3rd Stall Garage Sim Build (Eye XO)

[Gbgolfer17]

1 Year Later Update:
Figured I would post an update and semi review of the build for anyone interested. The sim has had pretty solid use (1-3 times a week in the Winter, about once a week in the warm months) and I have not had to many issues. Now, by piece:

Uneekor eye xo - Great! super accurate, great information, club stickers last forever even when playing outside. I really have no complaints with the monitor. The only issues I have had is I tried to use a gopro for cameras and could not get it to work, and it doesn't love white putters (my two ball oddessy putter confused it, so I put masking tape on the white part). I rarely turn the monitor off on the actual monitor just shut down the computer, and it handles wide temperature changes just fine.

Carls custom 10.25x10.25x6.5 enclosure – Good. I did have one friend shank one into the corner that caused a small tear in the stitching of the side fabric by the EMT, but considering that part is not meant to be hit by golf balls, I’m not complaining.

Carls premium screen – I have an issue here. The screen is really good as far as sound dampening, bounce back, and image quality. However, mine did develop about a 1 foot tear along the bottom where it is stitched into the border. I sent pictures to Carls and was told it was due to low ball strikes and the best they would due was 25% off a new screen. I am not happy with that response as there have not been that many low ball strikes (I’m a 4.0 HDCP), and the tear is well beneath where the foam covers the screen. It just looks like it was sewn a little to close to the edge in that one spot. It doesn’t effect playability and you cant even see it sense its behind the foam, still annoyed though as this happened less than a year from purchase.

Optima 1090hdr projector – No Issues

Swing Turf 5x5 mat – Good. Has good feal and feedback on thin/thick shots. I have rotated it once for a new hitting area, but could probably have waited another year. I planned on being able to rotate it 4 times, but I noticed it does have a slight “grain” to it and hitting against that grain is not as great as with it, so will only really get two hitting spots out of it. Still happy with it though!

Rain or Shine golf ball holder thingy – Good. Collects dust like a champ though, so I’m always wiping it down haha.

Lenovo Legion Gaming PC – No issues

Light socket extenders and spotlight bulb – Great. These bulbs last forever and are perfect for a simulator.

Birtees and golf balls – Impressed with the Birtees. They are kind of expensive, but they last forever. In over a year I have only damaged one enough to not use it any more. As for balls, I do go through quite a few. I’m not sure I need to switch them out as often as I do, but if I see any cut or smudge that I feel would do anything to the screen I replace them, and then just throw the old ones in my bag for use on the course.

TGC 2019 – Pretty good. They need to do some updates for sure. The co-op playing with a friend on another simulator isn’t always the easiest to get going. The weird first bounce has got to go. Rewinds can sometimes cause the screen to not show the actual shot your hitting and skip or subtract strokes. My biggest issue though is the drops, they make no sense and are horrendous sometimes haha.

Well that’s it. Willing to answer questions if anyone has any. Thanks

[ryanbetz]

Could you expand on the spotlight bulbs. I'm looking for a similar solution

[Gbgolfer17]

Philips LED 460543, Bright White,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CEK1O7G...p_mob_ap_share

E27 Flexible Light Bulb Lamp... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P22HLSL...p_mob_ap_share


The bulbs are the right type of light and leave a soft circle edge, work very well, i am using multiple of the flexible extenders so that i can get the angle right. Hope this helps

[Sp913]

Love the 1 year update. So a few questions:

1. Any complaints about the landing area? I am thinking about either using gym tiles (see a good deal from Harbor Freight) or using foam boards (https://www.owenscorning.com/en-us/i...ar-250)….all with some turf on top. I need to drive my car in the bay, and I was thinking I could mount the foam boards on some plywood and lean the landing area up out of the way when I’m parking there. Or alternatively park across the gym tiles and lay down the turf on top of that when I’m using it.
2. I saw you bought a heater for the garage. But I was curious if you saw distance loss on balls when you didn’t have a heater and it was 50 degrees or less in the garage. I would rather not heat the garage, but I live in the northeast and I seem to consistently hit it 10 yards less in the 50 degree garage. Now I of course see that loss outside, but I was surprised to see that indoors in the garage. But maybe I shouldn’t be surprised given the ball is cold.
3. Do you have anything stopping balls from going past your mat on to the rest of the garage, or does the screen absorb most of the impact?

Thanks!

[Foreman33]

I have a similar set up to OP. I'd guess the ball goes 5-10 yards less when the garage is 50-55 degrees (same as outside).

[Gbgolfer17]

The foam tile squares and turf work great for landing area. 90% of shots hit screen, hit landing area, and roll across hitting area right back into ball holder thing. I wouldn't park on any of it though. Anything decently heavy will leave indentations overtime which I'm guessing could affect the bounce. Mounting them to some OSB and moving out of the way when needed could work though.

I never really played when it was cold in the garage as the heater was the first thing to go in, but I can imagine a cold ball would affect the distance somewhat. Could just keep balls inside, and switch them out every once in a while? Also, depending on software you can adjust elevation setting to get your distance back to normal. To be honest though, you're crazy for not heating it in the northeast haha.

Any balls that miss the ball holder thing roll into my garage door, so that stops them. When I have the door up I have a 2x6 that I put across the bottom of the door on the outside so they don't roll down the drive way if they make it that far. that combined with the bug screen thing has worked.

[doubledown14]

I had a question about your square screen. Are you projecting a square image to cover the whole screen?

[preludesam]

Yes, it's a custom resolution you can set up for most graphics cards. It basically preserves the aspect ratio and keeps the height the same but cuts off the edges to fit the screen. Search "custom resolution" in the forum and there are plenty of posts about it.

[Foreman33]

Thanks for sharing Gbgolfer17. Looks great! How did you adhere the home depot turf to the foam pads?

[Gbgolfer17]

Only 7 months behind on answering this....apologies. The turf is not adhered to the foam in any way. The bottom of the turf has some pretty rough texture and that combined with the weight of the enclosure sitting on it is enough to keep it from moving at all.