SkyTrak+ - 2024 Forum Review

[Medfloat]

12 hours ago, Swood1994 said:

Oh boy! The final pieces of the sim are here. It was fun explaining all of the boxes to the wife over the last couple weeks, but we are ready to get set up indoors. updates to follow!

I wish it was MY wife that was asking about all the boxes I was getting but you were the lucky one to get the selection.  

[Medfloat]

8 hours ago, TSauer said:

Alright, @Rob Person this one's for you.

I did a little testing to determine just how much the ball can be moved and still allow for the machine to register a shot. I was pleasantly surprised. One thing I questioned on my first session was where the ball actually needed to be placed, I assumed it was always on the dot. I was wrong. There were a couple test shots where the ball was 7" or so behind the dot and it still registered. It seems to be more lenient on shots that are behind the dot as opposed to in front of it, which I am assuming is because the cameras don't have enough time to capture the shot when the ball is too far forward. Now, I haven't done enough testing to know just how much, if at all, the numbers change when the ball is placed on the dot versus a few inches behind or off to the side. We'll save that for another day.

Anyway, here is a quick pitching session I did with my 50* to learn just how much leeway I had when placing the ball down. Also, don't mind that thin shot...

 

If you rather just see what areas registered and what didn't, here you go:

 

Are you a righty or lefty golfer? 

[TSauer]

54 minutes ago, Medfloat said:

Are you a righty or lefty golfer? 

Lefty

[schooner44]

9 hours ago, TSauer said:

Alright, @Rob Person this one's for you.

I did a little testing to determine just how much the ball can be moved and still allow for the machine to register a shot. I was pleasantly surprised. One thing I questioned on my first session was where the ball actually needed to be placed, I assumed it was always on the dot. I was wrong. There were a couple test shots where the ball was 7" or so behind the dot and it still registered. It seems to be more lenient on shots that are behind the dot as opposed to in front of it, which I am assuming is because the cameras don't have enough time to capture the shot when the ball is too far forward. Now, I haven't done enough testing to know just how much, if at all, the numbers change when the ball is placed on the dot versus a few inches behind or off to the side. We'll save that for another day.

Anyway, here is a quick pitching session I did with my 50* to learn just how much leeway I had when placing the ball down. Also, don't mind that thin shot...

 

If you rather just see what areas registered and what didn't, here you go:

 

Very interesting. I have the original Skytrak and I don't think I have that much leeway with my ball placement but I guess I'll be forced to go hit some balls tonight to test it lol.

[Medfloat]

17 minutes ago, TSauer said:

Lefty

That makes sense. I was thinking you were but just wanted to confirm.  Great photo array for the ball locations.  Nice work.

[MattF]

4 hours ago, WaffleHouseTour said:

Dumb question, but having never used a Skytrack… how do you know the device is parallel to your target?  Withe the Mevo there is a camer that you can see thru the ball at your target. How do you align with your target on a Skytrack?

this game we play is so crazy that just a few degrees off can make such a huge difference. 

There's an indent to place an alignment rod on the case as you can see here.

[TSauer]

2 minutes ago, MattF said:

There's an indent to place an alignment rod on the case as you can see here.

I had no idea that's what that was for. That's brilliant!

[Swood1994]

12 hours ago, TSauer said:

Alright, @Rob Person this one's for you.

I did a little testing to determine just how much the ball can be moved and still allow for the machine to register a shot. I was pleasantly surprised. One thing I questioned on my first session was where the ball actually needed to be placed, I assumed it was always on the dot. I was wrong. There were a couple test shots where the ball was 7" or so behind the dot and it still registered. It seems to be more lenient on shots that are behind the dot as opposed to in front of it, which I am assuming is because the cameras don't have enough time to capture the shot when the ball is too far forward. Now, I haven't done enough testing to know just how much, if at all, the numbers change when the ball is placed on the dot versus a few inches behind or off to the side. We'll save that for another day.

