Babolat Play Play-Test Thread

S

stopthewave

New User
I thought starting a new thread for the Babolat Play play-testers would be better than clogging up Daniel's thread.

I received my Babolat Play today as part of the Babolat Play Test Team. I was selected through the ConnectedTennis.com site.

Anyways, I obviously couldn't wait to go hit with it. Pairing the racquet with your phone is very easy, it takes two buttons.

I went out to drills at my local tennis center. Unfortunately, I was only on court for about 15 minutes before lightning shut us down. But, that was still plenty of time to show off the app.

As for the racquet itself, it's a Pure Drive and feels like one. But that's not what this racquet is all about.

Here's the overall stats for the time I was on court:

B1FC6160-4140-49AE-8E68-16EA4B52EA9B.png


You can then take a look at the breakdown of your strokes:

704672B5-9D58-4B33-8C43-749ABDC290B1.jpg


One thing about those results, volleys are included with your regular forehands and backhands. Hopefully there will eventually be a way to split those out. (Sorry for this pic, wanted to stay under the four image limit.)

And then you can see where on the string bed you're hitting the ball:

1124BD7C-41FE-464E-956A-107928C84F7A.png

991DB6EC-B4AD-4939-B718-C5D78D42A985.png



Well, I can instantly see what I need to work on with my backhand!

So, that's just a real quick look at it. Regardless of what you think about Babolat, this is some game changing technology and I can't wait to get out and play with it more.
 
Is everything accurate with the racquet as far as the data going? (Like the number of bh/fh/longest rally, etc)
 
Also OP where do you live? State-wise is fine, trying to see when I should be getting mine, I am in CA, and it is shipping from CO, so possibly tomorrow I may receive mine hopefully.
 
LanEvo said:
Is everything accurate with the racquet as far as the data going? (Like the number of bh/fh/longest rally, etc)
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell. I wasn't exactly counting my shots but we were doig three across then base line, approach, volley, so the 3 shot rally is right on.

And I'm in TX. If you go to UPS's website there's a transit time map where you can enter your zip code and should be able to see how long it would take.
 
LanEvo said:
Also OP where do you live? State-wise is fine, trying to see when I should be getting mine, I am in CA, and it is shipping from CO, so possibly tomorrow I may receive mine hopefully.
Click to expand...

If it's shipping from CO, and you live in CA, you should receive by the end of the day tomorrow.
 
I'm a play tester as well, can't wait to start playing. I just need to find the time, and join a tennis club here. Too cold to play outside now.
 
Now we can put a computer analysis to ttw players via this racket.
So when you say you serve 130 you need to post a screen grab of the sensor info. Brilliant.
 
I don't mind sharing, once I get data from it. I claim that all my serves are 45 mph, my forehands have 500 rpms of spin, and travel at 30 mph. Whatever power level it reports, mine is the lowest :)
 
Enjoyed my first session with it last week and found it to be pretty accurate. Downside was the software bugs I encountered. I have now lost all of my data from my hitting session that was logged. It kept the overall data in the SKILLS section but lost all of the specific data in the ANALYZE section. They have been pretty responsive so far and I will see how it handles my session later today. Hope they can get all these bugs sorted out on what seems like a pretty tight time frame before launch.
 
mlocke1322 said:
Enjoyed my first session with it last week and found it to be pretty accurate. Downside was the software bugs I encountered. I have now lost all of my data from my hitting session that was logged. It kept the overall data in the SKILLS section but lost all of the specific data in the ANALYZE section. They have been pretty responsive so far and I will see how it handles my session later today. Hope they can get all these bugs sorted out on what seems like a pretty tight time frame before launch.
Click to expand...

like you, i've also uncovered some software bugs. i've documented the bugs in the Babolat official thread.

my latest discovery...since the application stopped working after the download of my 2nd hitting session, the Babolat Play app has been hanging up when i launch the app and select ANALYZE. i've rebooted my iPhone5 and it still doesn't fix the issue so i decided to try reinstalling the iPhone app. bad idea. i deleted it and when i went back to the install email to reinstall the app, i discovered that the iPhone 1.0.64 build for iOS is no longer available. so, i no longer have Babolat Play on my iPhone. i can't use the Pure Drive Play racquet with my Samsung Galaxy S3 either because I am unable to pair the racquet to the phone.

i have a feeling the software programmers are going to be working overtime.
 
