SwingByte and SwingByte 2 Discussion Thread

[2thetee]

I would suggest that you send one to the forum creator -- IACAS -- to do a product review. I am intrigued. Most golf training devices can be duplicatted by some homemade materials in your basement. Not this one.  I could see how this could be useful if it told you about the position of the club at impact.

[nick kokonas]

It does show you angle of attack, position at impact, club path (out - in), lie angle, shaft lean, club loft.

If the admin sends me an email we'll send him a unit for testing...

[jamo]

I'm hugely excited that they have started shipping the Android version and the iOS should have App store approval very soon.  Happy to answer any further questions.

Do you know if they intend to make a Mac OS X or Windows version, or is it going to remain iOS-and-Andriod-only?

[x129]

From their FAQ, it is iPhone and Android only. However you can review your swings on your laptop after they get uploaded. I ordered one a while back and am looking forward to seeing what it can do.

Originally Posted by jamo

Do you know if they intend to make a Mac OS X or Windows version, or is it going to remain iOS-and-Andriod-only?

[jamo]

From their FAQ, it is iPhone and Android only. However you can review your swings on your laptop after they get uploaded. I ordered one a while back and am looking forward to seeing what it can do.

I saw that, I was just wondering if they were intending on expanding to Macs and PCs. I'm about 90% sure the answer is no, but I figured I might as well ask.

[Marc118]

I'm really looking forward to this and have been following all updates since I heard about it back in February. The app hasn't shown up in the apple app store yet either even though it's in the android store.....come on apple!!:-D I'm wondering why no one has reviewed it yet....they started shipping last week (but said it could take up to 5 days) so surely someone must have received one by now. Eagerly awaiting the review.

[The_Pharaoh]

I was discussing this training aid with a fellow pro this morning, and although we really like the idea, he told me that in his 16-year experience teaching golf any gadget added to the club usually ends up knackered very quickly due to the vibrations during the swing.

Any thoughts on this from those in the know?

[nick kokonas]

If by knackered you mean broken... I don't see that happening here.  This is solid state electronics and thermal molded plastic... with rubber around the shaft of the club for added grip and a very tight band to secure it to the shaft.  The bands do break over time -- 3 are included with the swingbyte and should last a very long time.  But the unit itself -- we've thrown it against walls and dropped it from heights and stress tested it more professionally than that... and it holds up very well.  Unless you're throwing your clubs against the clubhouse you should be fine.

[TD22057]

Well I couldn't resist any longer.  I put my pre-order in today - hopefully I'm not too far down on the list.

[ERdiesel]

Nick Kokonas,

While I eagerly await for my pre-order to get shipped out to me, I went ahead and downloaded the just released iphone Swingbyte app last night and have a few comments, actually more like areas of improvement particularly around the setup golfer/clubs process.  I would appreciate it if you could pass these suggestions onto the developers:

1)  Wrist to ground does not have half inch intervals, only full inch intervals.  For example, if i'm a 34.5" wrist to floor, i'm only able to select 34 or 35 in your user setup screen.  In a real world fittings, wrist to floor is done in half inch intervals so there is value to it (i.e. check Mizuno, Ping, etc. etc. fitting charts).  You really should be able to specify this measuremet in half inch intervals and any swing data analysis/algorithms within the app should be tweaked to allow for this.

2)  In the Edit Clubs setup screen, the Lie measurement for Drivers that you can select maxes out at 54*.  Come on, seriously?  This is a stupid oversight, considering that the "standard" lie for all off the shelf drivers out there exceeds 54*.  For example, Titleist 910 drivers standard lie is 58.5*, Ping G20 is 58*, and so on and so on.  Was this app NOT tested with a Driver?  If so, how could this have passed QA?  Why not make this a numerical field instead of a field with pre-selected values?  Whatever number is specified here is simply plugged into whatever swing data analysis algorithms you have running so i'm puzzled as to why you took this approach.

