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**ACgolfer** · 04-07-2022, 02:50 PM

Nice job! This will make your winter time so much more enjoyable. I just had my first winter with my sim and it was awesome! Cheers.

**Rlefig** · 04-13-2022, 07:35 PM

Looks great Brettster I have finished my roof rebuild in may 12x20 garage and increased the pitch from a 4/12 to a 7/12. I have a collar on every rafter at the 9' mark from floor. Still got a lot more to do and like you said it is a ton of work.

**Brettster** · 04-18-2022, 03:41 AM

Ready for final setup, embedding ProTee Sensors, and testing. Here are some pics of where I'm at now... expect in the next 7-10 days, I'll be hitting balls.

And here's a few down the line... anyone with a ProTee setup, if you could please confirm there is enough space between the 2 lighted (sensor) areas? I've seen it told that they cannot touch, and that they may cause problems reading on the sensors if they do touch - can current ProTee users maybe snap a pic of their 2 lighted areas (over their sensors) if you have both putting/hitting sensor? I'm using Halogen Spots that ProTee United recommends.

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**g_gryphon** · 04-24-2022, 11:48 PM

Looking forward to seeing the final product, which seems like it should be any day now! Thank you for the detailed post, I am planning a build using an almost identical structure, albeit a new one.

**Brettster** · 04-25-2022, 04:24 AM

Thank you g_gryphon - yes, I'm almost there... checking off last things as I go... Today I finished up 5.1 Surround Sound install and testing, look for a post tomorrow. here is the Surround Sound system I installed (low electrical/amp draw, and about 100 watts, so not too loud, but does a decent job):

https://tinyurl.com/Vizio51SurroundBar

I've got a mini-split arriving later in the week, or early next week. It made it hard to work in the building over the weekend as I currently have no cooling, heating only with the heating panels, and it was 87 degrees inside Saturday, and 77 degrees inside today... It was so warm this weekend, I actually got to play outside on Saturday, and was planning on hitting range balls on Sunday (had family duties to take care of instead).

We had a huge warm front run through over the weekend, and next week we're back to highs in the 50's, so I'll be more available to work at cutting in the sensor mats, testing the LM ball readings in the Sim, installing the cameras (both HCAM that sits on the floor next to the subwoofer, and VCAM that I still need to mount next to the halogen spot on the ceiling that points straight down on the center of the hitting mat. I've got a few more cleanups to do, and possibly some memory foam to wrap in black cloth, or cut up and place in my baffles where the collar ties are up top and the fabric drapes down to them now - I want to cover the front facing areas of those 1x4's with memory foam to make sure I get nothing coming back at me into those. I also have a few access panels to cut into the back wall, for placing my Garmin Approach R10 into, those inside cavities are already prepared and lined with housewrap, so just need to cut the drywall and glue on access panel frames.

That's about all I can think of - looking like this week will be completion time! So excited to actually start playing some courses I've got on my list in TGC2019, and a few in Home Tee Hero (HTH) for the Garmin Approach R10.

Thanks for inspiring me to finish up... been a long haul

-Brett

**Rlefig** · 04-25-2022, 03:14 PM

sounds great can't wit to see it finished

**Brettster** · 04-28-2022, 02:29 AM

5.1 Surround sound installed! It's nice, been playing my iPhone Music in the shed, with this Vizio 5.1 Soundbar that I installed.

Here is the Vizio Sound bar I bought:

https://tinyurl.com/Vizio51SurroundBar

I had a heck of a time mounting the center 'bar' which contains 3 speakers, in the spot where my finger is pointing in the pic. It's sitting directly on a ledge that a 'pseudo-beam' was put in to strengthen that end of the shed when there was a garage door there with springs (look at early pics). Also, the nice thing about this sound bar is that the Center Bar is plugged in (so I ran cord down and bought a 'flat plug' cord to plug in just under the gym mats on left. The bar communicates wireless to the sub-woofer, which I sit next to the VCAM on the left side wall. It also plugs in, but the whole thing is only pulling about 150-200 watts total, about 1.2 Amps current draw. That's the big reason for much of what I'm doing, keeping the electrical amp draw down, so I don't have to run another hot wire from my circuit box out there to shed.

Here's some pics of Center Bar mounting space, the pic after I lifted the Commando Cloth baffles that hang over where the Center Speaker Bar is, and pics after I let the baffle cloth back down, it completely covers the speaker - the nice thing is the remote still works - through the commando cloth (nice surprise). The other pics are 2 tiny satellite speakers mounted on back wall of shed, the subwoofer sitting on the ground.