mad dog1 said:
like you, i've also uncovered some software bugs. i've documented the bugs in the Babolat official thread.

my latest discovery...since the application stopped working after the download of my 2nd hitting session, the Babolat Play app has been hanging up when i launch the app and select ANALYZE. i've rebooted my iPhone5 and it still doesn't fix the issue so i decided to try reinstalling the iPhone app. bad idea. i deleted it and when i went back to the install email to reinstall the app, i discovered that the iPhone 1.0.64 build for iOS is no longer available. so, i no longer have Babolat Play on my iPhone. i can't use the Pure Drive Play racquet with my Samsung Galaxy S3 either because I am unable to pair the racquet to the phone.

i have a feeling the software programmers are going to be working overtime.
Click to expand...

Download it online for your computer, in your Welcome to Babolat Playtest email, there is a link to download and use it for your computer.
 
in accurate results..

stopthewave said:
One thing about those results, volleys are included with your regular forehands and backhands. Hopefully there will eventually be a way to split those out. (Sorry for this pic, wanted to stay under the four image limit.)

.
Click to expand...

That is a major flaw,especially if ones playing doubles. How can you know percentages for which area of your game you need to work on if you cant tell a gs from a volley

For the asking price i'd better wait for beta version til that is fixed up...
 
LanEvo said:
Download it online for your computer, in your Welcome to Babolat Playtest email, there is a link to download and use it for your computer.
Click to expand...

i have mentioned in my prior posts that i am trying this on the following devices:

1. computer (win OS)
2. iPhone5 (iOS)
3. Samsung Galaxy S3 (Android OS)

appreciate your attempt to help, but you are aware that as beta testers, one of the things we should be doing is finding all the problems and reporting them so the development team can fix before the official launch.
 
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I am now unable to sync on any of my devices today:

iPad: I tried to save my first session from today and it just stays on the "Saving Session" icon forever. It also consistently says synchronizing at the top whether I have bluetooth on or not. I have another session from tonight that I can;t do anything with.

PC: Won;t even recognize the racquet when I plug it in now. I plug it in and try to open the program. It says there is no disk inserted and won;t go any further.

They seem really close to launch to have all of these major bugs to fix still. If I was buying, I wouldn't buy one at launch.
 
mlocke1322 said:
I am now unable to sync on any of my devices today:

iPad: I tried to save my first session from today and it just stays on the "Saving Session" icon forever. It also consistently says synchronizing at the top whether I have bluetooth on or not. I have another session from tonight that I can;t do anything with.

PC: Won;t even recognize the racquet when I plug it in now. I plug it in and try to open the program. It says there is no disk inserted and won;t go any further.

They seem really close to launch to have all of these major bugs to fix still. If I was buying, I wouldn't buy one at launch.
Click to expand...

this is exactly what happens on my iPhone so i've been trying to use my PC and no subsequent sessions are updating and showing up.

as far as the bugs are concerned, we are beta testers and this is exactly why Babolat has sent us the racquets to try - so we can find and report as many bugs as possible before the official launch. like most new software i've bought, even after the official release, there are still bugs that are then addressed in future patches.
 
Those are you that are having problems, are you sending emails to babolatplayATbabolatDOTcom? That's how we're to report bugs, so make sure you're doing that. And as beta testers we can't expect it to work every time right now.
 
Obviously I understand that and I am in constant contact with them. I've beta tested several types of systems and they all had launch windows significantly further out than this one. I expect there to continuing being small items addressed through patches. I am just hoping they gave themselves enough time to address the major compatibility issues.
 
My local pro shop has one and they showed it to me. It looks awesome. I'm just concerned that it might be a little cost-prohibitive at first.
 
Can someone explain to me how this device inside the handle, can tell WHERE on the stringbed you are hitting the ball?
 
stopthewave said:
Those are you that are having problems, are you sending emails to babolatplayATbabolatDOTcom? That's how we're to report bugs, so make sure you're doing that. And as beta testers we can't expect it to work every time right now.
Click to expand...

yep, i've been sending emails directly to babolat. i've just been posting in the official babolat thread as well as this thread so all the beta testers can see the issues in case they are having the same ones.
 
