When will driver accuracy finally be fixed for high speed players?

[Wesquire]

Any updates?

[frodaddy00]

Is high speed defined as 170mph ball speed? I read some previous posts about this so just wondering. It's a nice problem to have

I cannot use driver since my garage ceiling is just a few inches too low. Against better judgement I hit one drive last night (trying to drive a green) and ball speed was like 155, club speed 105. It seemed accurate enough but obviously its a rare occurrence for me.

[Wesquire]

Is high speed defined as 170mph ball speed? I read some previous posts about this so just wondering. It's a nice problem to have

I cannot use driver since my garage ceiling is just a few inches too low. Against better judgement I hit one drive last night (trying to drive a green) and ball speed was like 155, club speed 105. It seemed accurate enough but obviously its a rare occurrence for me.

As a point of reference, my average ball speed on trackman and GC2 is over 180. After 500+ drives on SkyTrak I've only had 1 shot register at over 170.

[Clevited]

I did a little comparison between my Skytrak and my club's Trackman a while back. Skytrak was between 2-8 mph slow on ball speed if I remember correctly. It was never higher than Trackman during that session. These were for upper 170s to mid 180s ball speed. I couldn't get Skytrak to read over 177 that day i think.

I really think its a hardware limitation and is not correctable as the amount it is off varies swing to swing. Motion blur is my guess.

[wbond]

Just curious, have you high swing speed players tried to move it back like 3" or so behind the laser dot? Maybe it's not seeing the entire second image or something?

[Clevited]

I am always playing an inch or two behind the laser dot and get low numbers. I think the only way to know what is going on is for them to allow us to see the images when we have questionable shots. It doesn't sound like that will ever happen though.

[Wesquire]

Yes, I've tried that.

[Shifty]

I actually place my ball around 6" behind dot for drives. Only way I can get a reading.

[trumb1mj]

I did a little comparison between my Skytrak and my club's Trackman a while back. Skytrak was between 2-8 mph slow on ball speed if I remember correctly. It was never higher than Trackman during that session. These were for upper 170s to mid 180s ball speed. I couldn't get Skytrak to read over 177 that day i think.

I really think its a hardware limitation and is not correctable as the amount it is off varies swing to swing. Motion blur is my guess.

How were the numbers when you hit your 3w? I'm curious if the ball speeds in the 150-160 range are accurate when compared to Trackman.

[Wesquire]

My numbers on 3w were a little low too.

[Clevited]

Ball speeds with 5 and 3 wood are upper 160s to mid 170s, so same problem im guessing. I have not tested this yet.

[wbond]

Yeah I don't know why seeing the images are that secretive. Others allow you to see them and even the upcoming add on for P3 proswing is showing the images.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Crazy, I did not know this was a reported issue. We've had several long drivers hit on the system over the years and ball speeds (200mph+) and distances (400yd+) matched up according to them. Unfortunately (for me), I can't test this myself I can certainly see about adding this in during our next robot testing session. 2-3 MPH is negligible, but 8 seems suspect. As a disclaimer, it can totally depend on the freshness of the ball, not to mention hitting environment.

[Clevited]

For me its most noticeable at ball speeds over 170 mph. I have seen a review that showed 5 mph less ball speed than a Trackman and they were in the 150s I think. That was an average for them. 5 mph average sounds close to what I see, I do know I have had up to 8 mph difference between Skytrak and Trackman. I also see a descrepancy when comparing to my swing caddie, and its only noticeable at higher ball speeds.

[Wesquire]

Crazy, I did not know this was a reported issue. We've had several long drivers hit on the system over the years and ball speeds (200mph+) and distances (400yd+) matched up according to them. Unfortunately (for me), I can't test this myself I can certainly see about adding this in during our next robot testing session. 2-3 MPH is negligible, but 8 seems suspect. As a disclaimer, it can totally depend on the freshness of the ball, not to mention hitting environment.

I've seen it mentioned all over this forum. It might be an issue for some units and not others. Unless 180+ ball speeds have been tested on dozens of random units, there could easily be a problem you don't know about.

[Clevited]

SkyTrak_Seth

Is there any way that we as consumers, can convince Rapsodo to give us a debug mode of some sort? Do they understand how much this feature is desired, or even needed?

[ernie18]

I've seen it mentioned all over this forum. It might be an issue for some units and not others. Unless 180+ ball speeds have been tested on dozens of random units, there could easily be a problem you don't know about.

to many variables to count that dictate ball speed. As seth said, first one is hitting environment/lighting/ level. quality of strike, quality of ball. alignment of unit. etc etc.

