Garmin R50 Launch Monitor

[iacas]

Approach® R50

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Approach R50 is a premium golf simulator and launch monitor with a 10” color touchscreen for virtual rounds, and three-cameras for precise club and ball measurements.

The Garmin R50 is a $5k all-in-one camera based launch monitor. It has a built-in sim (the HDMI output is limited to the screen's resolution, which is only 1280 x 800).

[ChetlovesMer]

Thanks for posting.

I've heard a bunch about this launch monitor. There's a lot to like about it. I actually enjoyed this guy's reviewing style as well. 

[iacas]

[iacas]

You can pre-order an R50 here for pretty rapid shipping (these are back-ordered almost everywhere): https://www.playbetter.com/products/garmin-approach-r50-golf-launch-monitor-simulator?ghref=2301%3A700794. This is an affiliate purchase, and I'm willing to kick back lifetime ad-free Supporter membership here on TST or a 90-minute GEARS session for the cost of a regular member lesson (about 1/3 the cost).

Also, I'll record a video myself soon when I get an R50.

[iacas]

I've got one and am going to begin testing.

Tips for Approach R50 Placement | Garmin Customer Support

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Garmin Support Center is where you will find answers to frequently asked questions and resources to help with all of your Garmin products.

Using Practice Balls With Garmin Golf Launch Monitor Products | Garmin Customer Support

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Garmin Support Center is where you will find answers to frequently asked questions and resources to help with all of your Garmin products.

If you buy one via a link I can give you (you'll pay nothing more than standard cost), I'll give you a free hour of instruction on GEARS. Reach out prior to purchase.

And subscribe to this topic for more info. I'm going to test the accuracy and a few other things here in the next week or so.

[iacas]

Some quick notes. Mine arrived yesterday, and on Monday I used a student's in his lesson with him.

• The touch interface is very responsive. Almost iPad-like. Not at all like crappy touch screens that lag or where you're not sure you hit the button.
• A lot of the smaller (negative) issues are software based, so I think they can iterate on them and improve them:
  • I named myself "Erik J. Barzeski" and so my little user "circle" shows up as "EJ." First, stop assuming someone's initials. Second, when I choose "Edit Users" the only option to edit is… to remove the user. I can't edit my name or whether I'm a righty or a lefty. That's not "editing" a user.
  • I created "Student Lefty" and "Student Righty" as guest profiles, and think they should add colors to the little circles. It could let you more quickly find the person you're looking for. Not much of an issue with three, but if you play with a group of ten friends here and there, it would help.
  • There are four different ways to dismiss a screen, which I found funny. You can tap away from a panel, click an "X," click "save/cancel," or click "Done." They could have done
  • Not all clickable areas appear to be tappable. "Power Save" and "Battery Save" are tappable (you can change the settings), but they just say "Power Save : ON" or something.
  • I definitely don't love the shot tracer. In the overhead view, a dot appears where your ball would have landed. But… if you're hitting the same club, every dot is the same color (orange for a 7I). I think the last dot, the last shot, should be a different color. After you've hit five or ten shots, you don't even really know which dot is the new one.
• The impact camera is more than what's offered by a lot of things (like even the QuadMAX), but at the same time, not all that useful. It's only about six (eight? ten?) frames and it's snot from a not great angle because you hit from so side-on.
• The hitting area with club data is pretty small. This won't work very well off of grass. And you'll want to move it around lest you wear out your
• Alignment is super easy. Lay a club down, rest two balls against it… aligned. I do wish it prompted you to align it when you turn it on, even if one of the options was "keep current alignment" if you haven't moved it since last using it (or it never moves in your sim or something).
• I don't have a subscription yet and may never get one. I don't plan to use Home Tee Hero for much. I may plug it in to GSPro at some point. I think you can connect to it via your WiFi network. As in… it joins your network, and so you can be online and connected to it wirelessly. I'm not sure what the USB-C port is for.
• The fiducials (club stickers) I have for the GCQuadMAX also work on the Garmin. You don't need to use their larger stickers. Heck, I used the tab from a GC fiducial on Monday and it worked fine.
• The storage/travel case is well done. It's solid, sturdy. But, oddly, there's no real good place to put the charger and cable. Maybe I can set it in against the back side beneath the handle? I could have used a little pocket for that.
• The weight is not anywhere near as substantial as it looks. Because the GCQuadMAX is denser, I think it may almost be just as heavy (I think officially it's 7.x pounds for the Quad and 9.x for the R50).
• Because the unit sits almost directly beside the golf ball, I don't think people are going to be as worried about shanks as they are with the GC units (GC3, GC4/MAX) or other "side-on" units. I do wonder about someone accidentally hitting it off the toe and into what seems to be plexiglass covering the cameras, though.
• The range UI is nice — you can split screen to show the impact video, the shot data, the range overview of ball flight… etc. If you hook it up to an external display I'm pretty sure you can get three things. Maybe four, with split screens on both?

