SwingByte 2.0 THP Review Thread

Great post, Jon. It never occurred to me to actually use this with the putter - I need some help with that club and this may be exactly what the doctor ordered. Does the device automatically 'draw' that black line to show your target line when you pick Putter as your club?
 
Great post, Jon. It never occurred to me to actually use this with the putter - I need some help with that club and this may be exactly what the doctor ordered. Does the device automatically 'draw' that black line to show your target line when you pick Putter as your club?

Yep. I didn't add anything.

I knew I wouldn't make the range and wanted to have something to post on, so putter it was. As I was doing research a couple of folks mentioned using it on your putter, so I thought it would be interesting to try. Still fiddling, but I think a different view for putting would be helpful. Basically blow out what I showed above to get a little more detailed look at it.
 
Great write ups and pics so far guys. I'm really looking forward to seeing more thoughts on them as you use them more, and get into the personalized lessons.


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Great write ups and pics so far guys. I'm really looking forward to seeing more thoughts on them as you use them more, and get into the personalized lessons.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You know how to find me if you want to try this out at the range.
 
Got my device in the mail today, but it won't stay connected to my iPhone via Bluetooth. Followed all instructions but after a few swings the connection is lost.

My phone says it is connected to the device, the orange light on the device stays solid as necessary, but the only way I can get the device to talk to the app is to delete the app, reload it and sign back into my account. It works for a few swings and then drops off again.

I've already sent an e-mail to CS. Hopefully they can help quickly!

One thing that's kind of cool is you can compare your swings one to the other in real time on the app. I only tested this at home with a putter but you can see your swing path for every pass. Once I get the bluetooth thing worked out and take it to the range (hopefully Wednesday), I'll put together another YouTube and show what it can do.

One other thing is that there is no "swing coach" feature for putting.
 
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Hi All -

Patrick from Swingbyte here. Great to see the feedback and conversation so far. Thank you all for your interested in our product and help testing our new Virtual Coach feature on iPhone.

I'll being checking in on this thread from time to time but it's best to email support@swingbyte.com if you run into any issues, you'll get better and faster responses this way.

Our blog is a great resource as well. Please check it out: http://blog.swingbyte.com/

We welcome all feedback on our product as we're always looking to get better. Having said that, we'd greatly appreciate if you could be sure to test and provide feedback on the new Virtual Coach feature. Here's why:

Virtual Coach transforms Swingbyte from a data reporting tool to an interactive learning platform that offers personalizes lesson plans and drills. Virtual Coach allows golfers to learn about the parts of their swing that need the most help and productively work on fixing them. We're finally giving people the answer to the famous, "so what do i do with the data?" question that we've been asked since we introduced our product in 2012.

The tech and instruction behind Virtual Coach are really cool too. Virtual Coach features instructional content from Plane Truth Golf, the instructor- training program founded by renowned PGA TOUR instructors Jim Hardy and Chris O’Connell. During product development, Plane Truth Instructors trained the artificial intelligence that Virtual Coach uses by reviewing thousands of golf swings, tagging and classifying the faults that occurred in each swing. Virtual Coach uses this knowledge base in conjunction with Swingbyte data to recognize faults and infer body movement based on the motion of the swing. Cool, right?

A few things to keep in mind while testing:

- You can provide feedback via the "Send Feedback" link in the status menu of the app. (just tap the Swingbyte logo in the top right corner to access)
- You can only use Virtual Coach for full swing at this point - no putting and chipping. It's also iPhone only at this point.
- "Practice Mode" works for putting and chipping and we highly recommend using it for short game. Here's a link to blog articles on short game and putting: http://blog.swingbyte.com/Swingbytespotlight
- For optimal performance, it's best to use Virtual Coach with WiFi or a strong cellular connection. If using cell data, you might want to keep an eye on your data plan to make sure you're not over-using.
- After working on the same "Lesson Plan" in Virtual Coach for a while, we recommend creating a "New Plan" so Virtual Coach can re-assess faults.
- While the app has the ability to look at faults that occur in a single swing in practice mode (using the "genius button") as TeedUP explains in his post above, we recommend working off the drills in your Lesson Plan created off of the 5 swings you take in Virtual Coach. This is a much better gauge because your lesson plan is created from the swing faults that occur in those 5 swings, as opposed to a fault that may occur in one but not the other. Bigger sample size, better results. If your swing is anything like mine, it probably changes a bit from swing to swing, so it's best to let Virtual Coach look at several swings in order to best assess the aspects that need the most help.
- For more on Virtual Coach please visit our blog - http://bit.ly/VirtualCoachBlog

That's it for now. Thank you again. I'll look through the rest of your posts and do my best to respond to any outstanding questions.