[Morini]

The few SkyTrak vs gc2/trackman comparisons available on YouTube do have ST lagging in ball speed. And the longer the club, the bigger the discrepancy. I will check for myself the next time I have access to GC2/Trackman. The great thing about the ST is that I have little reason leave my garage, so I haven’t been to an indoor practice facility this winter.

[Clevited]

to many variables to count that dictate ball speed. As seth said, first one is hitting environment/lighting/ level. quality of strike, quality of ball. alignment of unit. etc etc.

I won't deny that there are variables that can contribute to this problem but without debug mode we will never know for sure.

For my case however, I don't feel like other variables apply besides ball speed. I tested directly against a Trackman. I got very comparable results all the way up to 7 iron. Ball speed was very close and the differences weren't an issue to me because they were only like 2-3 mph above or below with respect to each launch monitor. I started to see a very noticeable difference when I hit driver. The increase in ball speed seems to be the most likely culprit, and that combined with some information that was mined regarding how the Skytrak works, I am more inclined to believe it is a hardware limitation that gets worse as ball speed gets worse.

If I understand correctly, there are 2 cameras. They each take a picture a consistent time period apart. They each have a consistent exposure time. That exposure time could be such that at higher ball speeds, motion blur could get significantly large. Large enough to give the software problems finding the distance traveled by the ball during the two picture time period. Now perhaps if this is the issue, some tweaks to software could help eliminate this problem, but if this is the problem, then my observation of ball speed being between 2 and 8 mph off at ball speeds above 170 mph means that sometimes it gets it right and is only off by 2 mph and other times it gets it wrong, significantly wrong because it measures a shorter distance traveled than what is true. (see my picture attached).

As for the 200+ mph ball speed guys that have hit on the Skytrak, perhaps they were actually reaching 210 mph on some of those balls, or 215 mph. Or perhaps it does vary unit to unit and its just a calibration issue.

Edit: Corrected my drawing.

[Nicknku]

For sure ball speeds over 150s tend to be off with skytrak. Still an amazing monitor for the price, but I've dealt with the same issues at higher speeds reading lower numbers.

[Ronsc1985]

If I understand correctly, there are 2 cameras. They each take a picture a consistent time period apart. They each have a consistent exposure time. That exposure time could be such that at higher ball speeds, motion blur could get significantly large. Large enough to give the software problems finding the distance traveled by the ball during the two picture time period. Now perhaps if this is the issue, some tweaks to software could help eliminate this problem, but if this is the problem, then my observation of ball speed being between 2 and 8 mph off at ball speeds above 170 mph means that sometimes it gets it right and is only off by 2 mph and other times it gets it wrong, significantly wrong because it measures a shorter distance traveled than what is true. (see my picture attached).

As for the 200+ mph ball speed guys that have hit on the Skytrak, perhaps they were actually reaching 210 mph on some of those balls, or 215 mph. Or perhaps it does vary unit to unit and its just a calibration issue.

Edit: Corrected my drawing.

Actually the system uses one camera and captures two images separated in time by a fixed amount. The distance between the centroids of the two images is measured and divided by the fixed time between images (speed =distance traveled/time).

Using two cameras would be worse since you then have to account for differences between the cameras. The problem you may be having is the second images is slightly out of frame. The centroid is then incorrect as is the distance measured. What you need to do is move the ball around relative to the camera to get the best two images. There is obviously some ball speed which will result in the second image being either partially or completely out of frame. You can also have the problem of the images being out of frame either vertically or horizontally.

If you want to see what these images look like try and find a description of a Vector Pro launch monitor which uses the same method of image capture.

[Clevited]

Ok so single camera, that would make sense (though I know there are two camera's in the unit, not sure what that is for then). The idea that the ball is out of frame is something I have considered, but again, without a debug mode we won't know. I would think if the ball is out of frame enough to cause a problem, the Skytrak should report back a no read, at least on some perameters like ball speed and spin. If it doesn't do that, and it guesses, shame on Skytrak as that is of no use to anyone.

If the camera is lets say, 10,000 fps. And the ball speed is lets say, 175 mph. I calculate a possible image blur of up to .308 inches. That is significant if I calculated that correctly. That amount of blur would be in both the first and second pictures (or any picture inbetween if it takes more than 2). Therefore, it could misread the centroid of the start and end position of the golf ball by up to a total of .616 inches. I calculated that to be a potential speed error of up to about 5%. (Note: I used the .00414 seconds for time between pictures that was derived by someone in the Skytrak Technical FAQ which I do not know for sure if its correct. That forum can be found here https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum...-technical-faq)