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Plotting on a Sim Build in Oregon

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  • Plotting on a Sim Build in Oregon

    Hello All,

    As with many Members, I have been lurking for quite sometime. There is so much information on this GS Forum that's it's almost daunting. However, I'm willing to dive in with some much needed assistance from you all.

    I have one major obstacle. My wife. We live in Oregon where it rains a lot from October through April. Probably similar to Scotland. I ran a price by her for a complete out-of-the-package purchase. She balked. Now I'm faced with reducing the price to satisfy her. Sound familiar? The plus is that over the past 4 years she has caught the golf bug and enjoys the game like I never figured that she would. I need to convince her that a SIM will be used year around, not just during the winter months.

    A little about myself: I am a soon to be 70 year old Vietnam Veteran who is in pretty darned good shape for my age. I served on Navy riverboats that ferried infantry troops around in the jungles of the Mekong Delta using small rivers and canals. I retired as a General Building Contractor so I have the skills for the construction portion of a SIM. Although I have been using a computer since 1988, I'm not as adept on the latest technology that I am reading about here on this site.

    1) After a lot of research I TEST ran the price of the TruGolf Vista 8 Pro package of $12K + past the wife. DING...! No go. Now I have to begin whittling down the pricing for re-submittal. The lower the better, but I do not want to sacrifice Quality.


    2) Here are the dimensions of the space that I am considering. It is a single bay garage. I am willing to remove the garage door tracks while leaving the door in place. It's easier than removing the door and framing/siding/painting the outside:

    - 12' wide
    - 10' high
    - 19' long
    - (1) 3' x 4' window on the right side
    - (2) doors that enter from either side at the rear away from the garage door
    - Concrete floor. I am plotting on a 2x4 deck with OSB plywood on top in the key area. Or could I do the rubber squares that lock together?

    What would be a good size SIM to fit in this area?

    3) I got excited about possibly having a laptop for iMac to run the project. After checking it does not look possible.

    - 2010 Dell Inspiron 1564 laptop. Found out that graphics are tied directly to motherboard so it is a no go.

    - Late 2011 Mac with 27" screen that River Rat buddy gave me when he purchased a new one. I am seeing that Macs are not supported much by the SIM softwares out there.

    It has an Intel Core i5 with 1 TB HDD. Appears that I would need an i7, but that upgrade is very iffy. More power and more ventilation needed. Plus it is tough to get into Macs to do the work. It has an AMD Radeon HD 6770M GPU - 512 VRAM

    - Late 2013 Mac with 27" screen that is my primary. It has i5 with 1 TB HDD - NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M - 1024 VRAM (All pretty much "Greek" to me) If I were to consider it then I would have to transfer all data over to the older iMac.

    4) We live in the country so cells are pretty weak. I checked the potential area and I have (2) bars out there most of the time. I have a NetGear Router. Would this be enough to run the system and play online? I have one Sprint Booster that has helped a little with the signal towards the back of the house. Perhaps another one out by my build would help? We have 10 Mpbs fiber optic cable to the house. Could I split that and run a cable out to the SIM area?

    5) Without hands-on experience all of the talk about SkyTrak, TruGolf E6 1.6, etc. has my head spinning. Note: I underwent not one, but two craniotomies in mid-2015, which hasn't helped matters. Fortunately I came out ok when 40-60% do not make it. It was a fall in my Shop while shooting baskets at my 10' hoop. My skull was no match for the concrete floor.

    Ok...this is a start. I'm sure with all of your coaching that I can come up with the pieces of the DIY Sim Build for much less cost. I want to THANK all of you in advance for your generous assistance!!! I've seen you help others here and know that I'm in good hands.

    Warm Regards,
    Mekongmike

  • #61
    Question: I only have 10 Mpbs of fiber optics to my house. My SIM will be in a single bay of my garage about 50' or more from where the fiber optics comes into my office. I talked to my Tech guy who installs the fiber optics and he said that my best bet would be to run either CAT5 or CAT6 cable from the office to the garage for the Internet. Will this distance and 10 Mpbs be enough to play online golf with the SIM?

    Thanks in advance for your replies.

    Mekongmike

    Comment


    • BGCurtis2nd
      BGCurtis2nd commented
      Editing a comment
      Cat 6 cables, provide lower crosstalk, a higher signal-to-noise ratio, and are suitable for 10GBASE-T (10-Gigabit Ethernet), while Cat5e cables support only up to 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet). I ran a 200 ft. CAT6 ground bury out to my shop and never had any problems with it as far as speed and internet connection.

  • #62
    Great news BGCurtis2nd...! That helps relieve me a lot. I'll concentrate on Cat 6 as he offered both.

    Thanks,
    Mekongmike

    Comment


    • GoldenSim
      GoldenSim commented
      Editing a comment
      Hi Mike - I'm not the most tech guy on the forum, and one of the other guys might want to comment on this, but before you start running dedicated Cat6 cable, you might want to look at the option of an internet over powerline adapter. If you're not familiar with the technology, it uses your existing power lines to transmit data. Quite a concept if you're not familiar with it, but it works!! You buy a device which you plug into a router in your house, and then into a regular outlet, and then in your garage you plug in another adapter which can either be a wireless transmitter, or can be plugged into a router for wired distribution. I use a product from a company called Tenda (http://tendacn.com/en/product/forhome-5.html). I'm very impressed by how it works. We have internet to our house, and this is where the first device is plugged in. It then works through the wiring to the main house panel, through to a sub panel in our shop (which is 150' away) and then the second device is plugged into an outlet from that panel. I have used it for over 12 months, and after much testing, we get 95%+ bandwidth and limited downtime. It may be worth a look to save running cable.

