Garage build from lurker

[jdmst71]

Long time lurker and first time poster. I have finally finished my garage sim build screen in my garage with the coronavirus time off work. Currently I'm using an old benq w1070 projector while I get everything together. Due to it only being like 2500 lumens I plan to get a brighter projector with a shorter throw in the future.

Most immediately I need some black side panels/tarps that I can slide back to the screen as I still park in this garage bay. I also want some sort of baffle system for the top/ceiling that will be fixed even with the top of the screen.
The screen is 105 inches tall so I can fix the ceiling part in place but need the side panels to be on some sort of track or roll up or something similar. I'm hoping for ideas from the members.

The most major part of this build was doing a high lift conversion to all 3 bays of my garage. I bought the parts from ddmgarage door parts online. Overall it went pretty smooth considering I had no experience.

Thanks for some input on my side and ceiling panels.

John

[gmbtempe]

Looks great...no concerns about shanks or wedge shots that go high?

[jdmst71]

Forgot to add I had the skytrak since last year. Here is a pic of last year's claustrophobic sim!

[jdmst71]

Yeah I am concerned so I need some input how to do the side panels and ceiling. The side panels need to be movable to park a car in the bay still.

[richerod]

Your garage looks similar to mine. Wow. I too had the high lift done on two of the three bays...all I could afford at the time. Made a world of difference.

How much space behind screen? How wide is it? What is th black material? I have 12 ft ceilings and use a 12 x 10 mesh tarp as a side curtain on hospital curtain track which I use on the shank side. Got the tarp from Harbor Freight.

[jdmst71]

Where did you get the hospital track? I was planning to go to harbor freight tomorrow to look at their tarps and just wing something on the shank side and something on top for light reduction and to catch lob type shots. I haven't got any input so was probably just going put some pipes up on the ceiling or maybe the extra garage door hanger metal i have. Then I figured I would hang the tarp with curtain clips so I can move them back to park in my garage bay.

I have 13 inches from the screen to the wall. I don't think my ball is compressing more than half that distance to the wall. I punched some holes in a moving blanket and clipped it on my frame between the black pad and my screen in the impact area.

Carl's sold out of screen material as I finished my garage lift. The black material and screen was from spectrum golf simulators online because I was hoping to get it faster than waiting for them to get more in stock. Spectrum lists on ebay but I bought direct and it worked out slightly slower than I hoped but overall ok. It feels like a mix between a heavy rubbery type material and a solid thick tarp but must not be rubber because it had fold marks from shipping and doesnt smell.

Our garages look very similar. I will keep you updated on whatever makeshift setup I come up with on this thread.

[Will]

$0.02

If you plan on using a product like sportscreen (Par2Pro), inset the side screens from the impact screen to create an overlap of material without requiring velcro or a fastener. I suggest a foot of overlap, but mine has performed well at 8". I installed the supplied metal pipe at the base sleeve of the side screen for weight to give more tension.

The side screens should be as close as possible to the impact screen to lessen the gap. Draw a line from your ball to the screen edge. How much fabric movement will come from a direct hit toward the edge of the side screen? Or, how much of an inset will deflect a ball enough to hit the impact screen?

It will slow and knock down visitor's shanks.... maybe even your own.

The best part, zero fuss or coupling when you drop the screens. Drop them and play, corners covered.

[Will]

@jdmst71

par2pro.com has the roll up screens.

[bbauernf]

Will.. love the setup.. Going to do something similar.. A couple questions for you if you dont mind answering

1.). What did you end up doing for ceiling? I cant quite tell from your pics.. is it possible to connect ceiling netting to the 3 sportscreens you have setup or did you do something different

2.). I ordered my front screen directly from The SportsScreen vs Par2Pro.. What size side screens do you have. I see Par2Pro has 5' and 10'. I would prefer 5ft but wanted to get your opinion on what is best..

Thanks much. appreciate the advice

[Will]

bbauernf
1. Par2Pro sent parts for a 14'x7' ceiling protector. It's square aluminum tube sections that click together, with a thick canvas like material on both sides. The fabric is velcroed to the tube and is suspended from the ceiling with eye-bolts and two chain links.
2. 10' side screens (5' foot would work for almost everyone, but I have kids.)
16' center screen with 14' impact screen ( 14' wide impact screen requires 30% less lumens to have the same brightness as a 16' wide image. I use an 8000 lumen laser projector and like some ambient light in the room.)

