My initial testing, pros, cons and what needs changing/ adding in the software

[jonjay]

As a potential customer to purchasing a launch monitor, reading people comments is putting me off SkyTrak. I think I'd rather spend the extra ££ and have good customer support and peace of mind.

[Rcush88]

Bubba, any idea on the price of e6 for skytrak. I see the 1500-2000 tag for flights cope and trackman. I can't imagine it could be that much for a launch monitor that is 1995.00 right?

[Bubba22]

No doubt the Skytrak is accurate. They do need to continue improving the range app and add other decices like pc and android. Why it's taking so long is unknown. Be patient though. In my opinion the only shot that is realistic to real golf for any indoor simulation/launch monitor is the teed shots. Fairway, rough, sand, putting is not what you see in real golf. There is absolutely no mat that will 100% mimic real golf. I personally hate hitting off mats on real ranges. At home however, what is the alternative? Especially when there is 5 feet of snow outside for some of us. It's certainly better than nothing.

As far as sim software goes, it's just an option. Some folks just want a range for practice. Preferably one that can give club stats, averages etc. Most sim software will have this feature. Chipping, putting, rough, sand shots etc. can never mimic real golf. I have been saying this for years. The process of playing is really more for fun but does allow for practice. It's not for everyone but those that do play in general love it, especially live, real time online play. If you have never done it then you wont know.

Skytrak are testing TGC, E6 and Perfect golf. The testing is going well but they have not hinted when it will be available. They are very close in my opinion. I hope they will be updating the range app soon with the great suggestions by all the forum folks. My advice is to hang in there as good things will hopefully come sooner rather than later.

[Wev]

Great report, agree with all of that, pretty much word for word.

[HTTR]

So I am going to give my opinion on a lot of what many of you have written, and let me first say that I am not saying I am correct or anything, but this is my opinion based on my background/expertise.

First, many of the suggestions Wev posted should be fixed and should not take that long, things like the password saving when you click the "save password" checkbox to random stats like practice time to being able to delete shots are very reasonable and minimal tasks, I read above that someone said there friend is an iOS Developer, I am also a developer who has worked with various languages and has worked with various databases, these are very barebones tasks that should have been fixed by now.

In terms of simulation, I will probably buy it and have fun with it, but I think the one thing to consider is if I hit the ball off into the rough, it's hard for me to simulate that with my golf mats, I have a perfect scenario for tee shots, fairway shots, and putting, but I don't have sand or rough in my home setup. But, it will be nice to see certain scenarios like seeing the flag is 40 yards away and the front is 30 yards and back of the green is 45 yards, so I can adjust my swings for various scenarios instead of thinking of it in my head during a range session.

In terms of the SkyTrak product, I enjoy it, I spent a lot of money on it just like y'all, and it really is a beta product and I think most of us knew that, and it seems there is little to no support, I tried talking to some chat support and they don't know much at all about it and last week I asked a question and after 30 minutes I got a response saying they weren't sure and I would have to call.

The SkyTrak range is very beneficial, the fact is it is accurate, other tests with the first-class devices such as Trackman and GC2 have shown it to be accurate, and I have used it on the range in person and it was matching the same path and distances. And so this is why I see the range as a huge selling point, if I go to the driving range, I will see the same things as I do with the SkyTrak for the most part, versus simulation has so many random factors as I posted such as course conditions to surface types that I don't have, it will still be useful, but to have an accurate range at home and able to practice a lot more than just when I have some time to go the range is great. This device is to help your game, make adjustments, and be able to use unlimited balls and know that the data/ball path is correct, and then go out and play the real game on a real course. I hope SkyTrak starts pulling some more updates, but the small adjustments for their data syncing, deleting entries, and all this small things should have been fixed, to people saying they aren't important, they are very simple tasks in terms of development, it's actually embarrassing on their part.

Last I will just say I did not write all of this to bash SkyTrak, but to hopefully give some suggestions, I wouldn't have shelled out thousands of dollars for this device if I didn't want it to succeed, if it doesn't, I won't be getting my money back. I have posted various videos of the device on YouTube and will post more, and hopefully we see some new features ASAP.

