Incorrect setup consequences

[Swarm99]

I just received my Skytrak last week and the jury is still out. I have read everything in user's manual and almost everything on this message board. It seems that while the Skytrak is mostly accurate for the users on board, it is very finicky. It has to be perfectly level prior to being turned on or turning app on. It has to be perfectly aligned to target. It's surface nor the surface you hit off of can move during practice or you have to re-setup and sometimes that throws stuff off enough that you need to power down everything and turn it back on (seems to help). Also the screen must stay pristine and you can't hit off dirt, but even my new mat and the room it is in has enough dust that the screen starts looking dirty after a few days. So when you see ball flights or distances that don't look quite right, you can't just immediately start working on your swing you have to spend time focusing on whether it is setup right, or if it is dirty. So what I would like to know is the consequences of isolated incorrect setups?

- what are the typical consequences if the unit is slightly unlevel and leaning towards golfer? (Lower launch angle; more side spin? Which way?)
- away from golfer?
- towards target? (More launch angle?,etc)
- away from target?
- if Skytrak is slightly out of line with target (1-2 degrees) does it only effect horizontal launch angle or does it add side spin?
- what happens if unit is sitting on surface slightly higher than ball (1/4")?
- lower than ball"?
- typical misreads if ball gets a little dirty? (Ball speed shouldn't be effect but maybe spin?)
- does it like certain types of ball marks labels more than others? Do the labels need to be unique?

As far as ball placement goes, it seems that if you place it too far forward in front of laser with fast ball speeds you could "miss" the reading and or get lower ball speeds. If too far back it could miss reading on high lofted clubs. I don't know the consequences if the ball is placed too close or too far away from the Skytrak other than it not reading it. Is there a typical miss if ball is slightly too close? Does it assume you pushed it? Or pulled it? Because ball is closer to camera or further away?

I bought this to get better at golf, but so far we have spent all our time constantly adjusting everything rather than focusing on practice. answering the questions above would go a long way on minimizing the time agonizing over setup everytime we move the unit or the hitting mat moves slightly.

Again all the things above are subtle but knowing the effects individually (ball speed, Vlaunch, Hlaunch, Side Spin, Back spin, etc) would help greatly. Is there anything in setup that could cause a misreading in ball speed?

[coz]

Thanks for the feedback so far, I am just looking for some technical effects for incorrect setup errors. I will attach a table later that will contain "nice to have" information that is typically in a users manual. I will take a guess at it and hopefully somebody else can get it more accurate. For now I have two questions: - If the Skytrak gets moved slightly during use, is it recommended to power off and power back on prior to moving it back. I just want to know if there are some internal calibration and alignment techniques that can get messed up when this happens? - Second, Skytrak had this photo online of what I assume is the camera viewing area. Where exactly in this photo is the laser pointing?

i would just move it back. Maybe where the ball is?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[coz]

I do not use the Skytrak in a single fixed location all the time where once it gets setup perfectly it never moves. I have seen it be a little off when setting it up to get ready to hit. I don't work for the company but I do want to like the device and I want it to be accurate. Most of the corrections that have been stated on here seem to help without reasons (I.e. Taking it out of the case, turning on the lights, getting it precisely balanced). These are reasons that people have stated in which afterwards the ball flight was more realistic or the distances were 20 yards longer. I understand many of these things have been corrected by software and they will continue to correct issues in future releases. I just want to have a consise understanding of what to look for when the ball flight is not right. I want to just take it to a new location and set it down and it work perfectly, with a 30 second setup, but at this time I can't say that I can do that. Here is the table I was talking about. I uploaded it as a photo and added a disclaimer as it is NOT verified but my guess as what would happen if setup is done incorrectly. If Skytrak provided something similar it would answer 90% of the setup questions in a single table and improve end user experience. It would help the user community if the company published this information, rather than someone stating "my driver is going 50 yards shorter", and the response being, " s it balanced?, are the lights on, is the screen clean, do you have balls markers? Are you swinging easier indoors?"). Some of these items are important, but many are anecdotal and don't help the end user. Often times the unit ends working correctly later but the community don't know what caused the underlying problem in their home setup so new users can avoid the same issue.

