Optishot Rookie - help me with my budget set up?

[brettryantalley]

So, I just back into golf after about 10 years off. I played about 10 times this year & my handicap shuffles between a 7 & a 10. I started looking into the world of sim golf about a month back in hopes to find an outlet for this new hobby (that is teetering on addiction if you speak to my wife). With 3 kids (6, 4 & 2, a low budget & a wife that isn't a fan of a hobby that takes 4-5 hours each time, it's just not feasible to play very often. Plus, I live in Indiana, so even I could afford it, I'm pretty much done playing outside for the next few months. So, after a lot of research, I figured that my only shot would be the Optishot as my total budget was roughly 150-200. I knew that wouldn't even be enough to buy new, so I've been auction hunting and got lucky enough to get one today for $102 ($124 after shipping).

So...I've done a lot of research, as I said, but i'd love some of your input on a couple things...

1. how should I set it up? I've included pictures of where I'll be setting it up. It has to be a portable set up. Basically I will hang a big blanket from the opening in between rooms and hit Almost balls. Then, I'd put my laptop on a tall bar chair on the other side of the optishot. With the 4 lights on the fan, should that be sufficient? I know that lighting seems to play a HUGE role in accuracy. Should I supplement some addition light when I'm playing?

2. If i were going to spend another 75 - 100...what should i get? My thoughts are to build a stand & get a better turf top. What are some of the best options for turf tops? there seem to be a lot of options.

3. What do I need to make sure I do with set up? It seems that it gets the best readings when you input offset & everything. Is there a tutorial anywhere that helps guide me through the set up process to make sure it's as accurate as possible?

Thanks for any of your thoughts and input!

[Brett23]

Hi
Only thing I would suggest is build a small hitting platform and drop the sensor pad in it to one stop it moving on the strike and two to get your feet level with it
I made mine very cheaply and covered it with Astro turf
Cheers
Brett

[wbond]

I found it really messes up the reads if the lighting is behind you and you are creating shadows across the unit. I would get the jagman joe/slickthings cover for sure. It's crazy how much better it is than the regular cover. Then build your own stance mat as mentioned above and drop the unit in there. If you get the jj cover this is a lot higher than the standard cover so you need to plan for this when building your own mat. Did you get an optishot 1 or 2. If it's 1, I don't believe you have the option of entering offset for the clubs within the software. It's very simple to edit clubs. If you have optishot 2, first you swing 5 times for each setting, square, open and closed and you have to do this for each club. Then you can go in and enter the offset and distance you hit each club. I think this is only for club suggestion on remaining yardage.

[thorin33]

Both the Optishot 1 and 2 allow you to edit clubs for offset and length. You cannot calibrate in version 1.

As for the slickthings cover, I would choose his Premier Turf over the Monster Turf. I have both and I find that the Monster Turf slides/moves and sometimes it interferes with the sensors. No such issue with the Premier Turf. Here is the link to his products http://www.slickthings.com/Site/products.html . The turfs will eat up the rest of your budget.