Notice in the bottom left pic (with the satellite speaker) that I also ran a USB WiFi extender on a USB extension cable. I did that to increase my internet speed by 10x. I was getting low performance from the WiFi card in the back of the Lenovo Legion computer, as it's sitting in the corner and low down on the wall, about 4' down, even with it sitting on top of the cart I have in there that you can see on the last pic.

The sound is great... I've still got to hook it up (via 1.5mm headphone jack stereo connection) to my projector which I know I'll have simulated Surround Sound with that, (Virtual X I think it's called). But, looking forward to that... I'll also be running HDMI from the computer to a HDMI 3 way switch box, then from that up to the project as my Mini-Projector only has 1 HDMI input on it. Going to be a blast...

I'm on the final steps now - tonight had to buy an Oscillating Multi-Function Tool to cut the hole in the 3/4" plywood floor underlayment that serves as my raised floor that the ProTee sensors embed into. Wow, it was fun ('not') cutting the hole through my putting turf at just the right spot... pictures of that to follow... done soon... and then finally - YES - balls will be up!

Thanks for reading and keeping me inspired... down this long, hard road!
-Brett

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**Brettster** · 05-16-2022, 04:52 AM

Hello - it's been a while since I posted... So much has happened, so I'll keep it to several postings over the next several days... By the end of this week, you will see the official 'Completed Sim' photos! I'm pretty much done, just doing some tweaking here and there....

Here is what I've been working on the last two weeks... 1.) Cutting in ProTee Hitting Mat, 2.) Cutting in ProTee Putting mat. Once again, I found these tasks much harder than I thought they would be, for several reasons.

First, let's just say that cutting into the Subfloor is not easy, when you're trying to cut into a space that is filled with insulation, and you are wanting to leave the 'Turf' (putting turf) over the top, while you're cutting. I quickly found out that did not work. Here's why... Step 1, I spent a lot of time measuring, checking my swing on the back wall and behind me for the absolute best spot that would handle my swing, and possibly anyone I had over. Also, I had 3 or 4 tape measures setup, along with a right-angle measuring tool, and a 4' drywall cutting square, a Kreg cutting extension for my circular saw and finally a huge 6' level... I lined all these up to the exact spot where I wanted to cut the mats into the floor.... Then I pulled a string from the wall directly behind me on the wall, straight through to the screen on-line with where I would cut. I then taped off the area for each mat. This gave me a nice cutting area that I could use a razor (Xacto knife, and a 'Fatso Carpet cutting knife') to make these cuts.

Those cuts into the putting turf went ok

but, the problem started here where the putting turf wanted to curl back out of the cut (all along the edges), which made it a nightmare trying to cut this with the turf still down. After many attempts at this, I finally decided to draw an outline of the area I had already cut out for each mat (the hitting mat, and putting mat) and do something I did not want to do, but I had to. I pulled back all the carpet, and my 1/2" foam exercise tile mats under it so I could cut directly on the board. Then came the next problem. Making this cut was not going to be easy, I tried 3-4 different cutting tools and settled on using a Rotary Cutter (think rotosnips), but one from Harbor Freight to make the actual 'plunge cut hole into the 3/4" plywood subfloor. At first I thought I might use this tool for the entire cut, but found it too dusty, and slow. I tried switching to a mini-circular saw and had one burn up (before any cuts were made) from a major big-box retailer. I tried another from Harbor Freight, that one was ok, but it did not have a plunge cut option and resulted in kick-back. Not going to work there... finally settled on using my handy 'Jig Saw' with a plywood blade on it and after setting it to stop right around 3/4" depth, knew that I could just scroll through my 4-sided cuts and eventually be done - I may have used the rotary cutter in the 4 corners - but it worked.

Pulling back all the turf/ 1/2" gym tiles left a huge mess that I had to sort out afterwards. The biggest problem was the turf was already stuck down with carpet tape, so I had to pull all of that and re-seal it when done! Notice in the 3rd pic above, the hole cut right down to the concrete foundation - in this photo you can see a blue 'X' I had chalked onto the concrete floor of the shed several months ago when I was measuring where I would be hitting from. I was only off by about 2" or so toward the center, and almost exactly centered front-to-back as you can see. Pretty happy with that.

You can see from these 2 pics as I was making that cut, I actually pulled up all of the entire underlayment floor board (3/4" plywood) in the spot where I made the cut, I did that because I had to 'chisel out' several small gaps in the floor joists where the cabling was going to run under the underlayment to the side wall and connect to my computer over there. This is one aspect of the ProTee LM that was a little more difficult than others - but it gives you club data read from the sensors in the mat that other LMs cannot provide you. You can see in the first pic here (on the left) the spot where I had to chisel out gaps in the floor joists to fit the cables that lead to the sensor mat. In the second pic (on the right), I pulled the entire board up after cutting, so I could get at the joists to chisel them. I used 2" and 1/4" chisels....

