Skytrak Unregistered Shots

[jrz]

It is officially time for this topic to get its own thread. Enough people have mentioned it in various other conversations on this board and it has been glaringly ignored by SkyTrak_Seth.

Many of us have been experiencing a significantly higher number of unregistered shots in both the Skytrak app and TGC. It is difficult to define exactly when this problem started, but it seems that the consensus is that it began around when the version 2.3 applications were released and, as a result, firmware version 1.5 was installed on the Skytrak device.

While I can't speak for everyone else on this forum I can say the following for certain:

1) The number of unregistered shots has dramatically increased since the timeframe mentioned above.

2) Unregistered shots do not seem to be shot type dependent. For example, I will often hit a slightly thin or fat shot which registers as expected and follow this with a perfectly hit shot which is not registered (this sucks, btw - it never fails to pick up shanks but does fail to pick up shots that are seemingly perfectly struck).

3) The unregistered shots are not due to ball position or the height of the Skytrak unit. I have tried every standard suggestion and am very good at placing the ball a bit behind the laser dot for drives, a bit in front of the laser dot and closer to the unit for pitches, etc. I have tried raising and lowering the height of my Skytrak unit. SkyTrak_Seth - please do not come back and suggest playing with ball position to remedy unregistered shots. We have all tried this and the problem persists.

4) The dramatic increase in unregistered shots has made play in the Skytrak app and TGC much less enjoyable. Every time the Skytrak fails to pick up a shot in TGC it is almost comical because of how frequently this happens during a "live" TGC round.

5) The dramatic increase in unregistered shots has made playing with friends (locally) a nightmare. I have had to apologize to them for how often it occurs, deliver instructions on the "ball position fixes" to my fellow players, etc. Often another unregistered shot occurs right after my vehement defense of Skytrak and it just makes me look like an ass.

SkyTrak_Seth - please officially address this issue. When I first purchased my Skytrak unit I thought that the shot delay would be so frustrating that it might be the Achilles heel of the device and cause me to return it and spend the extra money for a GC2. The shot delay turned out to be fine (about 2 seconds for me in both the Skytrak app and TGC). Every time another shot is not registered, however, I have to take a deep breath and my mind inevitably starts thinking about how the extra cost of the GC2 would be worth it because of the minimal delay and it's proven reliability to register shots. I am now on the fence about keeping the Skytrak and have begun the process of figuring out how I would explain to my girlfriend if I were to spend the extra funds for a GC2 (even though we are not married yet she is still the boss.... ;-) )

[st_golfer]

Fwiw I switched from usb to wifi and did a long skytrak range session. Zero no reads.

[Ironstrokes]

Fwiw I switched from usb to wifi and did a long skytrak range session. Zero no reads.

Crazy, I figured that would be much less consistent, ill have to give that a shot tonight

[Vincent_Vega]

Fwiw I switched from usb to wifi and did a long skytrak range session. Zero no reads.

Interesting. Would explain why only PC users seem to be the ones having the most issues. I'll try the same and report back.

[Sledge0001]

Fwiw I switched from usb to wifi and did a long skytrak range session. Zero no reads.

I too have had the misread issue and I do use PC / USB / TGC. I can confirm that the ST does seem to be picking up the shot or at least its thinking about the shot (Red / Green / Green from the top down) as soon as I swing and then the laser disappears. A few moments later then the laser dot is back but the shot didn't get registered. I had a buddy over last night and we played a round and I had at least 10-15 swings that didn't actually get registered by the system.

It is my understanding that USB is required for the Protee/ TGC / ST interface is this correct or should I be using Wi-Fi?

I also have noticed that the ST hardware gets installed as a new USB device each time you turn on the ST device. As an IT guy my guess is that the Windows Power Management system is shutting down the USB port or device thinking it may not be in use in an effort to save power. I know there are options for this in the device manager that can be shut off for Wi-Fi, Network and USB hubs as well... Or maybe it gets caught between Wi-Fi and USB... Unfortunately I have to work late this eve so I can't test this theory out but I will hopefully get a chance tomorrow evening.

[GmanJeff]

You may be on to something with regard to the issue having a USB-related dimension. I have infrequent, but still occasional, failures to read using the ST range only (I don't have TGC) but notice that connecting the ST to my Windows laptop via USB is a bit hit-or-miss. Sometimes it connects right away, while other times I have to change ports on the laptop for it to see the ST. The occasional misreads occur whether or not I'm connected by USB or Wi-Fi, though.

[Sledge0001]

USB in general is hokey... It always has been but the concern that I have is if this is the issue there is no way to permanently disable the power saving function if the ST device gets re-installed as new device everytime it is turned on / plugged in.

Here is a great picture of what I am referring to:

http://helpdeskgeekcom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/pictures/2009/09/image34.png

[wbond]

I don't really have these issues and I'm using usb only. I have had it not read at all meaning it's staying all green top down, but it only happens occasionally on the chips that are around 6-9 yards to the pin. That I'm taking as a hardware limitation. Then I have to play a little with position to get it to read.

[st_golfer]

I played 18 on TGC using wifi. Much better. Zero instances where it goes R-G-G and then back to all greens and missing the shot. Much happier.

[jrz]

Is the process with connecting to a PC via WiFi the same as connecting with an iOS device?
Or do I need to first connect to the Skytrak with an iOS device to tell it about the network and then start Skytrak on the PC and hope it finds the network I am using?

[ghopper8]

I found after connecting to the e6 demo, the skytrak missed more shots, as if it is stuck on putting mode sometimes

[SkyTrak_Seth]

You know....that is something that has not crossed my mind. I need to look into that. Certainly each partner that utilizes putting would/should account for that, but since we don't yet in the SkyTrak app...I'm not sure how a sudden shift from one software to the other would affect the mode. Thank you.

