Skytrak distances consistently too long [Verified with Trakman] Thoughts?

[BPJ]

Today I had the chance to use my Skytrak in a hitting bay with the Trackman at my home course. I was disappointed to see that the carry numbers I had been seeing all winter with my Skytrak are apparently "over reads." For example, my 7-iron on Skytrak reads 185 (which is a normal number I see with Skytrak), whereas the Trackman was giving numbers in the 165 range. This is one example, but basically, all the other clubs off-sets as well. There were occasional shots that did match up between ST and TM, but these were the exception.

It's important to note that my Skytrak elevation is set to 0 feet above sea level, and my actual elevation is about 500ft above sea level. To say the least, this is a frustrating discovery and I'm wondering if anyone else has come across this? Any ideas how to fix or re-calibrate? I'm staring here, but I'll most definitely be reaching out to ST customer service as well.

Additional info: The Skytrak and the Trackman were setup in a covered hitting area (no direct sunlight). The shots were hit out of the bay onto a real driving range, so distances could be observed.

[Wizard of Coz]

Ive never had that with my skytrak. Irons spot on but longer clubs with higher ball speeds 140-165 seemed like my skytrak was slightly short of true distance.

[Jordan Miller]

I experience the same exact thing. Get readings 20 yards longer than I have ever hit on a real course, particularly with my mid-irons and when using a titleist ball. I have not had much luck finding a solution. The problem seems a bit worse when playing TGC than when on the Skytrak range

[ckeller52]

So what happens when you change the altitude in settings?

[trapdraw]

What was the parameter that was causing the carry distances to differ? Either the ball speed, launch angle, or spin must've been different between the 2 units.

[cr8vnrg]

Did a test with Skytrak and Mevo Flightscope at the same time and the Skytrak was only off a couple of yards from the Mevo, and on many shots the same. My numbers are spot on. Note, this is indoors, have not tested outside yet.

[Morini]

Apples to apples are hard with Trackman.

Outdoors, Trackman reads actual ball flight (unless set to normalize). Actual carry distance is affected by wind and temperature (over and above ball temperature impact on ball speed). ST only gives you distance based on launch conditions, so you need to account for wind, elevation etc. In addition, if you are using range balls, you can get funky readings.

Indoors, Trackman may struggle with getting correct spin numbers. In fact, indoors, I have more faith in ST spin than Trackman spin numbers. The ball speed & VLA were very close when I compared them.

My son practiced regularly on ST over the winter, using the randomizer function to hit a range of yardages. All using fiberbuilt mat and premium balls. We are fair weather golfers, so we have only been going outside for the past week or two this season. Today, his wind and elevation adjusted "ST yardages" were deadly accurate on the real course. Put three approaches within 6 feet, and walked away with three birdies on the day. I have total faith in my particular ST when it comes to real world carry. As I have mentioned in the past, I found that it came up about 1-2 percent short, so I "juiced" it by raising elevation by 1500 feet. It is now spot on.

If you give us the data for ST and Trackman, we might be able to reconcile the differences. Ball speed to ball speed, spin to spin.

[BPJ]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I appreciate the insights!

trapdraw, the balls peed I believe was the primary number that led to the carry differences. Spin was around 500rpm between the two systems. For example, with driver, I was seeing 155-160mph ball speed with Skytrak, but Trackman was reading 135-145mph.

ckeller52, I haven't tried adding elevation in the ST settings to see what it would do (I'm already set to 0ft above sea level, so I'm assuming I can't go any lower). I always felt my carry distances seemed a bit high so adding elevation would be moving in a less realistic direction. That said, I could play around with it to see how much the elevation does impact the numbers.

Morini, great thoughts on Trackman, and glad to hear the ST system is working so well for your son's practice. I should have mentioned in my original post that the Trackman was setup "Normalized," for 70 F and 50% humidity. The course golf pro and I assumed this would be the best way to make an apples to apples comparison with Skytrak (which was also set to 70 F ). This makes me wonder whether the normalization settings are somehow different on the two systems? I need to get back on the trackman system to take pictures of the readout for both ST and Trackman to post the specific data, unfortunately, I didn't think to take pictures when testing yesterday.

Additional info, when I tested with the two systems yesterday, I was using Titleist NXT tour balls that were highly used on the range last season. I assumed this wouldn't matter because both systems see the same ball. For this reason, I was expecting the numbers to be a bit lower than in my home setup where I'm using new/premium balls. I can't imagine this would result in differences in the two systems, but it's additional info.

[abenjami]

Were you taping the face of your club or anything similar? That will mess with the data.

I was hitting some balls last weekend on a CGQuad. At one point, I put impact tape on my club to see where I was hitting on the face. That caused a 20 yard increase in distance, even though the balls were flying the same as without the tape. Made sense, covering the grooves reduced backspin, tricking the monitor into thinking it would fly further.

[jtittle22]

I just received and set up my Skytrak so I don't have a lot of experience but did something last night that changed my distance. My Driver was consistently shorter than normal. I checked the levelness (between ST and the mat) and lowered it quite a bit to see what that would do. All of a sudden my GW was 15 yards longer, my PW 20 yards longer etc.. Not sure if that makes sense but that is what happened. Has anyone else messed with the height of the ST and noticed a difference in distance?

[DannyMRICS]

the balls peed I believe was the primary number that led to the carry differences. Spin was around 500rpm between the two systems. For example, with driver, I was seeing 155-160mph ball speed with Skytrak, but Trackman was reading 135-145mph.

You don’t need to delve any further than that. Something seriously wrong there. I’ve never seen any more than 2-3 mph difference in ball speeds in side-by-side testing other than over about 150mph ball speeds where there can be a difference of about 5mph. Normally the ST is very accurate with ball speeds, so something funny going on there.

[cmckelvmi]

I think I have read on here that the ball will make a difference, especially dimple wear. Since the ST is based off of photos and doesn't account for spin decay maybe it will give you more yardage? I can't remember if anyone brought up wind or humidity in the earlier posts...?

[BPJ]

I talked today with Skytrak technical support including sending them pictures of my setup and pictures of the launch data. The suggestion they made (needs to be tested tomorrow) is to put the Skytrak unit directly on the mat (in my current setup I have the ST in a case off the mat). Because I have a case with leveling feet, my current setup does have the base of the unit level with the hitting surface. With the suggested setup, I will need to remove the feet of the case when placing the ST directly on the mat. The second suggestion they made was to try darkening the room, which I don't believe to be the issue because I've tested with lights off and on, including curtains drawn.

I'll give the leveling a try and see what happens and what the tech support's next suggestions are if it turns out unsuccessful.

DannyMRICS, I'm leaning towards your thoughts in that it's a hardware issue. The output seems too strange considering very few others have had this issue.

jtittle22, it's interesting that you changed distances so much by adjusting height. If this is the case, maybe my issue is similar. I'll test tomorrow.

abenjami, no face tape.

cmckelvmi, interesting point about ball wear. In my case, I'm using relatively new balls, but I'll check with some brand new balls to verify. In the settings, wind is 0 and humidity is 50%.

[trumb1mj]

The Trackman seems way off. I’d believe that before believing the SkyTrak is reading hot.

[BPJ]

A late updated for the forum. After my wife was hitting 175 yard 7-irons I got fed up and sent the unit in for service. They confirmed the distances were way too long and fixed it with replacing the flash module. Now, the distances are spot on, across the bag. I should have sent it in sooner. Since it was within the warranty time frame it was free of charge.