Have fun!

Patrick
 
Does anyone know how to upload the videos from the app to Tapatalk? I'd like to share a few, but the "share" button gives me a link to the swing plane animation and not the video itself. Also, the animation in the link requires adobe flash player which isn't supported on iPhone... More on that later. For those wondering what I'm talking about:
"Take a look at this 103 mph swing with a Driver club:
https://rest.swingbyte.com/s/6PdME7LKRsazegonyl037Q"

All all your swings are stored in the cloud (you can access them all via desktop by visiting my.swingbyte.com and logging in with your user credentials). We're able to share them over the web via the web link you posted but it does use Flash, which is fine for people browsing on their computers and other devices but not iPhones. You can still see the data, just not the 3D animation, without our app, we use Flash to play back the swing in 3D. At some point in the future we would like to update this.

There isn't currently way to share video via web links but I'll check with our tech team to see if there are any plans in works to update functionality.
 
Great post, Jon. It never occurred to me to actually use this with the putter - I need some help with that club and this may be exactly what the doctor ordered. Does the device automatically 'draw' that black line to show your target line when you pick Putter as your club?

As mentioned, you can only practice putting in Practice Mode, but it can be very helpful and insightful. Best of all you can practice just about anywhere. Here's a recent post we did on putting with Swingbyte, highly recommend - http://bit.ly/SBputtingBS3

And yes, you'll see the black target line for all swings on Swingbyte. I recommend taking a look at this Swingbyte 101 Guide on our blog to learn more about features and how Swingbyte's tech works - http://blog.swingbyte.com/Swingbyte101
 
You know how to find me if you want to try this out at the range.


It'd be interesting to book some time on the sim and see how the Swingbyte's stats measure up against the sims at The Sandtrap (which admittedly aren't Trackman quality).
 
Very impressed with the CS. I got a response already with some questions about what's going on. Hopefully will get it worked out before my range session on Wednesday!
 
All all your swings are stored in the cloud (you can access them all via desktop by visiting my.swingbyte.com and logging in with your user credentials). We're able to share them over the web via the web link you posted but it does use Flash, which is fine for people browsing on their computers and other devices but not iPhones. You can still see the data, just not the 3D animation, without our app, we use Flash to play back the swing in 3D. At some point in the future we would like to update this.

There isn't currently way to share video via web links but I'll check with our tech team to see if there are any plans in works to update functionality.

Patrick, thanks for joining in the conversation. So far, I'm impressed with the user interface and the functionality. Using one of the suggestions produced better results and I'm really looking forward to trying out the virtual coach at my next range session.

The camera seems to add 10 lbs or so though, anything the tech team can do about that (haha).
 
It'd be interesting to book some time on the sim and see how the Swingbyte's stats measure up against the sims at The Sandtrap (which admittedly aren't Trackman quality).

Let me know what works for you, text me to coordinate so we don't take the thread off topic.
 
SwingByte 2.0 THP Review Thread

Mine is getting here....
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So the neighbor was nice enough to drop off my Swingbyte 2 after the postman dropped it along with 2 other packages to the wrong address. I've played with it indoor, but am hoping to be at my local indoor driving range tomorrow where I can compare the Swingbyte metrics to the Foresight GC2 Launch Monitor metrics. I'm hoping to have a first initial impression up tomorrow. Good work by the other testers so far.


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Got my device in the mail today, but it won't stay connected to my iPhone via Bluetooth. Followed all instructions but after a few swings the connection is lost.

My phone says it is connected to the device, the orange light on the device stays solid as necessary, but the only way I can get the device to talk to the app is to delete the app, reload it and sign back into my account. It works for a few swings and then drops off again.

I've already sent an e-mail to CS. Hopefully they can help quickly!

One thing that's kind of cool is you can compare your swings one to the other in real time on the app. I only tested this at home with a putter but you can see your swing path for every pass. Once I get the bluetooth thing worked out and take it to the range (hopefully Wednesday), I'll put together another YouTube and show what it can do.

One other thing is that there is no "swing coach" feature for putting.

