Bit of a long one this…you may want to skip the first five paragraphs and jump straight to the functionality of the product.
Playing in a competition at another club last September, a chap I was playing with had a GPS system. This was the first time I had seen anything like it, and was very impressed. This is when I decided what Mrs twire was going to buy me for Christmas.
After a fair bit of research, and even running a poll on the GM forum (The result was a unanimous victory for the SkyCaddy) I chose the CaddyAid. I felt the concept was very good. The idea of having a hand held PDA with a photo of the hole and a cursor showing you your live position with all relevant distances was a great idea, especially when playing new courses. Also I would have a PDA that I could use for other things.
With the decision made, I was even more pleased when I revisited the CaddyAid website to find that the prices had dropped. Initially the prices were £299 for the complete system on a MIO PDA and £99 for software only. Now the prices were £249 for the complete system on a HP PDA and £49 for the software only. This prompted me to look at PDA prices, now the PDA they were supplying with the package I could purchase for £160 so with a few mental maths calculations I realised I could upgrade to the next level PDA for a cost of £200 buy the software for £49 and get a better package for £249……Result….or so I thought. What I hadn’t realised was the initial MIO PDA had inbuilt GPS the HP ones didn’t. This was not made clear on their website, so after purchasing the HP PDA I then had to find a Bluetooth GPS receiver. Reading through several specifications of receivers I chose the one with the highest accuracy (2.5 metres). Now that’s all the hardware sorted. I handed them over to Mrs twire for the Santa treatment.
The next step was to order the software. They were also doing a deal on courses, so I purchased the software and five extra courses. I downloaded the software and then selected my home course off their drop down list. To my surprise even though my course was on the list, it had not yet been mapped. (Lesson 1; don’t assume your course has been mapped just because it’s on the list) There was a button to select if you required the course urgently, this was selected and the message came back that they would email me as soon as it was mapped. After a week and no news I decided to phone them to see how they were getting on with it, the answer was it would be with me for the weekend. What great customer service I thought….. A couple more phone calls, and a few false promises later the mapped course was finally put into my member’s area in just under 3 weeks. (Lesson 2; if you’re travelling to a new course, check that it’s been mapped at least 3 weeks before you require it)
Christmas arrived, and guess what Santa had got me? I was like a kid in a sweet shop. I quickly downloaded the software onto my new PDA, followed by my home course and started playing around with it. I soon realised the quality of photograph for my home course was not very good, this was disappointing as, and I quote: - “CaddyAid gets ALL of its data from aerial photographs, using a wing mounted £1 million camera, guaranteed to 1 metre accuracy. When we fly the Open Championship, that one image alone will cost around £3,000, so hopefully that shows how accurate our core data is. Other companies use less sophisticated methods like Google Earth to get its data, which is widely known to be highly inaccurate.†Imagine my surprise when I cross checked my home course against Google Maps, the photo’s were identical, it was the same for two other courses I downloaded. I sat on this for a week then on the 2nd January sent them a strong email. More of that later.
Now for the functionality of the system. Setting the software to talk to the GPS receiver was not easy. Using CaddyAid’s auto set up which was recommended seemed to ‘lock up’ the receiver. I managed to set the communication manually using the same settings as I was using for other GPS software on the PDA. (This is where I would imagine buying the complete system would come into its own; it would probably be pre set). With the system now all set, I ventured out onto the golf course. This was not for a game of golf, but purely to walk the course and test the unit
My first disappointment was that the photograph that comes up on the screen, apart from being poor quality focuses from around 150-200 yards and into the green. (Just the green and greenside hazards on par 3’s) This means you have to keep zooming out on each hole to find the tees and the live cursor (your position). If this is not done then hazards can be missed, fairway bunkers, ditches etc, especially on par 5’s. This aside, I then stood on a few 100 and 150 yard markers. At my course the markers are to the middle of the green, but CaddyAid only gives front and back on their readout. Now with me being a mid handicapper the middle of the green is as important if not more important for me than the front and back. The options to find this distance are to either do the mental maths i.e. take front measurements from back divide by two then add to the front measurement….or the system has an end function where you can tap the screen on the green or where you think the pin position is and it will give you the distance. This in theory is fantastic, but in practice not so easy, accuracy depends on pixel size, plus how well you can position you screen tap while stood on the course on a bright sunny day. Screen tapping brings me to the next problem, and that is touch screens. Now these are terrific if sitting in an office or at home etc when you place them onto a desk or table, but when you have to put the PDA either in your pocket or golf bag while still switched on this is when the touch screen becomes a problem for obvious reasons. Someone suggested switching the screen off before putting it into my bag, now I’m sure this can be done (although I’ve not managed to find out how on my PDA), but it just means more button pushes when it comes out of your bag.
