Review 2050 from internet - March 2010
I have used the 2040 for several months ($600) and then bought the 2050 upgrade
for $100 (note: a special initial offer only in USA). While I was very happy
with the 2040, the 2050 goes a big step further now having the features that a
digital controller can offer. Now it will oscillate and change speed according
to preset drills, providing a much more realistic practice session. The preset
drills appear to be well thought out, with groups of patterns for serves, high
smashes, up and back and left and right. With the 2040, I could quickly figure
where I needed to be for a given set of shots. With the 2050, I found myself
really having to pay attention to get in position. Some of the drills have built
in random shots, others are designed to simply make you move. You've got to move
or the machine will humiliate you, just like those darned opponents. The
controller design is well done, and offers way more control than the previous
analog. You can have a manual setting for one shot you want to work on, and then
switch to a drill that mixes that shot with others, and back, from the
controller position. You can work on a shot without having to fiddle as much as
before, basically. Additionally, the paperwork that comes with the outfit is
well done with lots of photos, and is printed on high quality paper. The company
appears to have its act together.
NOTE: Reviews below are for the 1050, which is identical to
the 2050, except the 2050 includes the recycling net and system.
Review by pushchop (published with permission)
Seems like nobody has written any reviews on the Newgy 1050, so I'll write
one. First real post of mine on this board, so hi!
Where to start? I've had mine for 1 month. First off, it's a
digital control pad. That's the good news. The bad news is it's still a
single-wheel design, so no-spin balls are not possible. However, since it's only
395 USD, the benefit to your footwork from the programmable DRILL mode
completely overshadows any shortcomings.
Let me start by saying I have only played on one other robot
-- the AMDT TW2700-06 (dual-wheel no-spin model), so my point of reference is
limited.
1) NORMAL mode. You can configure random oscillation and/or
random speed. This is as close to a random hitting partner you can get without
spending 2k USD for dual-headed robot that can shoot back-to-back
topspin/backspin shots to you. You have to decide up front whether to drill in
topspin mode or backspin mode. And since spin is dependent on speed, long balls
are always high spin, and short balls are always low spin. And amount of
sidespin is also chosen at beginning of drill. So it's not perfect. But who
cares? It was $395.
2) DRILL mode. This is where the 1050 shines. I do easy
falkenberg drills using drill mode (half table movements, not full table width,
I'd die). There are 64 pre-programmed drills, and the upper 32 drills are really
tough (like end-to-end falkenberg and slash drills), talk about sore legs trying
to do that. DRILL mode is very flexible. You can adjust speed and frequency of
balls for any drill. For example, I might use the same drill to practice FH at
ball freq of 1.3 balls per sec. But when I practice FH chopping, I set to 3.0
secs to give my chop reasonable time to get back on table before next ball
shoots.
3) Quality of robot and maintenance. Very high quality. My
only worry are the plastic fingers that bring the balls from bucket up to
shooting head. Otherwise, seems well made. I get one ball jam every 2000-4000
balls. It's usually caused by dirty balls. So you do need to wash your balls (no
pun intended) every 2 wks, and wipe off dirt from friction block + throw wheel,
just to keep things smooth.
4) Catch net. Why not buy the 2050? It comes with recyling
net? Yes, the 2050 is great for lazy people, but at $795 it was not in my
budget. The Catch Net II is $80 including side nets. Works great, has funnel in
net for easy reloading of balls. 1050 can hold 200 balls. But a bonus of the
1050 is the versatility -- think about this -- most recycling net robots can
only shoot balls from middle of table. They cannot shoot down-the-line shots or
shoot full cross court shots. The 1050 can. And you can use it to similuate Joo
Hse Hyuk chopping at you by placing it 15 ft back from table with backspin.
Smile I can't think of any recycling robot that can do this.
5) Noise. It's a lot quiter than I thought. The left/right
oscillation is silent. The only noise comes from the spinning wheel and shooting
of the ball. Problem is you get no visual hints on speed since the robot has no
paddle. But, you do hear the wheel spinning faster/slower, so you have an
equivalent hint audibly. But the sidespin? Holy smokes, completely blindsided
since there's no hint at all.
Continued:
I initially was concerned that the single wheel design would limit the 1050's
usefulness. And that is still Newgy's weakness.
The 2050 controller is identical to the 1050. It's actually a
9-pin D-SUB serial connector. The only reason they call it a "USB/serial"
interface is some laptops don't have serial ports, so you'd need a USB<->serial
converter. Their Robo-Soft software is pretty smart -- it automatically probes
until it finds the controller. Nifty.