Anyway, here is a quick pitching session I did with my 50* to learn just how much leeway I had when placing the ball down. Also, don't mind that thin shot...

 

If you rather just see what areas registered and what didn't, here you go:

 

The grid is awesome! Great work @TSauer. I will say being outdoors in direct sunlight I was pleasantly surprised how easy the dot it to pick up. But looks like it is REALLY easy indoors which is nice.

[Swood1994]

26 minutes ago, MattF said:

There's an indent to place an alignment rod on the case as you can see here.

Well, you just blew my mind. That's going to help quite a bit with lining everything up! thanks for that bit of info.

[Swood1994]

2 hours ago, TSauer said:

Lefty

I knew you were a lefty but I did notice with my set up my dot is angled more behind the unit vs in front from your picture curious if the righty vs lefty has anything to do with it. I need to spend more time messing with the configuration and actually setting up my account to see if that is changeable.

[TSauer]

9 minutes ago, Swood1994 said:

I knew you were a lefty but I did notice with my set up my dot is angled more behind the unit vs in front from your picture curious if the righty vs lefty has anything to do with it. I need to spend more time messing with the configuration and actually setting up my account to see if that is changeable.

I should have noted that in all of those photos, the balls are traveling from right to left. I didn't think about that until now. OOPS!

So yeah, it is angled towards the back for me as a lefty. The dot should change when you switch from righty to lefty, so that it's always "behind" the cameras.

[WaffleHouseTour]

2 hours ago, Swood1994 said:

Well, you just blew my mind. That's going to help quite a bit with lining everything up! thanks for that bit of info.

Well, I’m glad I asked the question…

[Swood1994]

Outdoor Range Session #1 (9/14/24)

I know a lot of people in this thread are curious about outdoor use for the Skytrak+. Well as I awaited the rest of my indoor materials to set up the sim, I decided to take the Skytrak+ out to my local range to see how it would perform. It was a 78-degree day barely a cloud in the sky (at least overhead) and around 1PM. The main reason I included the time is because of the position of the very bright sun to see how it would affect the unit and reading shots. Just a couple notes, I was hitting off the mats and using range balls, 2 factors that may have contributed to a couple misreads.

I decided to forgo the protective case on this session, so I was sure put it on the mat at the same level at the ball. I have to say I was extremely impressed with how easy it was to pick up the red dot in the bright sun. I used my iPhone 15 pro as the visual device. Unfortunately, because of that, the dot disappeared when I tried to take a photo using my phone. While having a larger tablet is definitely going to be the way to go for the larger visuals the phone worked just fine. The IOS app worked flawlessly for the hour and half or, so I was at the range as well. I was pleasantly surprised how easy the set up was. I should note it was a last-minute decision and I forgot to set up an account and it wouldn't let me create one off a network (might be user error here). Nonetheless I was able to use the app as a guest and have a full session.

The exports of all shots are really easy and provide all of the relevant information we come to expect from a premium launch monitor. Shots are easy to delete when you really mess one up, don't lie we all do! I appreciate that the data is clearly organized by club and gives averages for each grouping. The UI is very easy to flip between the practice mode and the summary charts as well.

Now I did have a couple misreads. I had a nasty low duck hook with my 3-wood and it registered as a slice. funny enough I recreated the same exact shot on the next one, totally on purpose too! (just kidding my 3-wood and I just don't get along currently).

Misread: ball went left:

Correct read (very next shot):

All in all, I am very impressed with how easy the Skytrak+ is to setup and use on the fly. Given all of the extra variables from an outdoor session only having 2-3 misreads or non-reads was better than I expected especially for my first use. I am very excited to get it setup indoors and really dive into all its features. Hopefully you made it this far for this very lengthy first test session, much more to come!

Edited September 18 by Swood1994

[Josh Parker]

Love the graphics and display on this unit. Misreads happen.  Even the 20k TM has issues from time to time. 

