Golf Simulator Forum wants your opinions about the SkyTrak to be heard!

[lazyjack]

Very pleased with my SkyTrak. As I also use GameGolf I know my distances out on the course and the SkyTrak is very accurate. Using it on a quite powerful PC I have no delay to complain about. It picks up every shot and I have none of the problems that some on here have.
What does bug me, and it is the same on most launch monitors, is the averaging of the "off line" data in the shot history. Twenty yards left and twenty yards right and it tells you your average is zero!! This is such an important statistic, surely it is not difficult to use the absolute number and give a meaningful average. From what I see SkyTrak are improving the product all the time so perhaps they will start using absolute figures or even standard deviation in the shot history. Would it matter if they used absolute figures for all the averages in the shot history? I would prefer that.

[Timanator]

New to Skytrak, I get to use the FlightScope at the range. So far a few things I have noticed is that on Flightscope for short shots(30-90) the spin is pretty consistent off a mat, but it varies alot on the Skytrak. Also the short distance chip distance are off as well. 30 yard shots at targets are consistently shorter by 5-10 yards on Skytrak, and I'm referring to carry only.

Other than that, it's a very good product, great software and very easy to setup and use. Especially when you get to escape the Texas heat.

[BCAV]

I'm ok with the Skytrak.

The range and target practice at distances are great.

Would love to able to practice on par 3s without chipping and putting. Please give us a switch to turn off chipping and putting on par 3s.

Pin placements would be a huge bonus to practice cuts and draws as well.

Most sims are not for short game so please consider. I bet everyone would love it !

Thanks !

[KerrHughes]

I'm ok with the Skytrak.

The range and target practice at distances are great.

Would love to able to practice on par 3s without chipping and putting. Please give us a switch to turn off chipping and putting on par 3s.

Pin placements would be a huge bonus to practice cuts and draws as well.

Most sims are not for short game so please consider. I bet everyone would love it !

Thanks !

Skytrak don't control what sim partners feature.

[RBx]

If I knew about SkyTrak earlier, I would have given thought to raising money and buying them out and out, The unit has great technology for its price point. But they are missing a huge opportunity, The software and connectivity support are absolutely atrocious for a PC. It has taken me months to get it to work somewhat reliably with TGC and that is with the help of a recently graduated Computer Engineering major that is now in grad school. Andm to get the TGC side working, the regular SkyTrak practice mode won't load.

Now think about it. How many golfers are Mac vs PC? How many corporations are Mac vs PC?

How many in Salesmen across the United States could use this technology? Corporate Laptop, big screen TV, return net, and a mat. $4K tops

I've got three satellite offices that I would put it in tomorrow if they had software developers that were as good as the unit developers.

The software team deserves a great big COME ON MAN?!?


RBx

[Martin Hastie]

Hi, I have just bought a few SkyTraks for myself and a couple of Students of mine for home use. I unpacked mine and it was so easy to use. After ready a lot of reviews on this forum I went for Skytrak mainly because of pricepoint. But I am really surprised at Accuracy how much fun it is and as a training aid , it really will help you dial in the distances for the shorter shots.
I have worked with flughtscope and Trackman extensively and my numbers are spot on. I use a voice caddie with my SkyTrak at home and those numbers correlate too pretty much. I do get the odd read g and a no reading sometimes but i got that with Trackman too.
On the whole for the price SkyTrak is a brilliant piece of kit. With Club Data coming it can only get better.
Just wanted to add my thoughts as I think there is a lot of unnecessary bashing of this unit on this site. I wanted to give my honest unabashed thoughts too.

[mdniBruce]

I don't have mine yet, so I can't give actual feedback on the unit. I did want to say that I'm impressed with Seth's involvement with this forum, and his willingness to take feedback and try to do something positive with that. I'll actually post some thoughts once I've had the unit for a while, just wanted to mention how important that is, and that it made a massive difference in my decision to choose SkyTrak.

[Kysterman]

I have owed my skytrak for a few weeks now. For the price point you cannot beat it to get your feet wet in the vast sea of simulated golf. I have had a few hiccups getting it set up but now things are working without any problems. So far I have had nothing but good experiences with customer service. The online chat with Skygolf has been a huge help in my buying and set up experience. if anything changes I will update. But as on now I am very happy and pleased with my purchase.

[HappyGilmore102]

Like everyone else, Skytrak is the best golf gadget i've ever bought.

I use it outside with zero issues, this could be due to the fact that i live in Ireland and the sky is always dull and grey.

Wish Skytrak was Showerproof, doesnt have to be waterproof.

Make sure you don't use anything WHITE, like NO

WHITE TEES
NO PUTTERS WITH WHITE INSERTS etc

white seams to confuse the system when it's trying to catch the white golf ball. Still works, but readings a little off.

I have the BEST Skytrak on the Planet, zero issues, touch wood!


If you can, go buy one.

[scottiedawg66]

after having my skytrak up and running for about a month I really like it and am excited to take the plunge on the next phase of my SIM build in buying TGC, a PC to run it and a projector. I have found the system to be accurate. Of course there are the occasional mis read, but given what a launch monitor does I was expecting that. It will be fun to see if my real world game improves after practicing so much more from the comfort of my garage.

[wjf67]

I think that it would help if there was a boost button for using limited flight golf balls. It would widen the appeal, and make it safer when letting the kids play. Is this a possible update?

