Trackman Indoor

[Dax]

Well I bit the bullet and ordered a TM today. Hope to receive it next week before I take off for holiday. I tested the system out at the RCGA centre here in Calgary which has two set up for simulator use. I believe that they used the Truegolf truetrack sensor for putting and the systems run the E6 software. I will not go with the putting set-up and will hold off buying E6 until their E6II comes out. In short, I found the system to be pretty accurate and replicated my game rather well. I even hit a couple of low flying shanks that were simulated very well (sorry for saying the "s" word).

I found TM to be very responsive to all of my questions and were extremly helpful. They were also very concerned and wanted to ensure that my set-up met their minimum dimensions before I completed my order.

I also went out and had a new computer built for me this week and just picked up the system yesterday. Happy to share the specs with anyone who is interested, but note that I went a little overboard on a few things.

I am really looking forward to testing the system and once I get everything up and running look forward to answering questions anyone might have if it helps them out in making their decision. I have not set-up my impact screen at the moment as I thought I would hold off as I don't have the e6 yet and the netting that I have up is very good quality and was designed for golf sim in mind (it came from westcoast netting).

So far though, TM has been great to deal with and they are very responsive.

[Dax]

I also managed to find the following very helpful operating set-up pdf on the net one day while I was searching. I hope that this link works.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&...64125504,d.b2I

[bubs3141]

I would be very interested in seeing pictures of your setup when finished. As well as a full review. How was the setup completed with the putting sensor? That is also interesting.

[Dax]

The putting sensor set-up was just like protee, they had built a raised plateform for the simulator and had the sensors built into the floor so that everything was flush. Essentially you could putt and do very short chips off of the Truetrack sensors. Everything was very well intergrated the only manual input required was when you were putting off of the green. I did try the putting and found that to be very difficult, which is my experience with most putting on sims. I have about 15 feet of length for putting in my set-up and bought a good quality turf (from Cory at Par2Pro) that is stimped out at around 10 that I plan to use to practice my putting.

[bubs3141]

the trugolf integrated with the trackman in the software? That is something I did not know about.

[Dax]

I believe that the integration occurs at the E6 level and not through the TM software.

[bubs3141]

ok, was not sure. If you don't mind me asking how much was the trackman indoor?

[Dax]

Don't mind at all, it is all listed on the website, US$15,995.

[bubs3141]

ok, cool. I would like to hear your review after you get it setup, as well as pictures.

Thanks

[Dax]

Absolutely, just playing around with the new computer now.

[golfsimxpert]

What other systems did you test before you went with Tman. Why did you choose them over the others?

[Dax]

It was a really tough decision actually. I had to think hard though, as I could have easily chosen Cg2 or even AboutGolf it was that close. I just felt TM replicated my shots very well and from my point of view it was as well as these camera based systems. Also, the service in terms of responsiveness to questions was spot on and what I was looking for.

In terms of cost, I have been saving for this for a long long time and so my budget was pretty good. When I decided that I could do everything thim myself and did and saw how much I was saving it made it a little easier to go ahead and spend the money on the trackman (overall, i was just very happy with what I saw and what I had either read or heard from others). One thing that did make it tough on the TM is that there really is not much written on the TM indoor set-up, but I was very happy that this December our local RCGA center installed two indoor TM units and thus allowed me to do some testing. Also, one great posting that I really liked was a posting on this site (I think TM vs CG2, where someone from TM and someone from E6 came on and explained the systems and how they integrated - don't see this very often).

Other systems that I have tested where AboutGolf, HD Golf, and CG2. HD Golf was reviewed a few years ago and I quickly removed it from my list for the way in which it replicated the game between me and my weekly golfing buddy (it was very far off what we typically see between one another). I was very impressed with AboutGolf and felt it replicated my game very well, but I did not seem to get the response that I was looking for to my questions, and while their quote was within budget I just did not feel comfortable proceeding. I should also note that the marking of the golf ball are using golf balls with marks was not an issue for me. One reason that brought some hesitation was reading a few posts on calibration (the sytems I tried never had this issue). On the CG2 front, I was pretty happy with this system, but felt a little uncomfortable with it slighty in front of me (or more my wife and son) and the issue of switching between left and right did not fit what I was looking for.

