Ernest ES16 Launch Monitor

So a friend of mine purchased an ES16 and got it all set up and ready to roll. He's asked me out to his hitting bay after work (in about a 1/2 hour) so I can take a look and help him out with it. I'm not 100% sure what he wants help with, but the last time I talked to him he said he was doing a Firmware update to the programing software. He said "we need to send E16 video of golf swing tonight" not sure what that means, I'll find out more here in after bit. I'll get some pictures of the set up and system and report back to you guys. Looking forward to this!

He was told this is the 1st ES16 in the state of Kansas!

Agent Jay said:

So a friend of mine purchased an ES16 and got it all set up and ready to roll. He's asked me out to his hitting bay after work (in about a 1/2 hour) so I can take a look and help him out with it. I'm not 100% sure what he wants help with, but the last time I talked to him he said he was doing a Firmware update to the programing software. He said "we need to send E16 video of golf swing tonight" not sure what that means, I'll find out more here in after bit. I'll get some pictures of the set up and system and report back to you guys. Looking forward to this!

He was told this is the 1st ES16 in the state of Kansas!

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Very cool that you get to check it out and 'help' him test it. Looking forward to your thoughts!

Ok, so I'm home and have some thoughts. The ES16 needs some work. There’s no way to sugar coat it. I started by warming up on the driving range. Hitting some easy 7 irons. The numbers were "normal" but trajectory and shape were not right. This should have been my first clue. Once I started taking full normal swing speed full shots, same thing. Kenny (guy who owns the place/system) asked what I was expecting or should see for distance. I told him around 165 for carry with my 7 iron, and that's what I was seeing. 165, 163, 166, 161, 164. So, we moved to my 20° hybrid. For that point on, the numbers weren't even close! The best carry I saw was 211, and I typically see more around 225 to 230 of carry. Then, we moved to driver. It does NOT like the driver at all. I started easy with it, swings around 90 to 95%. Swing speeds around 105-108, balls speeds were saying around 150, launch angles around 13° but it was showing ball spin of around 1350, so it wouldn't show a carry of much more than 217! Then, whenever I would try and reach back and hammer one I would fault it out and never would read over a 111 swing speed without saying, "sorry we couldn't read that" and it wouldn't give me any numbers.
So, after recording some data for them along with video to send, we decided to try the game mode simulation. That was even worse. Some times, if you waggle your club to close, it would show a shot like you topped it. Once, Kenny dropped his extra club behind the ES16 and the sound of the drop caused it to record a shot. On another turn he reached down to adjust the ball and it recorded a swing.

For the cost he's spending, around $7000, you'd expect it to be better than this. Right now, it really feels like a weak beta test.

See here on this screen shot. 105 swing speed, 150 ball speed. 219 carry, 251 total with 1300 spin. lol


Here's what it looks like when you hit it outside of what seems to be its max limits over 109 swing speed.
Notice the "sorry notice" on the right.

Well, that's too bad. Hopefully, Ernest can get this straightened out for your friend!

shanewu said:

Well, that's too bad. Hopefully, Ernest can get this straightened out for your friend!

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I think he's leaning towards sending it back and getting a refund. I was trying to do some research and came across a golf simulator forum and none of the guys who have a ES16 and were posting about them, had good things to say. From what I could tell there was two or three of them that had them and at least one or two of them were talking about sending them back.

To me it appeared that, at least with my driver, the ball spin RPM's were around 1000 short of where I thought they'd be, which is huge! However, with my 7 iron for example, the distances I was seeing was spot on. Then, with my two of my wedges, I was consistently hitting my 52 degree wedge equal to or just a little longer than my 50 degree wedge which had me scratching my head. So, they have some work they need to do for sure.

That is unfortunate. I really want this to disrupt the market.


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Anyone heard anything more about these?

I thought maybe they'd make an impact on the market but haven't seen/heard a peep.


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golfinFF said:

Anyone heard anything more about these?

I thought maybe they'd make an impact on the market but haven't seen/heard a peep.


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They are out there doing events and such and I will be up there soon and will by dropping by.

Thanks for the info JB, look forward to more


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golfinFF said:

Anyone heard anything more about these?

I thought maybe they'd make an impact on the market but haven't seen/heard a peep.


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I read up on it once in a while on the golfsimulator forum...since I'm there on the Skytrak section. The reason you probably haven't heard much about is probably because they have been buggy and going through growing pains. The Skytrak had issues as well when it first came out. BUT unlike the Skytrak, the ES16 is significantly more expensive and most people aren't willing to spend 5K on something that has soo many issues.

N54tt said:

I read up on it once in a while on the golfsimulator forum...since I'm there on the Skytrak section. The reason you probably haven't heard much about is probably because they have been buggy and going through growing pains. The Skytrak had issues as well when it first came out. BUT unlike the Skytrak, the ES16 is significantly more expensive and most people aren't willing to spend 5K on something that has soo many issues.

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My friend who has one ended keeping his, but only as a back up to the Trackman he bought when his was so buggy.

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Agent Jay said:

My friend who has one ended keeping his, but only as a back up to the Trackman he bought when his was so buggy.

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That's an expensive backup lol. How does he like it? I heard it's finicky with ball placement and making sure the label is facing the unit.

N54tt said:

That's an expensive backup lol. How does he like it? I heard it's finicky with ball placement and making sure the label is facing the unit.

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That's true, really finicky. It didn't like my Bridgestone, and if it wasn't on the dot, it typically didn't read.

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