow putting on the R10. I know it has to be possible - as Mevo does it with Mevo+ which is also a radar unit.

[grant2145]

I think the Mevo+ uses the camera to track putting. With the Flightscope Xi series, you can't putt in simulation because they don't have fusion technology.

[Brettster]

grant2145 - that's an interesting concept, but I did not think Mevo+ has a camera on it? And, if it does, there's no reason I see that Garmin could not do the same with the R10 and call it something else, or in the next version?

[Chuck]

I finally found the interference problem I've been having, and like many other reports I've read, it's my projector! An Otoma 1090GST gamer short throw. If someone had said that it would be the projector causing the issues with the Garmin, I would have called BS. But sure enough, when the projector is off, it's perfect all the way to the back wall green blinking led. With the projector on, it instantly goes in the red light for 4 sec, then green blink (rinse and repeat). So it looks like I'll be trying to build a Faraday cage around the projector as others have tried.

For my issue with the cinder block wall, I took care of it with a wrap of that reflective bubble plastic insulation used in some attics. It's like a 1/4" thin wrap of aluminized small plastic bubble wrap. It should be acting like a Faraday wrap around the blocks and may even amplify the signal somewhat by reflecting some signal back to the source. (It's in a corner like a corner cube of cement).

One tip I learned is the R10 is usable even if you get the 4sec red LED, and the green blink, It can still be used. The caveat is you need to time your swing to start at the green LED blink. So when the green LED flashes, start your backswing motion. I will admit that it's kind of annoying because you wind up looking for the blink in your peripheral vision which can really be distracting from the swing.

[Brettster]

Nice work on the troubleshooting with that issue Chuck - I've been getting some misreads lately, but cannot imagine it is the projector, but maybe? Some times I will see a message 'your Approach R10 signal cannot be read because there is interference from other devices' or something like that. Have you ever seen that?

[TheBigD]

Faraday...like it I just got my projector and haven't hung it yet so I will test that today. The Garmin is great if you set your expectations.. it is not a Trackman, GCQuad and maybe not even the Mevo+ (but CLOSE there I think) but for the money its freakin awesome. Yeah putting is missing but I don't think the putting on the other simulators is that helpful anyway..its always a little weird. I just practice putting with a putting mat. Personally, I don't need perfection on my home setup. I have access to Trackman and GCQuad so when I want to gap my clubs I do it on those machines. I have and older ZEPP Golf sensor and I am working that into the mix to see what it brings. I haven't added it all up yet, but I think I will come in spending maybe less than $1K all in to get this going. More as I have it.

[Brettster]

Awesome move - keep us posted on how integrating ZEPP into it works? I'm considering testing out my Blast Sensor in the simulator.

[Chuck]

Well, I built the Faraday cage around the projector and it worked! It's about cheap as you can get. Basically I it's a box of aluminum screen stapled to the ceiling with cutouts for the lens and power cord and cables. Not much to it, and it doesn't look horrible, just odd. It does solve the interference problem though so happy with that. It came out to be a 13"w*11"*12"d with pinched corners and shaped and cutout using scissors. Easy.

[Chuck]

I had the Zepp 1 and just loved it when I was first learning golf. It was not a bad learning tool. I moved on to Optishot after a few months with the Zepp 1. With Optisjot, I learned a lot about SIM golf and just enjoyed the heck out of the weekly games they had. To this day I love their multiplayer simultaneous gameplay. Total blast in spite of the limitations of the LM. Anyway; Brettster I did see a lot of that; the message "your Approach R10 signal cannot be read because there is interference from other devices". So the screen cage (screen like in your typical window metal screening) works and it gets me an additional 2ft of ball flight. I still have a distance problem with the driver and woods that I'm looking into. I typically hit 190-220 on a driver, but I'm getting 150-160 on the R10. I think it may be the ball flight distance from tee to screen, but that may be hard to fix for me. Anyway, the Faraday cage definitely will fix some noise-related issues if the projector is your source. It certainly was in my case. Good luck.