How to solve the unpredictable automatic ghost shooting problem?

[David Shen]

My question is: How to solve the unpredictable automatic ghost shot problem?

When I play TGC 2019 with Skytrak, I almost get one or more unpredictable automatic ghost shootings for each round. That means I just put a ball on the red laser point and then put my club behind the ball, before I start shooting, the machine will just play a ghost shooting automatically. Normally, the ghost shooting distance is quite short, just few yards.

Anyone can help? Thanks in advanced.

[dborden0]

This is super frustrating. I get it a lot too. One thing is don't wear white shoes and nothing white or shiny in the background. This reduces it for me, but doesn't fix it. It's infuriating when playing a tournament.

[David Shen]

Yes, it's super frustrating when playing a tournament. There is no mulligan chance in tournament. My golf shoes is in black, but my background wall is in cream yellow color. I try to cover that region with a dark cloth.

[Morini]

My understanding is that this is a TGC2019 issue, not a Skytrak one. There is no way Skytrak would trigger a false shot. It would have to trigger the laser curtain, and then identify a ball in each image. Zero chance of that happening, white shoes or not.

If you google TGC2019 and "ghost" or "phantom" shots you will see that this has been happening all the way back to the original TGC. Protee was asking users to send in reports at one point. I don't know if it was ever resolved, and the cause identified, but the number of anecdotes in recent years is way down.

[Håkan]

Hi,
I have the same problem with Mevo plus.
Its super frustrating when I have an nice score in an tournament and the ball just disappears in wrong direction.
Especial when the distance are 2 meter and the putter sends it ghosting automatically 30 meters off the green. .
I hope a solution is in near future.
Br Håkan

[David Shen]

My understanding is that this is a TGC2019 issue, not a Skytrak one. There is no way Skytrak would trigger a false shot. It would have to trigger the laser curtain, and then identify a ball in each image. Zero chance of that happening, white shoes or not.

If you google TGC2019 and "ghost" or "phantom" shots you will see that this has been happening all the way back to the original TGC. Protee was asking users to send in reports at one point. I don't know if it was ever resolved, and the cause identified, but the number of anecdotes in recent years is way down.

Morini In fact, I am also suspecting that it's the problem of TGC2019. Since I play on skytrak's own practice range, there's never been a ghost shot.

[dborden0]

Whenever this happens to me, I do notice the red laser turns off for a bit and when it turns back on I get the errant shot. Maybe it is an issue with the API connect/disconnects.

[Morini]

Yes, I searched some older posts, and I think you are right. With the original TGC there was a skytrak specific API issue that was fixed (it also resulted in abnormally low spin being passed onto TGC).

But it also happens in other LMs, presumably for similar reasons. But it is definitely not Skytrak reading a phantom shot due to shoes etc, as that has never happened (to my knowledge) in Skytrak range.

The strange thing is why it happens to some users and not others. Maybe David should re-install the interface. I find the Protee beta interface better than the Rapsodo one.

[dborden0]

Morini - Does the Protee beta interface work with the Skytrak? Where do you get it?

[Morini]

I honestly don't remember. It popped up as a suggested update I think.

[David Shen]

Morini Thank you for your suggestion, Where do you get it?

[dborden0]

Does that work for Skytrak? My license key doesn't work with it.

[David Shen]

@dborden0 the link I found seem not work for me.

[David Shen]

From yesterday, I turned off my anti-virus software, and see if there is an improvement next.

[dborden0]

What anti virus are you running?

[David Shen]

A free software, the name is 360.

[David Shen]

Today, I played two rounds. No ghost shot.

[David Shen]

After I turned off the anti-virus software, the ghost shot happed again.

Today I turned on the antivirus software. Then I made the following improvements:
1. Scout first and then put the ball on the red laser point then swing.
2. If the TGC19 shows a wedge clubs when I am about to approach the green beyond 30-40 yards, I will change it to 5 iron.
So far, I have played 2 rounds, and there is no ghost shot. I will test further days.

Both points of improvement today are theoretically based.

1. The Skytrak relies on the camera to watch the ball. If you put the ball in place, it will enter a state of tension and is always ready to launch the ball. So I put the ball after the scouting so it can get into the state of tension later.
2. The sensitivity of Skytrak is related to your clubs or the distance. When you choose wedge, it becomes very sensitive. If your club move a little, it thinks you might be playing. And when you choose driver, 3 wood or long iron, it will not be particularly sensitive. Most of my past ghost shots happened on various wedges, and the driver and long iron rarely had ghost shots. So, when TGC19 chose wedge for me, Skytrak also entered the super sensitive mode, I used this method to keep Skytrak from being too sensitive. But when chipping around the green, it can't be changed to a 5 iron, because at this point, I need it to be more sensitive, and it's possible that sometimes I need to chip 2-3 yards.

I'm just sharing the results of my research. I will continue to tell you what happened next.

[Morini]

You have done some hard work investigating this.

But I really don't think it works that way. The Skytrak does not use a camera to watch a ball. The ball crossing the laser curtain is used to send timing info to the internal strobes. The ball placement dot means that the unit is awaiting a shot. That is all there is to it. There really are only two shot types that need to be set as far as the unit is concerned., regular shots and putts. Putts are a bit different, but for all other shots, the unit is not expecting anything. It just reads what it sees.

Setting the club does nothing (except putter).

This is an API issue of some sort. The Skytrak is 100% not detecting a shot and passing it on. Way to many checks and balances for that to happen. There are never phantom shots in Skytrak range.

[Adam Prince]

This seems like an obvious one, but don’t “roll” the ball into place with any speed, all of my ghost shots happen when I get lazy and hastily rake a ball into the red laser area. Damn camera picks it up and bam, a crappy 2y shot.

[David Shen]

Morini Hi Morini, I can see that you are an expert on this forum. I would like to share you a video, that taken by me, this video is in Chinese. But I believe you can understand what I am doing in this video. The video's title is "skytrak+TGC sensitivity test to see what the shortest distance can be read.".

I built a special range, the distance from the tee to hole is less 1 feet. That makes the skytrak very very sensitive. You can chip 1 yard (3 feet) even less, and skytrak can read it very well. The course name is "David Range V3". (If you want to play this course, you MUST set the gimme rule to "no gimmes". Otherwise, one shot will finish the game.) Only my range can let Skytrak read the short chipping, other ranges are difficult to read the chipping within 10 yards. I found this that the sensitivity of the skytrak is based on the distance to the hole. More closer to the hole, more sensitive the skytrak becomes. And I found a lot of ghost shot happened when I use wedges.

One more interesting thing about my range, you may not believe. The skytrak does not read any shot beyond 60 yards in my range. Only short shot within 60 yards can be read in my range. 😃 Other courses are just the opposite, they read shots above 10 yards very well, but it is difficult to read shots within 10 yards.

I tell you this just let you know why I want to change wedge to 5 iron when hitting short distance. Short distance makes Skytrak more sensitive, and more chance to create a ghost shot.