I don't think that I would have tried any other systems other than these though as I did not want to build a subfloor and have the sensors built into the floor. I do note that the sim software for ProTee seemed pretty good, my favorite was AboutGolf though in terms of sim software, but perhaps this could be changing with the next wave from E6 and Foresight.

System does come tomorrow and I look forward to trying it out for a day or two before I leave for holiday. Bad timing yes, but I wanted to have the system for when I got back as I will be taking some lessons while I am away from a great instructor that I found a couple of years ago and also the Cdn dollar had strengthened a bit again and so felt I needed to act before it dropped again.

[bubba22]

Good luck. Have fun. And keep us posted.

[Dax]

Thank you Bubba I definately will, the unit cleared customs this morning and I expect it to be delivered sometime today.

PS> thank you for all of your helpful comments throughout this process! greatly appreciated!

[Dax]

So I received the TM yesterday and unboxing was very uneventfull. I tried to get everything loaded up, but ended up having an issue with my computer that I was not able to resolve until this morning (there was something wrong with my omputers clock not being at the correct time). Once I figured out how to fix it (have the computer sync to an internet clock rather than adjusting it manually), the rest of the installation was very, very simple.

I did try and hit a few balls with my ipad though and was ony able to read about half of my shots. The problem seems to be the fact that my TM was set up for measuring 16 feet plus of ball flight and I could not change this to 10 ot 12 feet in my Ipad. I have all of this fixed now that I was able to complete the computer set-up and look forward to trying again tonight. For the shots that were picked up, I was able to get full ball and club data most of the time.

I also note that the unit was set-up at sea level and for 25 celcius.

[Dax]

One interesting new discovery that I did make with respect to using my ipad was that TM has added a new app called TM Camera, which I believe allows you to add six cameras to the TM system for capturing additional video of the swing and that the video recording I believe is triggered by the TM unit. Thus, I can now use my iPad in combination with my TM for capturing swing video. While the framerates are likely too low to do much with, it seems like a very positive advance that they have made and I know that this will be of great benefit to me.

[bubs3141]

Once you get it all setup post some photos. Also a full review would be nice in regards to reading the different clubs etc. Screen shots, what ever you can do would be very much appreciated.

[Dax]

Absolutely, I will try and take some pictures tonight and will likely leave the full review to when I am back from holiday in a couple of weeks and able to do a complete test of the system and the things that it can do. Unfortunately, I will not be able to do a review of the impact screen nor my projector as I have elected to hold off installing these until I order E6 and I am waiting anxiously for E6II to come out.

[bubs3141]

sounds good.

[Dax]

Well I managed to get everything set up yesterday. I did take some pictures and will try and load them up some time today. I note that setting up the systems and getting it connected seems very easy. Also, the number of misread shots dropped substantially from the night before when I was testing with my ipad without setting up the system properly.

The TPS software is very good and very easy to navigate and set up. I am able to easily add the measurements that I am interested in (there are a lot of choices and many that I think I will never use). I can also bring up different views of the range and shot dispersion as well as a screen that shows my club head information which is very helpful.

Accuracy for miss hit shots seems to be very good, I note that I am marking my golf ball with a metal sticker that was supplied by TM (I think they sent me either 100 or 200 of them). The sticker is meant to face the screen and away from the TM unit at set-up (I don't find this to be much of a bother, but could be for someone with a bad back). In terms of club measurement information, I note that I could not get readings for my 56 degree wedge, but will continue to play with this as I did get measurements with my pitching wedge when I moved my hitting area to the left most (I'm a righty) side of TMs hitting zone. All of my wedge shots were read, and the shortest chip that I could do was 6.4 yards and will continue to try and push this down when my hands soften as it is the beginning of the season and my feel for short shots has been lost.

