DigiBall Passaround Reviews

I had my week with Digi ball, if I had to sum it up with 1 sentence it would be: Can I get one by tomorrow?
What a great tool! Prior to trying Digi ball I had always assumed that I was hitting the cue ball pretty close to where I had intended, boy was I wrong. I quickly discovered that I was 1/2 to 3/4 tip from hitting my desired location on virtually every shot and it wasn't a case of favoring one direction, I was all over the cue ball in all random directions. It turned out to be a case "I didnt know what I didnt know", once I discovered that I was hitting random spots on the cue ball I concentrated a little harder on where I was actually striking the CB and started actually hitting the CB where I intended to. That alone I would say makes Digi ball the best tool in the tool box for improving and learning, the solid and accurate feedback from Digi ball is priceless, especially because I'm not one who is going to set up a training ball, hit it, and then go look for a chalk mark that may or may be present. As far as having to go look at my phone to see what occurred after every shot I didnt find that to be an issue, I normally circle the table on my PSR anyways. If it was an issue I would have used wifi to send to the TV hanging on my wall that I can see from any spot around my table. If I had a little more time with it I would have liked to use it with a training app that I have that selects shots for you along with tip position, ball speed, and position zones to see how Digi ball compares with the app. I did have 1 minor issue where Digi ball quit working on me on the second night after about 4 hours of total use, the battery died. I am assuming it wasn't fully charged and that the battery will last much longer than that, I believe the instructions said it should be good for approximately 16 hours of playing time on a full charge. I charged Digiball and it work perfectly again on the next night, I then charged it overnight before I sent it to the next user. I also did not get accurate speeds on my breaks, it was showing between 6 and 9.5 MPH on all of my breaks, some of my regular shots were registering that same 9.5MPH, I think the highest speed I recall was 12MPH, I'm not sure what was going on there unless my break shot needs that much help. I checked the settings and it was set for my 9 foot table. I also didnt really read the instructions, I just kind of glanced over them, its possible (read likely)I missed something. Either way it isn't the slightest deterrence from me ordering one as soon as they become available. Actual cue ball speed ranks pretty low on things I need to know. Everything I was sent in the Digi ball package was top quality products, I was pleasantly surprised, especially with the quality of the cue ball and the phone holder. The soft pouch is also a nice touch, it fits Digi Ball and the charger in separate compartments so you don't need to carry the other accessories when you take it out to the pool hall and possible lose something or have someone carry it away. It was easy to use (especially considering I read only some of the instructions) and easy to install the app and set up, I am not one that people seek out when they need help with computer/phone related products, so the ease of use was a real bonus to me.
For the time I had testing Digi Ball I give it a 10 out of 10, Digi Ball knocks it out of the park!!!!

Now I ask again, when can I get one and can I pre-order now to get it ASAP?? Whatever the ETA is its not soon enough as far as I am concerned. I know that my pool playing friends who have home tables will also want one as soon as they see mine. I would say that all of my pool playing friends will want one but I don't know how many will be willing to drop it in a barbox.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to test this wonderful product.
 
fastone371 said:
I also did not get accurate speeds on my breaks, it was showing between 6 and 9.5 MPH on all of my breaks, some of my regular shots were registering that same 9.5MPH, I think the highest speed I recall was 12MPH, I'm not sure what was going on there unless my break shot needs that much help. I checked the settings and it was set for my 9 foot table. I also didnt really read the instructions, I just kind of glanced over them, its possible (read likely)I missed something. Either way it isn't the slightest deterrence from me ordering one as soon as they become available. Actual cue ball speed ranks pretty low on things I need to know.
Click to expand...
I am glad you liked the product! Especially that you only glanced over the instructions... one of the things that is being tested is the intuition-of-use, i.e. how easy is it to use out of the box? It seems like it passes which is great.
To explain the speed measurement a bit more:
The DigiBall has an internal accelerometer that integrates the extremely fast ball acceleration to get ball speed. However it maxes out at accelerations less than what a break shot would generate... this is a current limitation of available MEMs sensors on the market based on affordability, size, and power consumption. It gives you hands-free speed measurements that have an OK but not great accuracy below 12 mph.
If you want a very accurate speed measurement, you can manually input both the distance between CB and OB, and then select the impact event. Its a bit more work and probably only useful for studying specific shots (like breaks).
Thanks for being a tester!
Nate
 
