SkyTrak Launch Monitor

[Maverick]

http://www.skytrakgolf.com/

iPad app:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/com.sporttrak.skytrak/id876548058?mt=8

[Maverick]

It's the weekend give them til Monday to respond.

[flydigital]

Some more results...

I am also getting funny numbers with 9I and under now. Before the PW was OK but I seem to be spinning them more today and getting a good 10% yards short from normal on good hits. Hit at least 500 balls today (2 sessions, had to charge in between) with all my clubs and things were good with 8I and above as expected. Was able to work on my draw/fades and low shots with mid irons which was very cool. Something funny with the delay is that I can now predict almost exactly what my shot is doing based on feel and where the ball hits the screen, verified 5 seconds after. In a way its been helpful to me and I seem to be able to have better general feel of things after today's session. Never made it out to the range, was having too much fun hitting indoors.

I noticed that the unit stopped registering most shots near end of my first session about 3 hours later. I think the battery was low with so many shots hit. It worked fine again after a 2 hour recharge for another 1 hour session.

Ran up into a few more more bugs, such as wind speed settings not seeming to work properly (south-headwind setting results in longer shots, north-tailwind in shorter shots for example), stats hang/delay and duplicate stat shots, had to restart the app a couple times to get shots to register when it stopped working all of a sudden, etc. The turf interaction is really funny in some cases with the huge backspin... and worm burners with long clubs that should roll 30+ yards barely make it 10-15. I know this is all being worked on just sharing my experience with it.

Also I found out my airplay lag issue was not due to Skytrak at all and instead something up with my wifi. Moved some things around and got it working smoothly.

Almost golf balls tested again and figured it was about 12% less distance on most clubs. After hitting so many real balls though and enjoying the feel/feedback I don't want to use foam any more. They are a ton louder on my hitting screen but worth it. It would be nice though if the software could have a ball speed modifier to support foam balls if desired. Adjusting wind didn't seem to work right to accomplish similar modifier.

Was able to get up to 51deg launch with lob shots registered with ball about 1 inch ahead on laser dot. Max 44 on the laser dot.

Well that's about it for today... Skytrak needs charging and I my body needs rest. Haven't hit so many balls in a looong time!

[ryfoss]

hey all. first time posting here. made the purchase after reading the posts.. very helpful so thanks all. got mine yesterday and put it to the test today with a short session. overall reviews are very similar to all those previously stated - generally positive with some work to do on the software. definite distance issues with shorter clubs (mine was about 7 iron and below). lag time was a large issue for me... i'd say about 20 second+ lag on a "new" ipad (the version right before the ipad air). this could be because it's an older version and i've used the ipad quite a bit. 4 or 5 seconds might be a little annoying but 20 to 30 seconds started getting really frustrating --- i'm giving ST the benefit of the doubt and pinning it on the ipad. there were issues getting the wifi connected at first but it hasn't been a problem since . despite the issues alluded to, i am certain the software updates will elevate the product.

portability and ease of use is amazing. i love that it uses an ipad although i wish mine would work a little faster. challenges and range interface are fantastic. data provided is everything you need. software tweaks necessary as mentioned above. additional comment re software - i wish that when you were scrolling through your practice session, the headers showing the data would scroll with you. i found myself continually having to scroll to the top to the look at what the number was when reviewing my shots later in the session (freeze header for excel users) - not sure if this was mentioned before.

i also tested ST up against a gc2. however, before i get any hopes up for a precise review, i have to disclaim that there are two large variables that certainly affected my use. first, because both ST and GC2 are both ball trackers, you can't (or at least i couldn't figure out how to) use them both for the exact same shot. ST would block the GC2 or vice versa. i'm a pretty decent player (2 handicap) but as we all know, no two strikes are exactly the same. if someone could get this up against a trackman that would be great.

second, my hitting station was elevated slightly above where the skytrak was sitting, the gc2 was sitting in the same location but i've read previous reviews that even this slight change can greatly affect the data output.

i'll give the numbers when i have some time to give a decent numbers comparison but in brief, the users of the forum are pretty spot on.

PW - consistently short, about 10 yards different from gc2
7I - consistently giving me 140 carry 142+- total versus 160 on gc2 (which is standard for me)
5I - numbers very similar in ball speed, spin, carry and total yards. club head speed about 10mph higher than GC2 though
3W - almost exact same numbers except same issue, had my club head speeds up around 105 and only 97/98 on GC2

i understand this does not quench the curiousity and ill will work to post a further gc2 versus ST update in the next couple of days.