That's all I can think of for now, but I'll be updating this as I go.

[ChetlovesMer]

2 hours ago, iacas said:

Some quick notes. Mine arrived yesterday, and on Monday I used a student's in his lesson with him.

• The touch interface is very responsive. Almost iPad-like. Not at all like crappy touch screens that lag or where you're not sure you hit the button.
• A lot of the smaller (negative) issues are software based, so I think they can iterate on them and improve them:
  • I named myself "Erik J. Barzeski" and so my little user "circle" shows up as "EJ." First, stop assuming someone's initials. Second, when I choose "Edit Users" the only option to edit is… to remove the user. I can't edit my name or whether I'm a righty or a lefty. That's not "editing" a user.
  • I created "Student Lefty" and "Student Righty" as guest profiles, and think they should add colors to the little circles. It could let you more quickly find the person you're looking for. Not much of an issue with three, but if you play with a group of ten friends here and there, it would help.
  • There are four different ways to dismiss a screen, which I found funny. You can tap away from a panel, click an "X," click "save/cancel," or click "Done." They could have done
  • Not all clickable areas appear to be tappable. "Power Save" and "Battery Save" are tappable (you can change the settings), but they just say "Power Save : ON" or something.
  • I definitely don't love the shot tracer. In the overhead view, a dot appears where your ball would have landed. But… if you're hitting the same club, every dot is the same color (orange for a 7I). I think the last dot, the last shot, should be a different color. After you've hit five or ten shots, you don't even really know which dot is the new one.
• The impact camera is more than what's offered by a lot of things (like even the QuadMAX), but at the same time, not all that useful. It's only about six (eight? ten?) frames and it's snot from a not great angle because you hit from so side-on.
• The hitting area with club data is pretty small. This won't work very well off of grass. And you'll want to move it around lest you wear out your
• Alignment is super easy. Lay a club down, rest two balls against it… aligned. I do wish it prompted you to align it when you turn it on, even if one of the options was "keep current alignment" if you haven't moved it since last using it (or it never moves in your sim or something).
• I don't have a subscription yet and may never get one. I don't plan to use Home Tee Hero for much. I may plug it in to GSPro at some point. I think you can connect to it via your WiFi network. As in… it joins your network, and so you can be online and connected to it wirelessly. I'm not sure what the USB-C port is for.
• The fiducials (club stickers) I have for the GCQuadMAX also work on the Garmin. You don't need to use their larger stickers. Heck, I used the tab from a GC fiducial on Monday and it worked fine.
• The storage/travel case is well done. It's solid, sturdy. But, oddly, there's no real good place to put the charger and cable. Maybe I can set it in against the back side beneath the handle? I could have used a little pocket for that.
• The weight is not anywhere near as substantial as it looks. Because the GCQuadMAX is denser, I think it may almost be just as heavy (I think officially it's 7.x pounds for the Quad and 9.x for the R50).
• Because the unit sits almost directly beside the golf ball, I don't think people are going to be as worried about shanks as they are with the GC units (GC3, GC4/MAX) or other "side-on" units. I do wonder about someone accidentally hitting it off the toe and into what seems to be plexiglass covering the cameras, though.
• The range UI is nice — you can split screen to show the impact video, the shot data, the range overview of ball flight… etc. If you hook it up to an external display I'm pretty sure you can get three things. Maybe four, with split screens on both?

That's all I can think of for now, but I'll be updating this as I go.

One thing I've wondered about with set to the side camera models in addition to toe shanks; Is does the plexiglass covering the cameras get all dirty? Especially when hitting from grass. I've used skytrak with a mat before and it ends up getting what I'll call "mat dust" on it. But that easily wipes right off. I've never used one of these in the grass. But I would think they'd get "grass splatter" on them. ... maybe? is that an issue?