Uneekor QED - Unmarked balls

[drsagacity]

I have a QED and a Bushnell launch pro. Usually, I use the Uneekor at the house and take the BLP out to the course. I was building a new set of clubs and doing some testing and had both reading shots. The BLP doesn’t need marked balls, so in my sim room, I have both marked and unmarked. I was shocked to see the Uneekor QED showed the correct flight and all shot numbers correctly. Was there an update so that the QED can now used unmarked balls?

I tested a couple days last week and was really surprised. Can anyone confirm that Uneekor made an update?

[myrison]

Not that I’m aware of. I’m amazed it got the spin right but admit I’ve never even tried an unmarked ball in ~3 years of owning the unit.

[IowaCat89]

I'm under the impression that the camera's are not capable of reading the dimples for spin, so it does not seem possible that the unmarked balls could work. When you look at the playback, does it show the little vectors like a marked ball?

[drsagacity]

Not that I’m aware of. I’m amazed it got the spin right but admit I’ve never even tried an unmarked ball in ~3 years of owning the unit.

I only did it because I had another launch monitor sitting there. Well, give it a shot and let us know what you see.

[drsagacity]

I'm under the impression that the camera's are not capable of reading the dimples for spin, so it does not seem possible that the unmarked balls could work. When you look at the playback, does it show the little vectors like a marked ball?

Yep. I saw the little tracking marks on the replay.

[IowaCat89]

Yep. I saw the little tracking marks on the replay.

As long as you are getting 3 or more of the little arrows I bet you are getting a good read on the spin. If it misses the spin it should print the results in italics (in the list).

[myrison]

I only did it because I had another launch monitor sitting there. Well, give it a shot and let us know what you see.

I definitely will. Now I'm super curious.

[drsagacity]

Ok. I just went in and hit a handful of shots and it does NOT read on Refine. On Ignite it does read. I didn’t have the second launch monitor and that’s really what I need to do for testing to be sure. I will do that tomorrow. In testing today, I was sure I grabbed the same type of ball and the numbers were close enough that I could believe it was the quality of strike, but it could also be that it’s not reading spin accurately. I tried hitting small shots, 20-50 yards just to get a feel. I hit one ball with stickers and one ball without. I repeated several times. If anything, the no mark ball might have been under reading spin. Tomorrow I will hit shots of different types and have both launch monitors running. The Uneekor and the BLP are super close in their readings.

My theory is on the first day I was hitting Bridgestone balls so the spin was lower. Tomorrow I will try with the Pro-V, Vice Pro, Bridgestone Tour X and TP5X.

Right now, I have my Plane Swing trainer sitting in my hitting spot so I don’t feel comfortable hitting big swings. One of the ways I like to practice is to use that, then scoot out a few inches and I should be tracing without touching. But I never feel confident going after swings with the big metal construction sitting behind me.

[drsagacity]

As long as you are getting 3 or more of the little arrows I bet you are getting a good read on the spin. If it misses the spin it should print the results in italics (in the list).

I tried on refine and it just shows dashes. Then I went back to ignite and it was working. I should have gone through extensive testing before posting, but I kind of thought I might have just missed an announcement. I am converting a set of Edel SMS Pro irons to single length and was going through testing and I was really only looking at club data. The BLP shows angle of attack, that’s why I had them both out.

Anyway, that may be the easiest way to check. If it’s in italics then it isn’t real data? If that’s the case, I won’t have to hit a bunch of shots…just need to see if it’s italics.

[myrison]

Yes, italics means it had to estimate spin because it couldn't get a good reading, and those shots are almost always misreads vs. how you'd expect the ball to fly.

[IowaCat89]

I like to scan down the list of shots after a practice session to look for misreads on the spin. My QED seems to be capable of reading 98 out of a hundred shots, give or take? Not counting the first shot. That is using a milled ball with Qty 16-18 perfect dots at least 6mm diameter, iron shots only. I don't think my setup is particularly good. Average, maybe? I have not hit an unmarked ball recently, but simply reducing the diameter of the dot a little bit stopped mine from reading reliably in the past.

[drsagacity]

Ok. I did more testing. You are correct. They are estimates. However, the data is reasonably close. It kind of reminds me of when I had a skytrak, or I used to use the SC300 at the range. In those cases, the skytrak didn’t have actual club data, they were estimates…but they were reasonably close to real. With the SC300, I didn’t really use the distances they reported, but I used them comparatively…like it was repeatable and if it said 160y and really it was 150. Ok. I knew that and was more concerned about consistency than actual distance.

I probably hit 40 shots from LW to 6i and the numbers are all pretty close. Would be interesting to compare numbers with a driver. I just didn’t want to move things out of the way to do that today.

Final result: I wouldn’t trust the distance completely because typically, it underestimated spin. I would say that the estimates were very close to hitting the Uneekor Bridgestone balls instead of a Pro-V1. When I hit the Uneekor Bridgestone balls and look at that shot data, then look at an unmarked ball and that shot data, they were very close. I guess the point is, I am not sure that the unmarked ball gives me any worse data than hitting the Bridgestone balls.

I believe going forward for range sessions, I will use unmarked balls and my premium balls with stickers depending on what I am working on. If I am working on short game, as an example, I could never use Bridgestone balls. The same would be true for unmarked balls. If I am just hitting shots and more concerned with club data and ball speed, the unmarked balls will work perfectly fine. For the most accurate distance numbers, will have to use marked premium balls.

If there is a positive, I will never buy the Bridgestone balls again. I will use PIX, marked premium balls, or unmarked premium balls.

[IowaCat89]

Playing in a golf league is where the marked premium balls really shine. You can reliably stop your ball on the green when that shot comes along. Having it roll off the back side just kind of ruins the experience, especially if you did your part and the spin error costs you a shot.
Personally, I'm not good enough to have the spin really matter, but I make a lot of marked balls for folks that are. Also, accurate spin is certainly needed if you are practicing shaping your shot on a sim.

[drsagacity]

Playing in a golf league is where the marked premium balls really shine. You can reliably stop your ball on the green when that shot comes along. Having it roll off the back side just kind of ruins the experience, especially if you did your part and the spin error costs you a shot.
Personally, I'm not good enough to have the spin really matter, but I make a lot of marked balls for folks that are. Also, accurate spin is certainly needed if you are practicing shaping your shot on a sim.

For sure. Similarly, that would require a premium ball, not the Uneekor Bridgestone. Yes. If I were playing a game, I would also use the premium ball instead of the Bridgestone or an unmarked ball.

[myrison]

Playing in a golf league is where the marked premium balls really shine. You can reliably stop your ball on the green when that shot comes along. Having it roll off the back side just kind of ruins the experience, especially if you did your part and the spin error costs you a shot.
Personally, I'm not good enough to have the spin really matter, but I make a lot of marked balls for folks that are. Also, accurate spin is certainly needed if you are practicing shaping your shot on a sim.

the balls are damn near indestructible as well. I can’t remember exactly when you sent me my order, but I’ve been hitting the same sleeve of balls approximately every other day for an hour since then and I’ve only had one crack.