Sand Wedge Sailing

[derekney]

I am having a problem with the simulated shot of the sand wedge. It is going an unreasonable distance sometimes: over 110 yards with a high shot shape. I know there is no way I can hit a sand wedge that far and high. A full swing on the range for me will go maybe 75 yards. When I get this super long shot, the shot stats are showing a club speed in the seventies which seems very high to me. I would expect a club-speed in the fifties for these shots.

What could cause a shot like this to go long. I am in practice mode, 70 yards from the green from fairway. I have sand wedge selected for my club. I am pretty sure my v-cam is now working well. Longer irons are going slightly shorter than I expect so it not like I tuned it up to go far. And I am pretty careful about not letting my shadow get on the sensor.

What software settings should I be looking at? How does it figure out the ball speed? Is it using the cameras (h-cam/v-cam) at all for that?

Just not sure how to debug this. It is not happening every time, but often enough to be a real problem.

[More Info: I tried selecting 9-iron instead of sand wedge in the clubs menu and it seems to "fix" this issue. My sand-wedge starts hitting consistent distances that I would expect. I am pretty sure the wedges get some extra processing and this must be what is messing it up. For now I guess I will just select 9-iron when I want to use my wedges--it seems to work much better then.]

[9ball]

Derek did you ever fix your problem? Do these problems happen most often when you hit down and take a divot?

[9ball]

You are not the only one. We are having the EXACT same problem. Through testing we have determined that it happens ONLY (but not every time) we hit down on the ball (take a divot). This happens with everybody that has played on the system. It seems like it adds somewhere between 20 and 30 percent to the club head speed. It can happen with any club but mostly shows up with the wedges due to the angle of decent. Our system is new. is yours new Derek? We are wondering if it could be a hardware issue. We do have a divot action mat as well and when we use it, it happens about 50 percent less of the time. We even turned off the v-cam and it still happened. We have tried all suggestions in this post to no avail. Everything else seems to work fine with the system. Any ideas guys? Thank you.

[Maverick]

Did you guys ever get ProTee to remote in? They'll be able to collect data.

[Maverick]

When you hit down on the ball, is the club hitting the grass just before the tee location? Just wonder if the club face is pushing/bending the little grass fibers near the edge of the slots, thus activating the timing sensors before the shadow of the club face activates them.

[9ball]

Just got cable internet hooked up yesterday and we have contacted pro tee. Waiting for a response. May have happened today. I will find out tomorrow evening. Thank you.

[theLONO]

Yes, try that. It's not uncommon to have audio issues. The microphone could be dirty or the audio gain pot(on the circuit board) needs to be exercise or increased.

Where exactly is this audio gain pot you mention? I'm having issues with 'no audio detected'. Happens mostly on small chip shots and oddly my driver about 1 in 5 shots. I too get sand wedge sailing shots. Never used to before so don't know what update it started on.

[9ball]

When you hit down on the ball, is the club hitting the grass just before the tee location? Just wonder if the club face is pushing/bending the little grass fibers near the edge of the slots, thus activating the timing sensors before the shadow of the club face activates them.

Actually there really are no real fibers involved as my friend bought the system from a guy in Atlanta (custom design golf) and it did not come with the pro tee mat (on the way now) it came with his version which is a solid piece of foam with a hard material attached to it and then a grass material similar to a fairway grass on top. This mat is solid all the way through. He also got a divot action mat which is hollow underneath again with a very short turf on top. The divot action works better and we are now wondering if the mat is pushing down on the plastic covering the circuit board and causing problems. This is why the pro tee hitting surface is on the way. Thank you.

[Maverick]

There are two pots on the board. The audio gain pot is the little blue pot(potentiometer) near the edge of the circuit board. Turn it fully clockwise to open it all the way. Mark the original spot first. 1/4 turn should be enough.

[derekney]

I am still having the problem. ProTee did remote in but all they could come up with is that the shadow of my club shaft was hitting the sensors first because of its forward lean on these shots. Theory is that happens before the club face casts its shadow so it makes it look like a faster club speed. Seems reasonable except that I would think a lot more people would have this problem. If you try it out, it is pretty easy to have the club shaft cast a shadow on the sensors by leaning not all that much. ProTee was supposed to be thinking about solutions, but I have not heard from them since then. It is very frustrating. I dread missing the green because then I have to chip or pitch and aften take 2 or 3 mulligans.

I also have problem with the system ignoring good hits even with driver. Don't understand how it could miss the sound of a solid strike of driver on ball but it does. On the whole things could be improved drastically. Maybe I just got a lemon.

Good news is that it finally warmed up enough to go to the real driving range and my practice on the protee seems to have translated into real results on the range. Can't wait to try a real course and see if it translates to that too. No doubt having a seem is wonderful for practice--I have been doing it 4 or 5 nights a week when I never got to the real range more than once a week before the sim. And the practice seems to pay off.

Just wish the system wasn't so buggy.
-Derek

[Maverick]

Derek,

Try this for me. For all your wedge shots, don't put the ball in the tee hole. Place the ball about 1" ahead of the tee location. Go to practice mode on a course. 60-70 yards in and try it. Let me know.

[derekney]

Tried that but it did not really seem to help. I am more convinced that this is a software bug. I was on the Tall Pines course and was 60 yards from pin in heavy rough. I hit 6 sand wedges in a row, all about 90% in power. Every single one went 90-105 yards with a ball speed of 90+ mph. But on the practice mode, it does not do that. I rarely get one like that, let alone even five in a row. After I played that round I went to practice mode on Tall Pines to the same hole (#9) and put it in same spot (60 yards right of green, heavy rough). Selected sand wedge and hit shots. First two went way far with 90+ mph ball speed. But after that it did not do it at all. Every shot was 50-60 yards with 50-60mph ball speed (which is what I would expect). I just wonder if there is some bug related to deep rough and modifiers to ball speed or club speed. If it was the hardware or my swing you think you would see it in practice mode and on the course equally and in similar fashion. But if I take a mulligan on the course it is like it resets it to give the bug again.

Being a software engineer of 30+ years experience, it just feels like a bug.

[Maverick]

On some or most courses, the deep or heavy rough has no penalty at all. But that is not the issue here. I will test Tall Pines hole #9.

[Maverick]

Derek,

Just tested #9 at Tall Pines. From 60 and 70 yards out, right side heavy rough just off the fairway. Using a SW, all shots were normal but the heavy rough has no penalty. So, for 70 yards, my full swing were landing 80 or so. The 60 yard shots were withing my pitching distance of 65, which has a pitching penalty of 15%, reacted normally.

It seems like your pitching penalty is working intermittently. When I remoted a while back, some shots worked while some flew too far. I'm at a loss at what could be your problem. Maybe request ProTee do an RMA on a replacement circuit board. Good luck.

[Maverick]

Problem fixed.

http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/protee-golf-simulator/technical/software/20900-wedge-short-game-fixed