fastone371 said:
I had my week with Digi ball, if I had to sum it up with 1 sentence it would be: Can I get one by tomorrow?
What a great tool! Prior to trying Digi ball I had always assumed that I was hitting the cue ball pretty close to where I had intended, boy was I wrong. I quickly discovered that I was 1/2 to 3/4 tip from hitting my desired location on virtually every shot and it wasn't a case of favoring one direction, I was all over the cue ball in all random directions. It turned out to be a case "I didnt know what I didnt know", once I discovered that I was hitting random spots on the cue ball I concentrated a little harder on where I was actually striking the CB and started actually hitting the CB where I intended to. That alone I would say makes Digi ball the best tool in the tool box for improving and learning, the solid and accurate feedback from Digi ball is priceless, especially because I'm not one who is going to set up a training ball, hit it, and then go look for a chalk mark that may or may be present. As far as having to go look at my phone to see what occurred after every shot I didnt find that to be an issue, I normally circle the table on my PSR anyways. If it was an issue I would have used wifi to send to the TV hanging on my wall that I can see from any spot around my table. If I had a little more time with it I would have liked to use it with a training app that I have that selects shots for you along with tip position, ball speed, and position zones to see how Digi ball compares with the app. I did have 1 minor issue where Digi ball quit working on me on the second night after about 4 hours of total use, the battery died. I am assuming it wasn't fully charged and that the battery will last much longer than that, I believe the instructions said it should be good for approximately 16 hours of playing time on a full charge. I charged Digiball and it work perfectly again on the next night, I then charged it overnight before I sent it to the next user. I also did not get accurate speeds on my breaks, it was showing between 6 and 9.5 MPH on all of my breaks, some of my regular shots were registering that same 9.5MPH, I think the highest speed I recall was 12MPH, I'm not sure what was going on there unless my break shot needs that much help. I checked the settings and it was set for my 9 foot table. I also didnt really read the instructions, I just kind of glanced over them, its possible (read likely)I missed something. Either way it isn't the slightest deterrence from me ordering one as soon as they become available. Actual cue ball speed ranks pretty low on things I need to know. Everything I was sent in the Digi ball package was top quality products, I was pleasantly surprised, especially with the quality of the cue ball and the phone holder. The soft pouch is also a nice touch, it fits Digi Ball and the charger in separate compartments so you don't need to carry the other accessories when you take it out to the pool hall and possible lose something or have someone carry it away. It was easy to use (especially considering I read only some of the instructions) and easy to install the app and set up, I am not one that people seek out when they need help with computer/phone related products, so the ease of use was a real bonus to me.
For the time I had testing Digi Ball I give it a 10 out of 10, Digi Ball knocks it out of the park!!!!

Now I ask again, when can I get one and can I pre-order now to get it ASAP?? Whatever the ETA is its not soon enough as far as I am concerned. I know that my pool playing friends who have home tables will also want one as soon as they see mine. I would say that all of my pool playing friends will want one but I don't know how many will be willing to drop it in a barbox.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to test this wonderful product.
Click to expand...
Excellent review!!!
I think Digiball is going to show players that their cue speed isn't as high as they thot it was.
Your review supports what I've always believed.
 
I'm with you. I'm 2nd to last on the test list and very excited to have made the list. If there were one to buy right now, I'd do so gladly and still write a review.

