DigiBall Passaround Reviews

Mensabum said:
Like most right handed players, you have a slight steer to your stroke going forward causing the shot line to be off by a few degrees. If you can straighten that out, you'd be a even stronger player. How else would you have known this if not for Digiball?? I guess a guy could pay some coach or player to video tape this, but compare cost vs effect. Digiball gets my vote every time. FYI, I had this prob as well and had learned to compensate over the years. My game got better once I realized what was going on
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the cue ball doesnt stop perfectly and has spin thats how you know without the digiball
you had this problem and fixed it before the digiball was even thought of....just sayin
$300 with an instructor would not only see it but give you professional advice how to fix it
 
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Thank you for your time and your very thorough review! To address your concerns...
SlateMan said:
Bluetooth Interference with Medical Devices
When I first installed the Bluetooth-enabled DigiBall app on my phone, I experienced some interference with my blood glucose monitor. This was quickly resolved by restarting the phone. Still, users who rely on medical Bluetooth devices might benefit from a heads-up in the user manual or troubleshooting guide.
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This is half surprising and half not. The DigiBall uses embedded "manufacturer data" in the bluetooth packets with a unique company ID for "NATHAN RHOADES LLC" which I paid for and is registered with the Bluetooth SIG. Every bluetooth device that uses data in this way should be filtering only on their company ID and ignoring information from other devices. I am suspicious if your blood glucose monitor is doing this. On the other hand, BLE has had a history of being wonky, especially for Android devices. It is now much much better than it was 8 years ago. I will keep an eye on these instances. Thank you for pointing it out!
SlateMan said:
Synchronization Confusion
Synchronizing the ball with the software requires rotating the ball horizontally five times with the black dot facing away from you. Initially, I misunderstood this and positioned the dot to my left, rotating it in place—but the settings failed to sync. Once I correctly oriented the black dot directly away from me, synchronization completed smoothly. A diagram or clearer visual in the instructions could help eliminate this confusion for new users.
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This gesture is something that I cooked up in my own head, as I had to come up with sort of ball movement that would never occur naturally, and cause the ball to enter Configuration mode during the middle of a match. It is unintuitive because it is new, and I think adding a small video clip of exactly what I mean to the directions is a great idea.
SlateMan said:
Shipping Mode Misunderstanding
I ran into trouble trying to activate shipping mode. I was holding the charger on top of the ball with the black dot facing up, expecting it to trigger the mode. Instead, I saw a "charging error" message on the TV screen. After some trial and error—including plugging in the screen broadcaster—I realized the ball didn’t need to have the charger held on it, but instead just needed a quick tap with the charger to begin charging.

A better user experience would include a charging confirmation message on the screen. Currently, the error message appears even when the ball is charging correctly, which could confuse users.
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Same as above, since Shipping Mode isn't going to be a common mode, activating it has to be a bit strange. I'll add a video for this as well. (I am also unsure if the DigiCast tells you if it goes into shipping mode... if it doesn't then I need to make sure it does so it is consistent with the app...)
SlateMan said:
Speed Indicator Suggestion
The speed feedback display is a powerful tool—but it’s sensitive to settings such as table length and break distance. I initially thought it was inaccurate because I hadn’t configured the settings properly. A helpful improvement might be to toggle the speed display off by default, and then prompt users to configure their table settings before it activates. This would prevent confusion and ensure the displayed data is meaningful.
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I need some more feedback on this because this is something I struggled to present to the users:
  • You can have a speed reading with marginal accuracy, but it is completely hands free and you don't have to do anything between shots
    OR
  • You can have a very accurate speed reading (as accurate as the BreakApp), but in the app you must enter distance between CB and OB, and then select the impact event after each shot
By default, the marginal accuracy speed estimation is enabled.

Perhaps I should make a high quality production on boarding video for the entire product.

SlateMan said:
Final Thoughts

Despite these minor issues, I found the DigiBall to be an impressively well-designed product. The hardware and software work seamlessly once set up correctly, and the overall user experience is intuitive and enjoyable. The minor technical issues I encountered were easily resolved and are more related to user learning curves than design flaws. With a few small refinements, particularly in user guidance and UI messaging, the DigiBall could deliver an even more polished and foolproof experience.
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Part of the goal of this pass around exercise was to give the product to people with zero guidance, so that I could observe the intuitiveness of the product design. I was hoping for about 80% functionality without needing to read directions, so I think I got close. User guidance is something I can continuously work on to improve. The hardware is absolutely critical and I am glad everyone is finding it rock solid!
 
I need some help from the reviewers…

The passaround has been a very good idea. The most common distraction everyone has had with the product is that the default speed reading clips at around 8mph, and people report that it isn’t accurate. There exists an alternative method to get accurate speed readings for all speeds by entering distance and selecting the impact event, but it doesn’t seem obvious enough to access.

What should I do to change this into a better experience?
Some ideas so far are
1. Disabled by default. The user must navigate to the settings to enable speed, and they have the option to enable hands free mode that clips at 8mph, or more accurate distance / time selection mode which is as accurate as the break app.
2. Completely scrap the hands free speed setting because the 8mph limit ruins it, even if it is accurate for low speeds.
3. Make the lower left dial display alternate information when disabled, like a digital read out of the clock English, or spin factor ratio.
4. When enabled, something on the screen that lets people know they can touch and drag the lower dials to access extra options.

