Pongbot Nova S Pro owners' review and discussion thread

[floxe]

1) Check that all parts/components are aligned and that the Nova appears symmetrical from a bird's eye view. In particular, the thick, fixed gooseneck🦆 should be symmetrically aligned and pointing straight forward. When unboxing a new Nova unit, lifting the gooseneck from its boxed side-lying position can knock it out of its symmetrically centred alignment position. (happened to me, 🤪yikes)

I also got myself a Nova Pro S and had 2 sessions so far.
The calibration on mine seems a little off. If I do the calibration test with everything at 0 the balls barely touch the base-line or fly out. I need to set 9-10 short in the calibration so that the ball lands 1m behind the net. I only do custom drills which work ok except for higher underspin balls, which tend to fly out when I go over 2.0 speed. Still I'm wondering what causes the offset of my robot.

I saw that you place your robot right at the edge of the table for Pos. 7+9.
I divided the table into three thirds (152,5cm/3 = 50,833cm), subtracted the robot's width (50,833 - 17,6 = 33,233cm), divided by two to center it within that third equals roughly 16,6cm from the sideline. For me then the 15° drills work as they should.
Also I'm using an angle tool on my smartphone to quickly set up those 15° - takes me roughly 10sec.

 

[plunder]

Hi floxe, am just saying hi to you/your very first post on the forum, congrats!

Your placements for pos7 and pos9 seem reasonable, well done! 👌

Agreed, your unit seems to have some offset .. at least with the very balls you're using. You could try other balls. The Gewo balls are too smooth hence too grippy. Afaik all Nova units are factory-tested and have passed (QC, QA). If all ball models exhibit the same calibration issue, then you could proceed with an amazon exchange.

Tip: Feel free to note down the number of hits [per day] which the app lists for the current week, from Sun to Sat. Today i did only 252 hits, just to quick test the refreshed rubbers on my old blade.

 

[Yves2B]

Hello everyone.
I received an update to Pongbot 30.0.05-30.0.06 today.
I don't know what's new.
Do you know?

 

[Yves2B]

Here's what's new

1. Added pre-serve countdown with skip & customizable duration (3-15s);
2. Launched homepage bulletin for announcements;
3. Optimized interactions and fixed bugs for smoother experience.
Stay tuned for more exciting features and smoother experiences!

 

[Jslick89]

Here's what's new

1. Added pre-serve countdown with skip & customizable duration (3-15s);
2. Launched homepage bulletin for announcements;
3. Optimized interactions and fixed bugs for smoother experience.
Stay tuned for more exciting features and smoother experiences!

aww man can't wait to see the pre - serve countdown and customizable durations. hopefully now i can run drills for less than 60 seconds lol.

 

[maxtor]

is there any ability to export\import drills from others? Like a community drills library.

 

[plunder]

is there any ability to export\import drills from others? Like a community drills library.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R818AMOCO9GF4

 

[maxtor]

https://www.amazon.com/review/R818AMOCO9GF4

ouch, shoooes, what a stupid limitation. Any chance if someone from Pongbot is reading this thread? And taking notes what to improve for non-chineese versions of the robot?

 

[dingyibvs]

aww man can't wait to see the pre - serve countdown and customizable durations. hopefully now i can run drills for less than 60 seconds lol.

Unfortunately no, you can only change the duration of pre-serve countdown.

 

[plunder]

change the duration of pre-serve countdown.

i caht find this new(?) setting anywhere in the Nova app.
how about a screenshot of it so that we can all see what's it about? tia 🫣

 

[floxe]

i caht find this new(?) setting anywhere in the Nova app.
how about a screenshot of it so that we can all see what's it about? tia 🫣

Make sure you got the latest App-Update - Enter Settings - Serve Count Down - Turn On - Choose your Count Down Length.

 

[plunder]

what's it about?

"Serve Count Down" … i tried it today (thanks @floxe , highly appreciated!), had a 3.6 K hits session powered by the mini powerbank. Owners know by now what it is. I was disappointed. I expected a countdown, i.e. a break, after a ball sequence has finished (as seen on the robi1 app), for example [x11] is a 3-balls-sequence for the backhand (Push-Loop-Drive):

Push-Loop-Drive, break, Push-Loop-Drive, break, Push-Loop-Drive, break, etc.,​

But no.

Instead, the setting gives you a pre-drill "break", nothing else, i.e. you tap on <Start> to start a drill, then a countdown of at least 3 seconds starts, and finally the drill starts with no breaks between the ball sequences:

break-Push-Loop-Drive-Push-Loop-Drive-Push-Loop-Drive-Push-Loop-etc. (for at least 1min).​

The pace at which the company has been improving the Android app is disappointing imho. Adding a pre-drill countdown, oh wow, what an achievement by the app development team! 👏👏👏

🙃

 

[Jslick89]

"Serve Count Down" … i tried it today (thanks @floxe , highly appreciated!), had a 3.6 K hits session powered by the mini powerbank. Owners know by now what it is. I was disappointed. I expected a countdown, i.e. a break, after a ball sequence has finished (as seen on the robi1 app), for example [x11] is a 3-balls-sequence for the backhand (Push-Loop-Drive):

Push-Loop-Drive, break, Push-Loop-Drive, break, Push-Loop-Drive, break, etc.,​

But no.

