TT ROBOTS - Donic Robopong 540 vs Tibhar Robopro Junior

[ranniely]

Hello guys,

I'm "sick" of playing 2x 2h per week and even then, i have wannabe 10 min warm up with incosistent players and after that we all jump to match mode.
So, i'm interested in getting better and better, and since it is impossible to get a good trainer (in my country) who would feed you balls etc. because they all want to train only younger players (6-10 years) i have no choice but to get a robot. I mainly just want to learn more about sidespin servers, doing topsin loop vs hard backspin, blocking hard topspin and of course footwork&fitness, since those things are imo the best for our lower leagues.

I sadly gotta say i have limited budget and after some searching, i ended up with 2 choices within my range. My favourite one is Robopong 540, but since the RoboPro Junior is in the same € range, i'd like to hear some additional opinions on my decision to get a robot, and which one to get in the end. If there are other ones i don't know about, drop me a line aswell!

Your opinion is highly appreciated!

Thanks )

 

[Kokain]

I am in the same position as you. I just came back to table tennis after long break and most guys I remember are still the same but with grey hair now. They have hardly moved in skill level and it's pretty much dejavu in everything you said. 2 days, 2 hours, waste of money, 10min backhand/forehand inconsistent knock, then match mode with people afraid to take the game in charge. So unless you topspin from chop, we can play till the cowes come home. I came back and I'm gonna stop going again hahaha, save some money on the fuel/membership bill. Worst of all the good players you want to go against are only partnering with their buddies which is understandable, but even when they find you are a good partner to practise with, they will still avoid playing with you.
I'm on Youtube right now looking at ghetto fabricated robots and so far this guy seems to be the winner. I'm thinking to copy his setup.

I've never used a robot until last night when I finally convinced some guy to take it out so I can set it up. Gave me the best practise in my entire life. I had maximum side spin set and now I figured how to return specific services. The top spin is also great as it's so much more that you don't realize how open your bat is against jobbers. I had to really close down the angle to even put the on the table. Combine these cute little practise matches with the machine and some online tutorials on how to do certain things and I already improved massively.

Seriously great thread, looking forward for some recommendation too, or I might as well just see if I can make my own DIY robot, order 200 balls and get started. By the way, the robot they had was advance thing with 2 wheels (so it can do no spin to slight spin, to full spin) head rotates any way you want, it can put the ball in different positions, change how often it shoots, it had this programmable board next to you so you can change the settings. Long story short, I didn't use any of the advance features. They are waste of time and they try to replicate an opponent which is not what you want. All I use was, moving the head to create the spin I want, point the head down or up to achieve a serve or distant shot, and select maximum spin on the board (1 wheel) to unleash the best of my consistancy against a good player.

p.s Found it http://www.fareastsports.com/y_t_989e_robot_review_p10.html

 

[ranniely]

Hehe, i'm not glad that i'm not the only one with such a problem ^^
Situation like this really sucks, but we gotta solve our problems somehow, right?
This youtube robot seems neat, but since i'm not such a talented DIY guy, at least not good enough to make my own robot and vouch for my DIY skills with €, i'll have to cash out on one. But i do intend to make my own ball catching net (hey, it's something!), that should be fairly easy to do

On the robot part, i decided for this Robopong 540 (for all the reasons you mentioned already), since it can create sidespin, and very strong spin according to tabletennisdb. I have read on amazon (some review) that he's not very usable in recreating serves, since the robot is pretty high and the ball bouce is high, but i wonder if i can just put robot behind the line of the table and put him lower than table, thus reducing robot height. Since i'll make my own net, i'll make some "door" or something so i can leave the net untouched, when moving my robot in "serve" position

So, so far my shopping cart looks like 250€ (robot) + 60€ (gewo double star balls 240 pieces) + 7€ shipping cost. Nice!