Niagara, Ontario, Canada SIM Build

[InRange]

Hi Golf SIM Homies,

Well I got the thumbs up to basically tear my garage up and spend about 35K to build a golf SIM. I think I may have used all my brownie points with my lovely wife I have accumulated over 25 years of marriage in one shot...LOL.

I am going to post my journey here and provide updates as I go so that hopefully someone can benefit from the success and struggles along the way. If anyone has any ideas, shortcuts, things you have done that work, or even just a get deal on materials please feel free to let me know. I will give you the basics of what I have to work with a thinking at the moment.

SPACE
3 car insulated garage. I will be using all 3 bays but keeping some for storage. I will upload a rough plan but it is on my other computer. I have a slightly irregular shape room with a useable hitting area of 15W x 18D and 11-foot ceilings. I believe I have calculated enough space to swing drivers. My SIM will require me to hit from a certain spot in the center of the room

FLOOR
Cement floor which slopes right to left. I plan to put 3/4 plywood down in the hitting/standing area and extend 4 feet wide right to the screen. I will have to level it somehow. I am thinking shims and leveling cement? Not sure, any ideas here would be great. Once this is done areas outside of this will have double layer of carpet under pad. Whole room will be putting green with a 3/4 deep cut-out in the hitting area to sink a special strike area mat.

SCREEN
Looks like I have 13.5 feet x 11 feet to work with. I will be making some kind custom frame out of angle iron. Hang moving blankets behind, then archery netting Velcro’s to a Premium screen. The whole thing will be secured to the frame by grommets and bungie cords to the frame. A couple of concerns going in:

1) Should I make the screen a certain finished size to fit a 4:3 projected image perfectly or just go as big as I can?
2) Image quality is high up there on my wish list, does anybody know what is the best? Carl's place Premium seems good but the I have heard Par2Pro in Alberta has a good product and then there is West Cost Netting. This is all very confusing, and I would guess also subjective to say what the best is. I would like close to an HD image at least. Anybody blown away by what they have???

PROJECTOR
Again, I've probably spend 2 evenings researching this and I am probably more confused than ever but based on where I plan to put it (approx. 8-10 feet from screen just ahead of the bell) I'll need a short throw projector. It is looking like 1080 HD short throw gaming projectors may be the right fit. Lumens....OK. Most say 5000 or over are the best and others say that is BS and you must just go by how it looks as some manufacturers sort of play games with Lumen specs. Anyway, looking to spend about $1500 on a projector, does anybody have one they love in the $800 to $1500 range??

LAUNCH MONITOR
Going with Uneekor QED. Was looking at Trackman, Foresight as ball/club metrics are especially important to me to improve my own game. For the money, you cannot justify what might be 'maybe' slightly better accuracy (talking 10 to 20k). Played with QED and it played remarkably similar numbers and ball flight as I normally get of Foresight. Plus, the software is hands down better IMO. The fact you can see face angle and path to me is better than a number (visual learner). Eye XO has a few more features I would rarely use but again cannot justify the price difference. Both have an exceptionally good Down the line and front on camera add on package from Uneekor that I will also be getting. Anyone know where I can get the OPTICS cameras for a good price?

PC/SOFTWARE/Audio
Going to grab a high-end gaming PC on Boxing Day with as much of a kick ass Graphics card I can find. Will also look for a 24ish inch touch screen monitor to add to the SIM room. I am going with TGC 2019 plus I can pay a guy to create my local course for like $400. E6 just seems like such a scam $700 a year to rent courses...LOL...no thanks. Going to run the whole thing through a home theater system and surround sound in SIM room. As SIM room will double of movie night, Sports and PS4.

ELECTRICAL/LIGHTING
Haven't fully landed on where things will be yet but I am going to have a focused Pot light right over the hitting area on one dimmer switch. Switched outlet for QED. 6 more pot light in outer areas of SIM room on a dimmer that will normally be dim or off and can go full on for filming swings. I do not like to fool with this stuff so I will use a Pro for this.

HEAT/COOLING
I have two buried runs in my garage walls that service the upper floor that it looks like I can tap into. It would be nice if I could use these and just run heating and cooling from the whole home HVAC system. I will consult an HVAC guy. I'll be adding an insulated wall in front of two of my garage doors.

TIMELINE; FEB 2021.

I am doing all the work myself, jack of all trades, master of none. I will be YouTubing and relying a lot on this forum.

[Dax]

I might break this up a little as the kids are asking lots of questions tonight, but will comment as I get through some things I read.

first comment is if Hamilton is too far away from you? If not; then might be worthwhile to check out memory express for your computer and depending on Boxing Day sales projectors. They sell built computers and also will build you one for a small fee. Their pricing is excellent for Canada and their sales over the past few months have been pretty good. I have been looking on a few things as ai have the itch to upgrade my sim build computer.

projector, someone posted a great link today on some good things to do when searching for a projector on Projector Central. Be sure to check it out.

sorry more questions at the moment. Will see if I can post more comments after.

[Dax]

Some more comments.

par2pro has been good in my experience, but it sounds like they are busy and I have heard of some issues. Suggest calling them and setting a timeline if you go with them. Also, consider back order on some products that could get in the way of your build timing.

can’t beat pricing on TGC to be honest. Also, if it were me, I would go for the higher priced Uneekor and given your comments on subscriptions I would go the route you are planning. From comments here the Uneekor system seems to be a solid build and if you don’t plan on needing a launch monitor that you can take with you to the range, it is a good choice! Especially for the price. however, I would suggest making sure you have done all your research as it would be bad to second guess yourself going forward. You are after all buying something g that you will use for years to come.

read threads on sim room used as home theatre. There is a lot to consider on going this combination route. Too much for me to summarize here.

hope his helps you get started a little, but to be honest in the last three months there is a lot of threads on questions similar to yours and this might be a good read.