[Rob Person]

7 hours ago, Swood1994 said:

Outdoor Range Session #1 (9/14/24)

I know a lot of people in this thread are curious about outdoor use for the Skytrak+. Well as I awaited the rest of my indoor materials to set up the sim, I decided to take the Skytrak+ out to my local range to see how it would perform. It was a 78-degree day barely a cloud in the sky (at least overhead) and around 1PM. The main reason I included the time is because of the position of the very bright sun to see how it would affect the unit and reading shots. Just a couple notes, I was hitting off the mats and using range balls, 2 factors that may have contributed to a couple misreads.

I decided to forgo the protective case on this session, so I was sure put it on the mat at the same level at the ball. I have to say I was extremely impressed with how easy it was to pick up the red dot in the bright sun. I used my iPhone 15 pro as the visual device. Unfortunately, because of that, the dot disappeared when I tried to take a photo using my phone. While having a larger tablet is definitely going to be the way to go for the larger visuals the phone worked just fine. The IOS app worked flawlessly for the hour and half or, so I was at the range as well. I was pleasantly surprised how easy the set up was. I should note it was a last-minute decision and I forgot to set up an account and it wouldn't let me create one off a network (might be user error here). Nonetheless I was able to use the app as a guest and have a full session.

The exports of all shots are really easy and provide all of the relevant information we come to expect from a premium launch monitor. Shots are easy to delete when you really mess one up, don't lie we all do! I appreciate that the data is clearly organized by club and gives averages for each grouping. The UI is very easy to flip between the practice mode and the summary charts as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I did have a couple misreads. I had a nasty low duck hook with my 3-wood and it registered as a slice. funny enough I recreated the same exact shot on the next one, totally on purpose too! (just kidding my 3-wood and I just don't get along currently).

Misread: ball went left:

Correct read (very next shot):

All in all, I am very impressed with how easy the Skytrak+ is to setup and use on the fly. Given all of the extra variables from an outdoor session only having 2-3 misreads or non-reads was better than I expected especially for my first use. I am very excited to get it setup indoors and really dive into all its features. Hopefully you made it this far for this very lengthy first test session, much more to come!

Thanks for testing and sharing the outdoor use portion!

[Swood1994]

1 hour ago, Josh Parker said:

Love the graphics and display on this unit. Misreads happen.  Even the 20k TM has issues from time to time. 

Absolutely! I think there are tiers where we’d expect a couple from time to time on the Trackmans and those alike. Then at the other end you expect more with lower level unit in the $500-$700 range. Nice to know that that the Skytrak is so far performing close to that top tier.

Edited September 18 by Swood1994

[Swood1994]

Well, I finally got set up indoors with the net, mat, and PC. 
 

 

The indoor swing syndrome was in full effect and I couldn’t get confident to take a full swing with my 7 or 9 iron. With practice this will get better, though.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t my biggest problem of the night. I was having a little bit of trouble registering and setting up the account as well as some latency issues with the PC. Not sure if it was due to the wireless connection, the monitor, or the PC itself. I double checked all of the specs (which meet and exceed all of the recommendations from Skytrak) and everything runs as it should. I also tried the unit on all 3 connection types (direct, network, USB). I’m scratching my head a little bit but I am going to start the process of elimination by hard wiring the PC to the router for a better connection to see if that solves the issue. Hoping it’s something as simple as that and not a parts upgrade.

NOTE: I’m sure this is user error and in no way the Skytrak’s fault. Just something I am experiencing at the moment. 

 

I will say the IOS app runs flawlessly. I tried my phone again as well as an iPad my father in law let me borrow. I honestly think for the range feature the iPad is the way to go. As @TSauer has said previously the set up is super simple and fast. It does everything you need and has a nice picture, with only a slight second delay from shot to visual output. 

I am hopeful I can keep playing around with the PC setup to get it to work as well as the other visual devices I’ve tried. More to come in the coming days! 

