Skytrak Satisfaction

[JJI1981]

Simple question for a prospective purchaser here. On a scale of 1-10, please rate your experience with the Skytrak Range feature concerning:

1. Accuracy in terms of distance, spin and ability to capture each and every shot.
2. Ease of use in wirelessly broadcasting results onto ipad

[allen2be]

1. 9/10
2. 10/10

[tlrcash]

1. 7/10 - After moving to a GC2, I learned that the misses with my driver are extremely low spin. SkyTrak bottoms out at about 2000 rpm, so I wasn’t getting accurate ball flight for those misses. In TGC sim play, I had a hell of a time getting my SkyTrak to read chips under 5 yards. I never bothered hitting those from the SkyTrak range, though.
2. 10/10 - I used an iPhone, but the connectivity is the same. It worked flawlessly.

[Morini]

I believe it is 2024 to be exact ... they are looking into it, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Unless you have very high ball speed, you aren't losing much distance (and basically are sending a knuckle ball). If you have high ball speed, then yes, getting spin to read sub 2K would be very nice.

[SHAWSHANK GOLF]

Capture every shot 6/10
Distance and spin 9/10
Correct ball flight due to spin 7/10 this is my opinion no concrete proof but I feel it over cooks the draw
Connection 7/10 in beginning now 9.5/10 I use PC mainly but have linked to both iphone and ipad
Nothing is frustration free but it has helped my game improve quickly and very conveniantly but no real sim play just mid iron down practice for real life golf. Sim is next step for winter.

[Morini]

Did you update to the Skytrak range version that accounts for spin decay? With that fixed, Skytrak ball flight model is right up there. They all come in fairly close, but have slight differences at extremes (flightscope, TM4, TGC2019, Skytrak etc)

[JJI1981]

Interesting so only 6/10 in terms of capturing every shot. That’s not terribly high.

[Morini]

This is silly. What exactly does 6/10 mean. Define it. When Gungho golf put a survey in the facebook group, around 99% of users were happy with it.

In any case, I estimate that a properly set-up skytrak (which is not hard to do) will get about 98% read rate. It does struggle with shots above 50 degrees VLA, and for very short shots that carry less than 5 yards.

[jpinkardvt]

It captures near 100% of shots I hit with anything less than 56 degree loft. High shots around the green and irons that are thinned super low almost never get picked up first try.

I hover around a 1 and know my carry distances well and the SkyTrak is within 5 yards of my guess on any shot I hit just from feel. I do occasionally see a ball cut or hook more than I feel it would have, but never turns the opposite direction.

[SHAWSHANK GOLF]

It captures more than 60% but when you grade on a curve for frustration when it misses your perfect flushed shot it pisses me off

Look at distance thread I posted it reads 127 yards on 8 iron and my garmin watch tells me i hit my last 8 iron 142 IRL I do have to wonder. There is a link that shows Skytrak is real close to Bushnell but focus on off line readings.

I don't know how to set mine up any better than zero tilt and roll,new premium ball and my hitting sirface was a piece of thin putting turf direct on carpet. I am going to try again with a CCE type mat but I am not a believer yet but it is still a valuable piece of practice equip. The range isn't exactly the same as the course IRL so this can still be a good tool. Short irons and wedges have dialed in well on skytrak, shorter seems to be more accurate.
This is on YouTube with name of poster

[Mirek_62]

Does your Garmin watch show carry distance?

[jpotas]

I have seen that video before. The units are amazingly close to each others readings. Carry distance, launch angle, spin numbers....etc.

In the comments he is asked about using the chipping method for aligning verses using the two alignment lasers. He does not, and it is a known issue that using the lasers is not the most accurate method for setting up alignment.

He does say that he used the Skytrak for about 5 years, only switched to get club data. It really proves how good Skytak is, especially at it's price when compared to much more expensive units. The video link is attached for curious folks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZWIstNz7kQ

[Morini]

1. Skytrak auto-corrects for up to 5 degrees, so don't worry too much about tilt and roll.
2. It is accurate on average (but not shot to shot, as about 15% have minor misreads, and a small percentage obvious misreads, the rest bang on)
3. Hit off a short tee to rule out club-mat interaction as an issue. The ball data has clues if you look at the numbers critically.

