Pongfox Robot

[boltnut]

I had been wanting a robot ever since I came back to the sport about 2 1/2 years ago, but I didn't really want to spend $2,000. I was looking closely at the Tenni-Robo and watching the progress of the Joola Infinity. Well unfortunately the Tenni-Robo people had to evacuate the Ukraine and the Joola project didn't seam to be going as well as I had hoped. I had also come across a few posts by palguay the founder of the Ponfox robot on this forum, although I never did see any posts by anyone who had bought one. I spoke with Kiran(palguay) the founder via email about some concerns I had about the app before I purchased the robot. One being that you could not put more than a 1 1/2 second dwell time between balls. Kiran responded and said that they make adjustments according to the feedback of existing customers and that this issue has not been raised. Despite my concerns I decided to take the plunge.
I'm not great with reviews so I'll just say that I purchsed the Pongfox in November and received it in 7-days time. Kiran is in India and that is where they are manufacturing and shipping the robot from. I was surprised to receive it that quickly. I've been using the robot and app on a regular basis since the beginning of December (I received it on Nov. 29).
Although I still would like to see the ability to add more time between balls along with one or two other minor adjustments to the app, the robot has been phenomonal. I don't think you could ask for anything more from a robot at this price. The robot itself was $499 the shipping was $175. So for less 1/3 of the price of the top-end Butterfly and Power-pong models I have one heck of a little robot. It is a table-top type of robot with no auto-recycle feature which would be the main and I think only drawback. That is something I knew going in and have no problem with. I purchased a Joola catch net and I have a My Ping-Pong Buddy ball collector. The Ponfox holds well over 100 balls, actually I think I have about 160 in it. I'm more than happy to take a break and pick up whatever balls did not land in the net. I previously had borrowed one of the I-Pong robots from a friend and thought that the shot quality coming from the robot was very poor, to the point that I rarely bothered to use it. The Pongfox is on a whole other level. It puts out a great quality ball. It has preset shot types like Loop, counter, underspin, lob, etc.. You can choose from easy, medium and hard level shots. If you want something a little different you can create your own custom shots. You have complete control of the speed of each of the 3 motors as well as the verticle angle of the head. My favorite way to use the robot is in Random mode. (I’m not sure if you can use your custom-made shot types in Random Mode) You can choose up to 5 of the predetermined shot-types at whichever level of hardness you want and it will go through them in random order and placement within the area you set manually from side to side, with a slider. Meaning you can have them all land in one spot or in a small area on the FH or BH side, or you can give it the whole width of the table to choose from. Anyway, What I’m trying to say is, I love this robot!

 

[tabletennisdaily1]

nice review!

I would like to see more of these mid priced, high quality motor+programmable style robots (like this one or tenni-robo) on amazon. The current offerings are waste money cheap crap or the robopong (nice but expensive and not portable).

I don't think the tenni-robo design is that difficult to do, the question is will someone in China be inspired to make a mass produced copy. (Maybe a chinese mass produced tenni-robo style robot is available, just unknown, who knows.)

 

[dingyibvs]

nice review!

I would like to see more of these mid priced, high quality motor+programmable style robots (like this one or tenni-robo) on amazon. The current offerings are waste money cheap crap or the robopong (nice but expensive and not portable).

I don't think the tenni-robo design is that difficult to do, the question is will someone in China be inspired to make a mass produced copy. (Maybe a chinese mass produced tenni-robo style robot is available, just unknown, who knows.)

There are soooo many Chinese ping pong robots, you just can't get them here. For example, I really wanted to buy a Pongbot robot, which has the recycle system and a VERY advanced software. It's top of the line robot from a large dedicated TT robot company (they also make an eagle-eye type of system, a robot that serves multi-ball with an actual paddle, and one that can actually return your shots!)

Anyhow, I wanted to have manufacturer support so I wanted to buy from an official channel, but my credit card company kept denying the charge on JD.com until it locked it for a week until I faxed in my identify verifications. You can get it on Aliexpress too, for twice the price of the original. It's also not an authorized dealer so I'm concerned about after sales support.

There are other cheaper robots made by Double Fish, among many other manufacturers, that are very popular in China as well. I hope we get some of them internationally besides the dregs available on Amazon and eBay.

 

[tabletennisdaily1]

There are soooo many Chinese ping pong robots, you just can't get them here. For example, I really wanted to buy a Pongbot robot, which has the recycle system and a VERY advanced software. It's top of the line robot from a large dedicated TT robot company (they also make an eagle-eye type of system, a robot that serves multi-ball with an actual paddle, and one that can actually return your shots!)

Anyhow, I wanted to have manufacturer support so I wanted to buy from an official channel, but my credit card company kept denying the charge on JD.com until it locked it for a week until I faxed in my identify verifications. You can get it on Aliexpress too, for twice the price of the original. It's also not an authorized dealer so I'm concerned about after sales support.

