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

[Superbomb]

CintiGolfer,

I’ve added the only 2 other 4iron shots that I have photos of. There was a common trend of being approx.4 mph lower on Skytrak than Trackman.

[trumb1mj]

It would be nice to hear from SkyTrak on this. Are they of the opinion that their ball data is more accurate than Trackman? Are there setup tricks to achieve more accurate data? Do they think that they're "close enough" considering SkyTrak is a fraction of the cost of Trackman?

[jschalk]

There seems to be a consensus on JNPG that Skytrak's numbers are low. Many people have referenced the bump they get when buying GC2.

[Miura Mario]

There seems to be a consensus on JNPG that Skytrak's numbers are low. Many people have referenced the bump they get when buying GC2.

I definetely get a bump.. I still havent hit 160 bs on my unit but hover around 165 on gc2 swinging normally.. and regularly carry the ball 275 to 280 outside.. but I find in the shorter clubs theres also a touch more bs.. not as pronounced as on the longer clubs though

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Hey guys, sorry for the delay on this. I have ~155-160mph ball speed myself and haven't noticed issues, and we even did our robot testing at speeds exceeding that. However, I will make sure to add a much higher mph tier to our next testing session. I will push for this to happen as soon as possible.

[Clevited]

Thanks Seth, we appreciate this being looked into.

[Wesquire]

Thank you! It might not be an issue on every unit. I do know with 100% certainty that mine is wrong. I sent it back and was told the yardages were correct, but it is legitimately 20+ yards short on every drive. My ballspeed on Trackman and Flightscope approaches 190. Im in the low 170s on ST.

[trumb1mj]

SkyTrak_Seth is it fair to assume you test against Trackman? Are you saying that when you read 155 mph on one of your drives it reads close to that on the industry standard Trackman?

[Morini]

Most likely they use a high end slow motion camera such as a Phantom.

[Clevited]

SkyTrak_Seth Hey Seth, its that time again to bug you lol. Any chance to test this yet? Without completely knowing how the Skytrak measures ball speed (I have a pretty good idea though), it seems it could be a motion blur issue that could be accounted for with software, or perhaps it has more to do with the ball being hit to the right or left of target and that creates the abnormal error? Would be really great to see this looked into and corrected if possible. It is getting noticed more and more as more and more people with higher swing speeds buy these or use these units. We are just few and far between it seems.

[Dave Lee]

This is secondary supporting data...but I did let a big hitter take a few shots and he did comment it seemed low by 7mph vs what he's used to. I'm a weeny so it seems fine to me vs mevo. But I'll see how it compares to trackman next time i get a lesson.

[irbg1981]

Hey all. I dont think it going to help except to support what has already been stated. I'm a Plus 2 handicap and i hit the ball relatively consistently.

I regularly use flightscope, trackman, mevo, and Gc2. From a ballspeed perspective the align very closely day to day.

I recently purchased a skytrak and up to the point i reach 140 mph ballspeed (5iron) its dead on with other monitors. At that piont things get fuzzy.

4 hybrid ~
ballspeed on mevo ( direct comparison ) and the other types of units is right at 147 ~
ballspeed on the skytrackis about 140 to 141...i cant get 144 if it hammer it but we are talking stock swings

Three wood
Ballspeed on mevo (direct comparions) and other units 160~
Ballspeed on skytrak 152

Driver
Ballspeed on mevo and other unite 168
Ballspeed on skytrak 160-162

My only theory is that the lighting for a unit without a flash is insufficient for an object at that speed to be clearly pictured and therefore measured. Im wondering if anyone has tested differnt types of lighting at differring angles and have seen any difference?

Hoping Skytrak will make a statement soon.

[Dan McWhirter]

SkyTrak does flash...its lasers...reflected to the cameras. Someone on here posted the pictures.