[TSauer]

Looking good, @Swood1994 You'll have to let me know if you end up figuring out what's causing the lag, that's definitely odd. I would have also guessed it's the network connection, but I really would've thought a strong wireless signal would be enough.. or at least hoping! You might try pulling up the task manager and look at the memory/cpu usage while you hit a few shots to see if it spikes while the shot is being projected. That shouldn't be it since it meets all the specs, but the IT guy in me can't not check it lol. Hopefully you can get everything running as smooth as that iOS version.. because dang, it's nice!

My garage is currently cleared out as my son's birthday party is Saturday and we need the space, but as soon as that's over I plan to hook up the PC and drag a TV out there and dive a little deeper. So Sunday will be a full on testing day!

Edited September 19 by TSauer

[MattF]

6 hours ago, Swood1994 said:

Well, I finally got set up indoors with the net, mat, and PC. 
 

 

The indoor swing syndrome was in full effect and I couldn’t get confident to take a full swing with my 7 or 9 iron. With practice this will get better, though.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t my biggest problem of the night. I was having a little bit of trouble registering and setting up the account as well as some latency issues with the PC. Not sure if it was due to the wireless connection, the monitor, or the PC itself. I double checked all of the specs (which meet and exceed all of the recommendations from Skytrak) and everything runs as it should. I also tried the unit on all 3 connection types (direct, network, USB). I’m scratching my head a little bit but I am going to start the process of elimination by hard wiring the PC to the router for a better connection to see if that solves the issue. Hoping it’s something as simple as that and not a parts upgrade.

NOTE: I’m sure this is user error and in no way the Skytrak’s fault. Just something I am experiencing at the moment. 

 

I will say the IOS app runs flawlessly. I tried my phone again as well as an iPad my father in law let me borrow. I honestly think for the range feature the iPad is the way to go. As @TSauer has said previously the set up is super simple and fast. It does everything you need and has a nice picture, with only a slight second delay from shot to visual output. 

I am hopeful I can keep playing around with the PC setup to get it to work as well as the other visual devices I’ve tried. More to come in the coming days! 

Look at the settings in the ST program. You can change the graphic settings to help speed that up.

[Swood1994]

6 hours ago, TSauer said:

That shouldn't be it since it meets all the specs, but the IT guy can't not check it lol.

Lol I am really hoping I don’t need to open it up Luckily I sit right behind the head of IT at work and have a couple of open favors from him if any upgrades are needed. I’ll start with the network hardwire and go from there. I really don’t think the monitor would be the issue and it’s a pretty standard monitor with a middle ground of 100hz refresh rate.

 

2 hours ago, MattF said:

Look at the settings in the ST program. You can change the graphic settings to help speed that up.

i tried to mess with the setting but the graphics were already on the lowest setting so i assumed bumping them up high would worsen the problem. Thanks for the recommendation though!

[TSauer]

40 minutes ago, Swood1994 said:

Lol I am really hoping I don’t need to open it up Luckily I sit right behind the head of IT at work and have a couple of open favors from him if any upgrades are needed. I’ll start with the network hardwire and go from there. I really don’t think the monitor would be the issue and it’s a pretty standard monitor with a middle ground of 100hz refresh rate.

 

Yeah the monitor wouldn't be the issue. The reason you're seeing that little bit of lag on the monitor is because you're dropping frames it looks like. If it is hardware related, the task manager should be pretty telling, as you'll see a spike in numbers when the PC is trying to "work" and it will actually tell you which program is using all up the resources. 

ctrl + shift + esc will open up the task manager. 

[MattF]

4 hours ago, Swood1994 said:

Lol I am really hoping I don’t need to open it up Luckily I sit right behind the head of IT at work and have a couple of open favors from him if any upgrades are needed. I’ll start with the network hardwire and go from there. I really don’t think the monitor would be the issue and it’s a pretty standard monitor with a middle ground of 100hz refresh rate.

