Optishot Defective?

[Jeffrey T]

Hello all,

I am new to the forum. Recently I purchased Optishot. At first I thought it was fun, with good graphics and courses, but noticed erratic results, so I started checking its accuracy. I have found clubface angle measurement to be a complete joke. Swinging at low speed so I can actually see the clubface angle with any of my irons can result in 10-15* variation from one swing to the next. This is ridiculous as I am certain the angle is the same, certainly within a degree or two with the short chipping stroke I am using to test it. Accuracy is even worse with fairway woods. The one old driver I have that registers is worst of all (my regular driver doesn't register at normal swing speeds). Adjusting CFL lighting seems to make no difference, nor do any of the club or ball settings. There is no ambient light entering the basement room where I have it set up. I haven't tried taping my clubs but understood this was not necessary. Anybody out there have an experience like this? I am sorely disappointed in this unit, but there seem to be those of you out there that actually believe it works.

[Daddyfats]

Mine has been working just fine for over 3 years and everybody who has used it thinks it's pretty good.
It is less accurate with woods but they tell you this up front.
There have been at least 6 sets of irons used on mine. None have been a problem.

[fhann]

I highly recommend taping woods and hybrids. I have noticed a remarkable improvement in the accuracy/realism of the shots when these clubs are taped. OptiShot is not allowed to state that taping is recommended because of losing a lawsuit for patent infringement with P3ProSwing.

You would be surprised about thinking that you have a 2 degree consistency with swinging a club at very slow motions. A 2 degree difference in face angle is only a difference of 0.07 inches misalignment, (i.e. a little more than a 1/16 inch), between the toe and the heel on an iron. It will be even more difficult to see visually with woods because of the bulge that is applied to the face to counteract gear effect, (i.e. woods generally don't have a flat/straight leading edge as compared to irons).

[golfun]

There seems to be a split 50-50 down the center when this happens.

For some people it works right out of the box fine. Sometimes they just have to alter some settings.

-Then others it gives errant results like extremely open club faces.

These people will try Every remedy they can think of or read to fix it. This includes taping. They will contact customer support too and it doesn't seem to help. A lot of times these are low handicap golfers that know their swing really well.

I would troubleshoot it every way possible first. There are a ton of remedy's on this forum.
But if in the end you have tried everything possible, it isn't your fault, this thing should work in acceptable conditions. That's from my own experience too.

It might simply be a defective unit too?

P.S.- The whole troubleshooting process might seem maddening but in the end you will come to some kind of conclusion! Hope it goes well!

[bubba22]

Very good advice golfun. I would recommend troubleshooting for sure. Unfortunately there are some folks that have not been able to get it to work well despite evrything tried. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Jeffrey T]

I contacted Optishot and sent them photos of the 4 iron I am using for testing, along with some photos of various clubface angles at setup (employing a thin straightedge). I then provided the erratic results the unit is registering for various clubface angles (i.e. club square at address and with 3-4 mph straight swing may read closed 2.7* to closed 9.4*, similar errors for open and closed at address, varying by as much as 15* over a couple of dozen swings). Anyway they were very nice and are going to replace the sensor pad. Anybody else out there have a similar problem or am I just lucky?

[bubba22]

The Optishot folks are really good to try and please. Kudos to the Optishot crew. Good luck Jeff.

[Deverx]

Glad to here they are taking care of you as I am very close to purchase.

[Daddyfats]

I contacted Optishot and sent them photos of the 4 iron I am using for testing, along with some photos of various clubface angles at setup (employing a thin straightedge). I then provided the erratic results the unit is registering for various clubface angles (i.e. club square at address and with 3-4 mph straight swing may read closed 2.7* to closed 9.4*, similar errors for open and closed at address, varying by as much as 15* over a couple of dozen swings). Anyway they were very nice and are going to replace the sensor pad. Anybody else out there have a similar problem or am I just lucky?

As far as getting a bad unit from the start, it seems to be rare. What happens more often is the user expects too much or doesn't believe the problems that the unit is exposing in his own game.

Sounds like your evidence has convinced them it is a bad unit, and as usual, their customer service is excellent.

Somebody damaged my sensor pad a couple of years ago. I have no idea how because I didn't see it happen. I had it set up during a family get together and somebody actually hit down into the back sensor somehow and damaged it.
I had two options, pay for a repair, or pay for a replacement. The repair was cheaper, so I sent it back for repair. They sent me a brand new unit for the repair price.

