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Golf sim v2 - Curved Screen and much larger area!
Golf sim v2 - Curved Screen and much larger area!
So, my first post in this thread was just a few months back. I was at the back of my extended side (think hobby or boat) garage with my mini pontoon boat and all the crap that gets thrown in garages towards the front. The screen was square, 10'x10', with a 4:3 image on it. It worked well for practice, but having more than 1 other person in there to shoot a round was pretty cramped. There was no way a lefty was hitting in the original build, which I built for a Skytrak at the time and I wanted to have room for people to hang out and play or hang out and watch. So, to v2 we went! This did involve selling the idea to the wife, so 'yes, you can watch movies out here! (sporadically LOL)'
After seeing a curved screen on a YouTube video and someone here on the forum that is starting an addition to their house and is planning on doing a much larger curved screen (thread is linked in this post), I was hooked after seeing it. I started to dig into what it would take to make it happen. For me, it wasn't too much. I was going with a bigger screen anyway and in the end the software to make it work was $399. Same HD1080GTR projector, same PC, ect. The only bit of 'extra' cost was a hydraulic tube bender from HF for about $130 so that I could create the bend in the screen frame with some controlled mechanical assistance.
I was also hitting off a FB 4x5 mat. I had DIY'd a divot action (Kudo's to GungHoGolf!) into the mat in place of the fibers due to getting stuck in the fibers on a fat shot and seeing a slight bit of club head twist when the club didn't enter the fibers completely flat. I liked it, but getting balls from the floor back onto the mat was a pain (first world problems, I know) and after seeing sim's with the completely flat floors, I elected to go that route and place the DIY divot action flush in the center. In addition, I wanted to hit balls off of regular tees so I also used the Synlawn TeeStrike (which coincidentally is the same grass used on the FB stance mat) and inset two small pieces of it on either side of the divot action so that both right and left handers can tee em' up! I didn't use the grass from the FB mat, as I had ordered a sample from Synlawn and it was a full 1x1' piece that worked out perfectly. I placed a 3"x12" on either side of the hitting surface.
To build the curved frame, I basically used the tube bender to start shaping a 1" piece of EMT to where I thought the curve would look good. I also used the graphics at https://www.golf-simulators.com/Golf...orScreens.html to get an idea of how to both build the frame and estimate the curve. I ended up being about 29" closer to the viewing area at the end of the screen curve compared to the center of the screen. The distance from wall to wall horizonatally is just over 14' and the ceiling height is 10'. So, I bought the preferred screen from Carl's in the standard 10'x15'. I ended up with about 4" of material left over on each side and just enough to wrap under the front bottom EMT to tarp clip it on the back side. As the EMT frame is a couple of inches off the wall plus a couple of inches of gap where the tarp clips connect, the curve didn't end up eating as much fabric as I thought it would, but the extra helps to fold it over on itself for a better grip with the clips. The pics below from my phone make it look like the top is more curved than it actually appears. The bottom of the screen is more representative.
Once the frame was up, I did a dry run hanging the screen up so that I could test the Pixelwix software. They have several different options on the software package starting at $399, and I didn't want to pay more for it than what I needed it to do. It worked great - I reached out to them and got a demo of the software which is good for 300 uses or 30 days, whichever comes first. There is always a large logo moving around the screen in demo mode, but that's understandable and even as large as it was, I could have played a game on it all day long as I was loving the curve! So, the lowest price option was in the cart and bought! I will add that the software takes a bit of getting used to, but the 'extra' beauty of it is that you can warp the screen as needed to compensate for the placement of the projector (or things in front of the screen, like my protection padding explained below) and you never have to touch the projector.