fastone371 said:
I had my week with Digi ball, if I had to sum it up with 1 sentence it would be: Can I get one by tomorrow?
What a great tool! Prior to trying Digi ball I had always assumed that I was hitting the cue ball pretty close to where I had intended, boy was I wrong. I quickly discovered that I was 1/2 to 3/4 tip from hitting my desired location on virtually every shot and it wasn't a case of favoring one direction, I was all over the cue ball in all random directions. It turned out to be a case "I didnt know what I didnt know", once I discovered that I was hitting random spots on the cue ball I concentrated a little harder on where I was actually striking the CB and started actually hitting the CB where I intended to. That alone I would say makes Digi ball the best tool in the tool box for improving and learning, the solid and accurate feedback from Digi ball is priceless, especially because I'm not one who is going to set up a training ball, hit it, and then go look for a chalk mark that may or may be present. As far as having to go look at my phone to see what occurred after every shot I didnt find that to be an issue, I normally circle the table on my PSR anyways. If it was an issue I would have used wifi to send to the TV hanging on my wall that I can see from any spot around my table. If I had a little more time with it I would have liked to use it with a training app that I have that selects shots for you along with tip position, ball speed, and position zones to see how Digi ball compares with the app. I did have 1 minor issue where Digi ball quit working on me on the second night after about 4 hours of total use, the battery died. I am assuming it wasn't fully charged and that the battery will last much longer than that, I believe the instructions said it should be good for approximately 16 hours of playing time on a full charge. I charged Digiball and it work perfectly again on the next night, I then charged it overnight before I sent it to the next user. I also did not get accurate speeds on my breaks, it was showing between 6 and 9.5 MPH on all of my breaks, some of my regular shots were registering that same 9.5MPH, I think the highest speed I recall was 12MPH, I'm not sure what was going on there unless my break shot needs that much help. I checked the settings and it was set for my 9 foot table. I also didnt really read the instructions, I just kind of glanced over them, its possible (read likely)I missed something. Either way it isn't the slightest deterrence from me ordering one as soon as they become available. Actual cue ball speed ranks pretty low on things I need to know. Everything I was sent in the Digi ball package was top quality products, I was pleasantly surprised, especially with the quality of the cue ball and the phone holder. The soft pouch is also a nice touch, it fits Digi Ball and the charger in separate compartments so you don't need to carry the other accessories when you take it out to the pool hall and possible lose something or have someone carry it away. It was easy to use (especially considering I read only some of the instructions) and easy to install the app and set up, I am not one that people seek out when they need help with computer/phone related products, so the ease of use was a real bonus to me.
For the time I had testing Digi Ball I give it a 10 out of 10, Digi Ball knocks it out of the park!!!!

Now I ask again, when can I get one and can I pre-order now to get it ASAP?? Whatever the ETA is its not soon enough as far as I am concerned. I know that my pool playing friends who have home tables will also want one as soon as they see mine. I would say that all of my pool playing friends will want one but I don't know how many will be willing to drop it in a barbox.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to test this wonderful product.
Click to expand...
 
SlateMan said:
I'm with you. I'm 2nd to last on the test list and very excited to have made the list. If there were one to buy right now, I'd do so gladly and still write a review.
Click to expand...
After testing and finding out what I did I want one even more so now. I already inquired on how to get one ASAP, it appears we are at the mercy of the manufacturer.
 
fastone371 said:
After testing and finding out what I did I want one even more so now. I already inquired on how to get one ASAP, it appears we are at the mercy of the manufacturer.
Click to expand...

A freebie for you. If you or anyone doesn't have a table at home or nearby, a stop on even a cheap arm saw and a section of two inch schdule forty PVC will let you cut a whole herd of two and a quarter inch pucks in a few minutes. The PVC is more like 2-5/16" or 2-3/8" diameter but plenty close. A planed board as long as you want and you are in business. I use a sharpie to mark where I want to hit the puck and move it around now and then. If you like a gate on the other end makes a handy target. A five gallon bucket to catch the pucks completes the set up. An hour or so for the set up then you can hone where you hit the cue ball at home.

Few hit the cue ball as accurately and consistently as they think they do. I hit about an eighth inch high and a sixteenth inch left. I was really surprised that this error was highly consistent though, I didn't hit the cue ball all over the place. The pucks were great for showing this.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
A freebie for you. If you or anyone doesn't have a table at home or nearby, a stop on even a cheap arm saw and a section of two inch schdule forty PVC will let you cut a whole herd of two and a quarter inch pucks in a few minutes. The PVC is more like 2-5/16" or 2-3/8" diameter but plenty close. A planed board as long as you want and you are in business. I use a sharpie to mark where I want to hit the puck and move it around now and then. If you like a gate on the other end makes a handy target. A five gallon bucket to catch the pucks completes the set up. An hour or so for the set up then you can hone where you hit the cue ball at home.