I'm not sure i understand your thinking. Nice table but it doesn't help me. I just make sure it's level, my laser dot is between 11.5-12.5 inches from unit, target line parallel to the unit and sometimes wipe dust off the tinted plastic. If all that is in order and im still having issues, i would call tech support. Mine is very easy to use and im very comfortable with the numbers i get from it. Let me know what they say about your units history. I called them on mine and they said it was a glitch and they would clear it but it still shows sessions in 2015 like may june ish.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[ForeLeft]

I have had really no alignment issues. And I move my unit a lot while changing clubs. For driver, I move it so the laser comes on the tee, which is fixed in my CCE mat. For short irons, I move it forward and for long irons, i move it a bit further back. I don't power on/off the unit. It just works.

[doublebogey]

So you have the laser dot on the tee - i.e., meaning laser dot shining on the top of the tee instead of bottom of tee per SkyTrak instructions?

[ForeLeft]

I have it at the bottom of the tee. I am not even sure how I would get it to the top of the tee. My SkyTrak is in the case and I place it next to the CCE mat (not on it). So I have it raised up quite a bit to make sure it is level with the mat. At that point the laser shows up on the mat for the irons and at the bottom of the tee for driver.

[Swarm99]

Thanks for the responses. I am starting to think that there may be something wrong with the unit that I bought. Going to do more testing today.

[Swarm99]

Thanks for the responses. I am starting to think that there may be something wrong with the unit that I bought. Going to do more testing today.

Update. I don't seem to have any alignment problems (angles, ball flight). But I am having inconsistent distance issues. Sometimes no matter how we swing we will only hit a 7 iron 105 to 120 yards carry. Next session it will go the typical distance of 155-160 yards carry. Low handicap player. I don't see how the minimal distance from one session will be greater than max distance on next session. So, yesterday it was tested against a flightscope at a different facility and the Skytrak was dead on with flightscope and distances were once again typical (155-160 yards). Today it is back to being 30 yards shorter again at another indoor facility. Same player, same club, same Skytrak, same iPad. The Skytrak bottom is level with top of the mat and perfectly balanced. It is inside the protective case. (Taking out of case has no effect). Supposedly indoor lighting doesn't matter, so I will rule that out from one facility to next. Assuming the Skytrak is working correctly that leaves the mat and the balls. We have primarily hit Taylormade Preferred X balls but we have also hit a few other types, all with similar results. The same balls were also used in previous sessions when the distances were like expected (155-160 yards). However, during the flightscope session we had the metallic sticker on the ball, and that is the most consistent the Skytrak has been from swing to swing. Can this metallic sticker or a similar marker make that big of a distance? We typically face the ball marker/logo facing Skytrak when hitting already. Next is the mat. The mat currently being primarily used is an older hard driving range mat; plans to get better mats are in work but are not here yet. Could this mat be causing issues? I have seen the mat spark before when we hit a ball a little fat. Could any of this cause the big distance discrepancy?

[TorchRedRob]

What do the measured ball readings look like with the "good" distance shots versus the "bad" ones? Talking in just yardages makes it difficult for us to help diagnose.
Is it the ball speed, launch angle, or the spin that is causing the significantly shorter yardages?

[Swarm99]

I will post more detail later if I can. Skytrak app on phone will not let me see history and stats. Says I need to upgrade to premium package. Weird. I don't use my phone during hitting sessions so maybe I needs to have access to device in order to validate license files. Not sure why that is not tied account login though.

[Alienator]

get the Skygolf 360 App from the app store. Then log in and hit the my 360 button at the bottom then scroll down to the practice section then skytrak and you can see all your history thats been synced from your phone. You can only see your history in the actual skytrak app when it is connected to the skytrak hardware itself as dumb as that is. Yet another reason I think the software for skytrak is just lame.

