Older SkyTrak - lots of massive misreads esp on flop shots

[doublebogey]

I have an old SkyTrak (one of the first set of owners). Recently after years of use I'm getting a lot of bad misreads especially on high launch angle flop shots - I would hit them straight and SkyTrak would either not read, create a shot w zero launch angle or a high launch shot w crazy side angles (left or right at 25+ degrees for shots that went straight in real life). Lower launch shots tend to have much less of these bad reads.

I have eliminated all potential external causes - i.e., removed protective case, try placing ball way ahead of the red dot, etc.

Anybody have similar problems and potential fixes? SkyTrak_Seth, any thoughts on why I might be having these bad reads? Or just my SkyTrak is getting old and its days of getting accurate reads may be numbered? Thanks.

[jpotas]

If your set up is the same as in the past the only option may be to send in it for repair. I would think that it would be reasonably cheap compared to buying new!!

[Morini]

Flop shots are very tricky in general. Just guessing, but I think the timing of the strobe has much smaller margin of error than other shots. Strobe too early and the ball is not yet in horizontal field of view of the first imager. Too late and it is above vertical field of view of the second. The strobe timing is determined by the light reflected by the laser curtain.

It probably doesn't take much to affect this return signal. Maybe even just some dust on or dirt on the lens. Similarly, high shots are one instance where adding external light may actually help. I don't think it helps because it illuminates the ball (the strobe does that), but because it alters the strobe timing.

Before doing anything more drastic, I'd try raising the unit, maybe 1/4 inch and see if that changes anything. You said you played around with ball placement. I would not put it too far forward as the laser curtain is only a few inches in front of dot. If you haven't try the standard one inch forward and one inch closer to skytrak for lofted shots.

[GungHoGolf]

Good advice as usual, but I'd lean towards moving the ball an inch or two *away* from the unit (in addition to forwards) so the cameras will have a wider/taller field of view for the high-launch shots.

[Morini]

Logically, that is what I figured, but anecdotes seem to favor closer. If true, it may have more to do with laser curtain return signal than FOV. Maybe more refracted if closer. Probably worth trying both closer and farther. The patents seem to imply that the laser curtain returns not only a ball speed estimate, but also trajectory. If it doesn't, it would explain why high shots are tricky to time. A high shots has a much slower x vector velocity, so it will take longer to cross the curtain, leading the unit to think that the shot is slower than it really is. That in turn leads to firing the strobe late, which let's the ball travel about the second imager.

[doublebogey]

Thank you both for very good advice for my problem. Will try w ball both closer and away (together w being forward). I've been doing away as thought the FOV might be better but the more refracted if closer is something I've never thought about so will try as well. Will also try raising the unit by 1/4 inch. Have done this in the past but it then affects the driver or other low launch shots.

As for the comment: "It probably doesn't take much to affect this return signal. Maybe even just some dust on or dirt on the lens." - over the years wiping down the lens cover of the SkyTrak might have created some minor scratches on the cover that might affect the return signal?

Again, thank you both for the excellent advice. Will try your recommended suggestions and let everyone know how it goes. Thanks.

[Morini]

Yes, I imagine that serious scratches could interfere, but I doubt minor ones would.

[Morini]

Here is a pic from the patent showing how a waveform is created from the refracted light as the ball passes laser curtain.

• The normalized slope rise and fall contains speed information of the ball regardless of the amplitude of the signal.
• The speed estimator 712 may be configured to correlate the slopes to a speed. For example, the slopes may be matched to a lookup table to determine the speed. This method enables detection of the speed of an incoming round object, such as a ball, with good precision"

[doublebogey]

So after testing out various recommended setups, found raising the SkyTrak helps read high flop shots the most (not surprising) but the super raised setup (1/4 inch above top of mat) causes launch angle reads from driver to be quite a bit lower than normal (by ~2-3 degrees) and by looking at where ball hits screen - but I typically don't like to tee up too high for my driver so maybe if I teed up a little bit higher the LA reads might become better?

[Morini]

Raising unit might increase driver no-read rate but should have zero impact on VLA.

[doublebogey]

Maybe because raising unit significantly w/o tilting unit slightly forward might cause the lower VLA readings?

[GungHoGolf]

doublebogey Morini is correct about unit height not impacting VLA. SkyTrak just looks at the angle between ball pic 1 and ball pic 2 for VLA, height of the unit won't affect that. It's one of the simplest/most accurate measurements made by the unit.

[doublebogey]

Ok it seems like my SkyTrak (like people) might be getting a bit erratic from old age. Last week one day it read everything perfectly, the next day side angles are all over the place. Today first 15 shots read perfectly but the 16th shot read a crazy 19 degree side angle and an even crazier 46 degree VLA off of a driver (see screen shots of 15th and 16th shots attached). Then after the 16th shot there were tons of misreads (crazy side angles) and no reads (where after shot SkyTrak goes to red-green-green for a long time even though unit is levelled, and sometimes even green-green-green w but no laser dot for a long time). This happens for both drivers and irons.

Now sometimes it goes red-yellow-green (which means reconnecting to wifi). Our wifi's been a bit spotty recently and I changed the wifi channel to decrease interference - it seems to have helped initially then unit went bonkers again w bad or misreads. I then tried to change to direct mode but though my iPad connects to the SkyTrak wifi the app for not go past 97% loading?

Now here's a question: I assume a poor wifi connection will result in no reads but will it also cause misreads (i.e., the crazy HLAs and VLAs)?

Any thoughts will be appreciated as I really hope my SkyTrak is not getting senile from old age...

[Morini]

I see no reason for it to be temperamental regardless of age. Crazy random side angle is either wrong height, poor case fit, or you are hitting shots higher or lower than the unit can read.

The only age related issue I can see would be weakening laser curtain. But that usually causes no-reads, not misreads.

With regards to troubleshooting, use direct mode as it is the most reliable. Takes network out of the equation. Not sure why yours does that. Try a different device for now.

Network connection will not cause misreads. Those happen when the imagers don't capture the ball.