Accuracy, this is a hard one to argue without walking around the course with a tape measure, but I will tell you what happened when I walked the 18th. We have a bunker on the right hand side of the fairway about 30 yards short of the green. This bunker is about 4 yards wide, now as I went around the right hand side of this, the live cursor showed me walking down the middle of the fairway.
I have tried to use CaddyAid several times over the Christmas period, but it’s always ended up in the bag after 3 or 4 holes. Reasons for this are, loosing Bluetooth connection on receiver, touch screen sending PDA haywire whilst in bag, and the pure hassle of all the button presses needed. I now wish I’d gone for the more popular SkyCaddy. Unfortunately my money reserves were used up on this, so I’m now stuck with it.
Coming back to the email I mentioned earlier. I hadn’t had a reply for over a week (and still not had one as I write this) so I decided to phone them and question the photo’s origin. I was assured that the images of my course did not come from Google Earth (even though they are identical) and that they purchase their images from Get Mapping who fly the course several times taking photographs. When I pointed out they were the same as Google Maps, I was told that Google must buy their images from the same company. If this is true, then they need to look at their advertising, as they state “Other companies use less sophisticated methods like Google Earth to get its data, which is widely known to be highly inaccurate.â€
I’ll try to list the pros and cons of this system as I see it, and being as objective as I can.
Pros:-
Great concept
Layup function
Photographs of hole (if they were better quality)
Live position cursor
Cons:-
Customer service (still waiting for email reply)
Not easy to set up
No middle green measurement
Can’t measure distance away from course (for gauging club distance)
Not easy to use on the course
To gimmicky
All in all very disappointing.
If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me direct.
Playing in a competition at another club last September, a chap I was playing with had a GPS system. This was the first time I had seen anything like it, and was very impressed. This is when I decided what Mrs twire was going to buy me for Christmas.
After a fair bit of research, and even running a poll on the GM forum (The result was a unanimous victory for the SkyCaddy) I chose the CaddyAid. I felt the concept was very good. The idea of having a hand held PDA with a photo of the hole and a cursor showing you your live position with all relevant distances was a great idea, especially when playing new courses. Also I would have a PDA that I could use for other things.
With the decision made, I was even more pleased when I revisited the CaddyAid website to find that the prices had dropped. Initially the prices were £299 for the complete system on a MIO PDA and £99 for software only. Now the prices were £249 for the complete system on a HP PDA and £49 for the software only. This prompted me to look at PDA prices, now the PDA they were supplying with the package I could purchase for £160 so with a few mental maths calculations I realised I could upgrade to the next level PDA for a cost of £200 buy the software for £49 and get a better package for £249……Result….or so I thought. What I hadn’t realised was the initial MIO PDA had inbuilt GPS the HP ones didn’t. This was not made clear on their website, so after purchasing the HP PDA I then had to find a Bluetooth GPS receiver. Reading through several specifications of receivers I chose the one with the highest accuracy (2.5 metres). Now that’s all the hardware sorted. I handed them over to Mrs twire for the Santa treatment.
