At what point can I assume its a defective unit? Or is this the limitation of ST?

[calebm1001]

How bad do these readings need to be for me to believe I have a defective unit? I have a lot of footage of hitting center or clearly to the right of center and getting a bogus HLA that sends my flight path on a left launch angle. I understand the tolerance is roughly +/-2, but is that EVERY shot?! On some shots that are cleary center, I will get 6* HLA to the left. I never get anything that seems out of the ordinary to right. It's as if this unit has a left HLA bias and it has been this way since I got it.

In the images below, I am hitting to the right of center according to my FMJ. The laser line is going straight down the alignment stick and the ball is clearly hitting into my screen heading in that direction. Yet, in ST range and TGC nearly every single ball starts left. This happens on literally 90% of the shots I hit on ST - 9 out of 10 full shots are like this. When I swing easier with a low ball speed it tends to pick it up correctly.

I have been at this for four months. Made a few posts about alignment to try and get some advice. Have a large black sheet behind me etc. Skytrak is level. Is on my smaller CCE hitting mat so is at the same height etc. Nothing I do fixes this other than aligning the ST to be looking across me to the left so it's forced to read everything as going right, if that makes sense.

Is this something I should be weary of and send in for a checkup since I am still inside warranty?

EDIT: Look for the impact marks on the screen and you will see the little black outline of the ball. I realize they are hard to see in these potato images.

[calebm1001]

I can post screen shots like this all night long. I have hours of slow mo footage that I have watched over and over again to confirm if I truly am hitting center or right of center when my HLA is measured as starting left.

[kalcormier]

Have you tried it out of the FMJ?

[Wizard of Coz]

I'm not sure caleb. I never had a problem with my skytrak reading straight. I may have always fought an hla going left but it was representative of my shot. I worked hard on trying to keep it starting to the right of the target. Get a second set of eyes on it. Get justin to hit a few shots on it for confirmation.

[Wizard of Coz]

Are you hitting draws/ hooks on top of the hla left?

[Wizard of Coz]

I never aimed at my screen in particular, I just hit parallel to my skytrak.

[calebm1001]

Wizard of Coz -- I am hitting draws/hooks on top of the left launch angle. and from what i can tell and all of the adjustments and laser alignments that i have done, I am hitting parallel. I have the laser perfectly parallel to the alignment stick and have the offset based on that.

[Cozman]

I have the same issue probably 80% of the time, but it's because I naturally hit a slight draw. I line up slightly pointing right of the center line now and hit my normal shot and they end up landing center of the target line. Drove me nuts for the first couple weeks I had mine until I realized I needed to line up just like I do when I play.

[FaultyClubs]

...Nothing I do fixes this other than aligning the ST to be looking across me to the left so it's forced to read everything as going right, if that makes sense.

Is this something I should be weary of and send in for a checkup since I am still inside warranty?

If you search the forum you'll see many threads on skyltrak alignment with a wide variation on how the unit has to be pointed to get a straight shot. Rotating the unit until it lines up properly is not uncommon.

6 degrees however is getting up there so contacting sktrak guys on this forum for their recomendation about sending it in might be a good idea.

[calebm1001]

I've looked into a few and have done what the suggestions were. I guess im just not willing to point my unit left to trick it into thinking I hit a straight shot. Hopefully their CS team can provide some assistance.

[Whiskeyjack]

If possible, taking it out to a range is a good Idea. not for length but for alignment. I did this when I first bought and found it very helpful on how it was reading my shot shape.

[Morini]

Six degrees is too much, and if this really is the case, I would send it back while still under warranty. Sending it back does take time, so you should make sure that it really is 6 degrees. If it is a consistent 3 degrees or less, I would just set it at an offset and be done with it. I am a bit puzzled by the fact that smaller shots are straight, I am having trouble reconciling what could cause that to happen, defective or not.

Before sending it back, I would confirm that the unit really is that far off. First of all test it without the FMJ. Hit chip shots at the target, and rotate unit until straight shots read straight. Then start hitting longer and longer shots.

I also assume that you really are talking about the initial ball direction (HLA), and not how far the ball ends up offline (combination of HLA & spin axis). It would help if you posted a screen shot with ball data.

On a related but separate note, I just averaged the yards offline for the my last 100 shots, and it came to 0.83 yards shots. I have a few shots that are 20+ yards offline in either direction, but they cancel each other out. That tells me three things. ST HLA errors are likely random (not biased). I do a decent job aligning the unit. Finally, that my swing is neutral when it comes to direction.

[doublebogey]

I often hit middle of screen and shot shows 15+ degrees left (most often with wedge shots). So like to hear more from the forum regarding this issue - and yes I think the old original FMJ (not the one ST sells) might potentially be one of the problems. Thanks.

[trhuke]

Perhaps you're already familiar with this but when I first set up my screen and SkyTrak, where I hit from wasn't aligned with the center of my screen so all of my shots appeared to go left. If your teeing spot isn't in line with the center of your screen AND at right angles to the center of the screen it skews the shot, what you think is straight is actually not. I had to move my teeing area off to one side a bit to clear the garage door opener so I ended up putting a target on the floor dead ahead of my teeing area and aiming at that. Problem solved, it was only about 10-12 inches off center but made a huge difference in how straight the ball went. Draw a line from the red dot when your ST is on, and exactly parallel to the ST and see where it hits your screen. Hitting that spot is a straight shot. Might be the answer.
PS The closer the screen is to the teeing spot the more any off center alignment will make the shot go off line. (I'd move the garage door opener assembly but it seems like a lot of work, and you know, who needs more work?)
Good luck.