[irbg1981]

- Shots were simultaneous with the mevo and the skytrak.
- I have the 3.2.1 version of the game improvement app. I believe this is the latest version.
- Thanks for the information Dan, I hadn't seen that post obviously

I had yet another warm up session with the skytrak yesterday where i hit at home and immediately hit a few on the course before the round with the mevo...same old story 6-8 mph ballspeed difference

[Clevited]

Hmm odd, not sure what is different with mine if you still have low ball speed vs Mevo.

[Clevited]

So, I need SkyTrak_Seth to verify this but after some time, I finally downloaded the LATEST version of Skytrak for my Samsung phone. I had put it off for quite a while. I got word via another site that a guy had finally hit expected ball speeds (180 mph). He said he wasn't sure but it could have changed since latest update. I fired up my ST and updated the app and went ahead and hit some drivers to test this today. I had my Swing Caddie setup as well to verify ball speeds. ALWAYS before, and I mean literally always, my Swing Caddie showed higher ball speed or equal ball speed when compared to the ST. I don't recall a time when the Swing Caddie read lower than the ST with my driver. This time around, the ST almost ALWAYS read higher ball speed than the Swing Caddie (I wasn't expecting any change at all tbh so this was a huge surprise). ST read around 1-2 mph higher on most shots. This is actually what i would expect it SHOULD read. I have compared my Swing Caddie before to Trackman and the Swing Caddie always short changes me by 1-2 mph. I hit many drivers and hit both a yellow ball and a white ball to see if there was a difference. I hit ball speeds mostly in the 170s and on a couple of swings where I really put both cheeks into it and made perfect contact, I got ball speeds of 185 and 191 (see pics as proof). I am a little skeptical of these, especially since both shots my Swing Caddie seemed to miss them (so I have nothing to compare it to). It showed something like 88 ball speed and 105 swing speed for both shots. I will need to do more testing with both devices to know for sure. Anyways, I am focusing more on the fact that the ST was consistently higher than my VC. That is awesome and exciting to me. If any of you can jump on ST with the app updated to the latest version and test this, I would appreciate it.

If there is nothing new, I honestly have no idea what is going on. I set everything up the same as always. The lighting is exactly the same, club is the same, tees the same, balls are new, and ST is in its original plastic case and at the same height it always is. I tried to eliminate any variables.

The first pic, was with a brand new yellow golf ball (Pinnacle Rush). The large horizontal LA of 13 degrees was because I had the ST initially out of alignment a tad and I also hit a push hook. I corrected that and hit a white Nike RZN Platinum ball to eliminate any potential misreads with a yellow ball. The 191 ball speed was with the RZN ball, and it had launch numbers that were very reasonable to the shot I felt I hit. Both of those were great strikes and ones I really went after. They felt like extremely efficient swings as i was very relaxed and didn't sway off the ball like I often do. What I am getting at, is I feel there is no obvious reason they could be misreads. Those numbers are at my absolute limit but I will need to test more to be sure.

[irbg1981]

Well Im glad you've made some progress. Honestly at this point ive had others and my self hitting on the unit quite a lot over the last few weeks and have seen the same patterns. I'm at the point where I feel like there is something wrong with the unit but am hesitant to send it in since i've heard so many others say they have done so only to hear that unit measures in spec by Skytrak.

[Clevited]

Ok well odd. The only thing we could do is try using the same type of software for this. I am using an Android phone for the Skytrak app. Oh, and maybe one more thing, are you using the range software of Skytrak's or TGC or something? I am only using the app driving range currently. There may be some different code that analyzes the image data in other softwares.

Oh and my bad, I had a brain fart about you mentioning the direct testing vs other stuff. I am on too many websites to remember who said what.

[irbg1981]

Ha no worries. I'm using the game improvement app on skytrak. I've used both the phone app and the computer version. There is no variance between the two.