  • #63
    Wow...that setup sounds very interesting. I have been loathing running that Cat6 cable through the attic or under the house.

    You are running a very long distance with success. What Tenda unit are you using? I see they are very inexpensive for the benefit.

    If I installed the kit and it didn't produce then I could always run the Cat6.

    Any other input on this subject from anyone else?

    Thanks GoldenSim,
    Mekongmike

    Comment


    • #64
      Power lines are a great option but it really depends how the wiring and your house is set up. I tried doing this at my home and unfortunately didn't work out too well. Some electric sockets had great bandwith speed s however my garage where my golf Sim is did not so I had to go with the Cat6 cable option. I agree that it is definitely worth the try doing the power line first and if it doesn't work out then go with a Cat6 cable.
      My courses:
      Aldeen
      Butler National
      Cantigny
      Canyata
      Cog Hill #4
      Harbor Shores
      Harborside
      Naperville Country Club
      Prairie Landing
      Rich Harvest Farms
      Ruffled Feathers
      Shoreacres

      Comment


      • #65
        Thanks for your input Jtangm04...!

        I thought about that last night.

        - The garage bay that I am going to use for my SIM is an add on.

        - The original power to the house is underground from the pole about 40 yards from the house. The line had to go to the main original breaker panel on the outside of the two car garage.

        - When the extra garage bay was added adjacent to the existing one they placed a meter box on the outside of it since I'm assuming that the old meter box was beside the original two car garage.

        - When they placed it the new meter box had some breaker options beside it in the same panel. There are a couple of breakers in use that say "Garage Outlets" and "Garage Door Opener and Lights".

        - The original breaker panel is obviously tied to the newer meter/breaker panel.

        How does this setup sound? Would it create any kind of problem?

        Again, I could try out the GoldenSIM's method and if it doesn't work then I could go to Cat6.

        Thanks Again,
        Mekongmike

        Comment


        • GoldenSim
          GoldenSim commented
          Editing a comment
          Hi Mekongmike

          Sorry for the delayed reply, I was in the City getting some putting surface samples for my new build!

          I have the AV1000 Gigabit Powerline Adapter kit, with an additional N300 for wireless connectivity (which I doubt you need).

          As mentioned, mine goes through a panel and a sub panel before reaching the outlet I used. I was amazed when it worked, but it does.

          I think each install can be unique, and some will work and some will not. And I imagine that sometimes there is no logic we can figure out behind the results.

          My local IT guy kindly said that I could try the units and if they did not work, he'd take them back, and as they were such a low cost option it seemed like a no-brainer.

          I'd give them a try, as if it works, it'll be a major cost saving, as it was for me.

          One thing you may want to ask Tenda (or any other supplier) is what their view is, and if there are any factors to consider. My setup has very low bandwidth (only 20mbps down and 2 up) so if you are running at higher speeds, I'm not sure if that will be an issue.

          I'm keen to hear how it goes. Good luck!

      • #66
        I’d recommend an Orbi router setup or one of its competitors. You’ll get at least 10x faster speeds. May not be important for Golf setup but if you will use it for gaming or streaming movies you’ll want it. Almost no reason to hard wire anymore with these mesh wireless networks that can be installed

        Comment


        • #67
          Thanks for the info legendsfan! You too GoldenSim!

          I only have 10 Mbps of fiber optic coming into the house as we are way out in the country.

          Now I have two suggested options. Are you saying that the Orbi router setup is stronger and potentially better than the Tenda AV1000 that GoldenSim is talking about?

          I'm not a Techie so I'm trying to get this in my head.

          Thanks,
          Mekongmike

          Comment


          • #68
            Yes the Orbi is way faster but if you have relatively slow internet speeds it may not matter.

            Comment


            • #69
              Not sure what you mean when you "it may not matter." Our fiber optics into the house is only 10 Mbps. Are you saying that since it is slower than, say 30 Mbps, then choosing the Orbi or Tenda unit will not matter?

              Thanks,
              Mekongmike

              Comment


              • #70
                Here is good article on powerline adapters:

                "And it’s not just distance. While powerline signals can jump across circuits, doing so causes signal attenuation (measured in decibels), which weakens the connection."

                "Other factors can affect powerline performance. You don’t want to connect a powerline adapter to a surge protector, power strip, or outlets that are behind AFCI circuit breakers. (These will be labeled as “AFCI” or “Arc Fault” in your breaker box.)"


                After 36 hours of tests, we think the best powerline networking adapter for most people is the TP-Link AV2000 2-Port Gigabit Passthrough Powerline Starter Kit.
                Last edited by weakhead; 03-21-2018, 06:50 PM.

                Comment


                • #71
                  Thanks for your input weakhead! Now I'm more perplexed. I'm still leaning towards the Orbi.

                  Mekongmike

                  Comment


                  • #72
                    SkyTrak is running their $300.00 of sale for "Masters Week". I just purchased the SkyTrack Launch Monitor, Hard Case and Game Improvement Package for $1,944.90 at Rock Bottom Golf:

                    Looking for quality golf equipment at discount prices? Shop our discount golf store for your favorite golf brands at the best prices around.


                    Just a heads up...

                    Mekongmike

                    Comment


                    • #73
                      Also, TGC $200 down at https://www.skytrakgolf.com/simulation/golf-club

                      Comment


                      • #74
                        Thanks Johnny! I had already made that purchase a few weeks ago.

                        Mekongmike

                        Comment


                        • #75
                          NP, I just did it also, both, Same package & TGC I am also noob on this but I got it all on its way --- I think... lol..

                          did you ever pull the plug on the PC?

                          Comment

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