[jpotas]

I do not have an I-pad so I can't answer to that but I am shocked at the low numbers for captured shots posted here. I get maybe 2 or 3 out of a 100 that don't register or misread. If the numbers were truly 60-80 percent Skytrak would be out of business!! Setup is the key, over the last 3 years probably 99.9% of the posts I have read regarding missed shots and mis reads has been resolved due to setup.

Look up Gung Ho Golf, he sells multiple types of units and everything else related to golf sims and he has lots of really good article to read and lots of other great info.

Look online, there are countless videos showing launch monitors being compared side by side, they are all very accurate and read very close to each other.

[tlrcash]

To clarify, the ratings are “satisfaction” with the accuracy, not the actual rate SkyTrak captures shots.

[jpotas]

I understand. I know my distances very well, normally shoot low 80s per round. I would rate my Skytrak a 10 out of 10 for carry distances. The difference between Skytrak, GC, Flightscope.....etc are normally a yard or two in side by side comparisons. Check YouTube, more videos and info there than you can probably digest!! a98cr125 from this forum has tons of videos, many with head to head comparisons.

[JJI1981]

I asked to rate on the ability to capture each and every shot in my initial post. Thank you for your comments nonetheless.

[JJI1981]

Well now that you bring it up, what is the 1-10 rating for actually capturing the strike ?

[tlrcash]

9/10 - the only things that I ever had a problem with were the short chips and putts needed for course play. For the shots I would practice on the range, 10/10.

[JJI1981]

10/10 - ok nice.

[wbond]

Keep in mind, you may not want to put a lot of weight on any comment about not meeting IRL distances. Most people have no clue how far they actually carry the ball and then they use irrelevant data or methods to compare what they believe to this device. Go ask any fitter what percentage of people actually come close to how far they say they hit the ball and what the fitter actually sees. Couple that with the fact that many are swinging inside their own home/building for the first time and in a much smaller setting than what they do outside and they absolutely refuse to believe that it has any impact. Ball speed doesn't lie and this machine reads it quite accurately.

[JJI1981]

Very good points, wbond. My main "issues" with skytrak when I have used it were (1) balls going much further (not shorter) than real life with mid irons, and (2) completely missed shots. But, as some have pointed out, this could be user error. The gentleman who has let me use it likely did not go through the painstaking troubleshoots and recalibrations that some have suggested.

[wbond]

1-If they are going too far, then it's almost certainly a spin issue vs just ball speed difference and then you need to find out why. Can be mat related, fiberbuit for instance, catching it higher on face, maintaining most of the ball speed but significantly reducing spin and leading to longer carry. BS, Spin and LA is what needs to be looked at.
2-If you waggle at all near the sensor it may false trigger and you must wait until the unit resets and is ready again for a shot. I've seen multiple friends cause this. If the laser dot is at the base of the ball, it's difficult to see it go off and you might not notice it.

[JJI1981]

It was using a CCE mat when this problem occurred. Is there anything on the ST unit itself that could be adjusted to monitor spin levels? Or are you saying this is either due to the mat, or the type of ball (or type of club potentially).

[Morini]

Yes, low spin. Check the ball data as wbond suggests, and hit a few off a short tee to confirm.
If you have high ball speed, there is a bug that I have posted about that halves or quarters spin for 120+ ball speed shots that have around 20 degree VLA (typically 7 iron). If you watch the TXG Skytrak episode, you will see this bug in action. No clue what is causing it, but it only happens for this specific combination. Either a blind spot in the sensors/strobe, or a flaw in the image engine in the software side.

[CAPDAK]

Interesting so only 6/10 in terms of capturing every shot. That’s not terribly high.

I wouldn’t take one person’s comment as gospel. I’ve had my skytrak for 5 years and missed shots have been extremely rare for me. If someone is only getting 6 out of 10, there is likely some other issue going on.

[HappyGilmore102]

Hi everyone

I agree with CAPDAK, but for the money, you can't go wrong with either Skytrak or Mevo plus, they all have pro's and con's.

If you're worried about miss reads then just wait for the uneekor eye mini, should be out soon.

[SHAWSHANK GOLF]

SATISFACTION not 6 out of 10 misreads !!!!