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Yes, that is on the list.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

If I knew about SkyTrak earlier, I would have given thought to raising money and buying them out and out, The unit has great technology for its price point. But they are missing a huge opportunity, The software and connectivity support are absolutely atrocious for a PC. It has taken me months to get it to work somewhat reliably with TGC and that is with the help of a recently graduated Computer Engineering major that is now in grad school. Andm to get the TGC side working, the regular SkyTrak practice mode won't load.

Now think about it. How many golfers are Mac vs PC? How many corporations are Mac vs PC?

How many in Salesmen across the United States could use this technology? Corporate Laptop, big screen TV, return net, and a mat. $4K tops

I've got three satellite offices that I would put it in tomorrow if they had software developers that were as good as the unit developers.

The software team deserves a great big COME ON MAN?!?


RBx

I lead the SkyTrak software development team. Can you tell me exactly what problem you are having with connectivity? All we do on our side is handle what the box sends us, so we don't have any control over connectivity - it is all handled via the hardware SDK. The hardware team also developed the integration and interface to TGC, so I'm not sure how the SkyTrak unit working with TGC has anything to do with our software team. Are you trying to run TGC and the SkyTrak app at the same time? That is not possible because even though the SDK can run several instances, it can only be connected to a unit in one of those instances. Finally, I do feel your pain, but the hardware team has emphatically stated that they will not be developing a Mac SDK, so we are out of luck there. I'm very proud of our software development team - they are an extremely talented group of developers, and I take exception with some misguided frustrations. Though, I strongly welcome and encourage feedback on on our application where I can make a difference.

[Jon]

seth-
good to know that you head up the software team. I have a couple notes on the ST range app in areas that I'd love to see improved upon.
1. resolution-
The range in the ST app is very low res. In todays's age of uhd, 4k, 8k, ps4 pro and xbox one s, it is almost unheard of to find a game or simulation that is so incredibly low res. I'm glad the approach to the ST app has been to make it a utility and not a game, but their is no reason it can't look better and more realistic.
2.The greens-
The greens are defined by a 2 dimensional shape placed in 3 dimensional space. There are no slopes or tabletop greens. Often, despite the ball com ing to rest outside the green's perimeter, it still registers as a hit. I've also seen balls come to a rest within the green that register as a miss.
3. ball action-
When a ball lands on the green with an appropriate amount of spin, the ST app shows the ball's landing location and then it immediately spins back a couple yards or however much spin is recorded by the ST sensors. This isn't realistic. A golf ball lands and bounces forward, then spins back.
4. distances-
This may or may not be an issue for software development. I've seen posts citing the spin rate deceleration algorithm as the cause of the discrepancies between distances using a trackman or gc2 and the distances with a ST. I have no idea what causes the shorter distances. All I know is that with the shortest clubs, the difference is the smallest and with the longest clubs, the difference is the largest. I've read articles that make the case that the difference between the ST and the pro LMs is as little as 2%. My personal opinion is that the ST is more like 5 to 10% short with the driver. I could be wrong but I doubt it.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Thanks, Jon.

1 - I totally agree. If you recall back when we started, we were geared towards mobile. We are actually at about a 50/50 split now with mobile and PC, but still want to make sure that users can have the same experience on either. That said, we are looking at a solution to show higher resolution graphics if the app detects the user if on a device that can run it.

2 - It's a mapping issue. We've redone that logic for fairway practice and will apply it for practice greens before we release the next version. Right now, I want to keep a hard distinction between practice and course play, and would like to leave elevation/slope, etc for the sim guys.

3 - I agree, we can look at this.

4 - I think if anything, implementing spin decay in our ball flight model would make the distances shorter rather than longer. We are always doing testing and tweaking on our model, but any changes are based off robot testing results, not gut checks

[jrz]

Doesn’t backspin decrease distance? If spin decay were incorporated into the flight model I thought distance would improve since there is less and less of it each second the ball is in the air. SkyTrak_Seth

[Snipe]

SkyTrak is the best thing I've done for my game, however the software can definitely be improved, particularly the game improvement package which really doesn't add much value. Let me do more with the data in the app. Make it easier to denote the club I'm hitting at any given time on the range. Add a par 3 challenge.

LET ME EDIT SESSION! I shouldn't have a 17 hour session just because my iPad didn't turn off properly.

Connectivity and alignment have also been pretty troublesome issues.

Despite above criticisms, Skytrak certainly can't be beat for the price and I'm happy with the purchase.

I'm REALLY hoping they announce a club data add-on at the PGA. Like REALLY REALLY!!!! ONE TIME!!!

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Can you elaborate on editing a session? You mean continue a session at a later time or edit the club name of a club where you mistakenly choose the wrong one at the time of hitting? (make sure that you tag me, otherwise I probably won't see it)

[trumb1mj]

Has ball speed accuracy been a topic of debate? I was reading GolfWRX about a super high ball speed player seeing ball speeds top out at 163mph on the SkyTrak but on Trackman and GC2 seeing ball speeds in the 180s. Has anything been done to correct this or is this a hardware limitation?

[wbond]

I wish this applied to me, unfortunately the only time i see a 180 ball speed is when i add the driver and wedge together.

[Jon]

I'm not terribly surprised