For my 7,8 and 4 iron I seemed to get impact information in a larger hitting area. I still did get some no reads with each of these irons and these tended to be shots that were hit well, all miss hits were picked up (I have a note into TM on this). One thing to note when this did happen the longest I noticed that for some reason the TM was not reading data - I know now to watch for this every once and a while and make sure it is measuring. The club that had the most no reads was of course with the driver and I have a note into TM on this as it seemed to not read anything that I hit over 270 yards (my shots that felt really good). All of my shots in the range that did measure were either a miss hit or when I did not get a good swing speed for me (between 90 to 100 mph). I will continue to test this part and see what is happening as I had thought that my spin rate on the driver was above 2,500.

So I am still in a testing mode at the moment and will see what TM suggests in terms of my set-up and go from there.

[Frans@france]

If you are not hitting the iron and driver shots from the same spot then you must move the unit to make sure the driver is well within the hitting area at impact.

56 degree wedge and indoor is a tough combo, there need to be enough ball flight for the unit to measure / pickup the ball

[Dax]

Merci Frans, I will try your recommendation on the driver and note that it picked up the 56 wedge on every shot all the way from 6 yards to 95 yards without issue (just could not measure the club data). Really the only club I had an issue with was the driver, but will keep testing. I don't want to give up just yet and go to my back up plan as I have things set up exactly as I want at the moment.

[Dax]

The pictures did not turn out as well as I was hoping, needed more light I guess, but at least I know that light should not be an issue when I set-up my projector

Hopefully the pictures download correctly.

Also, a quick update from tonight. I set-up the TM again in a slightly different spot and had a lot less shots that were not read. I still had a few, mostly with driver again, shots that were not read and so I still have a little more work to do. However, I was able to get impact data for all clubs today including my 56 degree wedge (also, all my wedge shots registerd, but some did not include the impact information).

[goatbarn]

I have a very similar experience with my Flightscope, Dax.

Wedges will sometimes (somewhat rare) not have club data, especially the AoA, path and face values. The VSP, HSP, and Dynamic Loft are always picked up.

Very low driver shots for me are the only ones that aren't picked up frequently.

Any other club I've had all but the rare shot not register.

Nice setup.

[Dax]

Thank you goatbarn, can I ask you what your dimensions are? What I found last night was that the TM did a great job picking up my missed hits Even a drive that hit the netting at about a foot high, I have not had a really low miss yet, but will test this out as well.

Thus far, my experience with the wedges is very similar to yours (after a couple of adjustments last night).

[goatbarn]

I have 13' and 9'. I was told my flightscope I could go 14' and 8' if I have ball data issues on drives.

[Dax]

My contingency is to go to 13 ball to screen and 9 from the TM to the ball if I end up not being happy with the results. I have had good results with the head measurements in the just over 7' marks so far as well so eight should be plenty.

[BARGEGOLF]

Hi, apologies if I am hi-jacking this thread. I recently did a Trackman session at PGA Village in Florida and received a print-out report of the results. I requested to receive the report by email from the fitter. He replied that he couldn't - because of the nature of the data format, he indicated the data will not transmit via email. Not sure if Don Irving will check out this page (I know he is an active visitor to the forum) - I would like to send him a pm...

Has Don or anyone encountered this kind of issue and is there a possible work around solution?

Thanks for any advice...

[Frans@france]

Hi, apologies if I am hi-jacking this thread. I recently did a Trackman session at PGA Village in Florida and received a print-out report of the results. I requested to receive the report by email from the fitter. He replied that he couldn't

There is no reason at all why the fitter can not send the report by email...

[BARGEGOLF]

Bonjour Frans, merci pour votre message.

The fitter was not the most technologically saavy person... are there any specific instructions I can give him ?