Shots consistently very far left.

[matt72580]

Hello all,
Got my skytrak a couple months ago and only had the chance to try it out in my yard a few times with fake balls, and medium chips, about 30 yards. seemed to be ok. even in the sun. Now that I have received my new computer and gotten my hitting area set up. 10x12 screen about 7 feet away from the tee on my country club elite mat. Going to be further next week when the cage is finished and I can push it further away. The unit is in the metal case along side of the mat but the legs are extended so that the bottom of the skytrak is flush with the mat. Aligned nice and straight using the alignment mode. ball flight looks great as far as carry and backspin, but side spin numbers are high and everything is about 30-50 yards offline. The only thing I can think of is that the background behind me is my patio table with chairs stacked on top. Might not be the ideal background. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Matt

[allen2be]

I occasionally get a crazy pulled driver too. Only driver. I never see this IRL, so I chalk it up to either my driver head bright blue color or my big rubber tee messing up the skytrak trying to read the ball... If I move the ball back from the laser like so many people have recommended, it seems to help.

[mdniBruce]

Throw a towel on the ground in front of your feet, that will tell you if your background is the problem.

I know this might seem facetious, but are you really lining up with the unit's path in "Alignment mode"? It took me a while to get used to what it thought straight was and adjust my aim to that. and I still fall into that mistake from time to time.

I find that when I actually set up an alignment stick I'm starting much more from zero on my left and right launch angle.

I've read of people having units that they are convinced are genuinely off alignment, IDK that I've read enough follow up on those, but it is possible.

I know that I am able to find zero degrees, and get results consistent to the changes I make.

Just throwing that out there. What cage are you using?

[matt72580]

I actually thought it might have been a background problem so I put a black mesh tarp behind me so there was a solid background and no difference, my cage is not quite complete. Should be by tomorrow. Was waiting on my corner pieces. Just putting together what suits me for my back patio. I also took the unit to range to confirm what I is going on and make sure it's not me. But if I continue using something that shows me hitting it left I will soon be hitting it way right trying to compensate, lol

[jut111]

Sounds dumb, but alignment mode is not the best way to align your skytrak. Align to the case instead.

Second, alignment will of course affect start direction, but it does nothing to impact sidespin numbers.

You asked for thoughts... your hitting the ball just like your skytrak says you are, swinging inside is a big adjustment. It always amazes me how people never believe that it could be them...

I really think anyone who has doubts, should just take their skytrak to an outdoor range and hit balls. That will clear your doubts, or maybe confirm them in cases where there are real issues, very quickly.

[matt72580]

I could understand how inside hitting could influence a lot of people to do strange things with their swing. I wouldn't rule that out unless I was able to confirm it and I have. I did take the unit to the range and it shows the same thing and I was hitting it dead straight, I was also able to see that the launch angle was seriously out of wack, I am launching about twice as high as the unit is showing I am.

[JJ62]

I put this comment on another post - but it solved all my ball flight issues and it's very easy! Align your skytrack the best you think. Hit short chips (10 yards or so) and stare at where they hit the screen. Watch where the playback thinks you hit it. Re-align your skytrak and keep doing that (probably won't take longer than 15 minutes). After they agree - I bet you'll find the ball flight is much better and you'll make more putts playing one of the sims. Actually, after doing this - I shot a 1 under in JNPG. I had NEVER sunk that many putts before....

[matt72580]

This is actually one of the first things I tried. I almost hit it off of my screen to the right trying to compensate, lol By the end my unit was about 25-30 degrees rotated counter clockwise.

[JJ62]

I guess what I mean is that if you have to hit really far right/left to get it to the center of the screen - then adjust your skytrack left or right to compensate. Although the skytrack may not 'look' aligned to you - it actually will be because at some point you will be hitting a ball center of screen and the replay you see will be dead perfect. Just keep moving the skytrack left/right until it aligns - no matter how 'off' it looks. At least is was my 'fix'!

[matt72580]

Thats what I have done for now, my problem is that even if I start hitting center of the screen and the simulator matches it, how accurate is it really. I am fairly new back into golf that I don't trust myself enough to just align it to center my hits. Not to mention the other problem with the ball data being unrealistic. Probably a good 30-40% off. I have a hard time hitting my driver over 150 and in real life I average about 240 at the range.

[Little_Stickner]

I posted this the other day. This solution allows me to know dead on where I need to aim.

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/skytrak/132339-skytrak-alignment-hack

[Llamma]

we have had alignment issues with our unit in the last few days, generally it has been working great, but we think the FMJ case took a strike last week, and since then we have been having some random issues.
was playing a round at St Andrews, and a couple of drivers read as gigantic push hooks, that traveled 360yds, finishing centre of the fairway, a very good drive for me would be around 300yds, but the next shot (from my club pro) read perfectly normal, this happened about 4-5 times, (which pissed him off), or we would get shots that were hitting the centre of our target line, but were reading 10* right launch angle.

Will experiment more this weekend with the case on and off, but it seemed strange the the errors were random, if it was consistently starting 10* right i could understand it,

[matt72580]

It does seem strange that your errors are random. Mine are consistent and don't change. I can get it going straight by rotating the unit but yardages and launch angles are very low while left rotation is very high.

[matt72580]

So, I've tried a few things. I always start with the bullseye level to level the unit and confirm with the internal level in alignment mode. I've used a T-square to align my mat to the screen and then used my mat to align the unit. still way left. So I decided to go to the range yesterday to confirm that it was not me just hitting them left (which wouldn't be out of the question, I'm fairly new back to golf) I usually don't use my laptop because it's kind of slow but it worked well enough. I hit the ball dead straight and the unit see's it going about 40 yards left. I have to twist the unit 25-30 degrees looking down on it from above counter clockwise. then it reads straight. The ball is not curving to the left like I would think if it had a very high side spin, but rather heading left straight off the mat. As for distances, it is very short and low compared to the ball flight at the range. I don't know what club head speed or ball speed should be reading to compare.

[Mhoover]

I had the same problem, all shots showed a pull even though the shot started on target. I called tech support and told them what was happening. They had me send it back for repair or replacement. It will be here Tuesday. They never contacted me about what was wrong with it, so I’m hoping it’s good to go.

[matt72580]

I will be calling them today for suggestions. I hope all is fixed with yours. Let me know how it goes if you would please?

[Llamma]

much easier to send it back for repair when it doesn't have to go half way across the world, and is outside its warranty period, In fact i'm not sure Skytrak even knows New Zealand exists, they can't get the software loaded to the NZ app store.

[jut111]

Sounds dumb, but alignment mode is not the best way to align your skytrak. Align to the case instead.

Second, alignment will of course affect start direction, but it does nothing to impact sidespin numbers.

You asked for thoughts... your hitting the ball just like your skytrak says you are, swinging inside is a big adjustment. It always amazes me how people never believe that it could be them...

I really think anyone who has doubts, should just take their skytrak to an outdoor range and hit balls. That will clear your doubts, or maybe confirm them in cases where there are real issues, very quickly.

Yup, sounds like you actually have a legit issue. I'd send it back in your case.

[mdniBruce]

25 to 30 degrees isn't trivial at all. Id be asking about an RMA on that one.

Are they taking care of you matt?

[matt72580]

I sent them some screenshots last week and haven't heard anything back.