DONIC Pongbot Omni S Pro owners' review and discussion thread

[plunder]

We all know and appreciate the versatiliy and the (by @smee0815 @olanga enhanced 🦾) functionality of the Nova S Pro; my Nova was going strong ... until i somehow🤷‍♀️ ran tired of using it. There's nothing wrong with the Nova at such a price point, heck i am keeping 2 units (lemme call them robi2 robi3, i'm not convinced by their inner build quality tbh), and hopefully you keep using it avidly week after week for 1 year and more years to come: it has to be the best robot in the sub-500US$ category ... especially if🤔 it keeps running and running without breaking down. 🛐

I've been documenting my robipon frequency painstakingly, since as a shopper I was curious myself about usage frequency of Power Pong Omega (Butterfly Amicus Prime) by disciplined players like Dario Grd: if i buy a good robot, how often will i end up using it regularly, say after 1 year of ownership? Only if i knew that i'd keep using it often enough in future, the purchase would make sense. So, if you're a Nova owner, i urge you to do the same: tally your frequency month after month, and learn if and by how much you've been slacking off. Then come back and we'll try to fathom together what the slow Nova-use k*ller has been in the long term (i kinda know what has gradually been draining my continued zeal for robi2pon but let's stayed focused on the Omni in this thread). Anyway I went back to training with my returnboards (rb1 rb3 rb4) for several months. And finally i switched back to robipon: training with my Omni S Pro (=robi4) which i bought at post-spring sale discount 🤑

TL;DR If we could travel back in time, i'd simply buy the Omni and be done with the robi acquisition topic: it beats robi1, robi2, robi3 (=copy of robi2), in essential ways. I don't regret owning and keeping those other 3 robi units (for simple reasons) ... but if i do sell them, i'd let you guys know!

youtube is full of unboxing and first use videos of the Omni, none of the youtubers discuss practical details, curiosities, or interesting tidbits. In this thread we'll look at all noteworthy aspects, sometimes in comparison to the Nova and rarely to the Omega because i am not expert at operating robi1. The Nova never broke down on me, so i never dared🤫 to show off any critical details about its build quality; fair enough. I had never owned an Omni before, so i never dared 🤫 to make any own claims or statements on the product; also fair enough. Now i own them all and can finally speak up (and reconfirm/refute what other Omni owners had opined). So stay tuned, i'll keep updating this thread! 🗣️

 

[Jslick89]

I'm interested to see what you discover on the inside of your omni lol. I love mine. the only issues i have with it are very minimal. If Olga was able to do the same thing he did for the Omni that he did with the nova, i would have basically zero issues.

For the price point, its going to be really hard to beat this robot. although Pusun now has a robot thats an even lower price point and seems to the same functionality if not better (3 wheels + rotating head) for an even cheaper price.

 

[Kopp]

I checked, this robot is way too expensive. I'd rather hire a coach than buy it. I already have one that costs only about ⅑ of the price. It doesn't have AI, but it's capable of producing all kinds of spin, short and long balls and different placements. All the settings can be fixed or randomized. Maybe if I had some extra money, I would buy this one... but I never have 😅

 

[laowa]

I checked, this robot is way too expensive. I'd rather hire a coach than buy it. I already have one that costs only about ⅑ of the price. It doesn't have AI, but it's capable of producing all kinds of spin, short and long balls and different placements. All the settings can be fixed or randomized. Maybe if I had some extra money, I would buy this one... but I never have 😅

Btw what robot are u using?

 

[Kopp]

Btw what robot are u using?

https://revspin.net/robot/huieson-hs-r1.html

I bought it 4 years ago. It was only round €90 at that time. What I really like about it is that it can run on both a rechargeable battery and electricity. The battery lasts for about 4 hours, and the bucket can hold around 100 balls.

 

[plunder]

Pongbot Pocketable Powerbank

The standby current consumption of the Omni is 0.7A, if you do supply the spec'ed 24.0V. One could operate the robot at a significantly lower out-of-spec DC supply voltage (22 20 18 16 14 ... Volts), then the current draw will be higher, so that the wattage remains about the same at 16W. At full flight, the Omni draws never over 0.95A, resulting in a 2h45min robi4pon session duration with my Pweite 4x21700 powerbank (pb1). If i wanted to continue the session from a mobile power supply, i'd simply switch to my other Pweite 4x21700 powerbank (pb2) for another 2h45min lol.

