Table Tennis Robots Reviews - Prakttismate PK1 and PK2 Ping-Pong Robots

Prakttismate Table Tennis Robot - PK1 = $1300 PK2 = $1000

My initial impressions:

1. I was surprised how small and compact the box is! 1/2 the size of the V988 box.
2. Quality is superb: everything looks strong and super heavy-duty. No plastic anywhere. Everything is metal.
3. I didn't know the head height is adjustable! That was a feature that only the $2400 Amicus had. Nice surprise!
4. I like the manual. This is by far the best manual of all the robots. It is at least double the amount of writing as the other manuals, and the pictures really help.

• This robot was about $1300,
• is made of solid metal,
• is compact,
• has a head that adjusts up and down by about 6 inches,
• the heads also tilt up and down,
• it rotates 360 degrees to make any spin,
• it also makes dead balls,
• you can run spin independent of speed so you can have dead ball fast or slow, or mega spin fast or slow as well as any combination inbetween,
• it makes a LOT of spin (13000rpm at max), it makes a LOT of speed (90mph at max),
• the robot mounts INSIDE the net, so no matter where on the table you put it, the balls will recycle (note: even the Amicus can't do that)
• and it oscillates. Oscillation speed is adjustable.

I think we now have an Amicus-killer!

A Few Days Later...

This robot does everything it claims to do. In fact, it actually OVER-DOES it.

I just set this thing to mega underspin, and it is an UNGODLY amount of spin. I set it up to do a heavy short underspin serve, and just for fun tried the highest settings possible. The ball came out low, bounced on the server's side, just barely cleared the net, then bounced on the receiver's side, landing very short, then one more bounce and then did an about face and went right back over the net from whence it came! Now is that mega underspin or what?

Just touching such a ball made the ball slam hard straight down into the table. This is a SICK amount of spin.

But in case you are wondering, you can adjust for lower amounts of spin, all the way down to a dead ball.

The robot head adjusts up and down easily. The robot head tilts up and down as well very easily. The head swivels easily 360 degrees and adjusts in seconds to any spin you want, just like a Newgy and just as quickly.

Ball delivery is silky and smooth and quiet.

The oscillator works flawlessly, and controls to turn it on and adjust speed of oscillation are conveniently located right on the remote controller.

The net worked perfectly and was easy to set up. In fact the whole robot is fairly easy to set up and take down. Though it is not as easy as a Newgy or V-series Paddle Palace.

Bottom line: I have no complaints with this robot. It does exactly what it says it can do and does it at a fair price.

One suggestion: well even though this manual was about twice as thick as any of the competition's manual, I still want more writing. I suggested to Prakktismate that they include a page with about 6 settings fully described. For each setting, I would like to specifically know how high to set the head, what angle to set the head, and how to set each control on the remote controller. I would like this info for short underspin, long underspin, short dead balls, long dead balls, and some topspin varieties. This way it becomes that much easier to get started. Side spin suggestions are not necessary because any time you have the robot set you can just turn the head to sidespin and it will work just fine with a minimum of setting adjustments.

I am very happy with this robot.

BTW, in case you were wondering the way to get the Mega underspin is to turn the head so that the big wheel is down, set the big wheel to about 6, then turn on the small wheel with the "reverse" switch set to Reverse, and turn the reverse wheel setting to about 4. Have the head as low as possible to the table and the head angle almost straight horizontal. It's nasty!

Question from Forum Member 'trader889'

Marco Replies

The frequency setting on the PK is amazingly versatile. I haven't precisely measured it with a clock, but I would say at the slowest setting it would be about 1 ball every 6 seconds which is plenty slow enough to do any footwork drills you want. At it's highest setting it is an almost continuous stream of balls, much faster than anyone would ever need.

As far as speed, it can make wickedly fast balls. The manual says up to 90mph. That seems a little enthusiastic. But I can say that it is certainly as fast as a fast flat smash.

A Later Post from Marco

For more underspin, put the big head on the bottom and little wheel on top and use the robot as if it were a single-wheel robot, only using the big wheel.

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