 

i tried to mess with the setting but the graphics were already on the lowest setting so i assumed bumping them up high would worsen the problem. Thanks for the recommendation though!

If they’re already on the lowest setting then you need to upgrade the graphics card, that’s where the lagging is coming from. I’m going to use a RTX3050, which should run it fine.

[TSauer]

3 minutes ago, MattF said:

If they’re already on the lowest setting then you need to upgrade the graphics card, that’s where the lagging is coming from. I’m going to use a RTX3050, which should run it fine.

I believe he is already using a 3060TI, which should be more than enough based on the ST+ requirements. Their site recommends only a 970, which is 10 years old now.  The only thing I can think of causing the lag would be if the monitor was 4k and graphics were set to the max. 

What card are you currently using, Matt? 

[Swood1994]

11 minutes ago, MattF said:

If they’re already on the lowest setting then you need to upgrade the graphics card, that’s where the lagging is coming from. I’m going to use a RTX3050, which should run it fine.

I currently have an RTX 3060 Ti. I think after talking with a couple folks I found the potential issues. The PC was reset, and I think the graphics card drivers need to be updated from Nvidia. I'm also going to move the application from the hard drive to the SSD just to be safe and double check the output slot for the monitor I was using was off the graphics card and not the motherboard.

I'll be the first to admit I am not a pro at the custom PC stuff, but I am learning as I go! The PC was also built by someone other than me, so I need to learn the ins and outs of it to make sure I'm not missing anything. I definitely think the issues I had last night were user error and not the PC or the Skytrak.

[TSauer]

3 minutes ago, Swood1994 said:

I currently have an RTX 3060 Ti. I think after talking with a couple folks I found the potential issues. The PC was reset, and I think the graphics card drivers need to be updated from Nvidia. I'm also going to move the application from the hard drive to the SSD just to be safe and double check the output slot for the monitor I was using was off the graphics card and not the motherboard.

I'll be the first to admit I am not a pro at the custom PC stuff, but I am learning as I go! The PC was also built by someone other than me, so I need to learn the ins and outs of it to make sure I'm not missing anything. I definitely think the issues I had last night were user error and not the PC or the Skytrak.

Never even thought about that! Those onboard graphics are no bueno. Glad they got you sorted out!

[Swood1994]

51 minutes ago, TSauer said:

Never even thought about that! Those onboard graphics are no bueno. Glad they got you sorted out!

Hopeful to dive into the PC settings tonight! I'm unsure if I'll be able to test the range but will report back when I can log a couple shots. Finger crossed it's an easy fix!

[TSauer]

21 minutes ago, Swood1994 said:

Hopeful to dive into the PC settings tonight! I'm unsure if I'll be able to test the range but will report back when I can log a couple shots. Finger crossed it's an easy fix!

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the PC stuff, I work in IT and have built a handful of them over the years. 

I know the range is going to be my go-to, but I'm really looking forward to getting my PC hooked up to try out the course play stuff. There's just so much I want to do! 

[Swood1994]

20 minutes ago, TSauer said:

but I'm really looking forward to getting my PC hooked up to try out the course play stuff. There's just so much I want to do! 

Totally agree! The course play should be a lot of fun and I'm excited to see how the graphics hold up to other sim's I've played on. Also we should try and do a little competition with course play if you are interested! And thanks for the offer, hoping it's simple enough where I can tackle it but I will definitely take you up on that if needed. 

Edited September 19 by Swood1994

[TSauer]

31 minutes ago, Swood1994 said:

Also we should try and do a little competition with course play if you are interested! 

Oooh, now that's an idea! I'm down for that for sure. Once I get everything set back up after the bday, we'll get something scheduled. 

[MattF]

16 hours ago, TSauer said:

What card are you currently using, Matt?

I'm in the process of getting a new PC just to run the ST+. As I mentioned, it will have an RTX3050 6GB card in it, along with 32GB ram and 1TB SSD.