[Ironstrokes]

Interesting so far for me, felt like I had less no reads over a round and a half tonight using just wifi, but not sure yet (not enough of a test sample), ill try it some more tomorrow as well. Only issues with the wifi was I felt like it took slightly longer to display the shots, but ill take that if it equals less no reads. SkyTrak_Seth any way this wifi connection thing could be a valid way to cause less no reads or are we just tricking ourselves into thinking it?

[SkyTrak_Seth]

I don't believe it should be any different. We are still looking into it though.

[Vincent_Vega]

USB in general is hokey... It always has been but the concern that I have is if this is the issue there is no way to permanently disable the power saving function if the ST device gets re-installed as new device everytime it is turned on / plugged in.

Here is a great picture of what I am referring to:
http://helpdeskgeekcom.c.presscdn.co...09/image34.png

So you don't think disabling the "usb selective suspend" setting would permanently take care of the power saving issue if that is indeed what might be happening? Since that appears to be a global setting for all usb ports in the power settings, I thought that might work even if it does recognize it as a new device each time. I'm hoping to be able to toy around with it tonight and see if anything changes.

[Sledge0001]

Even after disabling the usb selective suspend option in your power management options you can still find hardware under the Universal Serial Bus controllers section that are checked to allow the computer to turn off this device.

I had to go back and double check but sure enough most appear to be getting set correctly by having the check box removed. However not all devices followed what you would assume to be a global power setting. In this instance I am referring to my computer here at work and not the one I use at home with ST. The device USB Root Hub xHCI is still showing as allowing the system to shut down the device to save power.

Until I can get in front of my PC and ST hopefully tonight I am not sure if the ST is going to be one of those devices that could be affected by this or not.

[jrz]

SkyTrak_Seth I unplugged my Skytrak from USB and switched it to wifi. Went through my bag to warm up on the ST range and then played a round on TGC. I didn't experience any unregistered shots. The only thing I did differently was to connect my Skytrak device via wifi instead of USB.

[Ironstrokes]

I'm definitely a believer in the WiFi fix now, just played for like 6 hours with my dad and had WiFi only on the first 2+ rounds and maybe 1 or 2 no reads tops and that was when the laser never even turned off like it usually does while reading a shot, every single shot where the laser actually went off, it read. None of that stuff where laser goes off for a few seconds while trying to read a shot and then just comes back on with no shot displaying on screen.

The kicker that made me a believer was that battery ran out on the skytrak while we were playing so I had to go back to the usb connection to hold the power on. Once I did that it was a huge difference, probably 5 or 6 out of the first 25 shots were the classic laser goes off but no read. My dad had to hit a 65 yard lob wedge shot 4 times before it registered on one instance. After that we had off and on no reads for the next round and a half we played with the usb connected, not too many more, but still more then the wifi only.

I'm gonna continue to test to make sure it's not just a coincidence but thank you st_golfer for that suggestion! Don't really get why that works but it's made my playing just that much more enjoyable haha

[st_golfer]

GC2 uses a bluetooth connection. What does the ProTee system use? Perhaps it is the amount of data being passed along? Wifi would be able to handle a larger transfer rate on an internal network than USB would. With any connection I have to image there is a timeout setting for this, hence why it resets after a delay. The software for the interface should have the ability for developers to monitor the flow of data and hopefully they can figure out what the cause is. Because ProTee has openly said they do not support the wifi connection from Skytrak, they just acknowledge that it seems to work.

[ernie18]

this is not true, there is so much data on your wifi you have no idea, so any added stress would cause a delay, it would also be interesting to see what a top of the line router would handle this?

[Vincent_Vega]

SkyTrak_Seth Just played 18 at the Belfry connected via Wifi. Had 1 putt that didn't register (R,G,G). Every single iron, wedge, wood, all picked up perfectly. No maneuvering the ball around the dot, just smack dab in top of it. I did have 2 putts that took a couple seconds longer than usual to display, but they did register. Don't know if there's enough here for us to get published in any scientific journals or anything, but it's safe to say there's a correlation with the USB connection. Haha. Interested to see what Sledge figures out with the usb power saver theory. I turned off the usb selective power feature but couldn't confirm that the Skytrak was indeed adhering to this setting. I'll let him delve in to that.

Anyway, I knew there was something up when the first responses were all Apple iOS users claiming to have zero issues. Glad we're making some headway here. Situations like this are what make user forums so valuable. I just hate it for the Skytrak owners who don't frequent these forums and may be getting aggravated. Hopefully Seth and the team can take this info and sniff out the issue. I'm sure they will. Crossing my fingers that this 18 hole round wasn't blind luck. Almost certain it wasn't.

[Sledge0001]

So after looking at the USB power settings it does NOT appear that the SkyTrak Launch Monitor has any options to go in to Power Saving mode. So my theory of the computer shutting down the USB port or device to save power does not appear to be valid.

Grabbing some food and a beer then moving my ST over to Wi-Fi to see how I make out.

[Sledge0001]

During the installation process the ST device actually creates its own Universal Serial Bus Controller called RAPSODO Personal Launch Monitor which means to me that if any power saving options or settings were to be changing they would be occurring on the SkyTrak unit itself and not on the PC. On an interesting note the driver they are using appears to be a generic USB driver from 2006!

[v10king]

Glad you guys found a fix

[Joko]

I would agree that when one has fully committed to the launch monitor and make use of it daily that the price of a gc2 starts to work out.

I'll be in that boat in another year or two. For now I deal with skytrak as its the best launch monitor option for this price range.

Thank goodness for the competition that skytrak has provided. Without it I believe this industry would be stuck until someone came along with a product like this. Yeah it's not perfect, but it doesn't require a huge investment.