SkyTrak Launch Monitor

[Maverick]

http://www.skytrakgolf.com/

iPad app:

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

[jacksonlui]

I'd prefer that the software engineers work on porting over all the great features they had on the vector pro. (optimizer, calculated club data, max height, angle of descent, and vFit)
they are the same company right? they still have access and rights to it?

[Boggie Golfer]

Guess this brick has been disappointment
Displaying and calculating wrong data.
Updates has been slow and manufacturer response and improvements have been slow
What is the second hand market for the SkyTrak price going to be....... sub 1400.00

[t4t3r]

It's been officially released for what, 2 weeks? Manufacturer is addressing some of the bugs/issues already. I think running through the town with pitchforks is a little extreme at this point. I'm also not even an owner but I've been following this thread pretty closely. Nice troll though.

[jacksonlui]

I agree that the launch was not ideal and it can and should have been handled more professionally. However it's a solid piece of technology and if done right it will hit that sweet spot in this market space. Most of us don't want to spend for a GC2 that's why we are looking at this unit. In terms of hardware I don't think Skytrak is that different than GC2. GC2 has mature software and given time Skytrak will too. I sure hope they don't charge for these upgrades though, especially being an early adopter. Skytrak has a lot of potential. If they listen to the consumers and work on their software they will have a great product. Right now it's good enough just to hit balls and see the ball flight but it's not good enough to do a serious fitting. Not because the measurements aren't there but mainly because the software doesn't support any type of fitting. Right now it's nothing more than a driving range. At least you can't groove a bad swing in the winter, that alone is worth the 2k.
The best thing we can do is to support Skytrakgolf and provide honest feedback in hopes they listen and bear down on some serious coding. They don't have much competition at this price point, we have to help them grow because in the end, we want an accurate launch monitor under $2k. Foresight, Trackman, EDH aren't going to give you that.

I own a swingbyte2 and that is heads and shoulders better than the skypro mainly because of the support and free software upgrades. Skytrak is missing meaningful club data. If they can partner up we can have a GC2+HMT at a fraction of the cost. I think most of us don't mind the growing pains but we must not be kept in the dark and see progress. That will be enough to feed the hungry and keep this product alive.

[Boggie Golfer]

I agree that the launch was not ideal and it can and should have been handled more professionally. However it's a solid piece of technology and if done right it will hit that sweet spot in this market space. Most of us don't want to spend for a GC2 that's why we are looking at this unit. In terms of hardware I don't think Skytrak is that different than GC2. GC2 has mature software and given time Skytrak will too. I sure hope they don't charge for these upgrades though, especially being an early adopter. Skytrak has a lot of potential. If they listen to the consumers and work on their software they will have a great product. Right now it's good enough just to hit balls and see the ball flight but it's not good enough to do a serious fitting. Not because the measurements aren't there but mainly because the software doesn't support any type of fitting. Right now it's nothing more than a driving range. At least you can't groove a bad swing in the winter, that alone is worth the 2k.
The best thing we can do is to support Skytrakgolf and provide honest feedback in hopes they listen and bear down on some serious coding. They don't have much competition at this price point, we have to help them grow because in the end, we want an accurate launch monitor under $2k. Foresight, Trackman, EDH aren't going to give you that.

I own a swingbyte2 and that is heads and shoulders better than the skypro mainly because of the support and free software upgrades. Skytrak is missing meaningful club data. If they can partner up we can have a GC2+HMT at a fraction of the cost. I think most of us don't mind the growing pains but we must not be kept in the dark and see progress. That will be enough to feed the hungry and keep this product alive.

Nicely said Jackson but to date SkyTrak isn't impressing their early adopters or future customers..... technology might be neat but ball flights algorithms and modeling isn't new and skytrak could have done better. Keeping you early adopters frustrated has to be fun for Skytrak.

[Boggie Golfer]

I agree that the launch was not ideal and it can and should have been handled more professionally. However it's a solid piece of technology and if done right it will hit that sweet spot in this market space. Most of us don't want to spend for a GC2 that's why we are looking at this unit. In terms of hardware I don't think Skytrak is that different than GC2. GC2 has mature software and given time Skytrak will too. I sure hope they don't charge for these upgrades though, especially being an early adopter. Skytrak has a lot of potential. If they listen to the consumers and work on their software they will have a great product. Right now it's good enough just to hit balls and see the ball flight but it's not good enough to do a serious fitting. Not because the measurements aren't there but mainly because the software doesn't support any type of fitting. Right now it's nothing more than a driving range. At least you can't groove a bad swing in the winter, that alone is worth the 2k.
The best thing we can do is to support Skytrakgolf and provide honest feedback in hopes they listen and bear down on some serious coding. They don't have much competition at this price point, we have to help them grow because in the end, we want an accurate launch monitor under $2k. Foresight, Trackman, EDH aren't going to give you that.