[richerod]

I got hospital track from amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06VYHY9Q9..._wI4ZEb83E01T5. They work well. Thinking of doing something similar on the non shank side however I haven't committed to a screen yet which obviously impacts the positioning of the curtain track . I've been using a PVC frame on casters so I can wheel it around or closer to wall when I need to get a car in the bay. Only 8'x8' pvc frame I have another Harbor freight mesh tarp 8'x10' ($22.99) and then a queens size white bedsheet ($11.00) clipped on top of that. I know its "cheesy" but I needed to "dip my toes" so to speak to see if this is something I could get into. Lob shots are big problem as are worm burners from kids. Once again waiting to figure out a real screen solution which will dictate how to handle that. Hitting platform and Skytrak platform I built. It helps me keep unit aligned.

Right now my biggest hesitation/challenge has actually been Skytrak. Just far too many misreads for my liking. Also many frustrations with WGT and it losing connection with Skytrak. As I have a house full of Macs my sim experience has been limited to WGT but was able to partition my MB Pro with Windows 10 and downloaded demo version of Creative Golf 3D. I took it out for a spin last night and enjoyed much more that WGT in performance and interface. I did come to conclusion that if I continue down this path (for which there may be no going back at this point), I will need to get a gaming PC. While I was able to run it on the MB Pro, it was obvious that the software was taking a toll on the battery.

How have you been getting WIFI to garage? Also what are you doing about AC/Heat?

[jdmst71]

Thanks for the Amazon link!

I have a master 80btu propane heater that I used on cold days here. I used it to do the high lift conversion and it can heat pretty comfortably in 15 minutes but eats through 20lb propane tanks. Mini split is something I didn't consider. I have solar to help if I heat/cool with electric but honestly in the summer I hope to play vs use the sim as much. In the winter I will probably continue with the propane since I have it already. My garage isn't insulated but the drywall helps hold the heat pretty well.

As for wifi I have the first gen google mesh wifi system which came with 3 nodes and I bought a 4th on ebay. One node is in the bonus room above the garage so my laptop gets wifi great from it. If you don't have a mesh wifi system then put that on the priority list. I have coverage everywhere in the yard and house now.

I like the skytrak delay to think about feel after the hit but the misreads do suck. I haven't played a course yet so I may get more annoyed soon.

[bogey]

Also what are you doing about AC/Heat?

I'm looking at getting a mini split for my garage. It is a 20x20 so I think I can get a 1 1/2 ton (18k) unit to work well. I just insulated and drywalled the sides (around $300) and used spray foam for the garage attic (r49 installed was $480). It was cheaper to hire a company to spray than to buy the insulation at home depot!! Around $750 at home depot. I have a high rise insulated garage door with a side mount opener. I would love to hear if anyone else has a mini split!

[jdmst71]

Do you have to cut into the studs and add a header? I have a propane heater but have solar so a minisplit would be free heat and cool since I oversized the solar system to get a car someday.

[bogey]

I'm not sure whether i have to cut into the studs or not. My cousin is in the HVAC business and he said he would install for free. I will report back!

[jdmst71]

Ok so I did some finish work on the garage top and sides. I bought a 12x20 foot harbor freight mesh tarp and a 8x10 tarp. I cut the larger tarp to 12x12 for the ceiling and used the remnant for one of the sides. I was going to to hang the top in a baffle type arrangement but it would have took longer to fiddle with and seems fine hung loosly for the moment.

To keep it cheap I ended up reusing my garage door hanger metal supports left over from the lift conversion. You have to cut it with an angle grinder but is easy to bolt together for different shapes.

I also had steel braided cable on hand that I used to thread into the tarp grommets so I can slide all 3 sides out of the way towards the screen if I need. Two cables were used on each side. One for the ceiling and one for the side tarp.

I already had a country club elite mat that I was hitting off of so i bought a piece of Turf from Amazon for the floor for about 140 bucks. It deadens the bounce well even straight on concrete. If I wanted in the future a pad below it would allow the Turf to be at the same height as my mat and maybe deaden bouncing balls off the screen fully. The screen from spectrum golf has a folded over sewn channel on each side that you run pvc through to make a frame that attaches around the emt frame I built. The screen has slits every so often in this pvc channel that you attach adjustable straps to so you can tighten to the frame. This is supposed to put the strain on the pvc and not tear the screen.

