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I have being using SkyTrak for just over a week and though I am impressed with it overall, it has been disappointing for outside use. I wanted to see how accurate it was for real shots hit on a practice ground and have found that any sort of sunlight on the SkyTrak, greatly reduces its accuracy. This means that unless it is in the shade when hitting outside into a net, I cannot be confident of the results I am getting. This is rather disappointing , as I do not have the room to hit more than a 9 iron inside my house. Is this common to other users and has anyone come up with ways to overcome this? Obvious thing would be to use a golf umbrella, but would get blown in the wind. Any better ideas?
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Have a skytrak but havent used it much at the range other then when I originally got it to test the accuracy (and that was close to night time). Maybe building some sort of small adjustable shade cover that can stand just behind and is just tall enough to hang over the skytrak. Then adjust the small overhang to where the sun is so it covers up the first foot or so of the hitting area. This probably wouldnt work is the sun is behind or to the right of you but an umbrella would be tough to work at those sun positions as well. Not sure if im describing right what I have pictured in my head, but hopefully so. Thats what i would try first at least since it seems easy to make a temporary one and test it. -
The issue may not be entirely a sunlight thing.
I built a swingplane board frame and to make it more sturdy, the lower section was a large panel of 4 ply board. I left it unpainted and so the colour was a natural light timber colour like pine.
One day during practice, I decided to use the swing plane board in conjunction with the skytrak. Previous to putting the board in place, the skytrak was reading every ball without any problem. As soon as I put the board in the proper place, the skytrak didn't read any shits at all. At first I thought that the skytrak had stuffed up or lost connection. So turned it off and went through the whole procedure again to get it all going. But still no shots were being captured.
As soon as I removed the swingplane board, everything returned to normal and all shots were captured.
Solution was to then spray paint the bottom section of my swingplane board with black paint. After that, the skytrak worked fine with my swing plane board.
So my suggestion would be to try and make sure there is a dark surface behind you perhaps, when you go to the range. I do this in my backyard, when I feel like hitting outside, instead of in my training centre that I have built. I put the swingplane board way behind me so that the skytrak faces it and don't have any real issues with capturing shots when hitting outside.Comment
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My SkyTrak has no problems in registering shots, it is just that they are not accurate. As I am hitting shots on the range, I can see the actual flight and it is only around 50% accurate if there is any sort of sunlight on the SkyTrak machine and perhaps 90% accurate when it is in the shade. Are others experiencing the same results, or have come up with other ways to get around this issue?Comment
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I wonder if the sun may be shining on the ball in flight, causing a bright reflection (or heat bloom for IR purposes) and partially obscuring the camera's ability to capture accurate spin data.Comment
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They have stated on here a few times that it does not work well in sunlight. Needs to be in a shaded area if hitting outdoors. Also doesn't work well off grass because of the divot and flying grass.Comment
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It is useless off of grass, so I have been hitting off of a mat at my local driving range. The SkyTrak website states that it works in the sunlight, as long as it is overhead and not directly at the machine. I have found that any sunlight on the SkyTrak has a major bearing on its accuracy.
Have others used it outside and found the same inaccuracies, to their actual shots they have hit?Comment
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Please also keep in mind that It will have problems with beat up range balls. I had it on the range once and only had problems when the sun was shining directly in the camera or when I used really beat up scuffed range balls. My buddy owns the range and he gave me a bucket of "new" range balls and I was hitting with the sun shining on the backside of the unit. I had hardly any misreads. Of the mat of course. The biggest issue I had back then was that my ipad overheated after 45 min and shut down.
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Not sure if the range balls are an issue, as when I have used the same balls, but in the shade, I have no issues. Just coming to the conclusion that this unit is
much better suited for indoor use as outside use, unless completely in the shade, is a little hit and miss. Would not be so much of a problem, but I can only swing a 9 iron inside, due to low ceilings.Comment
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I found that with the sun shining into the lens (camera)that it would not pick up about 50% of the shots. I have only tried it twice at the range. The first day it was sunny with cloudy periods and when the sun was behind the clouds I had no issues with accuracy and picking up the shots. Had a lot of trouble when the sun came out again. I did go behind the range and hit in the chipping area off the grass. 51 yard shot with sun behind the unit so no sun on lens. I was taking a decent divot and it picked up every shot with yellow range balls and was very accurate. I wonder if we put something on top of the ST to shade the camera. I might try that this week.Comment
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So do we need to shade the camera or the ball, or perhaps both?
Would be good to get Skytrak's input on this, if they are reading these posts?Comment
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bump
Does anyone have any further experience with the unit outdoors and missed shots? I am in an outdoor cage and experience quite a few misses that I am hoping are light related since I've ordered a cover to shade it in. I have tried a black board in various locations with limited success. I have more issues with longer clubs, excluding driver, and it happens more often when the ball is picked clean off the mat.
I also experience misses at night, much less, but seemingly more then normal. I use a single 75w equivalent LED lighting directing on the mat, but haven't tested with an additional light. It's fairly bright, but if I wear to take an iphone picture, it would surely increase ISO to compensate. I likely need a bit more light to help the unit.
Is there information on the cameras Field of View available?
Recommended light type and wattage?
Does reflection from artificial turf in the FOV effect performance?
tiaComment
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I would think that LED ambient light would be the best choice as it has far less IR than incandescent. I'm assuming that sunlight with all of its IR overwhelms the camera's ability to see the ball against any light background. I've yet to understand if the led array flashes, or if the camera shutter is used to capture the images. This is the same lens that's in the unit http://www.megapixellenses.com/sale-...oard-lens.html
maybe you can figure out the FOV -
The fov would be around 56 degrees given a 4.5mm on a 1/3 sensor.
I'm only assuming a 1/3 sensor based on the lens. If you can say what sensor it is exactly that would help be more definitive.
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To follow up on this, I played a full round this morning in overcast sky with zero missed shots. This is all wifi & wgt iphone 6. Shot delay is <3 secs.Comment
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My experience is the skytrak would likely work in total darkness. I think it's actually using lasers to light up the ball and sensors to catch the reflection.Comment
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I took a break and fired things back up to play another round. Sun is out now. 100% misses. Only tried 4 swings with driver (M2) and then switched to a Launcher 460 (black), same results.
Here is what the area looks like right now...
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I have also experienced many misses when trying to use Skytrak outside with the sun overhead or shining into the face of the unit. I would bet your shade cover will help considerably.Comment
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