cksurfdude

It's always possible it may be a faulty camera or processing unit... Maybe try their tech support - and mention you're an MGS tester!

@cnosil - based on earlier comments you'd made about lighting problems, I put a reading lamp behind and to the side of my mat and it seems to help as my system startup has not given me any messages about poor lighting...

Hey Matt - strictly IMHO .. I'll offer a "maybe yes, but..." The LightSpeed is *much* lighter and while it does have the flexible shaft and same setup as the "Original" to promote a good rhythm and tempo, it's really its secondary function. For tempo training - primarily - I'd stick with the original OW. Note, though, that use of the original can promote better swing speed by.. smoothing out your mechanics, improving your timing and overall tempo (of course), increasing your turn range of motion and strengthening your swing muscles, too!

Haven't had the chance to play since getting this, but I can definitely tell that as my mega putt session went on I was getting more putts in and more of the misses left much closer .. so looking forward to more practice time!!

During setup of the mat and camera the user manual give you dimensions for min/max height of camera plus horizontal distance of mat based on the cam's height; note these ranges have some latitude. Then when you turn on the camera you can pan and tilt until the mat looks "square" to you .. then when everything looks good the system will search for the mat and give you on-screen directions if you need to adjust anything. Each time you turn on the system/camera it will perform the search to make sure it can properly see the whole mat. I have it all in a fixed location in the basement, so the physical setup is constant and each time I turn on the cam it finds the mat. In another step of testing I plan to compare the ExPutt numbers to ones generated by Blast Motion Golf.

Practice Mode / Mega Putt Contest First - big thanks to @Golfspy_CG2 for suggesting this .. normally I would not spend hours in a row rolling hundreds of putts, but it turned out to be a great way to become more familiar with using the ExPutt. For this practice session I chose a Green Speed of 10 - which feels reeeally fast to me, but I struggle with distance control on fast greens; and Distance of Random from 5 to 10 feet - as these are the putts I'd like to increase my make percentage on (and I'm thinking I'll work my up to longer distances a step at a time). After the initial setup of the system the other day, I rolled a few putts to start to get the feel of how the ExPutt works ... and those first few putts were somewhat awk-weird and were a bit all over the place. This practice session for the mega putt contest went much better! It was really helpful to just keep rolling putts, working on hitting them straight and at the right distance each time .. which of course varied from putt to putt in Random mode - so changing speed each time was also really great putting practice! In the following is an overview of my results and some impressions of actually using the ExPutt.....

Ahhhh that magic and very elusive effortless swing..! Appreciate, as always, your insightful and erudite commentary!! For me in particular, when I use too much arms & hands relative to body I get, uhhh, "strong fades" and high slices. So working working working to find that balanced in-sync movement.........

Mayors and City Councils look at $$$. And there is major budgetary pressure now.... My $0.02 ... If you do this, I suggest your group formulate some ideas on how to show the course can potentially be at least revenue-neutral to the city (ie. Not a cost item).

That was one of my main problems for the longest time .. it's this season, my tenth or eleventh year golfing, and thanks to a series of lessons and practice that I'm finally starting to make a real turn back and through...... Golf is hard.

Made it to 661 and man that was a whole lotta putting!! But I think I may also put my wager on the younger dude * EDIT: May have to go again -- just scavenged a portable A/C from an upstairs bedroom where it was not currently being used; was sweating my butt off the other day..!

..slowing down .. but I've set a target...

330 @ 1:37:34 ... still going ...

1st hundred on the board

Coffee High calorie sugary foods TV power saver Off ExPutt power saver Off Supportive shoes Streaming tunes on Ready for mega putt attempt

Have not looked at it yet, but maybe as a "workaround" you could go into Play mode and have Player 1 with one putter and Player 2 with the other..?? Not sure what stats they give you at the end for each player, but presumably there is at least #/% putts made by each?

..and that secret magic can't miss tip is..?? (Or you're not sharing and will let the rest of us continue to suffer...)

