Vcam ball streaks

[Ryan5508]

I keep running into an odd issue. This generally happens more with a 4 or 5 iron or hybrid. Ball goes out and does a complete loop.



Everytime I check the vcam I get a good looking ball streak. I have tried blacking out the wall and net the vcam faces. It has not helped out at all. I also played a complete round with the vcam screen open and it never happened. Generally it happens 2-3 times a round if two people are playing.

My only other issue Is my 54 & 58 wedges sometimes shoot out about 50 yards long if I hit over a 70% swing. Is this related to the vcam? Thanks guys!

[Tonyd9366]

I'm having the same problems Ryan.. high launch and the ball gets lost for a few seconds then come down at half the distance.. I think the vcam that comes with the protee isn't that good. It's reading the club and not the ball. I've tried almost everything. That's why I sent you another message about your vcam set up.. did you fix this issue ?? Please let me know what you did.. if so.. no way I can afford a skytrak or a gc2.. to replace the vcam.. so I have to make this work more consistently..

[aja]

Gentlemen, there is no problem with the Vcam other than it's set-up. If you haven't spoken to ProTee contact them. They will set you straight.

Also, Ryan, look at your club speed 123 mph, ball speed 180 mph, launch angle 45 deg. and backspin 12,500. Extreme In to out swing path probably adds to the confusion. Every now and then if the ProTee sensor picks up readings that are way off, for instance a 5 iron going 123 mph and those other measured or calculated readings, then the ball flight modelling goes wonky. That is what the crazy ball flight is the result of. This happens every now and then. It is most likely not the result of the Vcam.

Wedges are also a bit of a separate issue for the hardware.

[Richard_Askren]

Set the Vcam to PT1 mode the settings file. There's a detailed thread on setting up the cameras in the Instructions forum. Setting it to PT1 will prevent the misread caused by reading the club streak. My Vcams almost never misread now.

[Ryan5508]

i will give that a try.

It seems like its reading the club instead of the ball. I am just unable to ever catch it in action.

otherwise I have been enjoying the protee a ton.

[Bnorman58]

I wrote to protee support about the issue of the crazy mph reading and 50 yard distance addition. I haven't seen the loop but they did indeed tell me it was the cam setup was reading the club and not the ball and I needed to adjust it. I do have it closer than recommended so I wouldn't doubt it is the issue. I have a little trouble understanding their setup link. For now, I just turned it off. I will try Richards suggestion though and adjust my camera. I may have to move it to the left (I am right handed) but I haven't seen a link on how to set that up for a righty. I would think it would make it harder to pick up the ball.

[aja]

Recomended VCam position is behind the golfer. If that's not where it is that may be a large part of the problem.

[Bnorman58]

Thanks Aja. So how do I accomplish this without the stance getting in the way. I guess I would have to put it a few feet ahead also? I read a foot but it seems my left leg would still be in the way, especially on a knockdown.

[aja]

My camera is 30 cm ahead of the sensor pad (about one foot) and offset from the sensor pad centerline by 190 cm (about 6 feet).

The camera should be pointed ever so slightly forward - towards the screen, about 3 to 5 degrees.

All the above is from ProTee's suggestions from an online session.

There are other subtleties as well such as what camera settings and resolutions to use. Best to consult ProTee on those.

Don't be concerned about your stance getting in the way. The camera will pick up the ball.

[Bnorman58]

Thanks aja

[Ryan5508]

The problem I am finding is the ball and club streaks have the same number values. So trying to adjust the vcam is not working out very well atm. Not really sure how to change that.

[aja]

Set up an online session with ProTee...

[Bnorman58]

I just figured out something about this. I was having issues mainly with a 3 wood I would put it on pt1, pt4, pt5, didn't make a difference. I had a remote session with protee and in the limited time, the 7 irons and driver worked fine. They recommend pt4 by the way which I now have it in and it works fine after I did the following.
I kept hitting 3 woods and the red line would never match the 3 wood. I played with left and right exclusion, camera settings, sense, greyscale, everything. I hit reanalyze and it still wouldn't track right. Then I read where it had a help option. The default for offset is supposed to be 30 I think it said. Well these go to 255 when you first open and I have never understood it. I slid that to 20 and hit reanalyze and it was on the ball line. The hands and ball were not that different but it picked up the ball and has ever since. I hit about 20 shots with it. So, I have it stepped as it gets closer to the light. Driver 30, irons at 69, and wedge at 90 though I think I could go higher on that. Anyway, the offset solved my problem. Still have issues with the 120 mph sand wedge going way over where in reality it might be 65 mph on a good day. It only happens about 1 in 10 shots but from what I read is a bug that cannot be fixed?

[Bnorman58]

Opened a ticket on the sand wedge thing. Posted ProTees answer on the wedge distance post. It made sense.

[Ryan5508]

I get it a couple times every round. lots of times it happens 2-3 in a row and then goes away.

I find I can only hit 1/2 shot with my wedges since it will launch 30+ yards to far with a bigger shot

[Diesel]

I had this issue last year and I tried everything. Eventually I sent the sensor pad back to protee for repair and the problem was a loose sensor or a soder joint. I had to purchase a new sensor pad and now it works good. It usually only happened on chunky shots.

[Ryan5508]

I was thinking about adjusting my vcam with say nike volt colored balls. To see if it could create more separation in the number values of the ball streak vs the club streak.

any thoughts?

[Richard_Askren]

The color of the ball doesn't make much difference. The shininess of the ball does make a difference. The software captures more of the bright white highlight reflecting off the ball than it does of the ball color. I've had people use hot pink balls on my simulator that work fine just because of how shiny they still are. I don't think any golf balls come in a less reflective matte finish. If they did then the color would make a difference and it would read the shot worse. What the software needs is lots of contrast between the ball and the background to read the shot. The club gets read sometimes because it, too, is shiny and reflective and stands out against the dark background.

[Ryan5508]

Last night I picked up some wilson staff duo yellow balls. I wanted nike volts for the bright color but its all they had for under $20.

The ball streak value for them changed to around 30 compared to 20 (for irons) with the white balls I was using. After a few adjustments I finally played an entire round without a loop shot.

I wouldn't personally use these balls on a real course but they are very quiet indoors to hit.

[Ryan5508]

also not sure if its related but I also updated the protee interface and TGC before making the adjustments

[Ryan5508]

Update for anyone that is interested. We played a four some on Sunday with only the yellow Wilson balls. We had zero misreads with drivers, woods, hybrids or irons. The only misreads we had were wedge shots where the club was noticeably ahead of the ball.