3)  In the same Edit Clubs setup screen, the Flex field only has the "main" flexes, i.e. Regular, Stiff, X-Stiff.  This poses a few problems:

a)  You need to have in between flexes, i.e. S+ for example.  The target market for your Swingbyte device is really for the more "serious" hard-core golfer types and that target market is    likely to have shafts that are soft-stepped, hard-stepped, etc. etc.  I myself play with C-Taper shafts in S+ flex in my irons.  What am I to specify in this field?

b)  As you probably know one shaft maker's S is not equal to another shaft maker's S.  For example, the C-Tapers are considered "stiffer" than other shafts so the C-Taper S+ for example plays closer to an X than a S as compared to Dynamic Gold shafts for example.  But a C-Taper S is definitely stouter than a DG S300.  However, I know this, because i'm an equipment junkie, but you should help in taking the guess work out for those who might not.

4)  App is buggy..........since logging in this morning, even though I only setup and specified a few clubs, overnight the app seemed to have created several new Driver clubs in my bag, as well as multiple 1 irons all the way down through the bag.

5)  Speaking of buggy, app also seemed to have lost my user settings, i.e. date of birth, height, weight, wtf measurements, etc.

6)  Allow for portrait mode!!!  Right now, app seems forced into Landscape mode.

Please forward the above to the right people and i'm sure i'll find more issues once I receive the unit and begin playing with it.

ER

[Marc118]

Does anyone know if the swingbyte app is only for download in the US/Canada? I'm in the UK and can't find the app anywhere in the apple app store even though I've read that it is in the app store for download?

[nick kokonas]

ER,

Thanks.

A few of the issues in terms of saving were a server reboot.  We've shipped a few devices and the majority of orders will ship next week.  So we have cleaned up a few issues and I'm afraid that's why some of your data was lost.  Won't happen again.

Portrait mode and most of the changes you requested have already been submitted to the App store as an update.  Those go more quickly than initial approval -- and we knew of a bunch of changes and improvements that needed to be made but had to work withing the Apple process. Now that that is done, you will see:  portrait mode, better ranges, equipment upgrades, etc.  And the benefit of having this software based is that as we make improvements all upgrades are free -- the more data we collect, the more accurate and useful it will become.

[Marc118]

Anyone?

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Marc118

Anyone?

It seems likely. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/swingbyte/id519707943?mt=8

[Marc118]

Thanks Iacas. I emailed swing byte earlier asking them the same question and this was their reply. "The current version of the app is available only in the US and Canada, due to encryption export requirements. We should clear that hurdle soon and make the app available world-wide". Looks like it'll be awhile before I manage to get hold of one of these :~(

[nick kokonas]

So here is a short informal video showing the Swingbyte vs. the "leading launch monitor".  We set this up and shot only once.  You'll see that Swingbyte is very consistent even at a high swing speed with a driver -- and is internally consistent.

http://blog.swingbyte.com/post/22722066946/how-does-swingbyte-compare-to

More polished video showing all of the features coming very soon.... but we were getting this question daily so a little quick iPhone video seemed in order.

[x129]

I got my swingbyte today. I am using android. A couple of first impressions

1) The data seems to match up pretty close to what I expect as far as swing speed,path and tempo. The other stuff looked reasonable but I am not sure what my numbers are for them.

2) The setup directions suck. If you are not familiar with how to pair a bluetooth device you might struggle. It isn't hard but a couple of sentences would help a lot. I also didn't have bluetooth on and didn't get an error message. That is just sloppy programming

3) The android app needs work. I have had 4 crashes and a couple of ANRs in less than 30 mins of use. It is also slow (maybe this is unavoidable but if it is they need better progress notifications) on my Nexus Galaxy phone. The training tips menu also doesn't seem to do anything. Some of the info text is also useless. Looks to me like the app needed another month or two of optimization and polishing.

I am going to try out the iOS version.

[TD22057]

I got a ship notice yesterday and I only ordered a week and a half ago so they must be moving through the pre-orders pretty quickly.  Tracking shows it's left China so I'll report back sometime next week w/ results.  I did notice there was an update to the android app today (no release notes that I could see).