OK - got through all the setup where I believe I have claim to the Most Time Spent Award as I... ..read through the whole user manual, ..checked the level of the floor where I was gonna position the mat (have a very slight tilt to the left as you look towards the "hole" - TBD if that affects the roll of the putt...?), ..checked the total length of the practice area and moved things around, ..tried a few positions of the camera relative to the mat to try to get the clearest view of it when looking from behind the camera, ..put the tv screen on a box to raise it for better viewing, ..measured the camera height off the floor and set the mat at the appropriate distance away as per the user manual, ..turned the camera and tv on to get the system's setup screen and fine-tuned the camera pan and tilt until the all of the mat appeared lined up straight in front of the camera, ..saw a green rectangular box flash on top of the mat indicating the system components are aligned and arranged within the right height and distance (but did not have to click an "OK" button as indicated in the user manual - system setup screen automatically disappeared), ..taped down the base of the camera to the stand it's sitting atop and put a marker stick on the floor and taped it to the front foot of the mat to secure this same camera / mat setup for all subsequent practice sessions (ExPutt is in a now-dedicated area in the basement), ..scavenged a reading lamp from another room (and a stand fan, too!), ..stickered up my putter as per the user manual, and .. finally .. got out a new white golf ball. -- -- Here's a quick pictorial overview of my setup... ..the screenshot with the (non-zero) stats is the first made putt - Lucky #13 -- -- FIRST FEEDBACK COMMENT FOR EXPUTT: Strongly recommend reading through the user manual first (before unpacking anything); and in fact, there should be a boldly colored, large print flyer visible on top when you open the box with something to the effect of "READ ME FIRST!" There is a lot of good info within the manual, although another minor comment is that info could be better organized - for example: collect *ALL* of the physical setup parameters and requirements .. including screen rez and where it says to use a white ball .. into a single concise section at the beginning - and (sorry, but..) the English translation could be edited a bit better for the US audience. Next Step -- program "Setup"... The remote is pretty simple and the on-screen response to clicks are quick. You can leave the defaults, of course, or - of course as a tester - try out some options: 1. "BGM" - sounds technical but it actually refers to "Back Ground Music" so... Second feedback comment: just label this "Sound". .. you may want to turn this Off (random bird / nature noises; control the volume through your tv) 2. Hole Cup Diameter - two options are offered .. 4.25" (regulation) and 5.90" (which is approx +1/3 rd larger) Third feedback comment: why no smaller hole size option, eg. 2.6" (approx -1/3rd smaller or even a 2" option)? 3. Auto Power On/Off - you can select either, obviously, but ... it does not tell you on-screen what the time parameter is .. that's inside the user manual... Another Feedback comment: change the "On" option label to say "30 Minutes" (user does not really need to be able to adjust the amount of time). 4. Distance Unit - default is already "Feet" (presumably for US shipments; can select meters or yards) 5. Dexterity - default is Right-handed (which I am) Then... Final step: adjust the tv pic mode and size to get the best screen rez / view. Whew....... OK .. ready to practice!!! PS: Some of the info in this post, and in others to follow, will also be incorporated into the final full review (which will go into the "Placeholder" at the beginning of this thread.

I'll give a quick response without digging into too much detail - the water droplet visualization is also used in two other game sims I've seen; it's meant to mimic on-screen water flowing from high to low on the green. Yes, looking at the screen it does appear "busy" but, yes, combined with the heat map of green topography it does offer you a read. Note the relative speed of the droplets corresponds to more/less slope on that part of the green.

So I was away over the weekend .. played 9 Saturday .. thinking about how I need to seriously dig into Practice mode with the ExPutt .. got back and took care of some things around the house .. and now just about to go down into the basement, and .... area-wide power outage......!