The final outcome was pretty darn good and I'm pleased with it... then I had to try out several boards dropped into the hole/cavity to get the correct height on the ProTee hitting mat (about 1/8"-1/4" above the putting turf/stance area). This resulted on me settling for 2 (1/2" boards) cut to the right side and dropped into the floor cavity first, then the ProTee Sensor Hitting Mat dropped in on top of these 2 boards to give it just the right amount of height. After all of this, I solved my 'curling turf edges' problem by sticking on Velcro Tape on all 4 sides surrounding the mats, 1.) the hook part stuck down to wood boards at the right spot around edges, and then 2.) the loop part stuck to the putting turf directly above where it would be pressed down to hold the turf down. It worked, but may need to be clamped overnight with Gorilla Glue to make sure

More pictures later, will follow, as you can se in these 2 pics, the sensor/mats are cut in, but the curling putting turf problem all-around the edges was not solved yet, making the sensors look like they were buried below the actual stance/hitting area - they are not, just need to take a final pic, with how they look when stuck down

The last pic - here is one of the saws I tried... Remember the final saw choice was a Rotary Cutter to get things started, followed by a Jigsaw. Quite a combination, and I know I can do it again any time I need to...

Here's one last pic, after I solved it:

Glad that's all over!

Attached Files

**GullLakeMi** · 05-16-2022, 12:09 PM

You seem to be a combination of patient and resilient. Looks like you are getting close to the end.

**ACgolfer** · 05-16-2022, 08:36 PM

Looking good. Enjoy your sim!

**Brettster** · 05-16-2022, 09:00 PM

I have my alignment and setup ready and working now. I spent some time cutting the recess (access panel) hole and placing the frame of the access panel there to stick on with construction adhesive. and close whenever I don't need it. But, when I do need it, I open it up and my tripod calibration stand fits into the wall a good 3.5 inches giving me an extra 3"-4" of total length for hitting the ball (15'5" to be exact/minus any screen away from wall space - which is 8").

Here are some pics of how the laser alignment matches up perfectly down the line with my ProTee Fiberbuilt hitting mat. (the center hole up top holds the tee, and as you can see with a ball on that tee, the laser hits the tee and exactly through the middle of the ball. The line continues on to split exactly the 12" ProTee putting sensor mat which is in front of the hitting mat. It lands at exactly 6". It may not seem necessary to be this exact - but I can tell you even miniscule differences in alignment have a huge effect on how your ball track is measured from any Launch Monitor (either the ProTee as I have here, or the Garmin Approach 10 which I have setup to make this measurement. The Tripod Alignment stand I purchased has a bubble level in the very center of it to help you get exact with front/back and side/side tilt of the tripod where the Approach R10 sits. That was smart thinking by Garmin to make it a tripod as it gives you all the essential alignment and measuring options available.

Keep in mind that though the ProTee sensor may look like it is slightly higher on the right side, it is not, just that my Velcro turf stickies were not holding down the turf well enough on that side of the sensor. The sensor is actually level, about 1/8" to 1/4" above the putting turf and will match up perfectly when I cut in a 4'x4' stance mat next to it as well.

Here's a pic of the back wall recessed area (access panel) I cut into the back wall drywall with the Garmin Approach R10 LM sitting back into the wall. The laser level is a Ryobi Cube Compact Level purchased from Home Depot for $16.97 find it here:

Access Denied

https://tinyurl.com/CompactCube-LaserLevel

The Access Panel was also purchased from Home Depot and they have several sizes - I think this is 6" x 9" ($9.99) and it fits perfectly:

Access Denied

https://tinyurl.com/AccessPanel-6x9

Attached Files

**g_gryphon** · 05-19-2022, 02:07 PM

Really looking forward to seeing the last few posts, it's been a long time in the works!

Quick question, did you end up going with the mini-split that you linked to earlier in the thread? Is 9,000 BTU the right capacity for this space? I'm seeing some calculators that suggest 6,000, but given the extra volume of airspace vertically, I was thinking that this may be underpowered.

**Brettster** · 05-24-2022, 09:49 PM

Pioneer Mini-Split installed... Yes!!! This may have been the best purchase ever for the entire shed, as I can now do my Golf work, Sim play and Range work any time of day/night, when I was prevented from doing that for so long. It's almost like I forgot how easy it is to go into a heated/cooled space and enjoy it any time. Now I can - and it's amazing...