I own a swingbyte2 and that is heads and shoulders better than the skypro mainly because of the support and free software upgrades. Skytrak is missing meaningful club data. If they can partner up we can have a GC2+HMT at a fraction of the cost. I think most of us don't mind the growing pains but we must not be kept in the dark and see progress. That will be enough to feed the hungry and keep this product alive.

Troll? He'll I don't troll, gain nothing from that. Just hate it when they don't recognize the power of consumerism.they can continue to cluster this and their market will evaporate from under their feet. There is enough negative publicity and feedback on the net if they are serious about improvements. I am happy with my GC2...and not stooping so low for a arcade toy.

[happybob]

I know there's an issue with distance in ST and shorter clubs but I find it with pretty much all my clubs (oddly enough more so with longer clubs). Admittedly I'm playing in a freezing cold garage with cold clubs etc and I've experimented with warm clubs and balls but they all seem 10/20% short.

Below left is my driver shot which has a 2 degree lower launch angle and ball sped is 5mph down on ST's app store image on the right but to carry to be 40 odd yards short seems a big difference.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n20898[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n20899[/ATTACH]

I know the club speed is estimated, but I think a club speed of only 88 should rarely translate into a 250 yard drive.

[happybob]

I was able to play with the GC2 again for a few minutes at my local golf store recently, after having spent some time on the Skytrak. A few observations:
1. The delay from hitting the ball to seeing the ball flight showing up on the screen is definitely less than 1 second on the GC2, vs. 3-4 seconds on the Skytrak; however, it seems to take slightly longer to complete the ball flight on the GC2. Is it possible that maybe the GC2 software is able to display the ball flight as it's still calculating the entire flight path, while Skytrak might actually be displaying the ball flight only after the calculation of the entire flight path is already complete? Maybe if Seth ever has a chance to post again, he can provide some insight?
2. The more I use the GC2 the more I appreciate the laser red dot on the Skytrak to help ball placement. It literally took me on the average of 5-10 seconds each time to move the ball around till the light turns green on the GC2. One thing I noticed though was that the GC2 seemed to be placed much further away from the ball than the Skytrak. I know a bunch of us are worrying that one day a shanked ball is going to destroy the Skytrak, is there a reason why a Skytrak has to be placed so close to the ball while the GC2 can be placed further away if the underlying mechanism of capturing ball data is similar? Is the Skytrak not able to take pictures if the ball are placed further away from the unit? Could this be the reason why Skytrak is much cheaper than GC2 because the GC2 uses more expensive telephoto lens to capture the ball images? Again just a speculation...

To those of you who've been extremely critical of Skytrak, if you can't live with the frustration of dealing with a small start-up company and all of its growing pain, and you actually can afford a GC2 or Trackman, I would recommend that you stop wasting your time and just go buy the GC2 or Trackman and be done with it. As jacksonlui stated, we all wanted to buy the GC2, but at $8000, it's a little steep. Whether it's ultimately going to be a lot of accurate than the Skytrak is debatable, but there's not doubt that its software and support are probably a little more robust and mature at this point, mostly due to it's been out much longer. All tech toys are buggy when they first come out. I do have to question Skytrak's decision in partnering with Skygolf which is notorious for long delays and releasing buggy products in the beginning especially with its last few Skycaddie models.

We all know we are not buying a Lexus here, so I'm not really expecting the kind of quality, support, or service from a luxury car company, but I'm just hoping that Skytrak will eventually turn into the equivalent of a Toyota rather than a Kia...

[happybob]

I own a swingbyte2 and that is heads and shoulders better than the skypro mainly because of the support and free software upgrades. Skytrak is missing meaningful club data. If they can partner up we can have a GC2+HMT at a fraction of the cost. I think most of us don't mind the growing pains but we must not be kept in the dark and see progress. That will be enough to feed the hungry and keep this product alive.

I had also hoped that Skytrak + swingbyte2 or skypro can be the cheaper equivalent of GC2+HMT, but if you were to take Bubba or Zmax opinion, no such luck. Neither of them trust the data from these club attachment devices. BTW, there's another example of a buggy tech product when it first came out. My understanding is that the original swingbyte was quite problematic in how it attaches to the golf club, and was quickly updated to swingbyte2. I sure hope that a Skytrak 2 is not already on the horizon for next year and we early adopters left with a brick with no cheap upgrade path.