Was visiting a friend out on the East end of Long Island; played a funky 9-hole course that's on State Park land and literally cut out of the trees. Fairways and tee boxes were a mix of burnt out sorta grass and where it was green a lotta clover. But it's one of those laid-back atmosphere "local" spots, and a few of the holes present definite challenges. Started out really well .. solid ball striking tho the first two holes saw the second shots go left of the green (and under a tree) and then right of the green (and behind a tree); but .. somehow .. managed an up & down both times. #3 Par 3 solid tee shot if a bit short then made a mess of the chip on and ended with a Double (ouch) after missing an easy 4 foot putt. #4 good tee shot, good second (GIR!) and good first putt for a par. #5 pulled the tee shot left and ended up blocked by a tree again so another punch-out, followed by a very solid approach onto the green followed by another missed straight 4 foot putt. So we have a new "problem" distance to work on with the ExPutt!! Oh - tee shots on both #4 and #5 cross the access road going in and out of the course .. there are Stop and Warning signs to the drivers in both directions. #6 tee shot was the Official Shot Of The Day. From the tee there are trees running down the right all the way to the inside of the dogleg right; right in the middle of the fairway looking off the tee and just short of the dogleg is a lone scrub pine - which looks shorter from the tee than it is as the fairway slopes downhill into the dogleg. Hit to the left of it and you're farther away from the green; hit to the right and you risk getting hung up on the branches of the trees down the right or going OB. I line up my ball looking down the narrow gap between the right side of the scrub pine and the trees on the right, and .. wow I sent that one! Dead straight on my line and high and looong (for me, that is) .. ended up through the dogleg sitting on the left side of the fairway with a good look at the green. Yea! But .. unfortunately .. from there the swing mojo slipped away and I finished with a disappointing bogey..... Boo. Next hole was a complete and total disaster blow-up like I haven't had for a long time. Yuck. #8 put myself into a fairway bunker and while I got out ok, couldn't put the ball away after that and wasted a few strokes. #9 finishing hole is the longest Par 4 and I did get back on track with a solid tee shot down the middle, a solid layup to a good position and a solidly struck wedge but pulled it a bit left from my intended spot and left myself a tricky putt across- and down-slope vs where I was trying to go short and below the hole. 2-putted for a "good" bogey. Overall hit 5/7 fairways, but then missed both Par 3 greens, missed several chances (after the first two holes) to chip it close and missed three or four chances at all fairly straight 4 - 6 ft putts. So more work - especially short game - to do!

^^^ that is AWESOME!!! ^^^

You and me both, bruthah!

OK this thing is *definitely* helping me! I'm starting .. not always, but starting .. to really swing through the ball and send it (well .... on a relative basis, for me anyway.. ). A really helpful drill is to warm-up with the regular OW Trainer, then start to ramp up the range of motion and the speed .. then switch to the LightSpeed.

Played the short 9 near me this afternoon. Started off a little iffy .. tee shot pulled left, approach ok-ish but a touch short going uphill, chip on a little "exuberant" as my wife and I call it, ie. too firm, missed my line on the downhill putt .. .. but somewhere in the middle of the round something .. I don't know what but holy heck I hope it sticks with me .. something turned "on" in my swing! Felt like I was finally starting to stay balanced and swing through the ball vs hitting at it / trying to steer it towards a target. Wowwee! #5 it started - good tee shot followed by.. wait for it... a good second!! Almost sunk the first putt. Then... my nemesis hole. Solid tee shot down the middle into the dogleg; second shot was just over my 8i distance and I typically chunk/etc this shot so took the 7i and gripped down .. caught it square and watched the ball sail high over the green! I guess that's a "nice" mistake to have! Did screw up the attempted pitch back on, but then almost sunk the next chip. So no scoring records today .. +8 overall (short Par 35) but did finish the last five holes with 2 pars and dare I say 3 easy bogeys; in addition to that almost chip-in the other four first putts juuuust missed dropping..... So yeah I am PUMPED for digging into the ExPutt to see how it can help me improve my speed, line and especially reads!

Fortunately between my wife's three kids there are extra large screen TVs sitting collecting dust in our basement, so I was able to carve out a putting area with its own monitor! .. ie. not shared in a family room .. so the 4ft supplied cord is plenty for my setup. Possibly future versions of the cam hardware may incorporate WiFi and maybe Bluetooth?