SkyTrak Distance Issue

[coz]

I just bought a SkyTrak, and was so excited when it arrived. I charged it overnight, and rushed home from work the next dayto set it up. I am pretty tech savvy, so it all seemed to go smoothly...until I hit my first shot. 6 iron, 100 yards. I take another shot 90 yards, then 96 yards. I thought maybe something wasn't aligned properly. I have raised up the unit, lowered down to the floor, placed the ball forward/behind/left/right of the red dot, in the protective case and out, but I haven't been able to get Skytrak to give me a distance of more than 120 yards for my 6 iron. I switched to other clubs, and have the same issue of the distance seeming to be way under. Hybrid is going aobut 130-140 yards with Skytrak. I used Arccos all summer, so I know that I average 160 yards with my 6 iron, and 200 yards with my 3 Hybrid. The direction seems to be working well, if I hit a hook or slice, Skytrak is tracking that accurately. I gave up after an hour, and tried to figure out what was going on again last night. Unfortunately, I got the same results, no matter what club I used, the distance seems way too low.

I know people have commented that when you are inside, you don't swing like outside. My ceiling is 10ft, so I have no worries, and really do swing like normal. I have been hitting in my basement all winter, so this wasn't my first time hitting off of my mat. I find it pretty unlikely that my shots are all around 40-50 yards less then in real life. Unfortunately is is 20 degrees outside today, so I can't really go to a range to compare my shots to the real world. I would love to be able to use SkyTrak this weekend, and really don't want to return it, but it is kind of useless for me at this point.

I included some screenshots of some practice sessions and a picture of my setup. Do any of my numbers look way off? and therefore be causing the problem? Could it be a lighting issue? Any suggestions as to what I could be doing wrong would be really appreciated.
Thanks!

the ball speed is way too low. Are you hitting these shots solid? Your not over swinging and striking poorly are you? My 9 iron ball speed is more than your 3 hybrid??? That doesn't make sense to me. Reboot

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[Rubixcube]

Doesn't make sense to me either. I am hitting it solid, trust me.

[leoapd]

Coming off later today. Wasn't sure. I know the screen will get dusty, and was just trying to protect it.

[N54TT]

I kept the film on until it started peeling off. Then I took an extra iPad mini screen protector and paper cutter to make a protector for the Skytrak. It doesn't protect it from impacts but will prevent any scratches. I haven't had any problems with accuracy with the shipping film or custom screen protector on.

[leoapd]

Put some time in tonight just with iPad app. Same setup, ball type, lighting, and yes, same swing as far as swing speed goes. Also played today ( outdoors) and distances were normal. I am sure there is more to it, but 20 -25 yards shorter on average than previous session. 78 mph 9i showing 89 bs for 112 carry with spin in mid 6k. Previous session 136 was average carry.

[goatbarn]

How are you getting swing speed?

[coz]

How are you getting swing speed?

calculated from ball speed using some fixed smash factor

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[goatbarn]

I know that's how SkyTrak does it, I'm asking because if that's what he's going by to assure himself that he's swinging normally, it's not going to help anything.

But I'm not sure that's where he's getting it. Because I'm betting Skytrak does not assign a 1.14 smash factor on 9 irons. That's more of a smash factor you'd see on a "flopish" type pitch with a lob wedge. Smash on a 9 iron should be around 1.25-1.28. Using the 1.25 smash, his actual swing speed on a well struck 9 iron, with ball speed of 89, would be 71 mph...not 78 mph, leading me to believe he's not striking it very solidly = short carry.

Unless we're saying that the ball speed reading is low, which could be. I'm still stuck on indoor swing disease.

[N54TT]

As others suggested, take it outside to the range and compare with actual ball flight. If it's still short contact Skytrak. Are you facing the ball logo to the Skytrak?

[Rubixcube]

Not so easy to go to the range when it is so cold out here. I will try and find a heated range somewhere. I am facing the logo towards Skytrak. Thanks for the feedback.

[leoapd]

I use a Sports Sensor swing speed radar, along with a Zepp golf sensor. The Zepp is hit and miss and use it mostly for swing plane, but the radar has been checked with FS and is pretty accurate.

[N54TT]

Sounds like mat and hitting fat could potentially be the issue. I have a sc100 radar and ball speed is spot on with Skytrak ball speed.
What mat are you using? Some mats will significantly reduce club head speed at ball contact if hit even a fraction behind the ball. Swing speed radar probably takes the fastest club speed..and not necessarily the club head speed when it's actually contacting the ball.

[leoapd]

It's a CCE mat. I did not take unit to range today, but did hit outdoors at my local range. Checked yardages with laser...into a slight breeze most of session...9i to 128 pin was on. I will mess with it again tonight and maybe reset it if issue is still on

[Brettster]

Yeah, that film could be affecting your readings - I'm sure it was only intended to prevent scratches in shipping. Take it off, if you're worried about it getting hit by a ball, pickup the SkyTrak Protective Case.

[Fluffy]

I've been having distance problems too. They get progressively worse as clubs get longer than 5 iron. Below 5 iron seems fine. I used a swing speed radar next to my skytrak. My swing speed with my driver varied from 113 to 121 on the radar. The skytrak never estimated my swing speed over 99 mph, most often 94 mph. (I used a dry erase marker ensure centered hits.) Once i got the radar to measure ball speed of 155 mph, the skytrak measured 135 mph.

This weekend i tried the following. I setup a pendulum and dropped the ball from 8.5', the skytrak measured the ball speed accurately at 15 mph. More evidence that my skytrak measures low ball speed accurately. My setup is in my basement with no natural light. I was worried the LED light in my ceiling wasn't sufficient, so i put a 500 watt halogen light source behind sktrak so the light would illuminate the ball but not directly illuminate the cameras. This didn't help. I also reset my device, this was no help. I also tried two different drivers, ncase the face was broken.

I'm not sure what else i can do. Any ideas?

[keithpbz]

Even with the radar measuring 155 and assume your slowest swing speed of 113 mph that's only around 1.37 smash factor. I'd work on contact more, you can hit center of face and still have lower smash factor. If it's reading slower ball speeds correctly then it's reading faster ball speeds correctly. The people who have had defective units had bad numbers with every club, not just longer ones.

[kjerath]

I got my Skytrak a week ago. Tested it against a GC2 and distances generally 10% off. However, it was averages of 10 balls hit on each. So I took my Skytrak to my country club and tested against their About Golf simulator so that I could test on the same shot. Same thing...generally 10% off. More distance off on longer shots. I'm sending it back to have them take a look at it. Anyone able to solve their distance issue if they happened to have one?

[leoapd]

Mine has been more hit than miss, but there are days where I feel like I have to really go after it to stay on average. I think distance can be affected by so many things, so for that reason I am content. Since the latest firmware/app update it seems to be holding a better average. I am very limited as to its use...only on app right now. In the midst of significant swing changes right now which can also have an affect on what I see numbers wise.

[kjerath]

Yes, but my issue is that I was able to measure the same shot off multiple launch monitors with different results I wouldn't mind if some of my shots were off, but all have been off by 10%...doesn't matter what club. So it's not an issue of hitting inside or some of the other stuff people have said, but that one launch monitor has different results than another. If both showed shorter shots than I would expect, at least they would be "accurate"

[leoapd]

10% on a regular basis seems off for sure. Not sure if you have ability to hit on another skytrak to check against full data off yours... Spin, launch,etc. The other obvious things, which I'm sure you are aware of, level unit, elevation setting, alignment. Some have even commented that the type of mat being used can affect the numbers.