Distance is inaccurate with the woods

[Willymakit]

Just wanted to see if anybody else went to the range and actually tested it with the woods and how accurate it was. And what results they came up with. Well this weekend I did and I can confirm that the woods are definitely short on Skytrak.

Here's my setup on how I did it. Was on the 18th tee box and was a slow day so I tested all the woods. I had a friend stand out by the landing zone and would hit the balls and he would stand where the ball landed. Then I would lazer it from tee box to where he was standing and then lazer again on where it finished. I wrote down all the numbers from the driver , 3wood and 5 wood. And recorded what was shown on Skytrak. I can confirm its at least 20 plus yards out. From what I can tell , for example. If Skytrak would say it landed at 240 yards and rolled 20 yards for a total of 260. But The lazer would say 265 on where it landed and would roll out 20 yards to end up being 285 yards. I did this on all the woods and it seems where the end result of where the ball rolled out on Skytrak would be the distance it would land shot by the lazer on the course So in the end result I sure hope that SkyTrak_Seth reads this and can figure out real quick on a solution to this problem or I'm just going to lose interest and hopefully be able to return it for something more reliable when playing simulator.

So Skytrak I hope you get this rectified ASAP or you will lose a customer.

[bbb287]

I am also seeing the issue with distance carry for woods (i.e. driver) being low. Seems the distance is 20-25 yards short (for my driver), based on my normal swing. Also, I utilize a SwingByte (SB)along with the ST. The SB provides all of the club data and the ST provides the ball info. The SB always shows my driver club speed between 101-104 mph and my distance is between 230-240 carry. The ST is showing a carry of 200 and a club speed (calculated as 90-91)....The ST is also a demo unit and I am using the PC beta, which should have the "new" tweaks....

[luv2golf]

If there is an issue with the distance, is it just the algorithm calculating the distance needs to be tweaked? Or is the issue that the measured data is incorrect with woods? If it's just that the algorithm is calculating distance incorrectly for woods, I don't really care so much. It's not like it's an iron that I want to hit a precise yardage (although an accurate yardage would be helpful to know for forced carries etc). As long as the ball speed, launch angle, back spin and spin axis are correct, it's giving me the data I need to make sure I'm launching the ball efficiently - the distance will be what it will be.

That's a great question Fawley. This is a question for SkyTrak_Seth as he would know best. My GUESS is that it's in the algorithm. Hence the new tweak in version 2.0. They have made tweaks in every version and each time there are some pro's and con's. We shall see when the next version is released.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Thanks for tagging. I addressed.

[HarryG]

How can they only tweak the woods and driver without affecting the irons?

The measured data doesn't know what club you're using, neither does the algorithm. Seth has mentioned before that they are very happy with the algorithm and it has been used for a long time producing very accurate results. I believe the same one is also used by another company.

[Bubba22]

How can they only tweak the woods and driver without affecting the irons?

The measured data doesn't know what club you're using, neither does the algorithm. Seth has mentioned before that they are very happy with the algorithm and it has been used for a long time producing very accurate results. I believe the same one is also used by another company.

They tweak it based on ball speed, launch and direction. I assume no one here hits the ball 150mph with there irons. They just need to increase the distance of those upper ball speeds. For what it's worth, Foresight needed to fo some tweaking of the GC2 also.

[ryanoneill1]

Someone can - http://blog.trackmangolf.com/113-mph...with-a-7-iron/

[SkyTrak_Seth]

It's really based on all the parameters, but yeah...

[luv2golf]

They tweak it based on ball speed, launch and direction. I assume no one here hits the ball 150mph with there irons. They just need to increase the distance of those upper ball speeds. For what it's worth, Foresight needed to fo some tweaking of the GC2 also.

Thanks for your input Bubba22. Nice to hear from someone with LOTS of background in this area.

[Bubba22]

No problem luv2golf. Things are going in the right direction for Skytrak. It's slow and frustrating but going in the right direction.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Couldn't sum it up any better myself...on all accounts

[Warpdave]

I have been following these forums daily for 7 or 8 months. I've owned my SkyTrak for 5 1/2 months. I also know for a fact the Skytrak Is inaccurate on all my long clubs 4i through Driver.
I have not posted about it until now because I've been waiting on the next update to see if that fixed things. I've decided to return my Skytrak since I only have about 15 more days of warranty .

Sigh

[wbond]

Did you happen to keep track of your measurements and compare them to flightscope optimizer? Would be interesting to see what they show and it may tell whether or not it's measuring correctly or if it's an issue with the flight algorithm or possibly a little of both.

Just wanted to see if anybody else went to the range and actually tested it with the woods and how accurate it was. And what results they came up with. Well this weekend I did and I can confirm that the woods are definitely short on Skytrak.

Here's my setup on how I did it. Was on the 18th tee box and was a slow day so I tested all the woods. I had a friend stand out by the landing zone and would hit the balls and he would stand where the ball landed. Then I would lazer it from tee box to where he was standing and then lazer again on where it finished. I wrote down all the numbers from the driver , 3wood and 5 wood. And recorded what was shown on Skytrak. I can confirm its at least 20 plus yards out. From what I can tell , for example. If Skytrak would say it landed at 240 yards and rolled 20 yards for a total of 260. But The lazer would say 265 on where it landed and would roll out 20 yards to end up being 285 yards. I did this on all the woods and it seems where the end result of where the ball rolled out on Skytrak would be the distance it would land shot by the lazer on the course So in the end result I sure hope that SkyTrak_Seth reads this and can figure out real quick on a solution to this problem or I'm just going to lose interest and hopefully be able to return it for something more reliable when playing simulator.

