ProTee Build Underway

[inforpar]

Well after many months of research I'm happy to report that I've pulled the trigger on a ProTee system. I'm going to try and use this forum to document my progress and if you guys see that I'm doing anything incredibly stupid or could be improved upon please don't hesitate to tell me. As a New England guy with winter coming, I'm very excited to get this built. As I progress, hopefully this thread will contribute in a small way to the all the great info on this forum.

Physical Space - I've got a big old barn on property that we converted to baseball batting cages for my two young boys, heated and turfed. I've carved out a 13 x 18 foot area with 11 foot ceilings that should be perfect for a simulator.

Impact Screen - 13 long x10 high screen built with EMC tubing from Lowes and screen from West Coast Netting. While I have nothing to compare, I'm really impressed with the screen quality for the cost. I didn't think about aspect ratios when I sized my screen so will likely need to black out a small portion of the screen as well.

Hardware/Software

• BenQ 1080P Short Throw projector (ceiling mounted)
• CyberPower Gaming PC - i7, 16 gb ram, GTX 1070 graphic card, Win10 Home
• ProTee Base Pack 2 (minus the impact screen)

Work Done to Date

• Screen is built & installed
• Hardware/Software ordered
• Electrical done for projector & PC

Immediate Next Steps

• Internet Connectivity - I've had good look with Engenius access points and plan to add another to bring ethernet into my non-connected barn.
• Figure out flooring (see below)
• black out window and hang black retractable curtains from I-beams
• Receive hardware/software

Question of the Day!
What do you guys do/recommend for flooring with a ProTee system? The prices seem all over the place. My design is pretty true to ProTee's dimensions, complete with putting sensor but I'm haven't been able to really understand how to proceed. I get with Skytrak that the hitting surface matters, but not so much with ProTee I assume? I've looked at Fiberbuilt, CCE and a bunch of private labeled (and $$$$) mats but am not clear how to best proceed. Are you guys making your own cutouts for the sensors? Any recommendations on vendors? If cost effective, I'd like to do an area comparable to the ProTee dimensions. Really appreciate any guidance here.

Thanks - typing this out helps me quantify what I'm doing and will hopefully help someone else down the road. I'm very excited about the potential of a simulator. Even banging balls into the white screen has already helped my game. I've never broken 90 and if this doesn't do it for me than nothing will!

[inforpar]

Due in large part to the incredibly valuable info on this forum progress continues on our ProTee build. After completing the subfloor we attacked the turf floor. Following aeroburner's tip on SYNLawn I made contact with a distributor who, as he was at end of his outdoor build season here in New England (it snowed today!!!), had a nice selection of remnants and was willing to deal. I was able to score a single piece of 12x14 turf, drive up from CT to MA, stuff the roll into the back (and front) of a buddy's big-ass Escalade and had it installed that afternoon.

The turf is 1/2 inch thick and since my subfloor is installed upon 3/4 inch turf already (it's going in an existing turfed area), the noise/bounce factor is negligible. We were scared to death about cutting out the putting tee sensors, but once again Aero to the rescue. His lipstick suggestion, should be starred as a must do for anyone cutting out ProTee putting sensors. It was a piece of cake and we nailed the cutouts. Big old, lavender lipstick kisses to you for the tip - though the wife was less than impressed as you predicted.

For now we've elected not to glue down the carpet. It's heavy enough not to shift and since we're not really sure what we're doing anyway figured it would be easier to get at the sensors if we needed too. We did glue around the hitting sensor a bit as we wanted to avoid any lips that might snag a clubhead.

One cool thing I think we did was the SYNLawn guy was kind enough to kick in a couple of cups, so we cut them down a bit and installed two putting holes on either side of the subfloor. I like the idea of being able to put to a cup for practice without using the simulator and if we've got a game on the big screen can still mess around with putting. The turf rolls nice and true as I pulled most putts left just like in real life.

Finally today we hung our curtains. The sim area is part of a larger, very well lit space (a barn we turfed for baseball hitting), so we hung blackout curtains on tracks attached to existing I-beams and it worked a treat.

Very happy with the progress we've made and thankful for the information found/shared on this forum. This project is more work than I originally anticipated, mostly due to scope creep on my part, but I think the end result is going to be awesome. Next steps, projector and lights so off to read the Lighting posts!

[aeroburner]

Chris that looks very good congrats on the build out, and yes its a lot of work at the front end but what kind of reward would it be if everything was easy. there is a lot of info on here and as always do the research or feel free to ask someone here almost always these guys will have the answer if you get stressed, but from what I see you could be up and running by the end of the weekend, I would reach out to anyone who has got the v-cam and h-cam configuration figured out as that will be your biggest road block on being able to swing away. I personally said hell with it and went direct to protee and did a mobile connection with them and let them deal with it as this was well above my pay grade and you might think about doing the same if you start struggling on this aspect, protee is spot on with there customer service and will have your back with the final pieces to get you up and running.

[inforpar]

Just wanted to circle back for a quick update. After hitting pause on the buildout to get through the holidays I'm pleased to report my buildout is complete! There were definitely a few bumps in the road, mainly around over thinking the cameras and interface settings and went down a few rabbit holes trying to dial things in. For future ProTee DIY'ers that may read this, definitely be careful of poking around too much. Thankfully, the guys at ProTee were kind enough to remotely sort me out and my sim has been performing beautifully. I know this because the same crappy golf I play in real life is replicating itself very well online! I will post up some pictures ASAP and look forward to lots of golf with you guys.

[aeroburner]

looking forward to it

[inforpar]

So here are the "final" build out pictures. Very pleased with how everything came out and sincerely appreciative to everyone, particularly Mr. Aeroburner for the support and feedback. Without this forum I would still be trying to figure out my floor... See you online - I'll be the guy near the bottom of the scoreboard.

[goatbarn]

Looks great. From my time with the Protee system, I believe you want your putting light to be a touch wider beam, such that it closes the gap between the two lighted areas on the floor, but not so much that it actually hits the hitting sensor.

This would help with any launch angle measurements, especially on short chips. Maybe it's changed tho...

[inforpar]

Hey thanks very much. I am definitely still fine tuning so very much appreciate the tip.