Why hasn't anyone figured out the SkyTrak shot delay?

[andyjs999]

I've been wanting a golf simulator in my garage for a long time and have followed the woes of SkyTrak and the issues with shot delay. My question is does anyone know if SkyTrak is actually working on reducing the delay? I own a software company and speed is something we are always tweaking (we deal with really large data sets). The issue can not be the sensors; it has to be in either the data transfer or the calculation. Does anyone know? Maybe I just have not read up on this enough but I would love to have some of my engineers take a crack at it!

I also have not seen many updates posted about this since like 2017 which is also why I'm asking.

[Tonysmjc]

Because it’s an 1800.00 unit
and I f they fixed it then it would be an over priced 3500.00 unit

in short it’s not worth fixing

[trumb1mj]

I've never been bothered by the delay but it is worth asking: where is the delay?

[trumb1mj]

We should know in 12 days at the merchandise show. They haven't released a software update in over a year. At last year's merchandise show they showed off a new version that was never released. If that version is passed off as the latest and greatest there is serious cause for concern on the software front.

[calebm1001]

What’s the issue with the shot delay? It’s literally 2-3 seconds. It’s barely noticeable and not worth another 3-4K for the next unit that doesn’t have one.

[Ronsc1985]

If I remember correctly there is a 2-3 second computation delay in the Skytrak for image analysis of the two captured pictures and computation of the ball speed, launch angle and the spin numbers. This is then passed to whatever you are using for a ball parameter display and/or simulation program. No matter how fast you can transmit/receive the data and convert it to whatever display/simulation program you are using the 2-3 sec delay remains.

If you want to go faster then get a GC2 or something similar. I have no idea what the delay is on my GC2 using Fr1 as it is not really noticeable in any meaningful sense. If you do not select wait for spin it is even faster although the ball trace may take a strange path until the spin is computed.

[Gresh12]

The delay hasn’t bothered me and I’m in the camp that finds it a touch useful in that I can guess the shot I hit by feel then see the actual.

I know GC2 is almost instant but I take lessons indoor on Trackman 4 and I find it often has a delay at least as long as my SkyTrak.

[andyjs999]

Shortening the delay does not triple the price of the unit necessarily. Everyone that reacts by saying just spend more has not been around an engineering environment.

[Fantastish]

I believe the skytrak, takes the photos and sends them to your computer, the software on the computer does the calculations. A gc2 does all of the calculations in the gc2 and then just sends out the results.

[GungHoGolf]

This is correct. Seth has told us it’s the speed of the device running the app which takes the time, not the transmission of the images. They’ve optimized the software as much as they can, and he thinks 1.5 sec is the lower limit with fast processors.

[Mirek_62]

I believe the skytrak, takes the photos and sends them to your computer, the software on the computer does the calculations. A gc2 does all of the calculations in the gc2 and then just sends out the results.

Are you sure the calculation is not in the unit? You are wrong! FW in the unit does all the calculations and sends to the PC. Skytrak SW or SIM SW calculates the ball flight simulation from the data (rotation, speed, launch angles) provided by the Skytrak unit. There is no photo analysis on the PC.

[Morini]

Photo analysis is on the PC. There is some pre-processing, cropping etc done on the unit. The two images are sent to PC, which calculates ball data from images, and then feeds the ball data to sim or ST software.

[Bubba22]

Morini is correct.

[ChadGolf]

This ain’t it, chief. Images are sent to the PC, then processed there.

[Morini]

I think we are at or very near the lower limit of delay. If I use a reasonably modern PC I will get 2 seconds. If I use 64 core extremely overclocked water cooled PC I will get 1.98 seconds.

I'd say the breakdown is 1.9 seconds on board image processing (locating balls, cropping etc) and transmitting. On a modern PC, the rest takes 0.1 seconds. We are at the limit peeps. I am sure that the software end is reasonably optimized, but who knows for sure. If there was any low hanging fruit, they would go after it.

The ST is what, coming on five years old? If they just did a hardware refresh, I am sure they could lose most of the delay AND drop the per unit manufacturing cost. We just have to remember that launch monitors are produced in relatively low volume, so development costs are proportionally high. Having said that, I'd be very surprised if nothing new was announced later this month.

[Neepster]

As others note, the delay can in fact be an advantage... probably depending on your physical/location set-up. I use an iPad and on occasion hooked to larger TV monitor, therefore by the time I complete my swing, turn to look at either screen in front of me or to the side, the shot is starting to be drawn. So perfect for me - I would miss some of it otherwise or start to rush the end of my swing if it was immediate. This would of course potentially be different for those with projector & screen. But genuinely, it's just not noticeable when you're actually playing.

[Morini]

I agree, the delay has never bothered me for these reasons. However, I don't have sim. My guess is that most of those who don't have an issue with the delay right now would cry bloody murder if the delay disappeared for a few months and then came back. Once you have been acclimatized to the ball shooting off near instantaneously, those two seconds will feel very irritating.

[Ronsc1985]

The delay dosn't make any difference if you are just looking at shot parameters or a ball flight on a monitor. If you are using a sim with projector and impact screen then it makes a big difference. The idea of a projector and screen is to emulate as near as possible to golf in real life. Try playing actual golf and closing your eyes for 3 or so seconds after you make contact. People obsess about the screen resolution and picture fidelity 1024, 4k etc. For those situations 3 sec delay kills the similarity to real golf.

[trumb1mj]

My point about the show in 11 days is, if they’re not making improvements to the software for an entire calendar year there is no way they’re going to work on a shot delay most users deal with without agitation.

[OttawaP]

Those two seconds I find very useful in predicting my shot before it actually shows. It has taught me a lot about touch and feel. If they do ever "fix" it then I hope there's an option for toggling it back for practice.

[Supraracer]

The two second shot delay never bothered me before BUT the instantaneous response of Uneekor makes it much more immersive. Plus I was always wondering if it read the shot. I ended up looking at the lights on the Skytrak after every shot.

[Jtangm04]

Just moved from a skytrak to a uneekor. The delay on the skytrak never really bothered me that much. I think the main issue was if it was a misread I would stand there for 5 seconds before I would realize that the laser light was back on the mat.

While it's nice to not have a delay on the uneekor, it is a minor benefit. The biggest draw on why I upgraded was the increase info on what is going on with my shot and short game accuracy which was the biggest weakness of the sky track in my opinion.

[Jtangm04]

Just installed my uneekor a few days ago. Haven't sold the skytrak yet so I can run a head to head. I do recall seeing a post someone did that showed how close the two are as well as a YouTube clip from garage golf. Skytrak really does a great job with driver and iron shots. The times I got fustrated with skytrak was chipping, flop shots, and putting.

[Morini]

I did some outdoor testing on a windless day a few years back. ST was unreliable inside 30 yards. I groove my wedge game in the winter, but don't go below 30 for that reason. I assume that the Uneekor is accurate for all short game shots?

[Jtangm04]

That has been the biggest improvement in my opinion is the short game feel. With the sky track I would visualize a shot and what would show up on the screen would be very different. With uneekor, it's very consistent and your confidence goes up which also leads to a better short game.

[Architex]

Forget fixing the delay. Fix the spin decay problem first. That is way more important imo.

[Morini]

Spin decay is only an issue in the ball flight model used by ST range. It has nothing to do with ST hardware. It won't affect third party sims as they have their own ball flight models, that already account for spin decay.

Agree that it should be fixed. Just a tweak to model, very easy fix.The only good news is that in real life, your slice isn't as bad. Better than the other way around.