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I haven't had any problems with my skytrak performance, but yesterday I hit for awhile and it was cooler in my room where I hit. Around 45* and I was noticing 8-10 mph lower ball speeds than usual on it with driver. Can cooler temps affect the camera performance?
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I play in my garage in Canada and have been feeling the same thing since I got my unit. Even when I warm the golf balls, it still isn't nearly as good as heating everything up significantly. -
What kind of differences do you see? Just ball speed or spin and launch too? I am planning to eliminate variables and test this myself but its always nice to not have to do that if someone already has.Comment
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Were you wearing the same amount of clothing? Layers make a huge difference is swing speed.Comment
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I always wear a light t-shirt in the garage, I can't swing with layers on. I also keep golf balls warm in my pocket and use a couple different accelerometer type devices to verify I am not any slower than usual. I check contact with club etc. Given all of this, I have noticed when its colder (below 50 degrees F), I have a much harder time getting ball speeds I have achieved when above that temp. I will go about this more scientifically soon, but since I saw this thread I thought I would see if anyone has already done this leg work. Thanks for the responses so far.Comment
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Takes a long long time to heat up the CORE of a golf ball with it in your pocket. I keep a bunch of balls inside to bring out for this reason.
Also takes a while for said warm golf balls to cool down the core, so this works.Comment
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This is an interesting thread. Fortunately, it does not get too damn cold here in northwest Florida, but we do have some cold days, and I use my SkyTrak out in the garage. I also have a Voice Caddie that I normally have set up while I am using my SkyTrak, and I have never seen a huge difference between the numbers on my SkyTrak and the numbers on my Voice Caddie.
It would be interesting is someone had another device to measure against the SkyTrak in a really cold environment.Comment
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I know that Foresight recommends an amount of time to let the camera's warm up prior to doing the calibration process.
I think it's more of internal system checks rather than actual temperature driven, but I don't know for sure.Comment
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Unless someone comes forward having already tested this, I will have to do it myself. I have not recieved a satsifactory technical answer from Skytrak yet so I will divise a little experiment that will hopefully determine this for those of us that hit in colder garages and such. I will try and eliminate ball and club variables and colds effect on body to determine this. Any suggestions as to best way to test this would be appreciated.Comment
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Clevited - Below is a study I pulled off the web last year showing carry distance (left) from the same club at different temps (right). The drop off in ball speed you saw (170mph -> 160mph) when the temp dropped from 50 degrees to 35 degrees exactly mirrors the results of this study. And going from 75 degrees to 35 creates more than a 10% drop. Also consider cold shafts might impact performance if they sit in the garage all night (not sure, just guessing).
226 -------105
224 ------- 95
222 ------- 85
220 ------- 75
216 ------- 65
214 ------- 55
205 ------- 45
196 ------- 35
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Interesting thank you. Do you have a link as well? I would like to read it.
To clarify some more of my experience, i thoroughly warmed the golf balls with my body heat (in my pocket) before even hitting them. Nothing hurts worse than 30 degree provs. There are some variables I would like to eliminate.
One, golf club drop in temp. It was kept inside before hitting, but by the time I warmed up, the club could have cooled down possibly causing some ball speed change.
Second, while I could not see any cracks in the balls, they very well could have been compromised internally without me knowing. I will use brand new balls.
Third, my swing speed can vary a lot as I am still working on my mechanics, so I will have all three of my devices on me when I test again. Swing speed radar, medicus power meter, and zepp. They all can give inflated numbers but I know what they read compared to trackman sessions and they agree very well. Therefore I will know if I am swinging well in my garage or not if I am hitting my numbers.
Last, I clean my club face before each hit and look at each strike location along with swing speed, ball speed and spin to determine if numbers make sense.
This "numbers make sense" thing, is my current issue when hitting in cold garage. I will hopefully test soon.
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Definitely could also be an internal crack in the ball. I notice a bit drop off shortly before the crack becomes visible on the outside. New balls are a great idea for your testing. The other thing I notice when playing with my friends is that my CCC turf penalizes at least 10 yards if you don't strike it perfectly cleanly. My friends are a bit less consistent and tend to come up short when they hit it slightly fat. May not be an issue for you but just another thing to watch for.Comment
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The carry numbers I quoted were an excerpt from the PGA Teaching Manual, but it looks like that was 2011. A quick google found more recent numbers from Titleist here that are not quite as dramatic, but with your ball speed at 170mph (holy crap!) who knows. Also might want to check your SkyTrak temperature, altitude, and humidity settings which also impact results. Haven't studied that but would be interested in your results. Out of curiosity, how far does a 170 mph drive go? I might hit 275 yards with <150 mph.
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Thank you I will check that out. I also did a non official test tonight. Unfortunately, I didnt feel quite so strong or quick tonight but I got some good numbers. I warmed up, then brought skytrak and fresh ball out. Hit a bunch, best drives were 160-165 ball speed. Left skytrak in garage, brought inside my club and ball. Waited 30 minutes and did it again. Couldn't hit one over 160 no matter what.Originally posted by Mark72 View Post
This is not enough difference for me to be able to say anything is going on. Last time, I had left the Skytrak in cold garage for over an hour and that was when I had the odd numbers. Id catch one great with a really fuid fast swing and bam, 155 or 160. Day before, 166-175 were my best ones and it was considerably warmer in the garage.
I have only changed the environment settings to an ideal summer day 70 degrees 70 percent humidity along with my elevation (1450 ft). If I change temp and humidity settings to match my garage it won't change anything but carry distance or am I wrong?
Ball speed of 170-173 with 2000-2500ish spin and 14-16 degree launch carried 305-310 pretty consistently. Pretty close to what I see on the course when I catch a good one. I'm pleased with that. Love my old R9 Superdeep!
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Ha, I am not very consistent so I am sure many on here would beat me badly. Only have a quickish swing because I hit 100s of balls year round. Still doing the trial and error to find my ideal swing.Comment
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Correct - temp, humidity, and altitude only affect carry, not the data measured by SkyTrak (ball mph, spin, angles). Temp, humidity, and alt don't apply to solving your cold vs. warm question, just the overall seemingly low distances some have observed with SkyTrak. I would suggest not setting SkyTrak to match your garage but rather your normal playing conditions so you can get more accurate carry distances.Comment
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