Few hit the cue ball as accurately and consistently as they think they do. I hit about an eighth inch high and a sixteenth inch left. I was really surprised that this error was highly consistent though, I didn't hit the cue ball all over the place. The pucks were great for showing this.

Hu
Click to expand...
I kind of expected to not hit exactly where I wanted but I expected the error to at least be somewhat consistent, it wasn't. At least it wasn't hard to fix, I just had to pay attention to hitting where I was aiming. I think it was something good to bring to my awareness.
 
ShootingArts said:
A freebie for you. If you or anyone doesn't have a table at home or nearby, a stop on even a cheap arm saw and a section of two inch schdule forty PVC will let you cut a whole herd of two and a quarter inch pucks in a few minutes. The PVC is more like 2-5/16" or 2-3/8" diameter but plenty close. A planed board as long as you want and you are in business. I use a sharpie to mark where I want to hit the puck and move it around now and then. If you like a gate on the other end makes a handy target. A five gallon bucket to catch the pucks completes the set up. An hour or so for the set up then you can hone where you hit the cue ball at home.

Few hit the cue ball as accurately and consistently as they think they do. I hit about an eighth inch high and a sixteenth inch left. I was really surprised that this error was highly consistent though, I didn't hit the cue ball all over the place. The pucks were great for showing this.

Hu
Click to expand...
I love the idea of many pucks and a bucket to catch them. A very innovative idea! It reminds me of 5¢ golf balls, and the field I used to hit them into from the back of my house as a kid. They give you a real target that moves out of the way like a pool ball.

The one thing missing from pucks and buckets is that the solution required for a pool shot pulls your mind in two different directions at once: 1. pocketing the ball and 2. getting position for your next shot. Many times there is an internal mental struggle wanting to pull the tip to a desirable location for 2 at the expense of 1, or vice versa. I think this is really where tip accuracy problems come from. Shooting out of context is useful but doesn't pull back the blinds completely.

The feeling of hitting a cue ball exactly where your "brain" wants you to, noticing that it actually feels different, and then realizing that for a long time you actually weren't doing what you were absolutely dead certain that you were, is the tiny learning increment that makes a huge difference, and what we are all after.
 
nataddrho said:
I love the idea of many pucks and a bucket to catch them. A very innovative idea! It reminds me of 5¢ golf balls, and the field I used to hit them into from the back of my house as a kid. They give you a real target that moves out of the way like a pool ball.

The one thing missing from pucks and buckets is that the solution required for a pool shot pulls your mind in two different directions at once: 1. pocketing the ball and 2. getting position for your next shot. Many times there is an internal mental struggle wanting to pull the tip to a desirable location for 2 at the expense of 1, or vice versa. I think this is really where tip accuracy problems come from. Shooting out of context is useful but doesn't pull back the blinds completely.

The feeling of hitting a cue ball exactly where your "brain" wants you to, noticing that it actually feels different, and then realizing that for a long time you actually weren't doing what you were absolutely dead certain that you were, is the tiny learning increment that makes a huge difference, and what we are all after.
Click to expand...

Yes, pucks are focused on one issue although you can add a bit if you want to. The hit feels much like a cue ball due to less weight but more drag. You can use as long a board as you like so aim and speed control can be worked on. A simple line across the board every six inches or whatever you choose can help work on speed control. Shooting a puck to stay on the table and using another to knock it off in a certain place gives you something to aim at. A lot you can do for under fifty dollars if you want to. A T shape and clamping in one or two of the little t shaped work benches is possible. There is actually a full table that uses pucks, common in the Philippines.

The board idea starts as simple as you like and can get as fancy as you want. I wanted something I could pick up and put down in a few minutes so an eight foot board cut down a little let it come in and stand in the corner of a closet. I cut a five gallon bucket of pucks, the quickest part. Once a stop was in place it only took seconds to make a puck.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
Yes, pucks are focused on one issue although you can add a bit if you want to. The hit feels much like a cue ball due to less weight but more drag. You can use as long a board as you like so aim and speed control can be worked on. A simple line across the board every six inches or whatever you choose can help work on speed control. Shooting a puck to stay on the table and using another to knock it off in a certain place gives you something to aim at. A lot you can do for under fifty dollars if you want to. A T shape and clamping in one or two of the little t shaped work benches is possible. There is actually a full table that uses pucks, common in the Philippines.

