Any robot recommendations?

I like the look of this one, but open to suggestions.

rusttt wrote: I like the look of this one, but open to suggestions.

The Amicus is really a fantastic robot in terms of it's flexibility and variation for different 'drills'. It can offer a range of placements and programmable drills as well as being able to produce quite a high quantity of spin on the ball. 

Newgy 2050 is good enough for drills.
The preset drills should cover most of your needs.

I'm also looking for a robot. I'm posting in this thread because it's fairly recent, and the discussion isn't as long as some much older threads. I'd really appreciate some more analysis of what the latest robots can do.

I'm a beginning player without much opportunity for competition, and I like the idea of having a robot to practice with and play against for exercise. My 12 year old son will also use it.

I've never played against a robot, much less seen one outside youtube videos. But I've done a lot of research, and my head is still spinning but I think I've narrowed it down a bit. I would like to have no spin fast balls and high spin slow balls, so it sounds like I need a two wheel robot. I would like to have both pre-programmed drills, and user-created drills, and a "random" mode sounds like fun but isn't required. Fairly easy set-up/shut down is - since this will be on the same table in my basement that we play on. It won't get heavy use, but I would like one that is reliable. I am handy and could do any user-repairable repairs if neccessary though.

As for budget, I am willing to go over $1000, but would be hesitant to go much over $1500.

So I've narrowed it down to the following. Again, I haven't seen any of these but this is what I've gleaned from a bunch of googling. If anyone could please shed some light on the differences or correct me on my opinions' I'd sure appreciate it!

Y&T 989H=Paddle Palace H2W
-- This sounds great - I love the idea of the touch screen, and would certainly make it easier for my 12 year old. The thing where it shows you the spin it's sending you sounds great too, so you can simulate watching how an opponent puts spin on the ball. The downside is that it apparently hits (mostly?) low shots - so no short spinny shots and no long lobs. I'm thinking I'd like to work on lobs, so can you do that with this robot? I've heard of people putting shims under the wheels which sounds like a pain, but maybe isn't too bad...

Amicus:

I'd probably get the "Advance" version. This sounds like a great robot. I like the feature where it can slow down the serve speed if it sends you slow balls. It sounds like it's a better robot than the Y&T in terms of performance (shot speed, angle, variations), but is it easy enough to program and set up/take down?

Oukei S9:
I haven't seen much about this one, other than that it seems like a viable competitor to the ones above.

So any thoughts about what might be best for someone in my situation? I realize they're all good, and that I could probably be happy with a much cheaper one at least for now. But I'd like to get one of the higher end ones right off and not replace it later. Again, ease of programming and set up are important to me, as well as something that will help me improve quickly now, while still being useful when (and if) I become a much stronger player.

Thanks!

- Dave

I'd love to, but I don't think there are any clubs near me. I don't actually live in the city of Boston, I live in Boston's North Shore. Beautiful area, but based on some searching on the web - I think the nearest club is about 45 minutes from me with no traffic, and that road frequently has traffic. Hence the robot.

I have the PP H2W.  I haven't tried it with plastic ball, but I was assured by PP when I bought it 15 months ago that it would work fine.  We'll see about that.  I haven't seen the other two in person.

Thanks for the input everyone!

As for the new balls - I've seen discussions in other threads about the concerns of robot compatibility with the new balls, and the consensus seems to be that it's not an issue. Plus, will it ever be that hard to find the older type balls?

Regarding the H2W, I'm tempted but I think I will go with the Amicus. As I understand it, it can do serves, hit short, and hit lobs. But again - I haven't seen one. Am I wrong about this?

I'd love to do multiball drills with my son, but he wouldn't have the patience for that. We've been playing 3-4 games every night lately, which is great, but like most young boys he wants to play, not practice.

- Dave

Soundoff88 wrote: BRS wrote: It has all the weaknesses of any robot.  It's boring, can't hit short, doesn't serve, the spin indicator doesn't help with reading spin off the paddle, the usual stuff. Can you explain "can't hit short?" Thanx.

For around $200.00 the I-pong from joola works pretty well, you can place it to different spots on the table, great for service return practice..