There are other cheaper robots made by Double Fish, among many other manufacturers, that are very popular in China as well. I hope we get some of them internationally besides the dregs available on Amazon and eBay.

Yeah, currently only way is to order a chinese robot from chinese site, which may or may not be a trivial task depending on the person. Hopefully more current better chinese options will come to amazon or US based tt equipment distributors eventually, but I doubt this will ever happen.

 

[boltnut]

Yeah, currently only way is to order a chinese robot from chinese site, which may or may not be a trivial task depending on the person. Hopefully more current better chinese options will come to amazon or US based tt equipment distributors eventually, but I doubt this will ever happen.

I prefer to give my money to a small operator like Kiran or the Tenni-robo guys if I can anyway. I mean, I was a little apprehensive but I definitely feel good about it now. Hopefully if I have any problems in the future he will stand behind the product and be available for support. At this point I’m optimistic.

 

[Jslick89]

Hey Boltnut...thanks for the review. I'm definitely interested in a robot like this since it doesn't seem like the powerpong omega will be in my budget any time soon.

Do you feel like this robot can emulate some of the common serves in table tennis? IE, a forehand pendulum serve short to the backhand? and then the next shot can go fast top spin wide to the other corner?

I imagine if it can do a short backspin to the forehand side, it should be able to do short backspin/sidespin serves to anywhere on the table from forehand to middle to backhand?

Are you utilizing the drills already within the app? have you created your own?

 

[DukeGaGa]

This looks very much like a improved version of TenniRobo, very nice.

 

[boltnut]

Hey Boltnut...thanks for the review. I'm definitely interested in a robot like this since it doesn't seem like the powerpong omega will be in my budget any time soon.

Do you feel like this robot can emulate some of the common serves in table tennis? IE, a forehand pendulum serve short to the backhand? and then the next shot can go fast top spin wide to the other corner?

I imagine if it can do a short backspin to the forehand side, it should be able to do short backspin/sidespin serves to anywhere on the table from forehand to middle to backhand?

Are you utilizing the drills already within the app? have you created your own?

I haven't done a lot of drills that had it emulating serves but what i have done worked well. It can keep it short with heavy spin. It definitely has the ability to serve short underspin to one side then go to fast topspin to the other corner. Pretty sure there is a preset Pendulum Serve.

I have started using some of the preprogrammed drills and they work well. I have also created some.

My favorite thing to use is the random feature. For example, I can tell it to give me under spin deep to the backhand side but varied placement anywhere between the middle and left side of the table, then give me a fast topspin anywhere between the middle and right side of the table, then repeat. you can do this with up to 5 different balls(I believe. I will check my app when I get home. You have to be connected to the robot.)
I like to have it give me a "lob" which acts more like kind of a pop-up any where from one side of the table to the other then have it give me a fast top spin also anywhere between the lines and just practice looping and killing FH and BH.

 

[Jslick89]

I haven't done a lot of drills that had it emulating serves but what i have done worked well. It can keep it short with heavy spin. It definitely has the ability to serve short underspin to one side then go to fast topspin to the other corner. Pretty sure there is a preset Pendulum Serve.

I have started using some of the preprogrammed drills and they work well. I have also created some.

My favorite thing to use is the random feature. For example, I can tell it to give me under spin deep to the backhand side but varied placement anywhere between the middle and left side of the table, then give me a fast topspin anywhere between the middle and right side of the table, then repeat. you can do this with up to 5 different balls(I believe. I will check my app when I get home. You have to be connected to the robot.)
I like to have it give me a "lob" which acts more like kind of a pop-up any where from one side of the table to the other then have it give me a fast top spin also anywhere between the lines and just practice looping and killing FH and BH.

wow that sounds awesome! for the short under spin serves, does the robot bounce the ball on its side of the table first?

How are the no spin shots? I'm also looking for a way to emulate practice against pip players.

 

[boltnut]

It does bounce a serve on it’s side first. I haven’t actually tried anything with no spin balls. I’ll have to check that out. I play against enough pip players on a regular basis that it’s actually one of my few strengths. So I haven’t tried to emulate it with the robot thus far.

 

[vp255]

Can it give corkscrew serves/shots?

I’m thinking about getting a used Tennirobo or this, anyone have experience with both?

 

[handle]

I bought Pongfox after a thorough research, and am a happy customer after more than a year of almost daily use.

The random mode is my favorite feature too, I use it almost exclusively, but you can choose up to 4 different shots only. I wish it were possible to choose a larger number of different shots, like 10 or more, so it would be even more helpful in developing the skill to read spin.

I understand this would require more calculations and involve a few seconds of wait time before the machine starts spitting balls, but it would be totally worth it. And if you don’t like the wait, you could always choose a smaller number of different shots, but it would be nice to have that option.