On my prior build, I would lose balls under the screen, around the sides, ect. I had tried to cover them with foam and black golf netting of various sizes and sorts, but they'd find their way through and generally end up with some melted foam on the ball. I didn't want to have that issue on this one. After contemplating ideas over and over, I decided to put a 2x4 (two stacked together, actually) just behind the outer vertical EMT support running vertically up the wall so that I had a backing to screw into. Then, I used an 18" wide (wanted 24", but was short on wood) roofing/flooring sheets to basically come off of the wall at a slight angle working towards the screen to cover the bungee / tarp clips and the edge of the screen. I screwed that into the wall and into the 2x4's mentioned above to secure it in place. After painting them flat black (as are the walls and ceiling which is covered with sound deadening fiber board from HD) I put a small piece of white fiberglass carpet tape around the edge leaving the white backing on it which contacts the screen so that the paint can't transfer from movement.
For the top, I found that being a bit further from the screen now (10-11' vs 6-7') alleviated issues I had with wedges hitting the top of the screen and then bouncing into the ceiling and back down towards the person hitting. I used two of the longer nets I had from the first build hung from the ceiling down to where the projector light hits the screen. One of them is up against the screen and the second one is about 10" out from the screen. Behind that outer netting is a strip of black fabric that is also stapled to the ceiling which masks the netting from view. This keeps balls from possibly hitting up at the top where there is a gap between the EMT and the screen where the tarp clips are located. I haven't had a ball end up in that area yet, and while there is a very slight chance one will, I'm pretty satisfied with the result. Watching a movie with the lights off looks stellar, as well, as the screen just looks completely built-in.
The bottom was the last trick that needed something. When I first hit a few balls with my younger sons at this screen, they sculled a few balls (and I did at least once) that hit the foam insulation covered EMT and bounced back towards us with some serious speed. I couldn't sink the frame into the floor because where the screen is located is where the floor starts the downward slope to the main garage door. As much as I didn't want to put something there, because in all honesty the picture going right from the floor upwards is really awesome to see, I needed something for safety. I started using the netting that I still had plenty of that was on the ceiling in front of the old screen to catch those wedge shots mentioned above and I just laid them in sort of a pile across the floor in front of the screen so I could at least catch that stray topped ball. That worked so well, that I took some left over fabric, cut it into a strip that was wide enough to create a 4-5" circle - attached a tarp zipper to it and then stuffed it with the netting. The beauty of it is that the netting is soft enough that I can form the 'tube' into a triangular shaped wedge. A few balls have hit that and it stops them great, generally deflecting the ball up into the screen and stopping it.
Speaking of the sloping floor....I needed a flat surface for all this fun. I basically used my table saw to rip 2x3's shorter and shorter in width and placed them across the floor as the foundation for the flooring board using Tapcon screws. Once that was in, I covered it with Synlawn 'all purpose' grass from Lowes. I don't have a Synlawn dealer near me, and with Lowe's, shipping was free and I could grab it locally when it arrived. I'm still only 99%, but I think it's what Synlawn calls their 'Precision Putt'...regular, not the Premium/Supreme. It's nylon and the specs on the Lowes site match it to a tee, except the weight is 1 gram heavier for the face weight than what is listed at Synlawn. Either way, it's working great! I ordered an extra foot so that I have plenty of it to replace the strip on the diy divot action.
The rest was input from the wife....seeing as I sold the theater part of the project to get the ok, there is some seating in the back including a 19th hole sign/light on the wall and a new pub table which were gifts from her for my birthday. Just used the cheap .49/ft roll of thin carpet from HD for that flooring. Both the grass and that carpet is all sitting on Harbor Freight exercise pads for padding. It's super cheap there compared to anywhere else at about $9 per 17sq/ft. Had to have sound for both the sim and theater duty, so I brought out a spare AV receiver I had that is 5.1 and I use that to stream music to and for the PC audio via fiber for 5.1 sound from the PC (sim and movies). To get it as close to 5.1 as I could, I mounted an old center channel that was also laying around (maybe I have too much stuff laying around LOL) on the ceiling just behind the screen.
Pics below:
Installing the flooring
Floor in, working with the screen frame
Building out the base area for the DIY divot action.