[trhuke]

Just looked at your pictures, if the red line is your alignment line it appears that you're aligned about a foot right of center, if you aim at the target spot given by the projector you're launching a foot left of "straight" from not very far away. From rough estimation I'd guess you're lined up about 6 degrees off.
You either need to set the tee area up so that red line is hitting the center of the screen at right angles or aim at where the red line now hits the screen. That spot is "straight".
Essentially you have to move your ball launch spot so it's at right angles to the aiming spot on the screen center or if you can't move your tee area aim at a spot "X" inches right of the screens aiming point.

After that right or left is on you and your swing.

BTW, the same problem was driving me nuts until I realized I wasn't aligned straight when I hit the screen dead center.

[Morini]

This is one of the common causes of frustration for ST owners. In general, I am very science oriented, and prefer to be exact about things, but in my personal ST experience, it was better not go down that path. I put away the tape measures, laser alignment tools etc, and simple hung a string as a target, hit a few shots, tweaking the ST until straight shots read straight. Yes, takes a minute or two (I guess I could mark the floor, but haven't bothered). Not very scientific, but as mentioned, over the past 100 shots, my average was 0.85 yards offline, which is amazingly close to straight given ST HLA error tolerance, alignment error, as well as swing consistency issues. In summary, the skytrak is aligned when straight shots read straight, and not necessarily when I get the unit within 0.1 degrees parallel to target line.

[calebm1001]

Your comment doesn't make much sense to me. Sure, it can be an alignment... but are you asking if that is my center point/aimpoint? Of course not, did you notice the laser goes directly over the FMJ alignment stick (this was noted in the OP)? 12" LEFT of that would be where the red dot shines on the mat, and 12" left on the screen would be my aimpoint, which is center screen (well, it's offset a few inches).

Take a closer look at the image and pay closer attention to where the laser is...

[Morini]

Moved this comment to a new post.

[trhuke]

Morini, I rather agree but non centered tee off spots are a quick diagnosis of aim issues and pretty easy to overlook. And fix. Also, if you count on moving the ST to accommodate off line issues you may just be straightening an errant shot with an offline swing. Which could haunt you on the course. I generally agree with your premise though.

[Morini]

Morini, I rather agree but non centered tee off spots are a quick diagnosis of aim issues and pretty easy to overlook. And fix. Also, if you count on moving the ST to accommodate off line issues you may just be straightening an errant shot with an offline swing. Which could haunt you on the course. I generally agree with your premise though.

Yes, fully agree. That is why I hang a string. That is my target. I also got some 5 foot driver markers, and for a while, I laid those down from the ball to the target, to help my little brain grasp the direction I was hitting the ball.

[Gresh12]

I have found that my Skytrak struggles with HLA the most of any measurement (my driver ball speed caps out at high 150s so I'm not running in to those challenges really).

I also use the "string method" to align my unit and my unit is reasonably square to my hitting line when I do this. My stock miss is a pull so it never really shocked me when I had left misses before but I do think my unit has a touch of left bias in many of the reads (a few degrees nothing like 15* some are citing).

I hit in to a net so I hung a towel in the middle of the net folded in half that is a foot wide. I hit from 6 feet away so based on my math if I hit the towel it means I'm within 5* HLA one way or the other. I definitely have shots that hit the towel that register more than -5* left reasonably often and I also video my swing for online lessons often see my ball hits the right side of the towel but measures -2* left on the launch monitor. I don't ever seem to get reads that start right of where I would expect though for whatever reason.

If the listed error is +/- 2* I would probably believe the error band is 4* on my unit but up to 4* left and 0* right. I don't think mine is way off but I do think the misses favour one side.

[Morini]

Just so I am clear, do you align to the center of the towel by hitting shots and tweaking the ST, or by parallel alignment? Based on your description, it sounds like the former. What would happen if you turned the ST to compensate for the left bias? Would that cause shots to go right on average?

Maybe I got lucky? If hit the the string I use for a target I am very rarely out by more than a few yards, and as my shot shape is generally straight, I take this to mean less than a degree (most of the time). I will check the actual HLA rather than the offline next time to take spin axis out of the equation.

[Gresh12]

Sorry I may not have been super clear nor am I sure the description below will make it more clear but here goes.

I align my unit each use (I have to setup each time I use my Skytrak as I park a car in my garage as well) by hitting ~50 yard shots and when they hit the centre of my towel and read straight on the Skytrak I'm setup (I move the Skytrak until this occurs). Before the towel I had a string and did the same thing with the string so I'm aligning the unit to a straight shot (and I try to get 2-3 before I consider myself set). Visually my Skytrak FMJ case with an alignment stick is very close to square once I do the "string or towel" test.

What I'm trying to say is that from shot to shot I see read errors that favour left. I still hit a number of shots in the middle of the towel that read straight during a session but then a shot will happen that hits the towel but reads way left or hits the right side of the towel (i.e., should miss right) but still reads as a pull. Then more shots will hit centre of towel and read straight. If we believe I'm set at zero and the tolerance is +/-2* then I should have misreads being -2 through +2 but it seems I get more like -4 to 0 if my description makes sense.

What I'm trying to say is that even once aligned properly I feel like the "slight misreads" err on the side of left and never right. I never find shots missing right that hit the left side of the towel or the centre.

My point is I don't think it's way off but I do feel my unit is a touch left biased on a decent number of shots but not systematically on every shot.

[Morini]

Thanks for the clarification. That is exactly the way I have been setting up. I could be wrong, but I don't see a bias in mine. I wonder if there is a cause for some of your left HLA.