I agree a $2k unit isn't going to be perfect and I did mention it measures very close to Bushnell, this is my personal satisfaction/frustration rating. I would think a unit would read every shot and maybe get spin or carry a little wrong for it being an inexpensive unit in the launch monitor world but I would think capturing the ball being hit would be the easiest task it need to perform, figuring out what the ball does is where I would expect inconsistancies to show not seeing a motionless ball get hit.

Can we agree to disagree on my personal satisfaction rating of not reading swings?

To the question about my Garmin reading carry distance or total, most of my 8 iron type shots are 1 maybe 2 yards from ball mark foreward or back so I am pretty sure that won't make up the distance difference.

Did I mention OP asked satisfaction not actual % ??

Does it say somewhere about height matching unit to hitting surface, do I match the true bottom of the unit to hitting surface or is there another spot on unit to match?

I hit about 50 shots last night, had at least 3 or 4 no reads. Alignment good, tilt and roll 0* just need to get height match measured at right spot but it was close I pulled out a tape measure so it was within 1/2" max. I was hitting off a CCE type mat this time, very firm and thick mat weighs 50lbs for 5x5

I don't think carry vs total yards is a factor for me in this discussion.

Oh and unit is just over 2 mos old, hitting in living room with 4 soft white flood lights almost 20' above in ceiling.

2021 P790 9i TP5 pix ball used for 3 sessions. Figured a pix ball would be easy to have logo towards unit

[jpotas]

A 1/2" is to much. See my earlier post regarding the Skytrak performance. I would call the performance about as good as you could possibly expect, my Skytrak is dead level with my hitting surface, the bottom of the Skytrak and not the bottom of the case. I have a wood base built adjacent to my stance pad, a level ran across my stance pad and hitting area is maybe 1/32" above the wood base. The case on the Skytrack has the legs removed and installed upside down so they do not raise the case at all.

My hitting strip is a CCE.

Also, for alignment purposes, do not use the built in laser. It is much more accurate to hit small chip shot at the center line of the driving range and then keep turning the Skytrak until the chips shots are displaying correctly. See the Gungho link for the best alignment method.

https://gunghogolf.com/articles/how-to-align-your-skytrak

[Morini]

It is very simple. The dot is a just a compromise for a suggested height that would be best for capturing the largest range of shots. You can do better by placing woods back (away from screen), and wedges forward. If after that, one of the two has no reads, then you need to lower (woods not reading) or raise (wedges not reading). Tilt and roll won't matter match.

[RAH5]

9/10 or 10/10.

I rarely get missed or no reads.

It seems accurate to me.

It even picks up very short chips and putts. I’ve taken to now putting out on TGC.

Maybe dock it a point for not having club data as an optional add on. But for what it does I think it’s great and I have no real issues.

[SHAWSHANK GOLF]

I have no issue with alignment or chips. Agree it would be great to have some club data add on and that is one reason I have a BLP in a box waiting to be opened. I also like the additional info on side of range with Foresight, we don't need quite as much width of screen on range if you hit it bad enough to go off screen what exactly would a wider screen do for you its not like you need to go and find the ball.
It is a great tool and has helped my game a lot, I spend most of my time under 100yds on the random distance greens shots. That has provided me with some great info and real course confidence.
My close to pin high range is great my offline still needs work. Second thing it showed me is 25% to 50% shots I leave out to the right on average shots over 75% swing start to increase my draw so I know to aim a little left on gentle shots and more right on full shots. This has also showed me I should be hitting 80% shots on average unless something requires me to swing full like short pin over green side bunker on left side of green would tick all the full shot boxes.

My rating is frustration based and do believe for the money it is an awesome tool but you are only $1500 away from the next level or $1k for refurb which in the overall cost of these sims that is a minimal difference.

Screen is random green 25-100 so it can help you see trends and make your approach shots better, I pit my info in SkyGolf 360 which comes with Skytrak and my approach shots are better than peer average and that is exactly what I have been using the Skytrak for until I figure out more room and go to a full sim setup.

I do not have an alignment issue, only issue I have is missed shots so I will work on level matching hitting surface with botton of unit not metal cae and hope.

Next question since we are addressing matching level of hitting surface to base of unit, how can I ever use a tee with Skytrak??? I will no longer be level whenever I use a tee so with that in mind can we say the issue is really the less than 1/2" difference in surface to base.