Looking to build 1st Sim

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  • HackerDave
    Member
    • Feb 2017
    • 35

    #1

    Looking to build 1st Sim

    Hello Everyone. I've been lurking here for sometime and have posted a few times while I pondered building a sim. Recently my buddy sent me a link for Trugolf that is being sold by Costco. I have to admit I found it exciting, but after reading many posts and thinking about what I really want, that particular sim wasn't going to work and moving up is going to be WAY to much $$$. So now I come here looking for help/suggestions to make this happen.

    Background. You guys are going to be very jealous. I have a HUGE building so I have almost no limit when it comes to size outside of budget. But wait. There's more. My wife is on board!! We were moving some stuff around and she actually said "This place needs a simulator AND a putting green!" Yep, I married a good one!

    The building is a "pole barn". It was actually a pretty nice car museum. Heated and cooled with a full bathroom. The rear section where the sim will live is 36'x65'. The front section is 36'x45' with a loft above. The ceiling is 9ft at the wall and it rises up to probably 14'-16' at the peak in the middle.

    While it sounds like nirvana, I do have a budget and want to get the most bang for the buck. This is essentially going to be a man cave at the cottage. Winters are long in Michigan and heading to the cottage with the boys for golf, cigars and bourbon sounds like a pretty good plan to me.

    So after reading many posts, I still have a ton of questions. I think the cage and screen can be figured out pretty easily. What appealed to me about the Trugolf system was the complete package. No need to figure it all out. Just buy and assemble. But I see how much more that costs and realize that a 10' screen is going to seem pretty small in the space I have. So something in a 12-14' size from Allprosystems or Carls is probably the ticket. Turf and mat is pretty easy to figure out.

    As far as launch monitor goes, I am thinking Skytrak for the first go at it. The price is certainly right and it seems to be fairly popular and accurate. What I don't know is how much computing power I need and how difficult it will be to integrate everything. I know it is naive to think everything will just work, but with my wife and kids (20's) using the system, I need something relatively idiot proof. Software seems to be moving to a subscription basis and I am ok with that. The sim we play now uses Trugolf with a Flightscope lm. It works fine until you get to the green. Then it struggles recognizing shots (misses a lot) and short chips sail over the green etc. Pretty useless. Is this pretty common across most platforms? Is one clearly superior?

    The last big issue is with the projector. The ceiling is high and I'm not sure how I am going to hang a projector. I may need to put it on the floor under a box. Any benefit/drawback to either way? Obviously it makes putting hard, but I am not really a fan of putting anyway on a sim.

    Sorry it rambles a bit. As you can tell, I have a lot of info bouncing around in my head. Guess I am looking for highs and lows of building a system piece by piece rather than buying a ready to go system.
  • tron
    Member
    • Mar 2018
    • 98

    #2
    I use a GC2 and have not had any problems with short chips or putts. As for the projector, you should be able to get an extendable ceiling mount. I personally prefer ceiling mount because I don’t like the projector casting a shadow as I go to the screen to retrieve golf balls.

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    • Lynchdpm
      Senior Member
      • Jan 2018
      • 143

      #3
      I used an extendable projector mount at full length that is 60" by elitech purchased on amazon for roughly 90 dollars. Very sturdy and sharp looking with its black matte finish. I use skytrak with the golf club and run the sim on a gaming laptop (ASUS TUF Fx504) purchased for 700 dollars on amazon as well. This laptop has the minimum requirements (i5 processor, etc) to run the software and does so very well. I use a laptop for convenience, my sim is on the 2nd floor of my barn and it can get very cold out there, so its easy to grab my laptop and skytrak and bring into the house when finished hitting. With your situation you may want to have the computer built with a i7 processor and better graphics card, definitely cheaper than a comparable gaming laptop

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      • sherrow70
        Advanced Member
        • Oct 2017
        • 268

        #4
        I think the GC2 is the Lm to go with. As you can see from this forum it is very accurate including short game and all putting. I have a Benq monitor that is ceiling mounted using their extension which is about 2 feet. Look at the sportscreen 16 foot and the par2pro impact screens that they cut to size for you My impact screen is 15 feet. Its so easy to attach the impact screen to the sportscreen which also acts like a backstop. I had side panels but dont use any more but I do have a top netting placement for those lob shots so the ball does not hit the ceiling. I went high end on computer because I let the kids use it for video games they love the 15 foot screen. I also wanted a better computer for 4k gaming when it becomes the norm. I have a fiberbuilt full mat 7 x 4 that I love putting works fine on it as well.

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