GSA Advanced Golf Simulators
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GSA cCam Club tracking camera
Setup
The club track camera should be overhead mounted directly over the ball/tee position on the supplied hitting mat.
The camera is pre-focused but may require slight adjustment if not mounted at the standard height of 9 to 10 ft.
There are 3 dials on the camera lens for this: Zoom, aperature and focus.
The club hitting mat contains one optical camera trigger sensor and an LED indicator.
There are 2 cables attached to the mat: 1 USB (for power only) and one 30ft long RCA trigger cable.
Connect the RCA trigger cable to the camera and the hitting mat USB cable to the PC.
The camera itself also has a USB cable with extension cables to 30ft that is connected to the PC
Mount the supplied lamp and track adjacent to the camera
The system requires that two reflective tracking dots be adhered to the top of each club.
60 club tracking dots and 18 squares are supplied with the system.
For irons you can use the square ones so that they fold over the club edge easier.
Cut the squares ones in half to get two long sided track reflectors.
The above image is an actual camera shot of a 3 wood just before and after striking the ball at nearly 100 mph.
You'll notice that the club itself is barely visible but the trace of the reflective dots is very visible.
Adhering the 2 tracking dots is quite simple on woods, drivers and putters.
Just ensure that the 2 dots are in line as accurately as possible and are set reasonably far apart.
Also ensure that the surface of the club is clean and grease free before hand.
Use of a alchohol based cleaner such as a lens cleaner fluid is recommended
Club face angle adjustments
The top edge of irons and wedges may be slimmer than the diameter of the reflective dots in some cases but this is not a problem.
Just wrap around any overhanging edges to the back or face of the club.
For high lofted wedges we recommend that the dots be adhered to the lower side of the actual face of the club.
This ensures that they are more visble to the camera.
You'll notice that is is not possible to get the dots in line with most irons.
In this case the Face Angle Adjust setting in the camera software window (see below) is used to compensate so that the correct face angle is measured.
To set the Face Angle setting to compensate for the off line dots on an iron,
place the club as square as possible on the mat and move the club over the trigger sensor to capture a camera shot.
The software will then measure the club face angle. This angle will be some degrees open.
Note: Switch off the Parallel trace line checking when setting club angles otherwise camera processing won't function correctly at these very low club speeds.
Also run the control panel without any golf game software running. i.e. ProX, GSA Golf or E6
Click the Face Angle Adjust radio button and use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to select the club (i.e. 3 iron, 4 iron, 5 iron etc)
as shown on the right-hand side of the Face Angle Adjust parameter setting in the camera window.
Now press the F5 key to set the adjustment so that the measured face angle is zero.
You can also increase or decrease this setting manually with the up down arrow keys on your keyboard.
The measured Face angle is shown on the 3rd line down on the right hand side of the screen.
The setting is automatically saved so no need to click a speacial save button.
Repeat this procedure for all the irons that you are using.
The setting can also be used for any other clubs in use if required.
As of version 7.4.0 of the control panel, club adjustment settings can be assigned to player club sets.
To setup a new player club-set click the New Player button and enter the player's name.
The name must correspond to the name being used in the game software.
So if you want to setup a new player called "Bob", then "Bob" must be in the flight of the game in order that the system can allocate the correct club set data to the player.
When playing the game in GSA Golf and a player is not found in the ControlPanel data folder then the default club adjustment settings will be used.
When first creating a new player in the Control Panel the default club face adjustments will be copied to the new players club set.
The club tracking software shows 3 stages of the club path and club face angle.
The light blue cross hairs at the start of the trace (right hand side of the image) show the club face angle just before impact.
The blue cross hairs club face angle at impact and the yellow cross hairs just after impact to the ball.
The user can choose which of the face angles are sent to the game software
but using the face angle after impact is not recommended as the face angle will change due to the impact force.
When a valid shot is detected by the Ccam camera, the "Launch Data Ready ..." message will appear in the Control Panel's main window.
Ensure that the Ccam button is selected in Camera 1 box if the Ccam is the only camera being used in the system.
If you have ball tracking cameras then the club tracking Ccam camera is assigned to camera 3 and the Bcam ball spin camera to camera 4.