[happybob]

My Skytrak was also shipped out on Black Friday, but since I live in the Northwest, it took a little over a week to arrive. I finally received mine yesterday, charged it last night, and went through a short session with it earlier today. Here are some of my questions, observations, and comments that will hopefully help some of you. Some background info, I'm an average golfer with a 15 hcp, my goal is to get down to single hcp with some practice at my home setup. I have the NetReturn Pro with the large Pro Mat which I have been using for 3 years. I've also been a club ho and have accumulated quite a few clubs. I'm hoping the launch monitor will help me with both club fitting and ball fitting. I'll probably end up getting the simulation upgrade when it becomes available; however, that was not a prerequisite for me since I would much rather be out there playing 18 holes on a real course 90% of the time rather than playing a simulated game at home. I enjoy every opportunity to get some fresh air and to burn some extra calories! I had some experience with the earlier model of FlightScope when I used to live in Southern California and was going to Roger Dunn every other day. I've also used the GC2 multiple times at local golf stores. I will comment a little on the ease of use and functionality between them, but obviously I won't be able to tell you how much more accurate one is over the other since I have not done a head to head comparison.

1. Did all of you take off the plastic film covering the lens as instructed in the manual? I left it on at first, and the unit was still working fine; however, I did have 2-3 shots that didn't register in about 30 shots. After I removed the protective plastic film, I only had one that didn't register in about 100 shots. I also noticed that you must wait till the top light turns back to green before hitting the next shot. In hindsight, some of the shots that didn't register might have been hit before the top light turned back from red to green. There was one shot that didn't register despite all three lights were green, but the ball might have been placed slightly behind the laser red dot. Anyway, 99% of the shots registered fine, but I'm wondering whether leaving the protective plastic film on the lens would make it more difficult for balls to be picked up by Skytrak.

2. I agree with most of you that the distance seems very accurate with mid-irons and up, but a little short with the short irons. My pitching wedge was constantly about 10-15 yards shorter than in real life, but 6 iron was fairly consistent with what I usually hit. As Skytrak had posted earlier, inaccurate distance and club head speed seen with high spin shots are due the algorithm in the current flight model, and should hopefully be fixed with version 1.8 of the software. I'm a little surprised that this obvious flaw wasn't picked up by the beta testers? I don't recall seeing Zmax or Bubba posting about this issue, maybe they were bound by the non-disclosure agreement? Or did the flight model used in the earlier software versions not have this same problem?

3. Regarding software activation, I also received the same activation email from Skygolf, and it does show that my account was already activated. As someone else mentioned, on one side, it mentions that my membership had expired on 12/6/2014, but on the other side, it shows that I have the SkyGolf 360 Premium membership till 12/5/2015. When I tried to access the SkyGolf 360 page, it does say that my membership had expired. Something is not quite correct. I also got the prompt to download the usb cradle syncing software, which I didn't download. I too purchased the Advance Package and have access to the different "Challenges". Based on my understanding, I don't think we'll need to pay annual membership fee just to keep those "Challenges". The one that would require annual renewal fee is the SkyGolf 360 membership, which as of now has nothing to do with Skytrak. SkyGolf 360 is an online community created by SkyGolf/SkyCaddie that lets you keep track of your golfing stats online, and also allows you to use the SkyCaddie golf GPS app on your iPhone or android phone. I think you'll only need to pay the annual renewal fee if you decide to keep the SkyGolf 360 membership. Maybe if Skytrak is still reading this forum, he can confirm my assumption about the annual membership fee? Did any of you actually purchase the "Basic" package that isn't supposed to come with the "Challenge games"? If anyone did, maybe someone can confirm whether people who saved $99 by going with the Basic package also gained access to the "Challenge games"?

4. If any of you are still planning on buying an iPad, trust me, go buy the latest and greatest iPad Air 2. Don't try to save $100 by buying the earlier models. I thought about saving some money and buying the iPad Air, but I'm glad that I took advantage of the Black Friday sales on iPad Air 2. In contrary to what others suggested, the iPad Air 2 is noticeably faster. I was able to directly compare my iPad Air 2 with my father-in-law's iPad mini 2 retina display (which has the same processor as iPad Air) running the Skytrak app. The lag time was consistently at least 2 seconds shorter on the iPad Air 2. I see about 2-3 second lag time on the iPad Air 2, and at least 4-6 seconds on the iPad mini 2. I wonder whether Skytrak can eventually optimize the app to take full advantage of the faster CPU/GPU in iPad Air 2 to further decrease the lag time. The processor in iPad Air 2 is felt to be about as fast as the Intel i-5 processor seen in many laptops (both PC and Mac), so it's not a guarantee that the app will run much faster for everyone even when it's ported to the PC especially if you are just planning on using a laptop rather than a modern fast desktop PC. There have been a lot of debates and complaints about the lack of Android support by Skytrak. It sounds like the Android version is in development, but unless you spend the money to buy the latest and greatest Android tablets (which often can cost just as much as the iPads), you probably won't have enough processing power for the Skytrak app. With the market being inundated by all these cheap Android tablets and slow processors, not really sure it would be that smart of an idea for a small company like Skytrak to devote too much of their scarce resource to develop for Android.

