I have a Pioneer DC and after a lot of hemming and hawing, ordered the wise with the drop weight adapter. It was suggested to me that it would be an easy conversion. This has yet to be determined.
Turns out the wise is out of stock until May, but they did send me the adapter. The holes in the adapter don't match the holes in the machine bed, and even if they did, the tension head of the wise wouldn't align right as the drop weight arm is to the rear corner of the base to allow the drum and gripper to be centered with the string coming from the racket.
So in my case, I will have to drill new holes and hope I have enough space on the machine base to accept the adapter in the right position to hold the wise head in proper alignment. Also in consideration is enough space away from the racket head to use the diablo without being in the way of the racket handle. The center of the drum measures 9 inches from the racket. I'm unsure of how far away I can mount the wise head/diablo to keep the same distance from the racket. I'm hoping there are some instructions included when the wise arrives, and I am able to convert my machine without too much extra effort/expen$e.
I don't have a metal drill bit, and am not sure if I did whether or not it would work on the metal base of my machine. I'm hoping it will, or that I can rent the proper drill/bit and do it myself. If not, I'd have to take it to a machine shop and pay them to do it. This is what was suggested to me by the wise tech when I spoke to him a few days ago.
He also said, and this is most obvious, that the wise was designed for crank machines, where the conversion takes a few minutes and looks effortless when you watch the video. There is no video that I could find of converting to a drop weight machine. If there's anyone out there who can offer their experience using the adapter method, I would appreciate hearing and learning from you.
You may want to consider a crank operated machine instead of a drop weight. Might make your life a lot easier in the end.
Does anyone know if you lose 360 degree rotation if you upgrade an Alpha Revo with a Wise? I tried searching youtube for a video, but could not find one.
Thanks,
Yes. You lose 360 degree. I have a revo/wise combo myself.
Thank you pmata814. I am strongly considering this setup (I have the Alpha Revo now). How do you like the setup? What is the best and worst things about adding the Wise to the Revo, in your opinion?
Thanks
Well the only thing I don't like about adding the WISE is exactly that, losing 360 degrees. And only because it annoys me a bit that the wise gets in the way when you are pulling the first 2 mains. rotating the racquet back and forth is not a big deal at all and I got used to it very quickly. Maybe because I already had this setup years ago with my axis pro/wise setup.
The best thing is obviously the constant pull, and knowing that I am actually pulling 58 lbs. When I tested my crank tension head on a digital fish scale the amount of variance in each pull really bugged me. It would be off by several punds in each direction (+/-) every time I pulled. The place where you start your pull and the speed at which you turn the crank affects your tension. I know a lot of people advocate that it doesn't matter, that consistency is what matters, but it does TO ME. It was always in the back of my mind and it just bugged me.
I don't use the prestretch function but it's nice to have in case I ever do want to use it. It's also nice to have 2 memory slots for when I string hybrids. Pulling with the push of a button instead of turning the crank is also cool, but really, the accuracy is the greatest reason for adding the WISE. I really dislike the crank, and I had to choose between selling the REVO and getting a dropweight (yes I feel the dropweight is more accurate than the crank) or adding a WISE. So I decided to add the WISE.
If you have any other questions please let me know.
so are the clamps better on the alpha than the gamma?
I was leaning towards the Revo 4000 with the wise set up because someone had mentioned alpha had better hardware??
disclaimer: stringers and tennis string=to many options
Yes. You lose 360 degree. I have a revo/wise combo myself.
on the gamma machines some say SC clamps and other just say clamps, what does the SC mean?