[N54TT]

Update. I don't seem to have any alignment problems (angles, ball flight). But I am having inconsistent distance issues. Sometimes no matter how we swing we will only hit a 7 iron 105 to 120 yards carry. Next session it will go the typical distance of 155-160 yards carry. Low handicap player. I don't see how the minimal distance from one session will be greater than max distance on next session. So, yesterday it was tested against a flightscope at a different facility and the Skytrak was dead on with flightscope and distances were once again typical (155-160 yards). Today it is back to being 30 yards shorter again at another indoor facility. Same player, same club, same Skytrak, same iPad. The Skytrak bottom is level with top of the mat and perfectly balanced. It is inside the protective case. (Taking out of case has no effect). Supposedly indoor lighting doesn't matter, so I will rule that out from one facility to next. Assuming the Skytrak is working correctly that leaves the mat and the balls. We have primarily hit Taylormade Preferred X balls but we have also hit a few other types, all with similar results. The same balls were also used in previous sessions when the distances were like expected (155-160 yards). However, during the flightscope session we had the metallic sticker on the ball, and that is the most consistent the Skytrak has been from swing to swing. Can this metallic sticker or a similar marker make that big of a distance? We typically face the ball marker/logo facing Skytrak when hitting already. Next is the mat. The mat currently being primarily used is an older hard driving range mat; plans to get better mats are in work but are not here yet. Could this mat be causing issues? I have seen the mat spark before when we hit a ball a little fat. Could any of this cause the big distance discrepancy?

Hate to say it....but it's probably not the skytrak. Unless you can confirm with actual ball flight that those low distances are off. I know you said you're a low cap player...but it's probably the swing. Mats...especially thicker mats...will slow the clubs face pretty significantly if you're hitting behind the ball at all. You're using an older hard range mat...so It won't slow your club face as much But you also said you have seen sparks when hitting a little fat...if sparks are flying I would think that would slow the club head a decent amount. You're already facing the logo to the skytrak so I don't think balls are the issue.

[Chughes82]

You're probably right Guest, though I have occasionally experienced a similar phenomenon. Without changing anything in my garage setup, the ST will sometimes register consistently lower than my normal ST distances on a particular day. I've always chalked it up to user error and still suspect that's probably the case. When it happened last weekend, it was after fighting to get ST to work visa usb for more than an hour. I decided to reboot the system to see if the distances changed, but couldn't get it to connect via USB again and ran out of time. Probably my swing, but if others experience it too, perhaps there's a software bug somewhere. If I have time soon, I'll check the shot data for abnormalities.

[N54TT]

I only speak from personal experience. The day I got the skytrak I went straight to the range to test its accuracy...and it was spot on. Later that week I was hitting at home and was getting lower numbers...figured it was the skytrak. But I packed up and went back to the range and what do you know....i really was hitting short. Worked on my swing and figured out what I was doing wrong. So when I hear stories like yours, unless you can confirm with actual ball flight that the numbers are off, I wouldn't be so quick to blame the Skytrak.

[Swarm99]

We done more hitting and testing last night. Had my scratch golfer brother over. I feel much better about the unit now. It will still register a swing that doesn't look right compared with expected results one out of 20 swings. For example, I know I pushed it right based on how the Skytrak is aligned and where the ball hit on the target mat on the net, but Skytrak says it started straight. I am gaining more confidence in the distances. I am thinking the ball may have less to do with it from my previous post. I do think an extremely key component of an indoor Skytrak setup is the mat. We have tried several and still not sold on any. But the mat can effect everything with your numbers and ball flight. Mats have been discussed on this forum in multiple places, but I think they need even more discussion.

[Chughes82]

Definitely not being quick to blame ST. I don't blame ST. I chalk it up to user error, even though the use is always in my garage setup without changes. Just noting that if others experience the same intermittent changes, perhaps there is a bug somewhere. I agree on backing up such concerns with numbers, which is why I referenced checking my numbers.

[wbond]

Do you think that it could be that you aren't swinging as freely inside your own home/garage as you do at a range?

[N54TT]

If you were using the same balls, lining up the logo and there were no changes....probably not user error.

[Chughes82]

wbond, it's not a difference from the range, but a difference from my normal results in the garage. I'm really not overly concerned about it and truly think it's some variation in my swing those days. I only mentioned it because it seemed similar to the earlier poster's experience. I'll pay more attention to the swing data next time it happens.