5. Again, not quite sure how Skytrak compares with GC2 or Flightscope in terms of its accuracy in various ball data measurements, but in terms of distance and ball flight accuracy, all I can say is that it's fairly comparable with what I recall from the time I spent with GC2 and Flightscope (again with the caveat of mid-irons and up). One area where Skytrak clearly kicks GC2's butt is the idiot-proof red laser dot that tells you where to place the ball. Every time I use the GC2 at local golf stores, I struggle with constantly having the guess where to put the darn ball so I can get the "ready' indicator to turn green! In addition, even though the GC2 was connected to a desktop PC, I also don't remember it being instantaneous. I believe there was also a 1-2 second delay before the ball flight would show up.

6. The type of ball you use MATTERS! I think Skytrak can be used not only for club fitting, but also for ball fitting. Being a mid-handicapper, I've never been someone who would only play with a brand new ProV1 ball, I would just play with whatever balls I have in the bag as long as there's no scratch on the ball. Today when I started out my session, I used an old semi-beat-up Nike One Tour ball. Both my father-in-law and I noticed that we were consistently 10-15 yards shorter with our 6 irons, and 20-30 yards shorter with our 3 hybrids. At first we thought Skytrak was the problem, but once we switched to a newer Bridgestone B330 ball, our distances came back! Shot after shot with the newer golf ball, we were getting distances that would match our real world distances better. So if you using this unit to practice your distance control, DO NOT use a fake golf ball, a range ball, or even an older semi-beat-up premium ball.

7. I wasn't really too concerned about balls hitting the Skytrak unit, but it's also fairly obvious that the build quality of the $2000 Skytrak isn't comparable to that of the $7000 GC2. The super light-weight Skytrak just doesn't have the hefty feeling of the GC2. I can certainly see how some people are concerned that it may take just one or two shanked balls to ruin the unit. SkyTrak, if you are still monitoring this forum, please make it a priority to come out with a protective cradle/cage for the unit. Please don't overcharge us for it, especially since the warranty is only 6 months. BTW, it seems that the ones sold in the Asian market also comes with a leveling platform that can be screwed under the Skytrak unit, is there any reason that it's not included in the US version? That would seem to help with the problem some people are having in not leveling their units and thus affecting the launch angle.

8. If you are connecting your iPad to a monitor/TV/projector, don't be cheap, go buy yourself the Apple lightning digital AV adapter (hdmi). It's only about $40 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MD826ZM-...ing+av+adapter). Much cheaper and more reliable than messing around with airplay and Apple TV, unless you already have an Apple TV. I think someone was able to get that to work.

Overall I'm quite happy with this purchase. I'm confident that some of the current software/flight model algorithm shortcomings will be fixed in a timely manner. I was seriously thinking about buying the GC2, but I always knew that something much cheaper and almost just as good would be on the horizon. Now the question is, if Foresight Sports eventually drops the price of GC2 to stay competitive with Skytrak's pricing, would the current Skytrak owners jump ship to GC2? I think this will depend on how quickly and competently Skytrak can deliver the promised bug fixes and upgrades. I'm certainly optimistic.

[Jel]

So yesterday I became curious and downloaded the E6 demo.

1. Installed the software and selected Skytrak as the monitor.

2. Turned on the ST and selected it as the wifi network in Windows 7.

3. Started the E6 demo and the WifI light on the ST unit turned green ! ( This is when I started to get excited )

4. Selected practice mode in E6 ( Holly Sh&% the check box on the ST unit turned green and I almost pee my pants with excitement )

5. Hit a ball and the check light turns red like it does on the App after hitting a ball !!!

I wait, I wait a bit more but alas nothing. I guess E6 is set up to connect to ST right now but it's not communicating like it should.