So Skytrak I hope you get this rectified ASAP or you will lose a customer.

[luv2golf]

I have been following these forums daily for 7 or 8 months. I've owned my SkyTrak for 5 1/2 months. I also know for a fact the Skytrak Is inaccurate on all my long clubs 4i through Driver.
I have not posted about it until now because I've been waiting on the next update to see if that fixed things. I've decided to return my Skytrak since I only have about 15 more days of warranty .

Sigh

Good luck returning it with 15 days left on your warranty. I'm pretty sure the return period is 14 days (and probably a restocking fee too).

[Willymakit]

AGAIN, I HATE TYPING IN BOLD AND CAPS, BUT I STATED IN THE BEGINNING OF THE THREAD THAT Guest IS AWARE OF THIS ISSUE AND THERE'S A TWEAK IN VERSION 2.0. THAT'S WHAT HE'S STATED IN ANOTHER THREAD.

THIS IS GETTING REALLY BORING BEATING A DEAD HORSE HERE. IF YOU WANT TO FIND THE THREAD DO A SEARCH AND FIND IT, IT'S THERE.

Your right we are beating a dead horse. But Skytrak been out for a year and they still haven't retify the problem. And we keep hearing since January that we would be playing simulator golf also. Lots of broken promises Just a frustrated and only had it for two weeks.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

We've rectified a ton of problems. First it was wedge distances, then it was mid irons distances. Constantly fine-tuning. Now we have made adjustments for driver and also for club speed with shorter irons. A ball flight model is extremely complicated, and sometimes issues are only issues after it's been tested in the field.

[Willymakit]

if you have 10 grand to drop on something why you keep buying entry level Optishot and ST ?

Your right I should have went with the gc2. I just about pulled the trigger on it. But kept hearing how accurate Skytrak was. Like I said. They have until end of October and the Skytrak will be gone if they don't have it rectified.

[Warpdave]

Good luck returning it with 15 days left on your warranty. I'm pretty sure the return period is 14 days (and probably a restocking fee too).

No luck needed, as I'm returning a defective unit under warranty. I can only hope that the unit they ship back works as promised . Others on these forums and elsewhere seem to have accurate Skytrak units, and that's all I want.

[FaultyClubs]

The GC2 specs are 5x times better than the Skytrak. It's a better box with several years head start. The Skytrak will probably have growing pains for sometime still. Skytrak specs are decent but if you don't mind spending 10 grand your life will probably be simpler switching even now to the GC2. It exists now and is proven. But remember they don't follow the ball to the end so are always assuming some flight characteristics, no ball matches up perfectly! And then there are the environmental factors...more than just altitude and temperature....even a dead calm day has thermoclines for example.

[Wev]

I am also seeing the issue with distance carry for woods (i.e. driver) being low. Seems the distance is 20-25 yards short (for my driver), based on my normal swing. Also, I utilize a SwingByte (SB)along with the ST. The SB provides all of the club data and the ST provides the ball info. The SB always shows my driver club speed between 101-104 mph and my distance is between 230-240 carry. The ST is showing a carry of 200 and a club speed (calculated as 90-91)....The ST is also a demo unit and I am using the PC beta, which should have the "new" tweaks....

Swingbyte is only measuring your clubhead speed (not taking strike into account), Skytrack calculates this backwards form ballspeed, launch angle and other info (which is pointless attempting to calculate in my opinion).

If you hit the middle of the club face (or ideal COG point) with a 100mph swing, optimal launch and a high smash factor of 1.45 (145mph ball speed) you can get a 240 yard carry. You can also swing 100mph, miss the centre of the face and get a 1.3 smash factor (130mph ball speed) and get a 205 carry.

I'm not sure where you're using ST but it's possible your best drives do go near the distance you expect on course but back home on ST (especially with an unbalanced shaft form the swingbyte) it's possible your launch won't be optimum or your swing may be different from swinging in a restricted environment, especially with the longer clubs. Strike suffers for everyone compared with the pro's, and it's more so the longer the shaft is and with decreased loft on the club.

The only way you could get a true test is to have an exact same set-up, using swingbyte also and have somebody physically monitor your carry length by standing down range and check it v the SkyTrack.

I imagine SkyTrack will have done the physical carry test from where the ball lands compared to what the ST says, would be interesting to see somebody independent do a test outdoors.

I check my strike on the club head on every shot by marking the ball using a sharpie/ white board marker and see where the mark transfers onto the ball. If you're not hitting centre you can put that calculated club speed from ST and estimated distance from the swingbyte in the bin, as it's not worth anything.

[Willymakit]

So couple of other things I wanted to mention.

With the beta version coming out on the computer. Wasn't that the updated version already that's suppose to have the issues dealt with the woods. And secondly. Didn't some guys have issues with the distances with the demo units. Mines not a demo but I remembering one guy saying that right away he noticed the distances were not accurate. Now I can't remember if that was for irons or woods or both. But he said once he received another one he had no problems with it.