Protee Sim

[bubba22]

I envy your setup and sim rdh. I also wish I had your computer knowledge .

[ZMax]

Yep - Golftek provided an SDK which was perfect for me. It was all done in Visual Basic 6 which is ancient now but I knew it inside out, so that side was easy.

Cool. That is awesome customer support. I wonder if P3proswing would provide me with their SDK? I would be able to fix just every problem with their GSA interface and even add LA. I would do it for free and they would be able to sell a bunch of P3pro/GSA.

Well, I can't do it now since I don't have the GSA courses any more.

[bubba22]

I suspect P3pro would never release their sdk.

[Par2Pro]

Hey All,

Just stopping by for a second and noticed this post... Yes P3Pro will NOT provide their SDK.

Hope you all are having a great New Year so far and are getting lots of time to play golf.

I will try to get back here soon!

Cheers,
Cory

[rdrunner]

I am impressed by the level of talent contributing to this forum and so very disappointed that this talent and enthusiasm is not being utilized by the people at p3pro. It seems with a little bit of work and cooperation they could turn a good product into an excellent one. What a shame.

[bubba22]

You know rdrunner, you are absolutely right. There is no better place for a sim company to test their product but right here on this forum. Simple things like tweaking the LA add on (which I spent weeks trying to get increased accuracy), ZMax GSA tweaks (which really have helped with some of the problems) etc. Shame the enthusiasm is not tapped by the sim companies.

[ZMax]

Got my Protee sensor this evening. UPS lost the second package, which was the stance mat.

The Protee consists of the main sensor panel, fairway extension panel, and an NT ball track sensor.

I have it all apart in pieces at the moment. The ball track's ribbon cables are damaged. Only half the sensors work. Not a big problem. It's repairable.

The main board looks exactly like the PX1/2 main board, except the PX1/2 has a better serial connection on the board. It looked like somebody tried to do some damage to the front row sensors with a knife or something very sharp. A run got cut. I had to break out the soldering iron. Also, there 2 dead sensors that I'll have to replace.

I got some work to do, but I think this will turn out to be a pretty good purchase. I couldn't get GSA interface to detect the board. It was probably due to the fact that I don't have a security dongle. Without it, GSA interface runs in PC mouse mode.

Another thing, the sensor needs to be in a dark room with a bright light shining on it.

[bubba22]

Fantastic ZMax. How is the grass top quality? I think ProTee uses the Fiberbuilt mats and they are top notch. I will be purchasing the ProTee.

[rdh]

Is it just me, or does that NOT sound fantastic actually? If I bought a system and received it with a damaged cable, damaged circuit board, and two dead sensors, I'd be pretty furious. You clearly have a great positive outlook guys!

[ZMax]

Is it just me, or does that NOT sound fantastic actually? If I bought a system and received it with a damaged cable, damaged circuit board, and two dead sensors, I'd be pretty furious. You clearly have a great positive outlook guys!

I bought it used. I knew it had problems. It came with a stance mat(not sure where it's at right now), ball track, software, and lights, . I got the whole thing for less than the OEM PX2.

Actually, the main sensor board is working perfect now. The 2 sensors were not dead at all. Chalk it up to cold solder joints. All that is left are 2 damaged ribbon cables. I'll see if I can get these from Martin.

It was a lot of work to get the main board working right, but I saved a ton of money.

[rdh]

Ah - sorry, I didn't realize that. It's like anything in life - if you have the skills to pick up something at a low cost with problems and get it working, there's lots of $$$ to be saved. Well done - impressive stuff!

[ZMax]

Ah - sorry, I didn't realize that. It's like anything in life - if you have the skills to pick up something at a low cost with problems and get it working, there's lots of $$$ to be saved. Well done - impressive stuff!

Thanks, it was definitely a big risk. If any of the chips had been fried, I would have had to order a new board. Removing a chip from a 2 sided pc-board is very difficult.

[ZMax]

Fantastic ZMax. How is the grass top quality? I think ProTee uses the Fiberbuilt mats and they are top notch. I will be purchasing the ProTee.

Yes, it's a Fiberbuilt and it looks the same as the one on the PX2. The big difference is that the PX2 has a 1/2 inch layer of acrylic glass while the Protee does not. Oh yeah, this thing is much bigger than I had thought it be. The ball track has a control board inside a fairway panel.

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[bubba22]

Awesome ZMax.