Quick screen hang to test the Pixelwarp software.
QED, led lighting and projector up.
Equipment area, plus TV for the Ignite software on the side.
Rear view of the sim, finally have seating in a relatively safe place!
Ready to play!
So, my first post in this thread was just a few months back. I was at the back of my extended side (think hobby or boat) garage with my mini pontoon boat and all the crap that gets thrown in garages towards the front. The screen was square, 10'x10', with a 4:3 image on it. It worked well for practice, but having more than 1 other person in there to shoot a round was pretty cramped. There was no way a lefty was hitting in the original build, which I built for a Skytrak at the time and I wanted to have room for people to hang out and play or hang out and watch. So, to v2 we went! This did involve selling the idea to the wife, so 'yes, you can watch movies out here! (sporadically LOL)'
After seeing a curved screen on a YouTube video and someone here on the forum that is starting an addition to their house and is planning on doing a much larger curved screen (thread is linked in this post), I was hooked after seeing it. I started to dig into what it would take to make it happen. For me, it wasn't too much. I was going with a bigger screen anyway and in the end the software to make it work was $399. Same HD1080GTR projector, same PC, ect. The only bit of 'extra' cost was a hydraulic tube bender from HF for about $130 so that I could create the bend in the screen frame with some controlled mechanical assistance.
I was also hitting off a FB 4x5 mat. I had DIY'd a divot action (Kudo's to GungHoGolf!) into the mat in place of the fibers due to getting stuck in the fibers on a fat shot and seeing a slight bit of club head twist when the club didn't enter the fibers completely flat. I liked it, but getting balls from the floor back onto the mat was a pain (first world problems, I know) and after seeing sim's with the completely flat floors, I elected to go that route and place the DIY divot action flush in the center. In addition, I wanted to hit balls off of regular tees so I also used the Synlawn TeeStrike (which coincidentally is the same grass used on the FB stance mat) and inset two small pieces of it on either side of the divot action so that both right and left handers can tee em' up! I didn't use the grass from the FB mat, as I had ordered a sample from Synlawn and it was a full 1x1' piece that worked out perfectly. I placed a 3"x12" on either side of the hitting surface.
To build the curved frame, I basically used the tube bender to start shaping a 1" piece of EMT to where I thought the curve would look good. I also used the graphics at https://www.golf-simulators.com/Golf...orScreens.html to get an idea of how to both build the frame and estimate the curve. I ended up being about 29" closer to the viewing area at the end of the screen curve compared to the center of the screen. The distance from wall to wall horizonatally is just over 14' and the ceiling height is 10'. So, I bought the preferred screen from Carl's in the standard 10'x15'. I ended up with about 4" of material left over on each side and just enough to wrap under the front bottom EMT to tarp clip it on the back side. As the EMT frame is a couple of inches off the wall plus a couple of inches of gap where the tarp clips connect, the curve didn't end up eating as much fabric as I thought it would, but the extra helps to fold it over on itself for a better grip with the clips. The pics below from my phone make it look like the top is more curved than it actually appears. The bottom of the screen is more representative.
Once the frame was up, I did a dry run hanging the screen up so that I could test the Pixelwix software. They have several different options on the software package starting at $399, and I didn't want to pay more for it than what I needed it to do. It worked great - I reached out to them and got a demo of the software which is good for 300 uses or 30 days, whichever comes first. There is always a large logo moving around the screen in demo mode, but that's understandable and even as large as it was, I could have played a game on it all day long as I was loving the curve! So, the lowest price option was in the cart and bought! I will add that the software takes a bit of getting used to, but the 'extra' beauty of it is that you can warp the screen as needed to compensate for the placement of the projector (or things in front of the screen, like my protection padding explained below) and you never have to touch the projector.