When i had bought pb1 and pb2 not too long ago at pricey pricing, i wasn't aware of a modern pocketable powerbank shell which was capable of 24V DC output (barrel jack port) AND featured user-replaceable batteries (typically 18650's not 21700's). All one needs it 1 unit of this dream gadget (model name "T8" = pb3), it's so inexpensive and functional, highly recommended, makes the Pongbot use more enjoyable 🥰:

The loop (wrist strap) of the pb3 carry case is key. Use the loop on/around the rubber bumper, i.e. the distance holder between the Omni robot and the edge of the table. That's just perfect of a location for letting the powerbank dangle around right next to the robot in-air:

left rubber bumper for pb1/pb2 carry case:

right rubber bumper for pb3 carry case:

The pb3's DC5221 output port doesn't align perfectly with the carry case's output opening under the velcro flap. No worries, by shifting the pb3 a bit (or pulling the corner around), the port becomes nicely accessible. No big deal since one needs to take the pb3 out of the carry case anyway in order to turn it on, switch from the default USB mode to DC mode, and verify that it's set to "24.0V":

After the robi4pon session i leave the carry loop with its small carabiner dangling at the table, unclipping the big carabiner together with the entire carry case and the pb3. ((Of course, one doesn't need any commercial carry case; one could think of a rubber strap or some duct tape around the pb3's head which then clips into the small carabiner of the carry loop)):

I recharge my powerbanks from a mains power adapter (230V AC-to-24V DC for pb1/pb2, or 230V AC-to-20V PD USB-C for pb3). Pb3 is advertised at a 65W PD USB rating, and during the first 30min of charge it comes really close , so no false advertising:

Using cheap Chinese 1500mAh 18650 cells, charging pb3 takes 64min only. Highly appreciated by me: as soon as the pb3 LCD display goes from "99%" to "100%", the charging stops, and likewise as soon as the display goes from "1%" to "0%" during Omni operation, the pb3 shuts itself off. In other words, the pb3's SoC display (state of charge, in percent) is "accurate" in that regard, nice!

Using those 1500mAh cells i get an idle runtime of 2h10min. I recorded the pb3's SoC against time, at a constant current draw of 0.7A, the SoC has a very linear course (down to 15%, then discharging accelerates):

18650 cells with a certified 3500mAh capacity are common place, e.g. the MJ1 by Korean manufacturer LG. With such nice cells, at full flight you could expect around 4.0h of runtime, i.e. definitely longer than my pb1's runtime of 2h45min (24V 0.95A). Note that the Nova runtimes are longer than that because of its lower power consumption (24V 0.65A).

For cabling, i use a 50cm long AWG18 (=thick!) rectangled male DC5525 to rectangled male DC5525 cable which is compatible with DC5515 barrel jack ports (as found on pb1 pb2 pb3). The length and the rectangledness are perfect for our application, and this exact type of cable is easy to find on alix. Alternatively, one could employ a 60cm long DC5525 male to DC5515 male cable in AWG22 (=thin!) or AWG18 (allegedly) but i couldn't find any with rectangled connectors AND in 50cm length.

Btw, even if you doht want to operate your Omni from a powerbank (erh... in order to save monies??), i'd still recommend getting the T8 model together with 8 MJ1's: it's the ultimate pocketable powerbank solution for the rest of your life. Greedy companies charge up to 149US$ for the industrial design version which doesn't even have a display screen!

Sorry if this post sounds like a 'chinese powerbanks review haha' but to me, 24V-capable powerbanks are the way to go with Omni (and with Nova). Plenty of runtime, very satisfying, fast(!) recharging thru barrel jack or PD USB protocol (ATTENTION: pb3 does NOT support charging thru the barrel jack port!), no more cables, power adaptor, multiple socket outlet, extension cable on the floor! Makes it easier to collect balls from around the table. And yes, with the Omni one still needs to collect balls off the floor 😆

 

[plunder]

Physical Setup

This post be about very few not so obvious 330 details/observations, noteworthy ones.

Could you help me understand? I caht see a neat way to adjust the clamping height to accommodate tables of different thicknesses. While robi1 does have such a thing, the robi4 clamp tips doht have screwable rubber posts or similar. The tips are simply tube ends wearing rubber feet. Okay, i guess one could(?) fill in the rubber feet, with spacers. Or shorten the tube ends with a metal saw lol🪚. But why not adopt robi1's method? I had to use some taped wood chips to level the robot :

Now it's level enough, at less than 0.3333° from perfect horizontal:

What about the side-to-side inclination? Also level enough:

Did you notice the small black circular patch, in the above photo? It's velcro. My failed attempt to fix the (minor) problem of balls exiting at the rear of the catch net, since there is a "hole" in the ball retention system. If the net were attached to the orange plastic, the balls wouldn't be able to escape through that spot:

Why failed? Because the velcro patches doht adhere well to the net; the tape side requires a smooth flat surface like the orange plastic. I should try glue for better adhesion. Likewise, sometimes the balls escape through the sides of the net. If there were velcro patches on the sides (see robi1), the net would be more secure:

Anyway i fixed the situation with a random piece of cardboard:

At the end of the setup process, simply place the card ♣️ behind the robot's head to ensure that no more balls stay still next to it (on the shoulders) or exit through the holes behind it. What a beautiful simple reversible functional mod:

When the balls roll slowly towards the end of the table ... any ball reaching the end of the table ... they will not stop there but eventually roll back to the robot's ball tray. The two black plastic wings have a precision inclination which make the balls roll on the air rail to the center. No more annoying still balls around the robot (see robi1), i find that amazing and uplifting 🤩. This photo shows how the balls is rolling along the air rail towards the orange post:

The plastic wings are absolutely functional, all(!) balls touching the black plastic material find their way to the base tray, rolling towards the center, AND all balls in the base get recycled to the ejecting wheels. All! Not a single dead ball (compare that to robi1, nuff said!). An Omni user will never be bothered by any instance of the recycling system, everything just works flawlessly, a perfect 10/10. ((some users doht like the drum sound🥁 when their shot hits the black wings; yes, if hit directly, robi4 wings are louder than robi1 wings. doesn't happen frequently. and when it does, i like the dull boom💥, lol))

Once the robot is properly set up, upon Power On the head resets to the start position at Ball Height = 0, which corresponds to the perfectly horizontal orientation, i.e. 0.00° math (= zero degrees, measured against the horizontal):

Advanced players dislike that the balls from the pre-programmed drills are so easy ... because they fly too high over the net (too generous net clearance!). Through the drill calibration we're able to lower the ball flight curves (trajectory) but still wouldn't know the exact Ball Height setting which was implemented by the Pongbot design engineers. I find it helpful to map Ball Height to degrees (always math!) or vice versa: if you've been training with a calibrated pre-programmed drill and would like to re-create it as Custom Drill (e.g. in order to expand/modify the drill), you'd need to know the exact Ball Height parameter to start with. Having your own inclinometer measurement (the mini device is magnetic and doesn't fall off, nice!) would tell you instantly what the Ball Height parameter is. Here is the mapping table:

Spoiler: Degrees (math) to Ball Height — Reference Table

If you measure a value in between, say "6.75° math", then Ball Height must be 16, 17, 18, or 19. No need to do computations, just pick a value and test the ball, cheers!

 

[Jslick89]

Why does your omni look like its set up inside a bathroom? lol.

looking forward to more of your analysis of the omni!

RE the net catcher: I found that the net didn't extend far enough to hook up to my table's net bracket. I had to put a little rubberband type thingy to extend it around the net assembly. It seems like that pulled in the collection wings of the omni-s ever so slightly closer to the table that i dont really have a noticable problem of balls falling out of that back part (more likely i miss landing on the table at all LOL!

let me know if you want to try out any of my custom drills.

 

[plunder]

@Jslick89 , yes i'll be discussing (and other owners feel free to contribute too!) more and more aspects such as wheel maintenance & balls (14 inside), build quality, E-Pad S, quirks (minor firmware🐞), served ball quality, systematic drills, etc. whatever comes to mind when using it. we'll be sharing/evaluating/discussing custom drills here too, thx!

The news item for today, DONIC-Newgy is a thing of the past! When you click on the following link today:

Blätterkatalog

you'll see the old catalog, promoting their Donic robot made by Newgy. But when you click on it in a week or so, the online catalog will show the latest annual printed catalog, which i just received, with no more mention of DONIC-Newgy robots. Instead:

Same with the Japanese Butterfly company and their Amicus robots made by LCS Sportszer Kft. (Hungary), the German DONIC company has adopted the Omni robot made by Shanghai Future Mind Co., Ltd. (China, better known as the "Pongbot" company) and kicked their DONIC-Newgy robot line-up:

DONIC - PONGBOT OMNI S PRO

The New Benchmark in Table Tennis Training – Your Toughest Training Partner

www.donic.com

I highly welcome this bold move. And as the product page says, Omni spare parts will be directly available from DONIC Germany 👏

Service:
OMNI S PRO Ersatzteile im DONIC Roboter Service Center erhältlich: [email protected]

Of course, any big Western distributor or company (say Cornilleau, Decathlon, Joola, Slazenger) could slap their company name on a robot and call it 'their own robot' but they'd risk their reputation for a product which was neither designed nor manufactured by them. The DONIC quality assurance QA team must have been very convinced and confident to finally quit the DONIC-Newgy spiel to make the Omni 'their own' instead. At this point i am proud of @pongbotrobots quality work and of DONIC's fairness towards what the market has to offer 👏

Btw in Japan, the VICTAS company has adopted the Omni as well, being now the official distributor of Pongbot robots in that country 🇯🇵.