Everything else about the product seems good with you guys except some better directions with videos, etc.

Nate
 
nataddrho said:
I need some help from the reviewers…

The passaround has been a very good idea. The most common distraction everyone has had with the product is that the default speed reading clips at around 8mph, and people report that it isn’t accurate. There exists an alternative method to get accurate speed readings for all speeds by entering distance and selecting the impact event, but it doesn’t seem obvious enough to access.

What should I do to change this into a better experience?
Some ideas so far are
1. Disabled by default. The user must navigate to the settings to enable speed, and they have the option to enable hands free mode that clips at 8mph, or more accurate distance / time selection mode which is as accurate as the break app.
2. Completely scrap the hands free speed setting because the 8mph limit ruins it, even if it is accurate for low speeds.
3. Make the lower left dial display alternate information when disabled, like a digital read out of the clock English, or spin factor ratio.
4. When enabled, something on the screen that lets people know they can touch and drag the lower dials to access extra options.

Everything else about the product seems good with you guys except some better directions with videos, etc.

Nate
Click to expand...

I would say 2 as you don’t need this feature to have a viable product.
 
nataddrho said:
I need some help from the reviewers…

The passaround has been a very good idea. The most common distraction everyone has had with the product is that the default speed reading clips at around 8mph, and people report that it isn’t accurate. There exists an alternative method to get accurate speed readings for all speeds by entering distance and selecting the impact event, but it doesn’t seem obvious enough to access.

What should I do to change this into a better experience?
Some ideas so far are
1. Disabled by default. The user must navigate to the settings to enable speed, and they have the option to enable hands free mode that clips at 8mph, or more accurate distance / time selection mode which is as accurate as the break app.
2. Completely scrap the hands free speed setting because the 8mph limit ruins it, even if it is accurate for low speeds.
3. Make the lower left dial display alternate information when disabled, like a digital read out of the clock English, or spin factor ratio.
4. When enabled, something on the screen that lets people know they can touch and drag the lower dials to access extra options.

Everything else about the product seems good with you guys except some better directions with videos, etc.

Nate
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what the best way to handle it would be. Maybe in the instructions under the speed heading mention that. I mean, people generally don't read the instructions, but someone wanting technical info from cue ball strikes and who purchases one may. I think it's a good option to have available.
 
OK, possibly falls under the heading of a dumb question but is there a range finder that would let you lay it next to the cue ball and get a one click reading on the object ball? I know there have long been range finders to measure things as small as rooms, don't know if there is something to measure distances on a pool table easily, something to read out in inches that wouldn't require banging around with a tape measure between balls. More like a laser level sized thing.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
OK, possibly falls under the heading of a dumb question but is there a range finder that would let you lay it next to the cue ball and get a one click reading on the object ball? I know there have long been range finders to measure things as small as rooms, don't know if there is something to measure distances on a pool table easily, something to read out in inches that wouldn't require banging around with a tape measure between balls. More like a laser level sized thing.

Hu
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not a dumb question. I thought about this, including range finders, taking a picture with your phone, and even making a cheap measuring wheel that clicks or something. The easiest, fastest and fortunately cheapest option is to just use your pool cue to measure distance. In the app you can input your cue length (58” by default). Then when ever you want distance, measure cue lengths and slide the marker to match the image. Here is an example. It works quite well.
 

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I made another neat app for the DigiBall. I was thinking about this idea for a while but I couldn’t tell if it would be interesting without actually making it to see.

The app lets you record a video on your phone while tracking your DigiBall shots in sync. It then performs a post processing step and burns a ball overlay into the video. The overlay appears a few seconds before each shot. This does what the whole OBS setup does, but all on your phone.

Here’s a quick demo, pardon my lack of pool table
 
bbb said:
the cue ball doesnt stop perfectly and has spin thats how you know without the digiball
you had this problem and fixed it before the digiball was even thought of....just sayin
$300 with an instructor would not only see it but give you professional advice how to fix it
Click to expand...
That's one way to handle it.
 
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kling&allen said:
I would say 2 as you don’t need this feature to have a viable product.
Click to expand...
nataddrho said:
I need some help from the reviewers…

The passaround has been a very good idea. The most common distraction everyone has had with the product is that the default speed reading clips at around 8mph, and people report that it isn’t accurate. There exists an alternative method to get accurate speed readings for all speeds by entering distance and selecting the impact event, but it doesn’t seem obvious enough to access.

What should I do to change this into a better experience?
Some ideas so far are
1. Disabled by default. The user must navigate to the settings to enable speed, and they have the option to enable hands free mode that clips at 8mph, or more accurate distance / time selection mode which is as accurate as the break app.
2. Completely scrap the hands free speed setting because the 8mph limit ruins it, even if it is accurate for low speeds.
3. Make the lower left dial display alternate information when disabled, like a digital read out of the clock English, or spin factor ratio.
4. When enabled, something on the screen that lets people know they can touch and drag the lower dials to access extra options.

Everything else about the product seems good with you guys except some better directions with videos, etc.

Nate
Click to expand...
#4 sounds good.
 
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