A Tougher Newgy?
I bought this robot after Vegas this year and had it for a month. I liked this robot a lot. Cost was about $1000 delivered to my door. Basically, it is almost an exact copy of the Newgy, except that it is heavy and made of steel. It stands on its own, and the net is permanently attached to the robot. This is interesting in that you can move the robot far from the table to do counterlooping drills for added realism. Usage and function is exactly like what I wrote above for Newgy; i.e. it makes tons of spin 360 degrees around the head, is instantly adjustable, etc.But there were problems with this robot too. The slowest frequency of ball feed was still much too fast for my liking, less than 1 second in between balls at the slowest speed. This wasn't enough for me to do serve return drills where you get in ready position, the robot serves short, you step in and flip and then get back to ready. It was suggested to me that I just let every other ball go, but that's obviously inconvenient. Calling for customer service didn't help at all, I was told the robot's designers and manufacturers were in Shanghai and there was nothing anyone could do.
more reviews to follow...
Comment from Forum Member 'Tobhik' About the Y&T 989 Table Tennis Robot
Hi Marco,I just bought the Y&T 989 robot. The first thing I did when trying the robot at my house was checking the ball frequency as I was afraid that the ball feeding was too fast. And fortunately the ball frequency is about right, it is 32 balls per minute.
I believe the construction of this Y&T 989 is just the same with the 988. The difference is this 989 can do random placement on the oscillation mode.
Marco Answers
Hi Tobhik, I'm glad you like your robot. Sounds like the new 989 fixed some of the small minor problems that I had with the 988. I think you will find this robot is as solid as a tank and sends ball after ball with exactly the same amount of speed and spin.Comment from Forum Member 'TMTM' About the Y&T VT989D Table Tennis Robot
I JUST missed picking up the VT989D here in China by 1 week. Anyways, it is now a 2 wheel design capable of dead balls and any kind of spin and angle EXCEPT for corkscrews. I am picking up a XuShaoFa instead.Anyways, the VT989D has random oscillation, spin independent of speed, and probably higher speed since you can use two wheels to accelerate the ball instead of one etc.
The thing about the VT series is that they are very durable.
Marco Answers
It will be interesting to see if the VT 2-headed robot can swivel 360 degrees or will it be limited to only 45 degrees like the Amicus and the TW-2000-05?It will also be interesting to see just how much spin can it make on short balls. So far, as far as 2-headed robots are concerned, only the Amicus and the Prakttismate can make heavy spin on short balls. Seems like every robot can make good speed and spin on long balls. I agree that the VT series is very durable and convenient in their design. Not having to attach either a net or a robot to the table is a big plus in terms of convenience and set up / break down time.
Comment from Forum Member 'haggis2' About the Y&T 989D
Regarding the PP 989D again, I'll have to check how far the head can actually move, didn't really try sidespin yet. If it can move 90 deg it's enough (don't need 360 deg), since you can use one wheel for one way, and the other wheel for the other way. Looking at my own pictures of the head posted here, it actually looks like it CAN turn 90 deg, so then it would be OK.
OK so for short backspin, I aim the head on the ball machine's side first and let it bounce there before it comes over the net right? I guess I'd have to shift the head up a little to make it clear the net.
For faster backspin I would shift the head right up, and aim down, straight onto my side, right?
I DO find it curious that the topspin wheel only goes down to 1, whereas the backspin to 0. Perhaps it's so that the ball does not get stuck when you set them both to 0. Even the low settings seem pretty fast to me.
I'll have a go tonight when i get home and can hopefully give some feedback here.
(in a later post)
I can confirm now that it CAN turn the head 90 deg, so it CAN do pure sidespin.
Now I'll spend a few more hours to see if it can do decent backspin...
Nothing like trying it yourself though. Even if I managed to do a (clumsy) review, I have nothing to compare it to (no reference) so the review would be very subjective.
