New Skytrak...problems

[scottxray]

I received my Skytrak this week after the sale price. . And unfortunately it seems the unit may be defective.
However, I thought I would see what the forum says.

1. I am using the PC app ( I don't use apple products) and installed it on my sim in the garage. The sim is a 10" screen, Benq projector and
core I7 3Ghz , 16G ram PC, running win10 home,. HDMI out to a 1080P projector via a Nvidea 710card. I have been running an optishot 2
for awhile and was looking forward to trying it out.but I kept having problems trying to use it and set it up.

Some back ground. I am a 45 year electronic tech and am net+ certified. I know my way around networks pretty well.

The following problems are occurring

1. Although I charged it for the full 6 + hoursbefore trying anything, after running it on battery for about 1.5 hours it said the battery is critically low.
I had to put it back on the charger or connect to the PC to try to get it functional, almost continuously.. The low battery warning
appeared despite it being connected directly to a usb 2 port on the pc, at some points.

My router is a Comcast one so I changed the IP from 10.0.0.1 to 192.168.0.1 . I Reconfigured everything on the networks and
stayed with the stock login password ( no special characters) for Wifi. Everything else on the network, including cell phones , xbox360, dvr,
receiver amp, android devices and tvs etc were reconfigured without issue ( including a secondary wifi network for the living room area at 192,168,0,100).

So the network in the garage and sim area is a simple 192.168.0.1 wifi and the PC hard wired direct to the 16 port switch for the rest of the house running
off the comcast router. DHCP is on and works for everything else I can test.
No auto logons for the secondary wifi network are enabled.

When Plugged into the PC the 3 green leds sometime come on and sometimes do not. I cannnot find any positive sequence of software or power sequence that
reliaibly duplicates this.
The networking problems started when I tried to connect with the software.

1. If plugged directly into the pc usb port the skytrak seems to connect ( all green leds ) after I start the pc app and wait about 90 seconds ...sometimes. However the
connection does NOt always occur. It would not let me register at that point at first.

2. If I try a direct wifi connection the skytrak is NOT detected as a wireless access point ( I did manage to get it to show up 3 times out of about
50 attempts...) but the PC always turns off wireless ( win10) when I have a hard wired connection. If I pull the hard wired connection the skytrak is not listed in networks
except very rarely. Sometimes it shows but usually not.. Eventually, I did connect to the PC directly.

3. Eventually I got the unit to direct connect and then also do the wireless connection. At that point I was able to register. So, at least the software 30 days message went away.
The three leds took about 1 minute to lock after that ..sometimes,from the main app screen

4. I finally got he skytrak connected and functional... So I took some swings with almost balls. Other than distance ( too short) I was pleased with the results. But while using it it sometimes would lock up the unit. ...This usually would follow a missed shot? This was followed by the top LEd going red and or the center led going yellow. A few times the system recovered from this...But several times it would not reconnect Unless i shut off the skytrak and powered it up again.. . And sometimes ( despite the wireless router being within 8 feet and the unit being plugged into the PC directly)it would not connect until I shut the software down and restarted the program , and then the Skytrak... Even then, on occasion it wouild time out and I would have to retry to connect in the wireless mode ( despite being connected directly to the PC USB port.) This procedure seemed random and I never could get a distinct connection sequence that was repeatable and could be relied on.

I did find one very reliable thing . If I start the optishot software ( my original thought was to use both programs in side by side windows to get both club and ball data) while the skytrak is connceted the skytak immediately loses the connection.. That may be a usb issue , but it appears the optishot tries to use all pc resources as the mouse will not exit the optishot window unless the windows key is pressed. Since that was repeateble I stopped trying to run Optishot..

5. Several times, despite my having entered the wifi network data when I would try to connect the network name and password were erased and I had to re-enter them.again.

6. One time it logged on and instead of the registration page listing MY name it said the unit was registered to Seth Frack. ( not my name and this was after I had registered it) . After exiting and then reconnecting it again listed MY name.

Due to all the wireless issues and the really flaky connection issues and other intermittent issues am strongly inclined to return the unit. I wanted it to work but the fact that I can't get a consistent connection and then the unit dropping the connection at times for no apparent reason I can find is disappointing.

At any rate has anyone else had so many issues getting connected and then staying connected?

Is the ONLY way to actually connect to the Skytrak via wifi ? I would think that a direct USB connection would be preferable to wifi if available.
And If USB IS preferred then the unit is definitely flaky as its intermittent making that kind of connection as well.

So does this seem like a defective unit?

thanks for any help.
Scott

[Brace33]

I do believe in order to direct connect with USB you would have to reset your Skytrak so it's not setup on your router/wifi

[YonexMan]

Connection by USB is better. Make sure you have loaded the drivers for the skytrak. They are in the software folder after you install the skytrak software. When you start skytrak software and the skytrak is connected by USB and turned on ( before you start software), the Rapsodo splash screen should always come up. This indicates that the drivers for skytrak are installed and is a prerequisite showing that the PC has connected to the skytrak unit.

if your unit is new, it might have been slow if it needed to update the firmware, it does this automatically. I believe. But Seth will correct me if I am wrong here.

also make sure the USB cable you use is capable of charging as well as data transfer. Otherwise the unit will not charge when connected to the USB port on your PC.

im running my skytrak in a i7 laptop with 4gig ram with discrete video card that has 1 gig ram on it and the skytrak runs fine. That said, it runs better on my old desktop, which is a former gameing PC and when connected by usb3. The skytrak does all the calculations internally and just sends the data to the PC to display the ball flight and other data. So the faster you can receive the data and display it, there is less lag.

even though I have full wireless system as well as Ethernet cabling and gigabit HP switches in my house, I never connect the skytrak by wireless, too muc hassle and not as stable as the USB connection. I work in the IT industry myself, so know my way around a lot of systems and setups. USB is more stable, especially if you can use USB 3.

[Jtangm04]

Sounds like a weird driver issue. Would just do a complete reinstall of the skytrak software and make sure USB drivers for your motherboard are up to date.

I've connected my optishot at the same time as the skytrak and no issues with losing USB connection. Optishot s software doesn't let you minimize it or change the window size so I opened skytrak on top of it and adjusted the window accordingly to compare the shots simultaneously and to get info on my swing path.

[Tonyd9366]

Does your skytrak have a delay when you hit a ball still or did they fix that. ??

[scottxray]

Thanks all. After doing some research I found the reset button ( that is such a hidden position it is ridiculous) and will test again after pressing it and setting only usb as the connection. Also getting another longer usb to micro usb cable to be sure. Glad to know that the OptiShot and Skytrak should play well together. That had me puzzled. The Rhapsodo icon was showing sometimes, but not always.

So after resetting this is what I found.


Apparently the correct sequence is :
1. Pc on. 2. Connect Skytrak via usb. 3. Turn on Skytrak. 4.. Start Skytrak PC software.
Not following that sequence will result in some failures to connect or some long delays to connect. Following it the Skytrak usually connects in about 30 seconds, but it always connects.
( Note: I did not try to use wireless after the reset)
After resetting the unit with the reset button, the skytrak appeared to work properly virtually every time.
The OptiShot did work simultaneously.

The Skytrak has about a 4 second delay before presenting the shot data. Since the OptiShot is almost simultaneous with the shot it is actually not
a distraction. I find the combination to be a good indicator of actual probable results ( the Optishot will not indicate a poor hit or topping the ball...
everything is in the air and has distance) as the skytrak is

At any rate...thanks for the help. The Reset button is the key to getting a solid USB only connection.