[Clevited]

Ok, well idk. That doesn't bode well for me because that might mean when I try it tonight, it won't be like it was last night. Who knows what could make that happen. Maybe the batteries are dying in my swing caddie and that made it look better than it did. Those big bombs though were no joke and not something I have seen in a while. I am skeptical though about them. I will hopefully jump on ST again today and see if I can replicate and see if my swing caddie will actually catch them this time and either verify or debunk them as legit.

I think I will get a pen and paper and write down ball speeds for both just to make sure it is statistically better than it was before.

[irbg1981]

on the skytrak site there is a listed repair item of LED flash/ consumable as a repair item. Would the skytrak function at all if this needed replacing?

[Clevited]

I would think you would see more misreads, or no reads. If you have good lighting, you might not notice anything? I am unsure. Seth would know that for certain.

[Dave Lee]

Interesting...I knew gc2 had a flash you had to replace once in awhile. (Which they got rid of for GC quad). So I asked skytrak support if skytrak had a consumable flash, before buying my unit. Their answer was nope. That would be pretty shady if these flashes used a consumable pack.

[Clevited]

Flash has a limited life no matter what. It can burn out unexpectedly I would think. Led flash should last a very long time I would think and generally not need replacing, but who knows.

[Clevited]

So I am not sure what has changed. I consistently get ball speeds above what my swing caddie says on virtually every shot. Not long ago exactly the opposite was true. Sometimes 4 or more mph higher, and so far it happens with any club. I am going to fire up my laptop which has an older version of ST on it. If that version doesn't show the same stuff, it was a software tweak, if it does show the same stuff, then something has changed, perhaps the temp in my garage is high enough where it confuses the cameras? Idk. Will report back as soon as i can.

[irbg1981]

btw. I have to re orient in the hitting bay to use the Mevo simultaneously. Do you happen to know how much flight distance you need with the SKycaddie?

[Clevited]

6 feet works but I get tee speed reads at times. The ball I think hits the net before the unit sees it, so if I hit it really hard, it will miss it completely. I need probably 7 or 8 to be full proof. Out on the range it doesn't miss anything but the most sideways shots.

[irbg1981]

Ok cool. Im thinking i might make a switch to that for that very reason. At least for testing purposes. Mevo requires 8 ft which is just outside what i have.

[Clevited]

Ok, so hit some slower shots with 3/4 9irons. Used my computer with old software on it and then my updated samsung phone app. No noticeable difference. At lower speeds, ST was often exactly the same, under or over when compared to my swing caddie by 1 mph. Once in a great while, they would differ by up to 4 mph over or under but rarely.

I then started to swing full with the same club (I did this with both software versions). More often, I saw the ST read higher than the swing caddie. These are ball speeds around 125 to 130. Today I hope to test both softwares with driver. If I see the same trend of ST now being higher with both softwares, then perhaps it was a ST firmware update? Idk, but I will report back soon.

[Clevited]

Soooooo, I took the ST and my Swing Caddie to the range tonight. I had perfect lighting as the sun was setting on the non camera side, and I was in the shade. I hit irons off tee to avoid misreads with divot grass and then I hit driver. ST was consistently lower on almost all shots and it got worse with faster ball speeds. It was usually low by 1 or 2 mph with wedge shots all the way up to 8 iron. Seemed to start deviating more with 140s ball speeds, hard to say without recording everything. Driver ball speed was low by 3 or 4 more times then it was off by only 1 or 2, or 5 or 6. Highest it was off by was 6 mph. If I were comparing to Trackman, that higher number likely would have been off by 8 because my Swing Caddie is consistently low by 2 mph. This I have observed before when comparing ST directly to Trackman.

The funny thing was, the ST seemed to get more accurate with ball speed as the sun went down. I had more and more times when ball speed only differed by 1 or 2 mph when swinging driver and this was very noticeable. It even read a couple mph higher than the Swing Caddie a couple of times.

I don't know what to think. I will test in my garage again and see if it goes back to reading higher. Will update afterwards.

[Dan McWhirter]

Try it in the dark with only a bit of light on your ball ( so you can hit it). You might be surprised.