Instead, the setting gives you a pre-drill "break", nothing else, i.e. you tap on <Start> to start a drill, then a countdown of at least 3 seconds starts, and finally the drill starts with no breaks between the ball sequences:

break-Push-Loop-Drive-Push-Loop-Drive-Push-Loop-Drive-Push-Loop-etc. (for at least 1min).​

The pace at which the company has been improving the Android app is disappointing imho. Adding a pre-drill countdown, oh wow, what an achievement by the app development team! 👏👏👏

🙃

I also wanted a break after the ball sequence. the ability to turn it off and on for each custom drill would be great.

 

[Racket42]

New version out, and they finally fixed the Bluetooth problem! On IOS anyway. Hurrah.

 

[craptiger]

New version out, and they finally fixed the Bluetooth problem! On IOS anyway. Hurrah.

Looks like it's fixed on Android too. Not played with the update yet but I see the very exciting word "Offline" so I think you can now edit drills without needing to be connected to the machine, which is AMAZING!!

 

[plunder]

I received an update to Pongbot 30.0.05-30.0.06 today.

Sounds like you're quoting the version numbers of the device firmware (robot).
The recent incremental +0.0.1 updates were for the version of the Android app (smaphone). Google Playstore quotes:

Version 1.0.8
Updated on Jun 13, 2025

1. New Offline Editing: Add & edit custom combos anytime - no device connection needed;
2. Fixed known issues for better stability.
Edit freely, train smarter!

And yes, one can edit the custom drills without being in the bluetooth 🟦🦷vicinity of the robot. You still need an internet connection🖨️ 📶(working WLAN/WiFi, or working Mobile Internet) to edit/save any changes or browse the drills. To me, clearly, none of our custom drills is saved locally on our android device. Just get a second phone or tablet, install the Android app for the very first time, login with your credentials, and boom!, you see all your custom drills.

Our custom drills (and so much more of our generated/input data) is transmitted and saved on the Chinese company's server, and not stored/saved locally on our phones. Without internet connection, you cannot use the robot, and you cannot edit the custom drills. (oh plz doht get me started on the remote control )

That's nice.

Btw guys, feel free to share how many hits you do per session. I reach 3.4K in 3.0h, and one amzn reviewer quoted 5K in 2h; believable but that's quite something! Anyway, imho 1000hits in 60min is a good starting point for anybody.🟦

 

[plunder]

This should have been done by the product maker pongbotstore.

1. Was the testing of the wheels done ?
   • If yes, how is it still a problem ?
   • If no, what steps have you taken to fix the problem ?

congrats to your very first post 📯 on TTD @tushmish and welcome 🤗
Hopefully @pongbotstore is going to provide a helpful detailed answer. You do know that the person ("she" "her") who will type there is a marketing person whose expertise is in social media, generating discount coupons, and not in playing ping and pong or in engineering and testing, doht ya?

btw your question is vague. "it", "problem", i wouldn't know what specifically you're referring to. if i doht understand u, how could she possibly?

how's my robi2 been doing since my last review posts (interesting read for owners):
- no actual news, nothing new has come up, everything still good
- i keep using the portable 24V power bank with it, it's just cool
- i haven't exchanged the lower rubber band yet but it's about time because it has worn out/become loose from the permanent overstretch, even if not torn! (and i'll update the thread then)
- i exclusively use the wheels with rubber bands ((negatives: the balls get squeezed/compressed more, this leads to more ball cracks and the strain/shocks could damage structural plastic parts around the ball outlet))
- i still operate the robot with opened-up head. this way i can see the wear of the rubber band more clearly. meanwile the glueing mod of the rubber band has been working well and mandatory in order to keep the rubber band in place, unshifted.
- the wheels are cheaply mass-produced, have good quality, and the BASF rubber tyre is tough stuff, doesn't get consumed (no wear issues) but might(?) degrade thru aging. the problem is not their toughness but that they get clogged fast, when/if you do some high spin drills. if you doht, then there's no problem with the wheels.
- taking it easier on the body, i haven't done any solopon in June. instead i did some funpon in clubs and tournaments, to employ the shots which i had practiced with the help of robi2. will return to more robi2pon and robi1pon soon, any time, any day. just giving my body some summer vacation lol. 🏖️🍹
- this review is still on-going (so far i've refrained from saying much/details about the 🇨🇳 product quality hehe 🤫, keeping it to myself for the time being🫢, because the toy robot is still alive and kicking, so i have so far NO RIGHT TO CRITICIZE quality aspects which i find 👎)
- all i can say is: if the robi2 keeps living and serving (it has imho reasons to die but it hasn't died on me yet), then it'd be the bestbangforthebuck robot on the market. for that kind of money, i wouldn't know any better robot.
- i am waiting for the day to come when parts on the inside of the robot die, then and only then will i start my big rant tirade about the product quality, tearing the house down hehe 💥. until then let's keep the peacefulness 🕊️

