Today for the first time, we were able to make a few comparisons of the DIY Launch Monitor's outputs to a commercial LM.  It’s also the first time to test in a more professional simulator environment.  The bed-sheet-over-PVC-piping-in-the-basement is still an option, but was pretty limiting.  And funny.  Instead, we now have access to a large simulator bay with the Uneekor overhead and running TGC 2019 (*).

The results?  Well, pretty decent for a first try.  See the example video here.  Lots of work to do, obviously, and WTH is going on with the side spin (at least in this one test case)?  We also need to stop truncating the output to integers in order to have a more meaningful comparison.  Hopefully these aren’t difficult fixes.  I’m not too unhappy right now in any case, given that the material costs of the DIY LM are around 1/20th of the cost of a Uneekor.  However, I’m certain the DIY LM can do a lot better than it's current performance. 

BUT, the main problem with the comparison environment was something I should’ve foreseen, but didn’t.  The Uneekor also appears to use an infrared strobe.  I never knew how it worked until I started this comparison, and it appears to run a high-speed IR strobe at all times once the ball is teed up.  This is wreaking havoc on the DIY LM!  See the bright-orange mess on the LM’s user interface in the video.  Current ideas include trying to notch-filter whatever wavelength the Uneekor is centered on, as well as some type of filter to remove the linear ghost images of the golf shaft as it moves.  I'm curious how other folks do comparisons of this sort (to the extent anyone has).

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(*) I’d really like to complete an interface to TGC 2019.  The DIY LM already works with GSPro and E6.  But no one at #2k Games (pr@2k.com) answers our emails, and I can’t locate a business contact there.  Anyone who knows someone, please DM me!