Here's the story, I recommend you order this from Amazon ( https://tinyurl.com/MiniSplit-9000BTU-22SEER ), as I'm sorry to say that I ordered from Big Box Orange Depot store, and had it waiting for pickup. I thought this would be better, but in the end had all kinds of problems because they lost the 3rd box which happened to include my 16' lineset (which is what does the job of heating/cooling along with the refrigerant). Unfortunately I had to have my contractor come back 10 days later after Pioneer graciously re-shipped my 3rd box.... So, I had the date all picked out, it was getting really hot the following week and I knew I wanted this in place before then and contractor shows up and first thing we notice is it says on box 'lineset not included in this box', ok, turns out it's in box #3.

The Bottom line was - finally got it, and had it professionally installed and it is GREAT! It's so quiet I would darn near call it 'silent'. Really, both the inside 'head' and the outside 'compressor' unit which runs on a big fan is so quiet you can hardly hear either of them. I also chose this unit because of low 'amp draw' and I had contractor measure me at 9.2 Amps on high cooling which had me super excited.

Here's the link:

https://tinyurl.com/MiniSplit-9000BTU-22SEER

(The unit is 9,000 BTU about 3/4 ton and 22 SEER A/C which is super efficient running at: 5.8 Amps in cooling and 6.9 Amps in heating mode).

This unit IS the answer, and yes g_gryphon - you do want the 9000 BTU unit, you are right, with the extra 'headspace' up to 10' ceiling you need the extra cooling/heating power to cover it. I know for sure, see my photos below of installed unit which I am so happy with.... It features so many things that make this the #1 way to go for heating/cooling any small space. It's fast (in Turbo mode) to cool/heat, it can run in Auto (heating & cooling mode) at the same time, which will switch back/forth as needed and it also features a Dry mode (removes humidity from the air and drips it outside the building). I found out from my contractor it was holding pressure really good, and you do want a professional to install, otherwise you have to deal with vacuuming (pumping) out pressure and checking it while it runs for leaks. It operates on R-410a refrigerant and is pre-sealed and pressurized at the factory.... when it was first hung, and the lines opened we could hear nitrogen hissing off telling contractor it was sealed and good. Also, he found that pumping the lines was very easy to do, and showed no leakage at all.

Here are some pics of running unit:

Just make sure you go with a minimum of 16' lineset (do not let anyone cut the lineset as that could make it more inefficient, or faster to require service). It comes with a 5 year warranty if a professional installs it, or 1 year if you install it yourself - so I think you can see, much better to have a professional work their magic. In the end, I'm very happy, it works perfectly. Keep in mind, that when you call many Heating/Cooling shops, they might not want to install a unit that you purchase on your own and may tell you that you have to buy one of their units - but, that often results in a huge bill, and getting a unit that is not the exact unit you would like.... another reason I recommend buying on your own.

There is one slight issue I have with this unit - which can be easily fixed... It does not come with WiFi access module plugged in, you have to buy one on your own, and plug it in, and setup. I recommend it, mine is on order and I will report when I have it in place. It allows you to control everything on the unit over WiFi from an App, including scheduling when it runs, etc. There are some really nice features for keeping your heating/cooling bill low, that require you have an easy way to schedule the mini split off/on or into sleep mode as you get into a routine for controlling temperature. This will save you a ton, especially for your simulator if you're only planning on playing in it at certain times - you can schedule it to be 'On' in certain modes DAILY or WEEKLY scheduling. Remote monitoring of Room Temperature / Humidity, Voice Control integration and Home Automation functions.

Here is the WiFi USB key I recommend that you purchase for your unit at the same time as ordering the mini split - that way you will have them both when you make the install:

https://tinyurl.com/WiFi-Module-HeatPumpAC

Here are a few pics of my Thermometer scanner reading temperature this morning when it was in 'heat mode', yes it was in 40's last night, and cool mode. You can see it was putting out 128 F air in heat mode (so plenty of heat - which will be needed when it's cold out), and 51.6 F air in cooling mode (you want 55 or below) to keep your space cool).

Attached Files

**Hickory James** · 05-25-2022, 03:45 AM

All this work and to be honest your screen looks like ........really?

**Sixmudd** · 05-25-2022, 05:41 AM

Originally posted by Hickory James View Post

All this work and to be honest your screen looks like ........really?

Tough crowd in here tonight lol 😂

Announcement

Golf Sim Shed build - finally...

Golf Sim Shed build - finally...

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