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]

[aeroburner]

looks great you will get great enjoyment out of your sim as others on this forum have, there are so many option out there so try to get others out there to give some advice and try to see what best fits your build. I actually talked to dennis from Protee and asked exactly how they built theres, click on my name and scroll to the bottom and look at my build that I did and let me know if you have any questions after you look at it. The sensors are framed in to the floor and the cables I have access to as its wood built with flooring, you can keep your turf if its a good putting turf as all your strikes are off the sensor. its a little work to build the hitting deck but its very cost effective in pricing. 200 at most for the wood. after that the real brain damage starts (haha) with setting up your protee and getting it customized to you, on that note there are some great protee sim guys out there that will help you fine tune it as they have help me, so don't be worried your not alone and we will chip in to get you up and running.. Cheers

[aeroburner]

sorry I clicked on my name and I couldn't even find my build out so here it is

http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/build-your-own/enclosures/77117-from-skytrak-to-pro-tee-build-out

[aja]

With respect to the mats you have been researching they are not a necessary part of a ProTee install. Your hitting surface is the ProTee sensor and the FiberBuilt turf on top of it. You do not need any other mat to hit from.

You do need to plan for a subfloor system in which to recess the Protee sensor and Putting sensor (which I would recommend getting).

As far as the floor covering for the rest of the subfloor, some use artificial turf, I used commercial grade carpet tiles. You need to choose a fairly dark colour to use around the ProTee sensor so there is good contrast for the horizontal camera.

I documented my install in the following post:

http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/build-your-own/enclosures/34595-protee-sim-room

A quick look through it should help to explain some of what I've mentioned.

Good luck!

[inforpar]

Hey Guys,

Thanks so much. Both of these posts help a ton. I think I was getting paralysis by analysis; way to caught up in the different mats despite the fact that I knew I'd be hitting off the ProTee sensor. I really appreciate the input. It's supposed to rain this weekend so my perfect excuse to work on a subfloor :-)

Thanks again - also Mods if this thread belongs in the DIY section feel free to move. I probably should be posting there!

[aeroburner]

here are the links I talked to you about in the other thread
http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/...er-for-synlawn

http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/...ance-mat-ideas

so to answer your question I really love the synlawn product I would read these two threads on how I purchased them and try to repeat as these are expensive per sq ft. unless you can find a short cut like I was able to do and save a few dollars good luck.

update: you have two distributors in mass. one in Canton and one in south Hampton

http://www.synlawn.com/contact/#map_top

[inforpar]

So aerogolf, I love what you did, balancing quality with not getting killed on $$$. The Mass. Synlawn guys are not far from me so I'm going to bug them for some remnants. Looks like you're putting on the Synlawn TeeStrike as well? All good? Thanks again!

[aeroburner]

your welcome anything else let me know. yes I have a skytrak also so wanted to have an option to play off turf just in case but found that I could use my skytrak off my sensor base. but there are three quality golfing turfs available check there website and all three are really good for putting and are very comfortable to walk on. best thing to do is go in and explain what you are doing and have them pull out remnants they have around and look at them negotiate a price per sq ft and take it home. I also used a pressure sensitive glue that lets me lift up the turf if I ever need to get under the plywood to do some repair if needed

[inforpar]

Big day today - all the ProTee gear came as did the beefy new PC and the wood for the subfloor. Tomorrow is subfloor and hopefully curtains day! Also hoping to hear good news from SYN Lawn. Quick question on sensor placement (I haven't cracked the install guide yet so apologies if this is covered). Looks like ProTee recommends 6.5 feet from screen to putting sensor and roughly another 4 feet to the hitting sensor. That will be just a foot or two too long for me. Based on all the builds I've seen on this forum, that's obviously not a hard rule, but I'm curious as to what folks have for distances from their screens? Also do you have the flat serial cable taut from putting sensor to hitting sensor? Thanks. Going to go read the manual now!

[aeroburner]

the line is taut between the hitting sensor and the putting sensor.I will take some pics and email them to you PM me your real email and will send it out with tape measure pics so you can see lay out if that will help. And CONGRATS on your protee you will love it...

[aeroburner]

I sent you the pics, let me know if there is any other questions if I cant help there will be others here to help... Good luck and have fun

[inforpar]

Made good progress today. Subfloor is done! As you can see from the pics we might have gone a little crazy with all the supports, but we wanted good stability under the stance areas and no squeaking. Mission accomplished and the lumberyard loved selling me all the 2x4's we burned through! It's been covered in other posts, but leveling the sensors took some time to get right. One thing we did was pull the hitting sensor cables out to the back of the subfloor so if we ever need to pull either sensor we can get at it with too much hassle. We'll just hide them under some trim.

Heading up to my local SYNLawn distributor tomorrow to grab some carpet. A bit nervous about making the putting sensor cuts but forward progress!

[aeroburner]

great job so far, did you get the height of your turf already to know the height of the hitting sensor you want the sensor grass 1/4 inch higher then the turf, the putting sensor will go flush with plywood, throw a straight edge over this to make sure its not humped or low as this will affect putt a little after turf is down, and have you picked out what type of adhesive you are using yet.

[aja]

Very nice work!

[aeroburner]

inforpar, here's what i did the the putter cut outs and it worked amazing with no issues, you might tick off your wife though if she finds out. Here it is, start the gluing process of the matt from the back to the front take the gluing of the mat to the putting sensor lay it all down and make sure it perfectly laid out then each person grabs the corners and pulls it back evenly lay it down on itself, heres where you get in trouble as i did, . Go to your wife's purse get her lipstick out and take the lipstick and go around each of the putting sensors without touching the lense put on enough to transfer onto the back of the mat, next you will carefully roll back into the final placement of your turf, then go to the sensor and compress where the sensors are that will give a perfect template for the cutout. after your happy with the cut out glue down and done!!!!

[aeroburner]

Chris I got your email here is the reason for the different turf on the edges its that as you will find out the balls falling to the plywood are kind of loud and tend to roll in different directions, from trial and error of course I went back to syn lawn bought grass turf at around 1.00 sq ft. and added it to the border this does two things
1. no sound when the balls fall to the ground
2. the balls do not roll anywhere and your not having to chase them around the barn in your case garage in mine.
The only down side to this whole thing is my dogs thinks its a place for them to take a leak, almost had to put foot to dogs butt.