Optishot 2

[CatMan]

Hi

This is Bret with Golf Simulator Guys. We have decided to sponsor a few of these new online optishot leagues that are popping. We are willing to contribute $100 per league for a prize money and are also willing to give everyone in the league a discount on all product.

Please contact me if you are interested
bret@golfsimulatorguys.com

Thanks

Hey Bret, this is John (CatMan) Please Email me at CatManEA@comcast.net with any other information I can share with the League.
Thanks, CatMan

[glgoat42]

Just quick question what kind if tape works best for the clubs and when calibrating do you take full swings or just wave your club

[coreyhr]

Just quick question what kind if tape works best for the clubs and when calibrating do you take full swings or just wave your club

I use black gaffer's tape with a strip of white duct tape for the driver. Cover the entire sole with the gaffer tape and then a strip of white duct tape close to the leading edge of the driver. I tape my wedges as well by covering the entire sole of the club with the white duct tape. I use just the "duck tape" brand from Wal-Mart. These two methods have yielded me great results.

[CatMan]

Just quick question what kind if tape works best for the clubs and when calibrating do you take full swings or just wave your club

Yes Like Corey Said,

We use Gaffers tape as in my Video and White Duct Tape I have both brands listed on my you tube Site.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNjBGhxhLa4 I also have how to tape your putter on the site as well

[CatMan]

Yes Like Corey Said,

We use Gaffers tape as in my Video and White Duct Tape I have both brands listed on my you tube Site.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNjBGhxhLa4 I also have how to tape your putter on the site as well

This is my newest Tape Video, with a different way of applying it

http://www.twitch.tv/catmanea/c/5545042

CatMan

[bionicbooger]

This is my newest Tape Video, with a different way of applying it

http://www.twitch.tv/catmanea/c/5545042

CatMan

Hey Catman

We are going to test a turftop with an infrared filter. We have a plexiglass filter coming to test. The idea is that any sim using infrared sensors are susceptible to misreads if any lighting in the room has infrared light in it. Daylight has infrared in it. How the filter works is that it will allow infrared to travel through the plexiglass only in one direction. Therefore it will allow the Opti to emit its infrared out but not allow any external infrared to shine on the sensors. If we feel that there is some difference, we may ship you a turf top to test. But of course it won't take the optishot and give it ball tracker accuracy. It just might help with some misreads.

We will receive the sample next week. We will then have it cut and placed in our turf top. We will let you know what we find.

[wbond]

The unit emits IR, but doesn't it try to read the same IR back into the unit? If so, wouldn't the filter prevent this? If it does work, that would be great and should eliminate the wild misreads.

Hey Catman

We are going to test a turftop with an infrared filter. We have a plexiglass filter coming to test. The idea is that any sim using infrared sensors are susceptible to misreads if any lighting in the room has infrared light in it. Daylight has infrared in it. How the filter works is that it will allow infrared to travel through the plexiglass only in one direction. Therefore it will allow the Opti to emit its infrared out but not allow any external infrared to shine on the sensors. If we feel that there is some difference, we may ship you a turf top to test. But of course it won't take the optishot and give it ball tracker accuracy. It just might help with some misreads.

We will receive the sample next week. We will then have it cut and placed in our turf top. We will let you know what we find.

[coreyhr]

Just quick question what kind if tape works best for the clubs and when calibrating do you take full swings or just wave your club

Also... when calibrating, just move your club back and forth like you're using a putting stroke.

[Mutann]

Great comments on the Optishot 2. I can't wait to save for a sim with all the bells and whistles, I am gonna order soon. Expect a delivery to way up in Canada jagmanjoe!

[madspeed]

Dicks Sporting Goods has the Optishot on sale for $199. I couldnt resist, so I picked up a second unit and now have a lefties and a righties hitting area

[brcobb]

Nice madspeed!

[brettsker]

Catman i'll be joining the league soon once I figure out some of the inconsistencies.

I'm guessing it might be a lighting issue. I don't have any "major" shadows over the sensor. I have the curly bulbs in the overhead fan/light fixture in the room. There is a very minor shadow which the club creates.

It almost never picks up my first driver swing. I also get the rare 130+mph swing speed readings. I did tape up the driver but i used duct tape and actual reflective tape, unlike what you have in your videos which I watched afterwards of course.

Anyway besides those minor issues there is a bigger one at hand. A friend and I had purchased ponte vedra last night. Only to have the issue of not being able to play it. Is there something special DD has to do in order for us to play this or is there another issue? The only email I received was a receipt...nothing with instructions on how to access the course once it was bought.

Appreciate any help you guys can offer!

[brcobb]

The system dose work as described above. However, the overall IR spectrum is fairly large. All you need to do is have an acrylic (plexiglass) that blocks the unwanted IR and passes the IR you need to use. Specific IR blocking/passing materials are available.