I hope the new unit works out for you.

[Jeffrey T]

As far as getting a bad unit from the start, it seems to be rare. What happens more often is the user expects too much or doesn't believe the problems that the unit is exposing in his own game.

Sounds like your evidence has convinced them it is a bad unit, and as usual, their customer service is excellent.

Somebody damaged my sensor pad a couple of years ago. I have no idea how because I didn't see it happen. I had it set up during a family get together and somebody actually hit down into the back sensor somehow and damaged it.
I had two options, pay for a repair, or pay for a replacement. The repair was cheaper, so I sent it back for repair. They sent me a brand new unit for the repair price.

I hope the new unit works out for you.

In my correspondence with Optishot, I did mention that a really terrible-golfer friend, hit the rear edge of the sensor pad with an iron with enough force to permanently dent the plastic (this was when I first got unit, before I installed it into my 5'x5' mat). It didn't seem to hurt it, but then I hadn't tested it for accuracy prior to this incident. I had assumed the unit was designed to take the shock of club impact (though to the turf! I was pretty ** at my friend). Anyway, the guy at Optishot didn't take issue with my mention of this damage. Was the damage you describe to the actual sensor led's?

[Daddyfats]

Jeffrey,

The led's were not broken, but you could see where a club came down very steeply and hit the plastic just in front of the rear sensor. There was a dent in the plastic and the rear sensor was slightly out of line. The readings were all over the place and that had never happened before.

Since then, I have always been present when others are using it, and as a precaution, if they are hitting off the mat, I make them place the ball well forward of the tee hole, almost all the way up toward the front sensor. This doesn't change the readings at all. In fact, I place it there all the time, even when I'm the only one using it. It also seem to take away fear of hitting off the mat for those who are intimidated by the slots in the turf.

I hit down on the ball, and when I first got the unit I tore the turf by hitting fat when the ball was right at the tee hole. I never hit the sensor, but the club edge caught the turf and tore it. I was able to repair it myself. I started placing the ball in front of the tee hole back then, and now I place it up even farther.

[fhann]

I find that the club head speed and ball distances are increased when moving the ball forward on the Optishot. It takes a little less time for the club head to pass the forward sensors after contacting the ball when the ball is moved forward from the tee position.

[gotplastic]

OP: I had some similar issues. In the end I found the only lighting that really works is a single bulb directly over the unit. I got a 150W cfl from home depot and it works much better now.

[Jeffrey T]

OP: I had some similar issues. In the end I found the only lighting that really works is a single bulb directly over the unit. I got a 150W cfl from home depot and it works much better now.

My lighting is (3) 23 watt CFL's on the ceiling 9' directly over the unit, which I described to Optishot. I went down to one 23 watt CFL, and also tried moving CFL's around to side positions, etc., but this did not improve the poor measurement accuracy.

[psace]

I have one 40w cfl bulb above my sensor matt. All my clubs work very well including the putter. If your clubface angle is not measuring properly when taking very short swings, the unit must be defective or your alignment is very much out. I have had countless hours of enjoyment. My golfing partner and I find we normally shoot about 5-10 shots less than our normal game. This mainly due to the fact that the rough and trees are more forgiving if you miss the fairway.

[Ryyboivs]

I purchased a used optishot about a year ago and it's sweet then I found something on the ground and it ended up being one of the sensors came clean off the pad which sucked but I continued using it until 3 more sensors came off and then distance and accuracy was way off so I decided to buy a new optishot directly from them. Two rounds into it another sensor broke off. I emailed optishot and there sending me a new pad but I'm pretty terrified this is gonna happen again I bought a way thicker turf for the pad and I'm hoping that will help I don't overly want to change my swing because it works pretty good in real golf but I was wondering has this happened to anyone and has anyone tried anything to fix this?

[wbond]

Hopefully you went with the jagman joe slick things cover

I purchased a used optishot about a year ago and it's sweet then I found something on the ground and it ended up being one of the sensors came clean off the pad which sucked but I continued using it until 3 more sensors came off and then distance and accuracy was way off so I decided to buy a new optishot directly from them. Two rounds into it another sensor broke off. I emailed optishot and there sending me a new pad but I'm pretty terrified this is gonna happen again I bought a way thicker turf for the pad and I'm hoping that will help I don't overly want to change my swing because it works pretty good in real golf but I was wondering has this happened to anyone and has anyone tried anything to fix this?