The above image shows the standard club track camera lens dial positions
The above image shows the standard camera settings for the Ccam for normal shots.
The above image shows the standard settings for the Ccam when putting.
Note: When using only the Ccam without ball tracking cameras,
putt with your head slightly behind the ball to ensure that the camera has a clear viiew of the club as it makes contact with the ball.
Setting the ball launch position
The ball will always be played from the exact same spot on the hitting mat when using the club tracking camera.
Note: If you have ball tracking cameras then the ball can be played from other surfaces. Club tracking won't be available in this case.
In order to calculate the face angle at impact, the ball launch position should be setup in the system.
To do this, place a ball on the tee holder on the hitting mat and click the Soft Trigger button in the Club Tracking window to grab an image.
Select the Ball Launch Position button and use the keyboard's arrow keys to move the hair-line cross to the center of the ball.
Select the Ball Size button to adjust the green borders to the ball size.
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Adjusting measured club speed
Club speed is dependant on the scaling factor, average length of the two trace lines, lens zoom and camera shutter speed.
To setup the club track camera so that the correct club speed is measured, the pixel-to-distance scale must be set correctly.
This scale is used to calculate the distance (the length of the trace in pixels) the club travelled during the camera's exposure time.
This is then used in the equation : Speed = Distance/Time
To set the scale correctly do the following:
1. Place a golf ball on the hitting mat and click the the Soft Trigger to grab a frame.
2. Select the Ball Size button and move the green borders to the size of the ball.
3. Select the Scale button and adjust the scale so that the ball size is as near as possible to 42.67 mm (This is the diameter of a golf ball)
As the diameter of a golf ball is a known constant i.e. 42.67 mm, we can use the number of pixels in the camera image for this diameter to calculate the scale.
In the above image the ball's diameter was 140 pixels for 42.67 mm. The scale is then 42.67 / 140 = 0.305 so that 1 pixel = 0.305 mm
Note: When using the Ccam as a stand alone system (i.e. without ball tracking) ball speed (and thus carry) will be totally dependant on the club speed.
In this instance adjusting club speed via the Scale ratio will effect ball carry distance.
This method of adjusting ball carry distance is however is not recommended.
To adjust carry distance when using only a club track camera use the slider bars in the setup window.
Another issue when using the club tracking camera as a stand-alone system - ie without ball tracking cameras - is that
a waggle or addresing the ball so that club head moves over the trigger sensor can be sensed as a valid swing and an inadvertent ball launch will occur.
This can be easily avoided by simply placing the ball just behind the trigger sensor so that ball triggers the camera instead of the club head.
The resulting club data will be then just after impact.
Valid swing checks
The club track image processing goes through a number of checking routines to verify that the captured image is of a valid swing
and not of anything else that might have triggered the camera.
Two of these checking routines are user adjustable:
Max face point spacing and Parallel trace line checking.
Max face point spacing is simply a check of the distance the two traces are apart.
As this distance will vary slightly from club to club and is dependent on the zoom of the lens, the value is user adjustable.
The trace line distance is displayed at the top of the screen after every shot (see yellow arrow)
and the max value should be set to a number so that no club produces a trace line spacing greater than this.
In the above image the spacing was 206 pixels and the max setting set to 300.
Parallel trace line checking
This check simply checks to see that the two trace lines are parallel.
Images captured by other objects triggering the camera (like your hand as you tee up) are not likely to produce two trace lines in parallel.
This check routine should be switched off when setting up the club and adjusting club face angles
as the very slow movement of the club may not always produce two lines of sufficient length for the routine to function correctly.
More about club speed
If you look carefully at the above image - of a right handed player's 3 wood shot - you'll notice that the two trace lines are not quite the same length.
The upper trace line is slightly longer than the lower trace line.
This is due to the swing arc which dictates that points futher away from the the center of rotation are moving faster than those nearer the center of rotation.
Your hands for example are moving far slower than the club head in a full shot.
As the tracking dot on the toe of the club is futher away from the center of rotation than the dot on the heel of the club, it will be moving faster.
To compensate for this the system takes the average of the two speeds measured from the two tracking dots.
This will then be the speed of the center of the club head.
(by the way, neither optical sensor nor radar club speed detection systems take this into account)