To hold the tarp against the side I used zip ties to hold another piece of pvc on the sides and top that sits in the depression between the foam on the emt and my pvc in the screen. The zip ties went through the mesh tarp and through the precut slits in the screen and around the foam covered emt. This keeps the tarp tight to the screen on top and both sides. The only gap is up where the ceiling and side tarps intersect but I don't think a ball could even get shanked there and if it did I'm in a garage so it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Last order of business is a new optoma gt1080hdr projector coming tomrrow that has 3800 lumens compared to my lower powered ben w1070. I'm not dissapointed with my current image so maybe it overkill but I think I can sell the benq for 300 ish.

In the future I hope to get a ceiling mounted uneekor eyexo but that thing costs more than my current whole setup with a skytrak. This is even including me lifting all the garage doors and the new liftmaster openers!

Here are some pics that may help people but I think it turned out OK for a makeshift solution.

Here is a link to the Amazon carpet 12x6ft.

ORAF Artificial Grass Turf Lawn, Indoor Outdoor Garden Turf Grass Landscape Synthetic Grass Mat for Backyard Patio Garden Balcony,Rubber Backing/Drainage Holes, 6.5FT x 13FT (84.5Square FT)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XXYBPPD/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_S4y4EbWYPTMBP

[dudley286]

Awesome job building this sim!!!

[jdmst71]

Couldn't get these 2 build photos to upload on the last post. Skytrak has a good deal on e6 connect for 300 bucks for a year or 480 for all their library minus a few premium courses like pebble. I bought the 480 year membership knowing I will eventually change to a ceiling uneekor likely as I now have the sim bug!

BTW the carpet rolls up, mat tucks away and sides can be slid back in less than a minute to park again which is nice.

John

[richerod]

How do you like E6 with Skytrak? Any connectivity issues.

[jdmst71]

So far it's been fine for connectivity on my laptop and the graphics seem awesome. I played 18 tonight and only had 1 misread in my range balls and round. Im not completely sure but it seems to have less lag than the skytrak app on my windows computer. I like to feel the shot so a little lag helps me in that regard.

Initially I had a hard time getting network mode to work and connect to the CPU. I reset the unit which didnt seem to work in terms of lights flashing as I was reading on the skytrak site. I used USB mode with some issues and then it finally connected to the laptop. Then network worked well also. I was using the unit with an android skytrak app which was solid so maybe that connection was the CPU hangups. It's been solid ever since connecting to the CPU in network mode as soon as I turn everything on.

John

[WheelsinLino]

I've been running the e6 software and the skytrak for a couple years. Network mode seems to be the best and most reliable but I occasional will switch to the USB. Also just having it charging while playing seems to maybe be a slight improvement, can't explain that, just casual observation. Once I upgraded the PC's GPU to a Nvidia rtx2060 instead of using the mother board GPU this setup really improved. Now moving to an PRO Epson L1100UNL / ELPLU03 (epson clearance site and lense from ebay). Currently use an Epson 1781W, but I'm changing everything in the room except the PC and Skytrak. More pictures to follow when I can get the new screen up but have to build our some framing etc, before that step...

[jdmst71]

My laptop has a dedicated graphics card and runs the software well also. Wish it had a touchscreen but I didn't check that spec when I bought this gaming laptop. Before this I was using the android app and my misreads were far higher than my current pc setup with the skytrak in network mode.

Today I played with the Optoma GT1080HDR projector. My current benq w1070 is mounted at 13 feet but the new projector is short throw and will mount at 6 feet. It's 3800 lumens vs 2000 and from what I can tell it's a night and day difference in terms of being able to overcome the ambient window light and maybe even a garage bay door open. Will hopefully get it mounted this weekend and post some pics.

My hitting mat will slide around a little on the concrete as I hit even though it's heavy. I was thinking of putting some anchors down in the concrete but does anyone else have a solution they came up with for this problem?

[DS12]

Double sided carpet tape?

[DS12]

Double sided carpet tape?