[ZMax]

Awesome ZMax.

I'll be taking swings on it later today.

[mmlincon]

Zmax

You can order some of the ribbon cable. If memory serves it was 28 or 32 pin, kind of an odd size, but its out there. I had to get some to extend the distance to my ball track. I found a place in CA I think that sold it by the foot. I ordered a couple M/F connectors and I was set. Shouldn't be too difficult to fix the cable issue.

[ZMax]

Zmax

You can order some of the ribbon cable. If memory serves it was 28 or 32 pin, kind of an odd size, but its out there. I had to get some to extend the distance to my ball track. I found a place in CA I think that sold it by the foot. I ordered a couple M/F connectors and I was set. Shouldn't be too difficult to fix the cable issue.

Thanks mmlincon,

[bubba22]

ZMax how many sensors are on the ProTee? It seems to have 2 rows on board and a few behind the first row. I wonder how the sensor arrangement works? Is the ball sensor one or 2 rows?

[ZMax]

ZMax how many sensors are on the ProTee? It seems to have 2 rows on board and a few behind the first row. I wonder how the sensor arrangement works? Is the ball sensor one or 2 rows?

96 on the sensor board. The 3 behind the first row are reset sensors(P3pro triangle). The ball track is one row made up of two boards side by side for a total of 128 sensors.

[bubba22]

Awesome

[ZMax]

Not sure if you can tell from the image above, but the sensors are very, very small and very close together. This might be how GGS can claim such accuracy.

[bubba22]

I agree ZMax. The sensor size, spacing and arrangements are very important for club and ball accuracy. I think the ProTee/GGS are quality built sims.

[ZMax]

I had to go get 2 halogen bulbs for the lights. Both bulbs came dead. Probably from
shipping. I hope to be able to take some swings on the Protee in a a little bit.

[bubba22]

What kind of bulbs are required? How do you plan on mounting them? ZMax could you post a pic of the lights mounted when you get a chance.

[ZMax]

What kind of bulbs are required? How do you plan on mounting them? ZMax could you post a pic of the lights mounted when you get a chance.

More pictures:

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IMG_3364.jpg

The lighting is your basic 120 volts track lighting with spotlight fixtures. The fixtures twist into the track. I mounted the track with 2 screws, one in each floor joist. Since it's 120 volts, no transformer is needed, just connect white to white and black to black. The bulbs are 50 watt halogen par20 spot light for the ball track and a 50 watt GU10 twist on for the sensor mat. Cheap stuff.

In one of the pictures you can see the spot of light for the ball track. The sensor mat light didn't affect the screen at all but the ball track light had a small effect on image. Might not even be noticeable during play. Blinders on the ball track light fixture would take care of this.

You can see the difference in size between the Protee/GGS and the P3pro. The Protee is also a little bit taller.

The first few swings came in at around 88 mph, not bad considering I haven't swung a club since I returned my P3pro/GSA courses. I guess I don't have any reflection or should I say shadow issues?

I'll try to take some screen shots.

[bubba22]

ZMax are you getting a mat system for the sim or are you going to make one? The grass quality looks better than the p3pro cdg one.

[ZMax]

ZMax are you getting a mat system for the sim or are you going to make one? The grass quality looks better than the p3pro cdg one.

It was suppose to come with a stance mat but UPS lost it. If I don't get it by next week, I'll have to make a cut out in the P3pro mat.'

The grass is definitely better than the CDG.

[bubba22]

It is too bad that you can't use the new ProTee Play software or the upcoming launch cam with that sensor board. Have you enquired about that? What is the reason behind not being able to do that?

[ZMax]

It is too bad that you can't use the new ProTee Play software or the upcoming launch cam with that sensor board. Have you enquired about that? What is the reason behind not being able to do that?

No, I have not asked why it would not work. I assumed they're now using their own sensor. It doesn't look like anything GGS has at the moment. I believe Martin stopped working with them in 2008? I can upgrade but it'll cost too much.

[ZMax]

The ribbon cables have been repaired and the pieces are now connected together. All of the ball track's 128 sensors are working.

I do have a problem. The main sensor is working fine but when connected with the ball track, the program is telling me that the ball track failed to detect a ball. I can toss balls over the ball track and the individual sensors do light up in the software. But the ball track is saying that it failed to detect a ball greater than 4 cm.

It sounds like the shadow of the ball is not big enough. Ceiling too low?