Very impressed with the CS. I got a response already with some questions about what's going on. Hopefully will get it worked out before my range session on Wednesday!

love it, CS is a part of the product to review.
 
Thanks for the update Patrick, that's good to know!

Planning on getting this out to the range with my driver as that's the club I've been struggling with the most lately. After that, we'll be moving on to the irons.
 
Hi All,

For those of you intending to test Swingbyte data vs. launch monitor/sim data please keep following in mind:

1. Swingbyte and launch monitors utilize different technology and they measure different things: Swingbyte uses motion sensor tech to determine your what your club is doing, launch monitors use their tech to look at what the ball is doing. Both systems provide unique and useful data in their own right (and can often be complimentary) but your comparisons are not always apple to apples, so you may find certain data points match up and others do not. Having said that, if you have specific questions, or if something seems off, feel free to ask.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that Swingbyte and the launch monitor/sim you use should be internally consistent and show the appropriate changes directionally as you make adjustments to your swing. They just have their own ways of doing it.

2. Be mindful of Swingbyte's alignment on your club. Swingbyte provides certain data points by essentially comparing your club's position at address to your position at impact, so if you tend to vary your address position (open or hood your face at address), that can affect your data. Similarly if Swingbyte's position on your club changes between swings (if it rotates left or right), this can create inconsistent data from swing to swing. So just be mindful of this and check the position of Swingbyte from time to time to ensure accuracy. If you play around with this, you'll see what I mean.

We've found that if our users know more about how our tech works, they get more out of it.

3. Virtual Coach - When using the "Work on this Fault" or "Work on this Drill" part of Virtual Coach, we're interested hearing about how often your good shots on the simulator match up with Virtual Coach's feedback. If you hit a good one on the sim, does that match with what Virtual Coach is saying (the bigger the bar the better the shot)? We're beta testing this part of the app and actively trying to get user feedback and data. To be clear, we're interested in hearing about everything else related to your Virtual Coach experience but I wanted to call that one out.

Thanks!

Patrick
 
While we support company participation on THP and are all about 100% accurate info, lets make sure that we also allow golfers to give out their personal feedback from the testing of this device. Thanks.
 
Some really good information in here so far. This device and accompanying software looks like it offers a whole lot more than the last time I looked into similar technology. I'll be following along with interest.

This is probably a very basic question, but does the SwingByte 2.0 have to be used with an real golf ball (ie - does it use the impact) or could it be used on practice swings, or with foam/plastic balls to the same effect?
 
Some really good information in here so far. This device and accompanying software looks like it offers a whole lot more than the last time I looked into similar technology. I'll be following along with interest.

This is probably a very basic question, but does the SwingByte 2.0 have to be used with an real golf ball (ie - does it use the impact) or could it be used on practice swings, or with foam/plastic balls to the same effect?

Ok, revising my question, I now see the SwingByte does need an impact, but it says it doesn't care if it is a ball, a tee, or an impact bag. I'd be curious if the testers feel they are getting the same results between a real ball or foam ball...thinking indoor practice use here.
 
Ok, revising my question, I now see the SwingByte does need an impact, but it says it doesn't care if it is a ball, a tee, or an impact bag. I'd be curious if the testers feel they are getting the same results between a real ball or foam ball...thinking indoor practice use here.

Doesn't have to be a real ball, just requires an impact. Foam balls work well. Not sure if a tee would be enough but you can try. You can get creative with the objects you choose to hit for indoor practice :)
 
Ok, revising my question, I now see the SwingByte does need an impact, but it says it doesn't care if it is a ball, a tee, or an impact bag. I'd be curious if the testers feel they are getting the same results between a real ball or foam ball...thinking indoor practice use here.

I used a roll of toilet tissue when I first got mine. It was enough to pick up data, it was also enough to only do it the once after spending 10 minutes picking up shredded tissue.


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Ok, revising my question, I now see the SwingByte does need an impact, but it says it doesn't care if it is a ball, a tee, or an impact bag. I'd be curious if the testers feel they are getting the same results between a real ball or foam ball...thinking indoor practice use here.

I can't remember where, but I read that for the putter, a real golf ball is the only thing that will get the unit to sense the impact.

Update on my Bluetooth issues: I received a response and was asked to charge the device overnight and then follow a specific list of things to try and see if it will stay paired. I will do that tonight and hopefully get it working tomorrow for a range session. Fingers crossed!
 
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