On my prior build, I would lose balls under the screen, around the sides, ect. I had tried to cover them with foam and black golf netting of various sizes and sorts, but they'd find their way through and generally end up with some melted foam on the ball. I didn't want to have that issue on this one. After contemplating ideas over and over, I decided to put a 2x4 (two stacked together, actually) just behind the outer vertical EMT support running vertically up the wall so that I had a backing to screw into. Then, I used an 18" wide (wanted 24", but was short on wood) roofing/flooring sheets to basically come off of the wall at a slight angle working towards the screen to cover the bungee / tarp clips and the edge of the screen. I screwed that into the wall and into the 2x4's mentioned above to secure it in place. After painting them flat black (as are the walls and ceiling which is covered with sound deadening fiber board from HD) I put a small piece of white fiberglass carpet tape around the edge leaving the white backing on it which contacts the screen so that the paint can't transfer from movement.
For the top, I found that being a bit further from the screen now (10-11' vs 6-7') alleviated issues I had with wedges hitting the top of the screen and then bouncing into the ceiling and back down towards the person hitting. I used two of the longer nets I had from the first build hung from the ceiling down to where the projector light hits the screen. One of them is up against the screen and the second one is about 10" out from the screen. Behind that outer netting is a strip of black fabric that is also stapled to the ceiling which masks the netting from view. This keeps balls from possibly hitting up at the top where there is a gap between the EMT and the screen where the tarp clips are located. I haven't had a ball end up in that area yet, and while there is a very slight chance one will, I'm pretty satisfied with the result. Watching a movie with the lights off looks stellar, as well, as the screen just looks completely built-in.
The bottom was the last trick that needed something. When I first hit a few balls with my younger sons at this screen, they sculled a few balls (and I did at least once) that hit the foam insulation covered EMT and bounced back towards us with some serious speed. I couldn't sink the frame into the floor because where the screen is located is where the floor starts the downward slope to the main garage door. As much as I didn't want to put something there, because in all honesty the picture going right from the floor upwards is really awesome to see, I needed something for safety. I started using the netting that I still had plenty of that was on the ceiling in front of the old screen to catch those wedge shots mentioned above and I just laid them in sort of a pile across the floor in front of the screen so I could at least catch that stray topped ball. That worked so well, that I took some left over fabric, cut it into a strip that was wide enough to create a 4-5" circle - attached a tarp zipper to it and then stuffed it with the netting. The beauty of it is that the netting is soft enough that I can form the 'tube' into a triangular shaped wedge. A few balls have hit that and it stops them great, generally deflecting the ball up into the screen and stopping it.
Speaking of the sloping floor....I needed a flat surface for all this fun. I basically used my table saw to rip 2x3's shorter and shorter in width and placed them across the floor as the foundation for the flooring board using Tapcon screws. Once that was in, I covered it with Synlawn 'all purpose' grass from Lowes. I don't have a Synlawn dealer near me, and with Lowe's, shipping was free and I could grab it locally when it arrived. I'm still only 99%, but I think it's what Synlawn calls their 'Precision Putt'...regular, not the Premium/Supreme. It's nylon and the specs on the Lowes site match it to a tee, except the weight is 1 gram heavier for the face weight than what is listed at Synlawn. Either way, it's working great! I ordered an extra foot so that I have plenty of it to replace the strip on the diy divot action.
The rest was input from the wife....seeing as I sold the theater part of the project to get the ok, there is some seating in the back including a 19th hole sign/light on the wall and a new pub table which were gifts from her for my birthday. Just used the cheap .49/ft roll of thin carpet from HD for that flooring. Both the grass and that carpet is all sitting on Harbor Freight exercise pads for padding. It's super cheap there compared to anywhere else at about $9 per 17sq/ft. Had to have sound for both the sim and theater duty, so I brought out a spare AV receiver I had that is 5.1 and I use that to stream music to and for the PC audio via fiber for 5.1 sound from the PC (sim and movies). To get it as close to 5.1 as I could, I mounted an old center channel that was also laying around (maybe I have too much stuff laying around LOL) on the ceiling just behind the screen.
Pics below:
Attached Files