 

[tushmish]

congrats to your very first post 📯 on TTD @tushmish and welcome 🤗
Hopefully @pongbotstore is going to provide a helpful detailed answer. You do know that the person ("she" "her") who will type there is a marketing person whose expertise is in social media, generating discount coupons, and not in playing ping and pong or in engineering and testing, doht ya?

btw your question is vague. "it", "problem", i wouldn't know what specifically you're referring to. if i doht understand u, how could she possibly?

how's my robi2 been doing since my last review posts (interesting read for owners):
- no actual news, nothing new has come up, everything still good
- i keep using the portable 24V power bank with it, it's just cool
- i haven't exchanged the lower rubber band yet but it's about time because it has worn out/become loose from the permanent overstretch, even if not torn! (and i'll update the thread then)
- i exclusively use the wheels with rubber bands ((negatives: the balls get squeezed/compressed more, this leads to more ball cracks and the strain/shocks could damage structural plastic parts around the ball outlet))
- the wheels are cheaply mass-produced, have good quality, and the BASF rubber tyre is tough stuff, doesn't get consumed (no wear issues) but might(?) degrade thru aging. the problem is not their toughness but that they get clogged fast, when/if you do some high spin drills. if you doht, then there's no problem with the wheels.
- taking it easier on the body, i haven't done any solopon in June. instead i did some funpon in clubs and tournaments, to employ the shots which i had practiced with the help of robi2. will return to more robi2pon and robi1pon soon, any time, any day. just giving my body some summer vacation lol. 🏖️🍹
- this review is still on-going (so far i've refrained from saying much/details about the 🇨🇳 product quality hehe 🤫, keeping it to myself for the time being🫢, because the toy robot is still alive and kicking, so i have so far NO RIGHT TO CRITICIZE quality aspects which i find 👎)
- all i can say is: if the robi2 keeps living and serving (it has imho reasons to die but it hasn't died on me yet), then it'd be the bestbangforthebuck robot on the market. for that kind of money, i wouldn't know any better robot.
- i am waiting for the day to come when parts on the inside of robot die, then and only then will i start my big rant about the product quality, tearing the house down hehe 💥. until then let's keep the peacefulness 🕊️

thanks plunder​

Post edited. If the question is still not clear to @pongbotstore means -
1. they didn't read your post.
2. they read but din't understand.
3. they didn't understand / ignored.

@pongbotstore awaiting your reply.
Please be to the point..

 

[plunder]

- i exclusively use the wheels with rubber bands ((negatives: the balls get squeezed/compressed more, this leads to more ball cracks and the strain/shocks could damage structural plastic parts around the ball outlet))
- i still operate the robot with opened-up head. this way i can see the wear of the rubber band more clearly. meanwile the glueing mod of the rubber band has been working well and mandatory in order to keep the rubber band in place, unshifted.

owning readers of this thread are prolly wary of making hard-core use of the Nova S Pro because of the performance degradation when the wheels' rubber surface gets white-plastic-clogged only at higher spin rates. rightly so because having to clean the wheels WITHOUT unmounting them from the robot gets old really fast. i will not clean my wheels ever again ... because i doht have to. mine keep being squeeky clean because all i need to to do is exchanging the rubber bands every 3-6 months. in either case, you must be comfortable with opening the robot head (easy peasy!!) AND unmounting the wheels with a screwdriver (gets easier after the very first time because of the blue loctite). if you're too chicken to go hands-on (and 95% of you will be!), then please ignore this post, i.e. the following offer.

I managed to snatch a generous load of the rubber band (in bulk form) which has proven to be perfect in every respect:

Despite being perfect fwiw, it is ofc still a consumable which requires replacing/replacement. I can cut off any desired widths and doht need to be too stingy with the supply:

The moq was in the multi-hundreds of €'s plus tax and UPS shipping for a hilarious amounts of rubber band! Anyway, i bought too much (for the eol of 1 Nova S Pro), and am willing to sell💰 portions of my supply to other willing modders in desperate need.

Hit me up 📨for a portion at an individual pp quote mas shipping, if you're up for it. I'll be shipping from gemani with tracking number, first come first serve everyone good luck!

 

[BBttguy]

You've mentioned that with this extra thickness of rubber it might struggle with Joola Training 3* balls? I have bought a couple of boxes so these are my daily use trainer ball going fwds. At the moment I'm not good enough to push the NSPro to highest spins so atm the wheels are black still.