We should probably stick to either or this or officials thread to avoid confusion and double posting
 
I just discovered bug where racquet records bounces off the floor... something I always do before serving or before pretty much any point... that will kill my averages since longest rally recorded is 3 and quess what that's how many times on average I bounce the ball off the floor. If that starts averaging with you normal rally say 10 shots than rally avg will be artificially lowered
 
dgoran said:
We should probably stick to either or this or officials thread to avoid confusion and double posting
Click to expand...

actually, based on the original email i received from TW, i thought they were going to start an official Beta Playtest thread as a sticky.
 
Quick Question. Just went to save my first session on the app. The "saving session" is taking forever. How long does it normally take? Should I just try again? Thanks
 
JackB1 said:
^^^^^

Anyone?
Click to expand...

My guess is that it just senses acceleration, changes in speed. There are a 3d accelerometer and a 3d gyro in there, and maybe a 3d compass. When you hit a ball outside the sweetspot on one side of the stringbed, your racquet twists a bit on impact and this is what the racquet senses. It will then interpret this as an off center hit. Whether you hit high or low on the stringbed can also be inferred likewise.
 
JackB1 said:
^^^^^

Anyone?
Click to expand...

There are multiple sensors in the handle device, as I understand it. When the ball strikes the string bed it sends different vibration frequencies through the frame and into the handle. These frequency profiles are then parsed to determine where the ball hit the strings.
 
TimeSpiral said:
There are multiple sensors in the handle device, as I understand it. When the ball strikes the string bed it sends different vibration frequencies through the frame and into the handle. These frequency profiles are then parsed to determine where the ball hit the strings.
Click to expand...

that sounds pretty inexact. How can it tell if you miss a little right or a little left?
 
loubapache said:
Not knowing how Babolat measured the impact location but the racket vibration frequency is pretty much the same no matter where the ball impact point is (except one point). What is different is the vibration amplitude (how much the racket vibrates in terms of distance movement, which is very small).

See TWU findings:

http://twu.tennis-warehouse.com/learning_center/vibration_explanation.php
Click to expand...

The company they contracted developed the Wii's controller? I am guessing they are using just gyros and accelerometers to estimate where you hit...
 
palmerop said:
The company they contracted developed the Wii's controller? I am guessing they are using just gyros and accelerometers to estimate where you hit...
Click to expand...

BTW, the accelerometer/gyro hypothesis fits with the fact that the racquet tells me I hit high on the stringbed. I hold the racquet at the very bottom of the grip and that might be the cause of this... only if it uses acceleration to estimate the point of contact.
 
palmerop said:
BTW, the accelerometer/gyro hypothesis fits with the fact that the racquet tells me I hit high on the stringbed. I hold the racquet at the very bottom of the grip and that might be the cause of this... only if it uses acceleration to estimate the point of contact.
Click to expand...

The accelerometers are likely not used in determine position on the string bed. Perhaps it's calculating the change in racquet face angle. A ball struck at the top of the strings will open the face slightly, and vice versa for the ball hit at the bottom.
 
palmerop said:
BTW, the accelerometer/gyro hypothesis fits with the fact that the racquet tells me I hit high on the stringbed. I hold the racquet at the very bottom of the grip and that might be the cause of this... only if it uses acceleration to estimate the point of contact.
Click to expand...

The company with whom they contracted did indeed build the Wii controller and there are two sensors: a gyro and an accelerometer.

This means that all data presented to the user is inferred from acceleration and attitude data detected by these two sensors. This is why it can't tell the type of stroke being attempted. It can measure changes in the frame's speed and attitude but it has no idea how the changes are being made by your handling of the frame.

Changes in the software can help, especially in the area of interpreting the time between sensor inputs. In developing the software they probably videoed players using the frame and then, using time stamps on the data and video, built a reference library of stroke profiles so the system could correlate strokes as we know them to the data profiles. It's sort of like translating between two languages. When the data is X/Y and the video showed stroke A and resulting Shot M, we have a correlation. But sometimes that same data X/Y might result from stroke B and the resulting Shot arc/speed/spin could be M or N. Thus the system's limits.

It's an interesting novelty but I wouldn't put much faith in the interpolated data for training purposes or to change tactics and techniques. As noted by one Babolat official in an interview it's just their first attempt and really a test bed.
 
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TimeSpiral said:
The accelerometers are likely not used in determine position on the string bed. Perhaps it's calculating the change in racquet face angle. A ball struck at the top of the strings will open the face slightly, and vice versa for the ball hit at the bottom.
Click to expand...

It's all about level of granularity and reference points. As the hardware improves and the software's underlying database grows they'll be able to make those interpolations more accurately.
 
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