I must say the programmable drills are awesome on the
1050/2050. You should download the user manual from their website and check out
drills 1-64. Drills 33-64 are user programmable. My thinking is if you are
intermediate player, the 1050/2050 will be just fine. For advanced level players
who requires practice against no-spin balls, dual wheels is a must. But I solve
this problem simply by training on the 1050 for 80% of my time for
topspin/backspin/sidespin, and practicing with hitting partner who plays
pips-out the other 20%, hehe.
In terms of the built-in drills, I like the falkenberg drills
(for footwork) and forward slash drills (to simulate defending against 3rd ball
attack: robot serves you short ball to right, you move forward and push, robot
smashes one long left, you shuffle fast and block).
In terms of just specific training, I like practicing smashing
against chops, flipping short balls, and close-to-table blocking. You will be
amazed how just these three things will turn your games around. When you're not
worrying about how to perform these moves, you can focus on strategy. i.e. when
I smash against chop, I'm not thinking about how to do it -- I'm thinking about
where to land the ball. :-)
I hooked up my PC to the controller a few days ago, and ran
the Robo-Soft program to program my own drills. It is so easy to do, it's
insane. And if you screw up, no fear. The software has a "revert to factory
defaults" option.
One thing I just realized this week is that the Newgy
controller has a Language setting that displays Chinese, Swedish, Spanish,
French, German, etc. I had no idea they had translated to every language.
Review by hitman21 April 2010
Definitely a must buy for a serious player...otherwise why bother? 75 mph is a
max speed so they say, and with random oscillation, top spin, back spin, side
spin and combinations of those make each drill exciting...along with adjustable
angle to get lob drills in! there are 64 drills in this easy to use pad and
various ways to adjust to your skill level! worth the price? you betcha, and i
only find fault in back spin drills...don't see why they fly into the net so
easily...but i just do a normal setting for them then. otherwise, you will
surely get better with this item and it is easily assembled and user friendly!
Review on February 25, 2010
Just got it today, played with it for an hour. No problems at all. Digital
control is great, but the real gem is you can set to random POSITION and random
SPEED, which is much more difficult than playing predictable sweeping robots
like SuperMaster or older Newgy 1040. Imagine shot goes long left with high
topspin, another short right with low topspin, etc, randomly. Pretty realistic
opponent. How does it work? 1) First you choose top or back spin (with or
without sidespin). 2) Then you choose either fixed position or run in random
oscillation mode and/or random speed mode. I recommend starting off with fixed
position to get used to robot. Then set random POSITION. Play with that a bit.
Then turn on random SPEED too. Now it's a strong unpredictable opponent! There
is no paddle movement to give you hint. The head oscillation is completely
silent, so you can't "game" the system by trying to hear how many clicks it
turned. The top speed on this thing is pretty fast. They say 75mph at the "30"
setting. I set it to 2 balls per sec at max speed just to see what happens.
Picture a guy covering his head and running for cover...hahaha... And yes,
people are correct. The backspin on faster speeds is so incredibly strong, you
have to dial back the speed to be realistic. Or setup the head to "serve" the
backspin to you. Lastly, make sure you buy the Catch Net II + Side Nets for $80.
Well worth money since it has funnel at bottom for easy refills. It took me 30
mins to put together, a bit confusing. But once done, nice product. If
Rumplestiltskin asked for firstborn or Newgy 1050, I think I'd hand him
firstborn.
Review by jyan on February 28, 2010
Just got 2 days ago, and am completely sold on new digital control panel.
Reasons why you should drop your paycheck on this robot:
1) Programmable drill mode. The flexibility of the built-in
drills are amazing! For example, one topspin drill is a sequence of 4 shots:
Left short slow, Left long fast, Right short slow, Right long fast. Set to run
drill either by total number of balls thrown, total minutes played, or run
forever. How many under $1000 robots do you know can do that?
2) Programmable Oscillation. Oscillation control on the 1050
is effortless. Just choose the L/R sweep range at control panel.
3) Random Oscillation and Random Speed. A truly tough random
opponent, except for one thing -- drills cannot alternate between topspin or
backspin since it's not controlled by digital controller. So not completely
human, but pretty darn good as your practice partner. And don't forget it's a
single-wheel design. Not being able to toss you no-spin balls is no big deal
when the flip side is being able to improve footwork on falkenberg drills. When
you are serious enough to worry about no-spin balls, you can easily sell your
1050 for good price and upgrade to something like the dual-wheel AMDT TW2700-08
for $1350 with control panel adjustable head tilt. Drool.
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