The board idea starts as simple as you like and can get as fancy as you want. I wanted something I could pick up and put down in a few minutes so an eight foot board cut down a little let it come in and stand in the corner of a closet. I cut a five gallon bucket of pucks, the quickest part. Once a stop was in place it only took seconds to make a puck.

Hu
Click to expand...
I don't know what the puck you are talking about. :)
 
I went ahead and did it. DigiBall will also have a free watch app for Apple Watch. It is stand alone (the watch reads the DigiBall directly) so you don’t need to use your phone with the watch.

IMG_2025-02-22-194453.jpeg
 
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DigiBall is a quite interesting product. I'll keep the description brief as I'm guessing most know about what it is and what it does. It's an electronic cueball that reports where you hit the cueball, as well as the speed and spin generated.

The components are all quality. The ball itself is Aramith resin and it feels absolutely balanced. I messed around with soft rolling it and watching for anything odd and I saw nothing that would lead me to believe it was off. It feels like a quality cueball and it reacts like one. It is one... a real quality cueball. The Charging Cradle feels solidly made and finished well. The included cables are of sufficient length. It seems silly to include this but nowadays if you buy a toaster the cord might not even reach the outlet. Pool tables can often be in odd locations where outlets are scarce. It's a small but usefull aspect.

The aluminum phone stand has a quality finish. It holds your phone well and is balanced. You don't have to worry about the device scratching anything, no rough edges and it has rubber feet.

The case that holds the ball should provide plenty of protection. All in all it seems like a well made and well thought out kit. The one minor nitpick is that if you wanted to take this with you you might need to get a small bag to carry cords in. Not a big deal and if the box that the kit was shipped in comes with the final product it is/would be sufficient to transport the cords. That and the fact the ball holds a charge for 16 hours you probably don't need to take the cords along to wherever you are playing anyway.

The phone app worked well "out of the box" and I didn't have to mess with anything on that end. The DigiCast pretty much just worked too. The DigiCast kit seems well built and is as easy to hook up as plugging an HDMI cable into your TV and plugging it's power cord in. My only issue was that I couldn't really find documentation online about it so for the course of the trial period it displayed my cueball speed in km/h. Not a big deal and I'd imagine if I had reached out this could be solved easily. I'm not entirely up to speed on devices such as this, but it seemed like it might be something similar to a raspberry pi. I don't know how the final approach to this will look, but something like a website or app for a computer where you could customize it would be nice. I'm guessing there may be something like this where you can update the firmware and settings. Again, I didn't reach out about it because I figured I could live with km/h for the trial period and my phone showed mph anyway.

The DigiCast is really cool though. We enjoyed watching it while in the spectator chairs waiting for next game. While playing it was easy to look up and see what went right or wrong after a shot. It made it really easy to confirm our suspicions, things like I decelerated/hit it too soft/threw the ball offline because of too much spin, etc. It's a cool thing to display and I could see it being a spectator favorite when watching the finals in a tournament or something similar. Kind of like a TV table where you can see how the ball was struck. You could even have a monitor on top of the light for spectators. You could do a really cool setup with this if you owned a room.

If you've played for a decent lenght of time you probably realize what you did wrong upon a miss. Seeing it on the screen and confirming what actually happened is usefull. It could be a distraction in a game situation if you get too deep into evaluation mode, but it's great for training and for the spectators. Subtle differences are easy to see, and often it's the subtle things that can go under the radar. Even the act of simply confirming your suspicion is powerful in practice. It's easy to forget about when you were first learning the game. This would be a powerful tool when starting out, trying drills, discovering what spin did etc. Another tool to analyze what does what.