[jacksonlui]

No one has said the skytrak isn't accurate. All the complaints are on the software/interface. Skytrak doesn't miss a lot of shots. I use to own a flightscope and that missed shots. My vector missed shots. Skytrak missed a few shots but the shots were worm burners. With improvement in the software it will be a good product. We just don't know what's planned and what the timeline is. With swingbyte that was a hardware issue and the only way to get around that is a redesign.
skytrak is a toy compared to a GC2 but it's also a fraction of the cost and gives you most of what you need.

[Boggie Golfer]

I was able to play with the GC2 again for a few minutes at my local golf store recently, after having spent some time on the Skytrak. A few observations:
1. The delay from hitting the ball to seeing the ball flight showing up on the screen is definitely less than 1 second on the GC2, vs. 3-4 seconds on the Skytrak; however, it seems to take slightly longer to complete the ball flight on the GC2. Is it possible that maybe the GC2 software is able to display the ball flight as it's still calculating the entire flight path, while Skytrak might actually be displaying the ball flight only after the calculation of the entire flight path is already complete? Maybe if Seth ever has a chance to post again, he can provide some insight?
2. The more I use the GC2 the more I appreciate the laser red dot on the Skytrak to help ball placement. It literally took me on the average of 5-10 seconds each time to move the ball around till the light turns green on the GC2. One thing I noticed though was that the GC2 seemed to be placed much further away from the ball than the Skytrak. I know a bunch of us are worrying that one day a shanked ball is going to destroy the Skytrak, is there a reason why a Skytrak has to be placed so close to the ball while the GC2 can be placed further away if the underlying mechanism of capturing ball data is similar? Is the Skytrak not able to take pictures if the ball are placed further away from the unit? Could this be the reason why Skytrak is much cheaper than GC2 because the GC2 uses more expensive telephoto lens to capture the ball images? Again just a speculation...

To those of you who've been extremely critical of Skytrak, if you can't live with the frustration of dealing with a small start-up company and all of its growing pain, and you actually can afford a GC2 or Trackman, I would recommend that you stop wasting your time and just go buy the GC2 or Trackman and be done with it. As jacksonlui stated, we all wanted to buy the GC2, but at $8000, it's a little steep. Whether it's ultimately going to be a lot of accurate than the Skytrak is debatable, but there's not doubt that its software and support are probably a little more robust and mature at this point, mostly due to it's been out much longer. All tech toys are buggy when they first come out. I do have to question Skytrak's decision in partnering with Skygolf which is notorious for long delays and releasing buggy products in the beginning especially with its last few Skycaddie models.

We all know we are not buying a Lexus here, so I'm not really expecting the kind of quality, support, or service from a luxury car company, but I'm just hoping that Skytrak will eventually turn into the equivalent of a Toyota rather than a Kia...

I make no excuses being critical. That is just me !

That said i am not comparing a Lexus which is a bloody good car with a Toyota as it is indeed just a rebadge Toyota in another cloak with some bells and whistles. i rather have a Porsche or Maserati ........again just me.

Incidentally for the record, Toyota is more American than your Fords and GM, has more Made in the USA parts than the Government Motors has and creating real jobs for Americans.

[Bubba22]

I certainly wouldn't call ST a toy. The hardware is quite good but does have its limitations. I am not getting into a comparison discussion between ST and GC2. The ST range software can be improved. Simulation will come. Question is when, what and how? Time will tell.

[Spudly]

I have to say I am not experiencing any issues with data or wrong readings. I purchased this as a launch monitor, not a sim hardware device, and it is doing great. The manufacturer is listening to feedback and has a software update release any day now, less than 30 days from product launch, and another one scheduled for next month. I purchased it for the $1,600 and am hitting balls on it 2-3 times a week, and it is performing above my expectations. The GC2 is an awesome unit, and if it were not for this unit coming out I would have purchased it this year, still might if this does not work out.

They are getting some great press right now with the backing of Skygolf and the people who are endorsing it, sorry, but they are much more influencial than us here on the forum. I understand they will be at the PGA merchandise show in Orlando coming up in January, and I look forward to seeing them and finding out what is coming and when.

Until then, I will hold onto the extra $6,400 I saved by going this route, and like any product launch be a little patient.

[HWoods]

Don't you dare insult my little Skytrak, guys! Leave him be! He works hard! He hardly misses any golf balls that go by! It's not his fault that he doesn't have the mental capacity to process them intelligently! He's part of a start up and therefor it's not fair game to comment on any of his faults. |We must all love him for who he is!

[sb81]

Skytrak is awesome imo, launch period was a little rocky but luckily wasn't as bad as it seemed like it could have been once the story seemed to be changing on the delays.

Is everyone leveling theirs?