The next step was to order the software. They were also doing a deal on courses, so I purchased the software and five extra courses. I downloaded the software and then selected my home course off their drop down list. To my surprise even though my course was on the list, it had not yet been mapped. (Lesson 1; don’t assume your course has been mapped just because it’s on the list) There was a button to select if you required the course urgently, this was selected and the message came back that they would email me as soon as it was mapped. After a week and no news I decided to phone them to see how they were getting on with it, the answer was it would be with me for the weekend. What great customer service I thought….. A couple more phone calls, and a few false promises later the mapped course was finally put into my member’s area in just under 3 weeks. (Lesson 2; if you’re travelling to a new course, check that it’s been mapped at least 3 weeks before you require it)
Christmas arrived, and guess what Santa had got me? I was like a kid in a sweet shop. I quickly downloaded the software onto my new PDA, followed by my home course and started playing around with it. I soon realised the quality of photograph for my home course was not very good, this was disappointing as, and I quote: - “CaddyAid gets ALL of its data from aerial photographs, using a wing mounted £1 million camera, guaranteed to 1 metre accuracy. When we fly the Open Championship, that one image alone will cost around £3,000, so hopefully that shows how accurate our core data is. Other companies use less sophisticated methods like Google Earth to get its data, which is widely known to be highly inaccurate.†Imagine my surprise when I cross checked my home course against Google Maps, the photo’s were identical, it was the same for two other courses I downloaded. I sat on this for a week then on the 2nd January sent them a strong email. More of that later.
Now for the functionality of the system. Setting the software to talk to the GPS receiver was not easy. Using CaddyAid’s auto set up which was recommended seemed to ‘lock up’ the receiver. I managed to set the communication manually using the same settings as I was using for other GPS software on the PDA. (This is where I would imagine buying the complete system would come into its own; it would probably be pre set). With the system now all set, I ventured out onto the golf course. This was not for a game of golf, but purely to walk the course and test the unit
My first disappointment was that the photograph that comes up on the screen, apart from being poor quality focuses from around 150-200 yards and into the green. (Just the green and greenside hazards on par 3’s) This means you have to keep zooming out on each hole to find the tees and the live cursor (your position). If this is not done then hazards can be missed, fairway bunkers, ditches etc, especially on par 5’s. This aside, I then stood on a few 100 and 150 yard markers. At my course the markers are to the middle of the green, but CaddyAid only gives front and back on their readout. Now with me being a mid handicapper the middle of the green is as important if not more important for me than the front and back. The options to find this distance are to either do the mental maths i.e. take front measurements from back divide by two then add to the front measurement….or the system has an end function where you can tap the screen on the green or where you think the pin position is and it will give you the distance. This in theory is fantastic, but in practice not so easy, accuracy depends on pixel size, plus how well you can position you screen tap while stood on the course on a bright sunny day. Screen tapping brings me to the next problem, and that is touch screens. Now these are terrific if sitting in an office or at home etc when you place them onto a desk or table, but when you have to put the PDA either in your pocket or golf bag while still switched on this is when the touch screen becomes a problem for obvious reasons. Someone suggested switching the screen off before putting it into my bag, now I’m sure this can be done (although I’ve not managed to find out how on my PDA), but it just means more button pushes when it comes out of your bag.
Accuracy, this is a hard one to argue without walking around the course with a tape measure, but I will tell you what happened when I walked the 18th. We have a bunker on the right hand side of the fairway about 30 yards short of the green. This bunker is about 4 yards wide, now as I went around the right hand side of this, the live cursor showed me walking down the middle of the fairway.
I have tried to use CaddyAid several times over the Christmas period, but it’s always ended up in the bag after 3 or 4 holes. Reasons for this are, loosing Bluetooth connection on receiver, touch screen sending PDA haywire whilst in bag, and the pure hassle of all the button presses needed. I now wish I’d gone for the more popular SkyCaddy. Unfortunately my money reserves were used up on this, so I’m now stuck with it.
Coming back to the email I mentioned earlier. I hadn’t had a reply for over a week (and still not had one as I write this) so I decided to phone them and question the photo’s origin. I was assured that the images of my course did not come from Google Earth (even though they are identical) and that they purchase their images from Get Mapping who fly the course several times taking photographs. When I pointed out they were the same as Google Maps, I was told that Google must buy their images from the same company. If this is true, then they need to look at their advertising, as they state “Other companies use less sophisticated methods like Google Earth to get its data, which is widely known to be highly inaccurate.â€
I’ll try to list the pros and cons of this system as I see it, and being as objective as I can.
Pros:-
Great concept
Layup function
Photographs of hole (if they were better quality)
Live position cursor
Cons:-
Customer service (still waiting for email reply)
Not easy to set up
No middle green measurement
Can’t measure distance away from course (for gauging club distance)
Not easy to use on the course
To gimmicky
All in all very disappointing.
If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me direct.