[Wev]

I think as far as accuracy goes apparently it's not far off the Flightscope Xi and GC 2, close enough for the current price anyway. But the software has some very primitive issues, which having had programming experience are really not a big deal to sort out. Why on earth does the range view go to 475 yards? Whose idea was this? why are there no dispersion lines?

To be honest I love the product in theory (not sure whether to fully trust it until I do some proper testing) but the app does seem a bit "half baked", which is quite a annoying considering it's been out about 9 month and tested for a lot longer than this.

If they keep improving it they can gain a good market share but if they're not active sorting out the primitive stuff people will certainly hold back.

[aja]

Got to admit that I have not been too keen on SkyTrak simply because of the very poor roll-out and poor customer support as well as limited platform integration (as in no PC interface). And like some of the previous posters, I just don't see very much progress happening. Judging from the number of posts on this site, 80% of the traffic lately has to do with the SkyTrak, and most of it is about issues that should be handled by SkyTrak customer service.

The "early adopters" have been left hanging with a lot of promises and little else. Not a good time to get aboard this ship!

[wilson]

One benefit of app stores are the ability to rapidly iterate. Something like the option to save altitude settings in the range section should have hammered out in a x.1 release very very easily.
The hardware and its performance is one thing, but the software is the ultimate window to its capabilities, and the U.S. Team has been woeful in that regard.

[bionicboogerboy]

Hi guys

Im not so sure that Skytrak is going to put a too much work into their software. To be honest, there is no reason to. Once the integration with E6 comes, most people wont use the Skytrak range. I have E6 and I much prefer that driving range software over Skytraks and I will use the E6 for both play and practice .

[Wev]

I would say they pretty much have to sort it, as most would read this board before purchase? This will certainly effect sales, as it's half the cost of GC2 and flightscope but it's also a beta/half a product at the minute. Thing is the developers know what they're doing and a lot of this can be sorted in a couple of days work(my best mate is an iOS developer). Obv the combine, flight model and sim course would take more time.

[driverdivots]

Not to be a negative nancy, but I don't see any changes like those listed coming anytime soon, unless there has been LOTS of behind the scenes that the public doesn't know about.

SkyTrak is great for what it is, but I just don't see them keeping up with all these promises that have been on this board. We are now in July. Just saying.. To me it almost seems like this is a beta release of a product when in fact it's not. I mean do we even know what the $100 subscription was other than a dozen bridgestone's?

[Wev]

Also I would say 95% of my issues should be fairly simple to sort out (most are probably being worked on), so it would make sense to do these first?

I would say inaccurate simulation could be bad for anyone's game, and you would be less likely to notice this until you had confidence in the systems basics?

[Wev]

Haha, fair enough I see where you're coming from and what I said might have been misconstrued a bit. I couldn't care less about sim courses (at the minute) to be honest though, not while there are such other glaring problems with the product. But it might be fun with the guys in the future. The product needs to walk before it can run and this forum seems to get the best response from SkyTrak and has the most users, which is good, and my reason for joining.

Range simulation and yardage testing (done properly) is what I want and accurate numbers and analysis are what will sell the most units, which is what SkyTrak are aiming at I expect. Most likely buy this product as a cheaper alternative to GC2 as they don't want to be spending another 2k which is what all the simulation stuff is likely to cost?

I'm a member of a course so when I want to play golf I go there (about 5 times a week) The idea is this simulates my swing during home practise so I get better playing real golf. Simulating putting and shots out of the rough on a perfect lie don't make much sense to me(I think it may even make you worse), but that's fine if you all like that I would just prefer more accurate range simulation with real ball data in normal controlled conditions, but it's each to their own, I understand that.

[Bubba22]

I agree Hoosierdaddy. Simulation, gameplay, putting is important. You need to try it and play on the tours.

[Hoosierdaddy]

Most of these should be pretty simple to sort out, and should be more of a priority than sim software and putting etc

Wev, Not sure if you know this or not but you are at www.golfsimulatorforum.com www.ihitintoanetallwinter.com is an entirely different place.

We actually play golf on this site. So with that said NOTHING is more important than accurate simulation.

Nice write up. Just don't agree with the last part. But just hang in there, smiles are just around the corner.