Re-building my golf sim

[drsagacity]

It’s time to upgrade the sim. I was originally going to just get a replacement screen, but decided that I could make a few other upgrades at the same time:

Original build:
1. Enclosure - Rain or Shine Swing Bay - gen 1 (8’ height x 10’ width x 4.5’ depth)
2. Projector - Optoma EH200ST
3. Putting Green - Big Moss Country Club (loved the putting green, but it wasn’t designed to fit into an enclosure)
4. Hitting mat - Country Club Elite 5x5 and Rain or Shine Swingturf 5x5
5. Launch monitor - Skytrak —> upgraded to Uneekor QED —> added Bushnell Launch Pro

New build:
1. Enclosure - Carl’s Place DIY enclosure 8.5’ height x11.5’ width x2.5’ depth (should arrive at the end of January)
2. Projector - BenQ LK936ST - 4k Laser projector (installed)
3. Putting green - Big Moss putting green (installed)
4 Hitting mat - left Country Club Elite, right Rain or Shine Swingturf, added Big Moss True Launch hitting strip. It’s a much better feel and doesn’t cause the same problems with elbow and wrist pain for long sessions. (Installed) - Waiting for new enclosure so I can position exactly where I want it then we will cut out the holes.
5. Launch monitor - Protee VX (installed)

Pictures below, I had to go back and get the old picture to show the old hitting mats. You can see the shape of the original putting green too. In the next pictures you can see the new putting green and the new hitting strip between the other two hitting mats.

Now it’s just waiting for the new enclosure. Once it gets here and gets installed, we will paint the room and add some better blackout curtains.

[JayBrd85]

Some really nice upgrades, looks good!

Our builds have had somewhat similar paths:
Skytrak > Uneekor QED > Uneekor EyeXO2
CCE mat > Rain or Shine mat > Fiberbuilt 4'x9'

I've been thinking about upgrading my projector from a BenQ HT2150ST to the LK936ST. Do you think the upgrade in picture quality was worth it? I have a 16.5' wide by 10' tall screen, and the current picture is nice but doesn't look near as crisp or sharp as the duplicate copy on the 55" samsung screen. Does the lumen increase make it pop that much more?

Have you been satisfied with the Protee VX? My only complaint with the EyeXO2 is that the View software seems to crash on me about once a round when I have multiple people playing. I'm hoping the most recent update fixes that, but it has been a frequent frustration. I can only remember my QED or its software having an issue maybe 5x in the 2.5 years I owned it.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[drsagacity]

Some really nice upgrades, looks good!

Our builds have had somewhat similar paths:
Skytrak > Uneekor QED > Uneekor EyeXO2
CCE mat > Rain or Shine mat > Fiberbuilt 4'x9'

I've been thinking about upgrading my projector from a BenQ HT2150ST to the LK936ST. Do you think the upgrade in picture quality was worth it? I have a 16.5' wide by 10' tall screen, and the current picture is nice but doesn't look near as crisp or sharp as the duplicate copy on the 55" samsung screen. Does the lumen increase make it pop that much more?

Have you been satisfied with the Protee VX? My only complaint with the EyeXO2 is that the View software seems to crash on me about once a round when I have multiple people playing. I'm hoping the most recent update fixes that, but it has been a frequent frustration. I can only remember my QED or its software having an issue maybe 5x in the 2.5 years I owned it.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Yes sir. Our end-state will be almost identical. We are planning a much bigger construction project and at the end I am moving the entire sim room to a different location and my dimensions are going to be nearly identical to what you have. I was originally planning to hold off on the new enclosure until I had the exact specs, but I figure it might take a while to get things completed so I went ahead and went with the Carl’s place enclosure now because it will be super easy to rework the enclosure to whatever size I want at the end. Will just need to get a custom screen and I will be good to go.

In my current room, I wanted the hitting mats to be 11-12ft wide. I was really debating the Fiberbuilt mat, but tried the hitting strip from big moss and it worked perfectly. Truthfully, I had used some of the other companies putting greens and didn’t like them because they were too slow. The Big Moss setup is fantastic. Most of the courses I play on roll at a 10-11 on stimp so I really like that my putting green is really similar to the courses I play frequently. I did have to put a sub floor under it to bring it to the same height as the hitting mats.

When I started looking at the upgrade, I was going to go with the EyeXO2 also. Ultimately, that decision came down to the use of AI in the Protee VX. In the short-term, it was nice to have a no-stickers option for the club face data, but really, I was doing it because in the long-run the potential for using AI is massive. That did result in me needing a new PC, however, to run things at Ultra 4k and have all the AI turned on. The new PC will be here this week. I went ahead and wiped the machine so my son could use the current gaming computer until he goes back to school. I am without a sim until then.

I can only remember having one time where there was a problem with the QED. Uneekor had a software update and after than I never had another problem. I also don’t ever remember it crashing. As far as Protee goes, it’s great. I have done pretty extensive testing with the Uneekor, Bushnell, Trackman, and GC Quad. Before I sold the Bushnell, I went through clubs so I could do side by side comparisons. The important numbers were all close enough I don’t have concerns with accuracy (ball speed, spin rate, spin axis, carry distances). The Protee total distance isn’t accurate, but non of the launch monitors are accurate for that number (and I don’t use it). The driving range is 4k and the presentation of data is great. I also know my numbers pretty well and truthfully, the only thing I really need is ball data (unless I am working with driver where I need angle of attack).

The only issue with Protee is that there’s a bit of a gamble on whether they will release software updates that complete the product. As an example, on the Uneekor I would use their range and group all of my clubs so I could see average numbers for each club. Right now, the Protee doesn’t have that functionality. You basically see one shot at a time. There is an option to turn on shot tracking, but you don’t have a way to access the data yet. That means I can’t see all of the data from a range session. For playing courses, there is no difference. For hitting on the range, there is no difference. I was ok gambling on the upside because I suspect if it works out the way it could, prices for the Protee unit will only increase over the next couple years as their direction is ahead of what anyone else is doing.

As far as the projector goes. It’s a big difference. My sim is in a sun room. Even though I have curtains on every window, there is enough ambient light coming into the room that it was hard to see much detail during the day. With the ambient light doesn’t matter at all. In fact, I haven’t even had the need to turn up the brightness beyond the standard config. As far as the picture goes, once I get my new premium screen without the damn waves and the new computer that will be cruising at 4k ultra settings, I feel like I will be able to answer that question better. I do think it’s miles better, but will share pictures once I get the new enclosure put in place. The waves on the screen always make pictures look terrible with my current screen.

[drsagacity]

Sweet. New enclosure just arrived. Gonna start the teardown and getting the new enclosure put together tonight. Should have new pictures by Sunday.

[drsagacity]

Almost done. I got the new enclosure installed last night. Now I just need to go around and work the screen out a little, but this is miles better than where it was. Super excited. The screen is already way flatter than my old enclosure (and I haven’t even really gone through to try to make it perfect).

[andy2001]

Looks clean! Definitely seems a lot flatter and crisper than the last enclosure. Is the Protee VX and new PC treating you well?

[drsagacity]

Yeah. It’s an awesome combination. This PC has no problem running the three screens and keeping all AI turned on with 4k max settings.

I plan on getting in there tomorrow to cleanup and then go through the enclosure and see if I can make it perfect.