[InRange]

DAX thanks for the input. It's not to late so after doing more research I think I'm going to bite the bullet and go with the Eye XO over QED. Also, I did check out Memory Express and yes they have great prices and they are only 20 mins from my house. I'm now looking at getting the desktop and Projector there. You probably just saved me $500 bucks over where I was looking for that stuff. On the downside the upgrade to Eye XO will be $5400 more so thanks for nothing.......haha, LOL. Just kinding, I'm spending a lot for me I'd hate to be in a position in the future where I wish I had gone with the better unit in the first place. Thanks again.

[timsiegle]

I'll be following your progress, it's pretty much word for word what I'm trying to do as well.
I bought the QED because I heard the price is going up next year so figured I'd get it before it does.
Haven't bought anything else yet but expecting some boxing week sales for the projector and computer.

I'm leaning towards the Optoma GT1090HDR for projector.

For computer I'm thinking something with at least an RTX 2060 GPU, hoping that holds up for a few years at least.

Good luck with the hunt for the best deals.

[Dax]

DAX thanks for the input. It's not to late so after doing more research I think I'm going to bite the bullet and go with the Eye XO over QED. Also, I did check out Memory Express and yes they have great prices and they are only 20 mins from my house. I'm now looking at getting the desktop and Projector there. You probably just saved me $500 bucks over where I was looking for that stuff. On the downside the upgrade to Eye XO will be $5400 more so thanks for nothing.......haha, LOL. Just kinding, I'm spending a lot for me I'd hate to be in a position in the future where I wish I had gone with the better unit in the first place. Thanks again.

If you can afford the better unit, then I don’t think you can go wrong. Plus you can use your own ball and just focus and enjoy your game and monitor.

very happy that Memory Express worked out for you and hope you don’t get associated to buying stuff from them like I have.

Have you already bought the computer and projector with them? If so, I believe that they have started their Boxing Day sales and the only thing that I suggest is asking them on their price guarantee as ai think if on the 26what ever you buy goes cheaper and it is not on clearance, then I believe they may do a price Mach for you.

really hope you enjoy your sim and congrats!

[InRange]

Here is a rough drawing of what I'm planning,

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[Golfallday1983]

How is the optoma 200eh st projector? How much does projector effect image and gaming quality or is it the computer or a combo of both?

I’m looking to get the best experience possible on a 12x9 4:3 set up but don’t want to go with something that is overkill just something that maximizes my set up

I suppose a Carl’s premium screen would help too or a high quality screen in general?

[InRange]

I'm a newbee to this but to me the screen is probably more important than the projector. I think with projection we will be limited as to image quality just by the nature of projection. I'm not going to break the bank on a projector and will probably go with something in the $1000 range that has the short throw I need and 1080. I think 4K may be over the top for something I honestly can barely notice the difference when I'm at a TV store and compare side to side. In a stand alone nobody would notice.

[Golfallday1983]

My projector will cost about 1k Canadian the same for the screen it looks like

[InRange]

I tried posting photos here but had some difficulty. I said I'd post some photos and updates so please see my Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/inrange_golf/

Honestly everything is on track as planned no real snags yet, just a lot of work as I'm doing the majority of work myself. As for the projector I found a flash sale at Best Buy on the BenQ th671st for like $800 CDN. Honestly the most difficult thing has been the screen design and surround. Instead of foam and padding I'm going with 3/4 angled plywood that will eventually be covered with black industrial carpet. Doing drywall at the moment, I'll continue to update Instagram as I go.

[InRange]

A few more photos added, at the drywall stage now.

[hhk27]

I'm in Toronto and building out a sim myself. I'm working with an already finished space and smaller budget - about $15k. I bought a Mevo+ launch monitor but I have a feeling I will sell it next year and go Uneekor. I started my own thread here: https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum...proposed-build

Following your Instagram but I'll ask a couple of questions here so others can benefit:

1. Where did you end up buying your screen? What did you get?
2. How are you planning to pad the side walls? Baffles on the ceiling?

Would love to know what suppliers you have found for baffling material, padding, etc. I will make my own wall pads with PEF foam if I can find it. Someone I talked to on Facebook said he made his pads using Rockwool insulation as the padding material. I might experiment with that. Right now the biggest challenge is getting materials under lockdown conditions.

Looking forward to seeing your progress and sharing notes.

Henry

[InRange]

Hi Henry, awesome you’re building a SIM. We kinda have to up here in Ontario do to fridged temps and lockdown at the moment.

I ended up going with Carl’s Place premium. Now I have it it looks like a quality product. I haven’t casted an image on it yet but it’s a nice tight weave.

Padding. As of right now I’m not going to use any. It’s quite a wide space. 13 feet wide hitting from 10 feet out. I think it would be quite rare someone would miss, however, I built my walls with 3/4 inch plywood, and it is all angled towards the impact screen. I’m going to cover this all with industrial low pile carpet squares.

As far as baffles I’m going to see what I need once I get it working but thinking just some material hanging from the ceiling or maybe a net. You should check out Turf Net, he is a supplier in my area. Tim is the owner, nice guy.

[hhk27]

Thanks for the tip on Turf Net. Always good to have options. I think I will also order the Carl's Premium. I will build a wooden frame and attach angle iron to it. Thinking I will order a plain edge screen and use tarp clips. That way, I can order over-sized and then rotate and re-mount it when the hitting area shows wear.