[wbond]

Do you happen to know the specifics of what these are or a link to one of the products? I would like to find a piece and give it a try, just not sure what exactly to look for.

The system dose work as described above. However, the overall IR spectrum is fairly large. All you need to do is have an acrylic (plexiglass) that blocks the unwanted IR and passes the IR you need to use. Specific IR blocking/passing materials are available.

[FaultyClubs]

IR emitters and detectors are already much more sophisticated than you guys are describing.

Good detectors these days already have filter packs built in (better than simple plexiglass) as well as optics designed to ignore light from unwanted directions. Also emitters are typically more narrow band than receivers so one has to match the filters carefully to avoid really messing things up. And making a filter with good passband characteristics and also good stopband shape requires very sophisticated filter stacks that aren't going to be made at home...they are hard enough even in the lab.

And all that ignores the electrical system design in the simulator. Filters change the timing and a host of other things assumed by the existing design.

Bottomline: the Optishot would have to be very badly designed for a home user to be able to improve.

[brcobb]

Couple of thoughts.......FaultyClubs is absolutely correct in that the ir emitters\sensors are a lot more complex and sophisticated than described. However, if you consider the "system" to be the Optishot sensor pad, the clubs and the environment, you can absolutely make it better. For example......Taping clubs for better reflection and removing ambient ir light. As stated, typically the ir sensor portion is not as narrow as the emitter. it is not impossible to use materials to block ambient ir. The problem is knowing what wavelength needs to pass. Based on the style, I am guessing the Optishot is using Sharp emitter/receiver packs. I have't looked to see if they are tuned to a specific wavelength and if there is a material readily available as a filter.

[ancien]

With the rain of these days i've found my garage full of water...
Unfortunately the optishot was on the floor :\ and i think that it take some water on.
I've tried to connect to the computer but the computer doesn't recognize the pad.
I will wait some day in the hope that all the water go away from it...
Any hope for me?
Or i can say good bye to it?
Any experience on that?

[madspeed]

You may need to play around a bit with the screen resolution and aspect ratio from within Optishot

[jbeck]

I run Optishot at the same screen res as the computer and have tried multiple settings within the computer and within Optishot. Are you getting clear text?

Also, when I do change the setting within Optishot, I don't really see any changes, maybe I am doing something wrong.

[madspeed]

and how is zoom handled by your projector? Ideally you want to fill up the screen as much as possible while having your projectors zoom in the middle of its usable range, then zoom to hone in from there

[madspeed]

my text is clear as can be. I could check my settings and report back, but likely will be different than your optimal settings due to different computer systems and projectors. What is the native resolution of your projector?

[jbeck]

Here are some of the specs:
Display Attributes
Native Resolution 800x600
Maximum Resolution 1440x900
Aspect Ratio 4:3 (SVGA)
Display Type 3 LCD
Digital Zoom

Thanks again for the replies!!

[Pacemeister]

Is text nice and clear in a word doc (or mac equivelent)?
It would be very strange if only the text was blurred in opti software, is the rest of the image clear? Sounds simply like the projector isnt quite focused?

[Pacemeister]

Actually on second thoughts its more likely reution mismatch, this would skew text on a more noticable scale than the image, set your projector to 800 x 600 on your mac and work up from there if the image is clear, i would have thought 1080 x 720 would work but start from the bottom 800 x 600 first, project a text doc at that res to check its running correctly before booting optishot.

[jbeck]

Thanks for the replies, I had to switch the display settings on the Mac to be "best display for computer" not projector. That seemed to work much better.

[jackhawk]

So how many of the courses does Optishot have for the PGA tour this year? It was fun to play Pebble Beach and Rivera for free on the weekend the PGA tour was at those sites this year online.

[tcaron]

I updated my Optishot the other day and it automatically loaded Hogan's Run. The next day I could no longer acces it and it says that I can only preview it.
Any ideas?
TomC

[wbond]

You were able to use it during that weeks PGA tournament. They have been doing this for the past few weeks. If they have a course that matches the PGA that week, you can play Thurs-Sun. If they don't they offer play on a different one Thurs-Sun.

I updated my Optishot the other day and it automatically loaded Hogan's Run. The next day I could no longer acces it and it says that I can only preview it.
Any ideas?
TomC

[tcaron]

Got it, thanks.

Tom c

[Jb50]

Been reading lots of stuff on this site. Great info. Going to pull the trigger on the optishot 2 but wanted to make sure my laptop is enough to handle it. I have a:

Toshiba satellite c55dt-b
AMD A8-6410 APU with Radeon r5 graphics 2.0 ghz
6 gb RAM
64 bit
Windows 8.1 touchscreen

From what I have been reading this should be plenty? Any thoughts?

Thanks