I didn't use the streaming overlay because I don't have a setup to stream or record matches, however I could see this being great for live streaming or playback in general. Having accurate CB data while streaming is really neat. It's great for the spectators and for people to understand how a shot works. If I did livestreaming in almost any capacity I would use this. I can't really comment/review this aspect of the DigiBall but it's definitely a strong use case. I think the audience would really appreciate this when watching streams or tuturial type content.

Over the course of the evaluation I tried several things. We played a bunch of 9B. The built in shot clock was a neat feature. I worked for a couple minutes on my 9B break and that helped a lot for putting 2 and 2 together with results on the table. You could readily relate what the difference in 1/16" of tip position did when breaking. We even confirmed how not being stable and "jumping up" lead to a higher hit on the CB. Again a lot of this can be obvious once you've hit enough shots, but it's really useful for fine tuning and confirming your suspicions. You know for a fact where you hit it when you see it on the display. For example, on a 9B break, you can move the CB on the table across the headstring and see what that does when you hit it with the same speed and spin. I didn't focus heavily on breaking but I could see this being a very powerful tool if used in practice. You should be able to really fine tune things. Look for more break formats to become broken in the future! ;)

I worked on the wagon wheel drill and that was very useful to see just how you hit it. Tip position registered accurately and you can really see how a good stroke contributes to the desired outcome on a drill. Not just tip location accuracy but you can see stroke quality too.

All in all we enjoyed the experience. I think DigiBall will be an excellent product for instructors, streamers, and students of the game. It's easy to set up and use. The trial period was enough to get a general idea but I think if one owned a DigiBall, you could really put the reps in, fine tune the app, track metrics over time and such. It seems to be a great training tool and I could see it working really well with student drills and/or a projection system. Let's face it, if you're an instructor and a rival instructor gets one of these before you do look out! :) There are different teaching and learning styles, but if you can harness the power of data driven instruction/coaching it could be a huge boon, both for the financials and your student's progress. It also has the "wow factor" that students would appreciate. I can only start to imagine how well this could work with spreadsheets and for the data crunchers. Real analytical driven results like in other sports... think golf swing coaching. This product could lead to some real inovations and stronger competition in the future.

I kind of glossed over this aspect as it works so seamlessly you kind of forget about it, but just how damn cool is it that a cueball can do this type of stuff? I'd like to think of myself as a semi smart guy but I can't even imagine what went into the R&D on the DigiBall. The math would make my head hurt! I mean think about this... a real cueball that plays like a real cue ball should, is balanced, and has all this tech baked into the design! Imagine what guys like Dr. Dave, Bob Jewett, etc would/could do with one of these! Imagine what is waiting to be discovered...

It's a pretty cool and useful product if you ask me.

Thanks for the opportunity to give it a whirl!
 
Nice review! And it really seems we see the birth of something quite revolutionairy to the game. Congrats @nataddrho, it must be very rewarding to get such positive reception after all the hard work and development!

Im very curious how this will impact the training of amateurs, but also for the pros ofcourse!

And then for spectating. What will be the first big tournament to add this to the spectators experience?
 
The shot clock is also a cool feature. I didn't know it had that. How does it work? The clock starts when the cueball stops?

And what do they people at Aramith say about this project? To them it must also be the most innovative thing that happened in a long while.
 
ShootingArts said:
A freebie for you. If you or anyone doesn't have a table at home or nearby, a stop on even a cheap arm saw and a section of two inch schdule forty PVC will let you cut a whole herd of two and a quarter inch pucks in a few minutes. The PVC is more like 2-5/16" or 2-3/8" diameter but plenty close. A planed board as long as you want and you are in business. I use a sharpie to mark where I want to hit the puck and move it around now and then. If you like a gate on the other end makes a handy target. A five gallon bucket to catch the pucks completes the set up. An hour or so for the set up then you can hone where you hit the cue ball at home.

Few hit the cue ball as accurately and consistently as they think they do. I hit about an eighth inch high and a sixteenth inch left. I was really surprised that this error was highly consistent though, I didn't hit the cue ball all over the place. The pucks were great for showing this.

Hu
Click to expand...
CueHitter3.jpg
Cuehitter2.jpg
Cuehitter1.jpg

Been there done that! On the table...
 
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