DIY Halogen Lights System

[wizardofodds]

I'd like to begin a thread specific to making your own halogen light system because comprehensive answers don't already exist and it looks like the hardware link is dead over on the "How to Install a ProTee Golf Simulator" topic. Please provide links to widely available products at local hardware stores if possible.

Subtopics to address are:

1) What style of lighting hardware lend themselves to the optimal setup for Protee Base Sensors and Putting Sensors (e.g. Track Lighting, Can Lights, DJ Lights, etc...)?

2) What type/size/wattage of halogen bulb would be most appropriate for item (1)?


Based on my current research, I've come up with the suggestions links while keeping functionality, price, and availability at the forefront of decision making.

1)
---a)PAR30 Track Lighting (Use two of the three)
---b)PAR 30 Can Light

2)
---a)PAR 30 75W Bright Spot Light

[ProTee United]

Thanks for the reply! So something like the fixtures in the link below would be better if you're stuck with having to use track lighting?

https://www.1000bulbs.com/category/ar111-track-light/

I went with track lights in my sims since they're easier to replace and I followed the guidelines in this thread. The low lumens hasn't been an issue for me. But now I'm intrigued by the difference between the open and closed bulbs. Would the open bulbs have less spread than the closed bulbs? I'm trying to get less light on the club shaft and body of the golfer to minimize camera miss reads.

Low lumens should work ok. It all depends on your setup. Ambient light can influence sensor readings. A high powered bulb will give better results when you have lots of ambient light.
Reflective glass on the outside of a closed bulb is breaking up the beams, while reflectors on the inner side of open bulbs focus the beams.

Have a look at this picture. You can see a clear white sharp circle of light on the floor. This is what we have been using for 14 years now. This is 24 degrees. The putting mat will work fine with half (12 degrees) and still covering all the sensors.

[drewpac]

Low lumens should work ok. It all depends on your setup. Ambient light can influence sensor readings. A high powered bulb will give better results when you have lots of ambient light.
Reflective glass on the outside of a closed bulb is breaking up the beams, while reflectors on the inner side of open bulbs focus the beams.

Have a look at this picture. You can see a clear white sharp circle of light on the floor. This is what we have been using for 14 years now. This is 24 degrees. The putting mat will work fine with half (12 degrees) and still covering all the sensors.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n33855[/ATTACH]

thanks for you're replies. Have u tested the 12 degree or smaller on the main sensor? Would this help keep the club shaft or pants from getting into the picture? Or help decrease white drivers from misreading (because less time under direct light? ) im not having many misreads unless its a white driver or a severely thinned (low) shots.

[ProTee United]

The 12 degrees will give about half that circle. This will work, but the the beam will just cover the sensors/sensor mat.

When the light is off by 1 inch, some sensors will not get light anymore which will result in wrong readings.

The price for a bulb is only $12. Give it a try.

The white driver will always be a problem. Part of the detection code uses greyscale to filter the whites out of the images (golfball), so in some situations it will not be able to see the difference.

[Richard_Askren]

For anybody else, like me, that may have installed track lighting instead of the ProTee provided canister lights I did test out light fixtures found at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They work perfectly with the bulbs that come with the base pack 2 lights. Very easy to install and pop in the bulbs. They came with glass coverings for the bulbs, but I left those out of the lights. The only issue I had was that light does get reflected from the edges of the lights which cast a bit of light on the screen dimming the image. I put some aluminum tape around the edges and that took care of the problem pretty easily.

So in my opinion this seems to be a decent alternative to the ProTee canisters if you want to be able to use the same bulbs they recommend, but also have the versatility of track lighting. I can't say if it really helps the simulator read better than the lighting I already had installed, but it gives me a bit more piece of mind to be using the manufacturer recommended bulbs.

[MarkSC]

I decided to use the ProTee-provided light for the sensor mat (don't have the putting mat). I was a bit intimidated by the 12v setup, but it turns out to be easy and doesn't require a direct connection to home wiring. Extension cords work too.. Here's what I did:

1. Purchases a LET-75 watt 12v class 2 AC transformer:from Amazon ($12). Connect the light to that with the two wires. (If you have both sensor mats, you'll probably want a 150 watt transformer rather than two 75 watt ones. Transformers require a minimum draw, so don't get more than a 75 watt one for one sensor mat.)

2. Now you need a way to get the transformer some 120 volt power if you're in the U.S. I purchased an 8 foot workshop replacement cord from Lowes (one of the ones with two wires on one end and a non-grounded plug on the other--about $8). I wired the two wires from the transformer to that.

3. One could just plug in the cord to an outlet and be done, but my outlet is quite a ways from the light and, in fact, is in the ceiling! Thus, I purchased a 15 foot "remote switch cord" from Lowes ($12), which someone else recommended in this forum. This is a nifty cord with a plug/outlet on one end and a switch on the other end. I plugged the workshop cord into the plug end. The 15 foot switch cord hangs down and is available for me to turn the light on and off from near the sim (no climbing on ladders).

That's it! Oh, I also built a simple wooden platform to drop the light down from ceiling height (12.5 feet) to 10 feet and screwed the light canister into that.

I'm really happy with this arrangement and recommend it to anyone who wants a simple solution without track lights.

[Richard_Askren]

This took me way too long to figure out, but I wanted to share for anybody else who went with a DIY light set-up and might be having problems. What you want to watch out for is having a big, bright white spot in the Hcam image. The ProTee Interface will void out that area and no matter the light settings you won't get a ball streak showing in that area. It shows in the first image I have attached below. It really is best to use lights that use the same type of bulb that comes with the ProTee lights. I had a different halogen spotlight over my putting sensors in the wrong image and you can see how it's affecting the Hcam readings. Now that I've fixed it I get much less miss reads due to the Hcam not seeing the ball.

[dclindner]

Very interesting thread. Good info. I have 10.5' ceilings. I would like to install the sensor lights into the ceilings into recessed protected boxes, so they're inset into the ceiling. This is mainly to get them out of the way of the projector which is intended to be installed between the two sensor lights. From your experiences is this a good idea or can anyone suggest how I might do that and maintain the integrity of the sensor lights? I really only need to do it for the putting sensor light, but might as well do both while I'm at it...I would appreciate any help and guidance...thanks!

[aja]

I have a similar situation with having the projector located between the 2 lights. I could not recess the lights so there is some light leakage onto the screen.

If I could I would recess the lights like you are planning so I would say it's a good idea. The only thing to really be careful of and to plan for, is that the Halogen lights give off a lot of heat.

Any light fixture that you plan to recess in a combustible ceiling should be approved and designed for that purpose. It may be tough to find one that takes those specific bulbs.

[dclindner]

Thanks, aja. I found protected cans that are intended for in-ceiling, insulated applications. They seem appropriate, but don't natively support the same lights provided by Protee.

I'm going to consult with an electrician to make sure I'm meeting code requirements for the application and then I'll try to find lights that support the same brightness (3000lm) at the same color temperature (3000k) and dispersion (25 degree) that fit the can.

If anyone else has any thoughts, please keep them coming. :-)