[Bubba22]

Jel, just a little delay. Give it another hour, it should launch the ball! Just kidding! I suspect the E6 will get integrated but it wont be this simple and it will cost you some dough.

[hks8888]

ZMAX started a thread for App Enhancement Requests at http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/...=1417956162817

Here is my list of requests which are not addressed in the upcoming 1.7 and 1.8 version.
[1] In Target Practice, there is a slider to set a target distance. It is difficult to control the slider with my finger. I'd like to manually type in a distance in a box.
[2] Increase of the app stability: some of us saw the app just stop responding and we had to restart the app repeatedly.
[3] Reduction of delay: it is well known, but we have to ask for it.

If I get a second vote, I will post it on the thread mentioned above and ZMAX will edit it there.

[TorchRedRob]

ZMAX started a thread for App Enhancement Requests at http://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/...=1417956162817

Here is my list of requests which are not addressed in the upcoming 1.7 and 1.8 version.
[1] In Target Practice, there is a slider to set a target distance. It is difficult to control the slider with my finger. I'd like to manually type in a distance in a box.
[2] Increase of the app stability: some of us saw the app just stop responding and we had to restart the app repeatedly.
[3] Reduction of delay: it is well known, but we have to ask for it.

If I get a second vote, I will post it on the thread mentioned above and ZMAX will edit it there.

Second! I agree with all of the above.

[SFR]

From what I have read it seems that you can't plug your Skytrak direct into a power supply and play. It sounds like it needs to be charged and run off the battery. Is this the only way to run it?

Having a GC2 and being able to charge it while you play or just have the unit plugged into power and play, seems like a normal operation to add to a unit. With how batteries will gradually fade with run time and the amount of recharges they do have, I would find that a major drawback with not having a plug in power supply as an option.

For an example if my battery was near end of life, I may not be able to take the GC2 out to a range and use it for very long, however if I did not care about that, by plugging it into a power supply I would still be able to use the unit at any time.

Just a thought that if this may be something that could be added on, if they were able to do, and make the unit more desirable and easier to use for longer periods.

[landont3]

When you connect SkyTrak to your home wifi network, is the shot data being saved anywhere? I was under the impression that it was, but I am not sure how/where to access it. Has anyone been able to find it?

By the way, I've been lurking on this thread since a month or so before the pre-order started. The information shared here is what eventually led to me purchasing the unit.

[flydigital]

When you connect SkyTrak to your home wifi network, is the shot data being saved anywhere? I was under the impression that it was, but I am not sure how/where to access it. Has anyone been able to find it?

By the way, I've been lurking on this thread since a month or so before the pre-order started. The information shared here is what eventually led to me purchasing the unit.

It's under history... click the upper right tab button for your user info, then the history section. Problem is that the data isn't stored correctly, it's duplicated and generally corrupt, doesn't save club info, etc. After a few hundred shots accessing this is very slow, like up to 2 minutes before it responds when selecting a session. So once they fix these bugs that is where you'll find it. For now, the only accurate history data is for your session history, but once you exit the practice session it's gone to user history.

[flydigital]

I've been using the same ball now for about 1200 shots, and I notice my distance is now getting less and less with the shorter irons (i.e. 8, 7, 6). I think the spin isn't registering properly with the slightly chewed up ball. Using a new one and the distance is back to normal. So it looks like 1000 shots max on a new ball before you need to replace it. It may even start to effect the PW and 9I after only a hundred shots. This would explain my experience with proper PW/9I distances until my second day testing. Anyone else able to confirm this?

[Jel]

I've been using the same ball now for about 1200 shots, and I notice my distance is now getting less and less with the shorter irons (i.e. 8, 7, 6). I think the spin isn't registering properly with the slightly chewed up ball. Using a new one and the distance is back to normal. So it looks like 1000 shots max on a new ball before you need to replace it. It may even start to effect the PW and 9I after only a hundred shots. This would explain my experience with proper PW/9I distances until my second day testing. Anyone else able to confirm this?

I have been using the same e6 ball for the last 3 days ( probably around 500/600 shots ) and have noticed a drop in distance but thought it was due to freezing temp ( I use it in the garage ). I'll test it against a new e6 tomorrow.

[Jel]

Also what are people using to protect their ST at the moment ?

[happybob]

Also what are people using to protect their ST at the moment ?

I just put the box it shipped in in front of the ST unit to block any shots bouncing back from the net toward it. It doesn't block severe shanks, but I hope I won't have one of those.

So did everyone leave the plastic protective film on the lens? Is it affecting the accuracy or the unit's ability to pick up shots?