TTMATIC 202

I'm about to buy myself a robot. Since the budget is limited and after a research, my first choice would be TTMATIC 202. I'd like to hear from somebody who has it or has seen "in action". According to the manufacturer, it is able to produce no spin balls as well as dissociate spin and speed. What do you think? Any thoughts are appreciated!

Serge

No TTmatic can give no spin ball

I E-mailed TT Pioneers about no spin balls, we'll see what they say. You can adjust speed and spin separately. TT Matic - made in Germany - 2 years warranty - more than enough for me!

Pongstein wrote: YATTP wrote: Says who? I'm sure that you've never tried one before ... We*ve been using TTmatic robots for more than 20 years and they are *very* good.   You say the above, but can you PLEASE explain how a single-wheel head can produce no-spin? The TTmatic robots all have single wheel heads. I do not need to have used one to realize that there is no way they can produce no-spin, the way they are now made.

You argue like somebody who claims that the earth must be a disc because people would fall off otherwise. If you don't have extensive first hand experience with a complex machine you make yourself a fool arguing isolated facts out of a complex context.

What is a no spin ball? If a no spin ball bounces on the table with enough speed it will spin forward anyways because of the friction of the table. You may add light backspin to you "no spin ball" in order to actually get a real no spin ball after it bounces on the other side of the table. No spin balls, in general TT terms are balls that carry very light spin which makes them difficult to handle. You typically get these balls en masse if you play against anti players or LP players. TTmatic is a great practice tool for this type of ball. The TTmatic robots are able to deliver this type of balls with varying speed & spin as you like. You have 3 different rails that press the ball on the foam wheel (one for backspin, one for topspin and one for counter balls). You pick the one for counter balls. There is a screw that regulates the distance between the rail and the foam wheel. The closer you choose this distance the faster the ball will be irrespective of the wheel speed. The foam of the wheel catapults the ball out and you can get very fast balls with next to no spin. If you want no spin balls you can either use the rail for counter balls and make the distance between foam wheel and rail very small and have the wheel turn very slowly, or you can pick the backspin wheel and use very light backspin which will result in real floating balls after the bounce. The wider the gap between the guidance rail and the spinning foam wheel the stronger the spin will be and the lower the speed.
This is the reason why they have an extra rail for topspin. With this you can get fast *and* spinny topspin balls.

We've been using TTmatic 500 and 400 robots for a very long time - and I mean heavy duty usage, several hours almost every day. Players of all levels (also semi professional level) like to fine tune their technique from time to time with these robots because they can produce pretty much any speed and spin that you like. However, they are not able to produce really heavy spin but what they can do is surely good enough for technical training of all levels. The machines are very robust and don't cause trouble. If you have new balls you'll have to wipe of the dust off these balls otherwise they may jam the machine.

The ability to regulate spin and speed seperately is the biggest advantage of the ttmatic robots (ATTENTION: I'm only talking about TTmatic 400 and TTmatic 500 models because I don't know the smaller models!). This extreme flexibility is pretty problematic in the beginning until you have enough experience on how to set up the machine for certain balls or training routines. For example, you can produce similar balls with different rails and different wheel speeds and different distances between the rail and the wheel. This flexibility makes it difficult to use these robots in the beginning until you have sufficient experience. However, once you have this experience it's really simple and fast to set up the machine for certain workouts. The ttmatic robots are intended for serious tt training.

looks like YATTP is the real "pongstein"

YATTP, thank you for your explanation. I've never seen a TTmatic up close and was judging it based on the pictures. I am aware of how rails can cause speed and spin to be disproportionate and that the spin from an ejected ball can be reduced by adding pressure from a rail, so I can see what you are saying here. However, this does not mean that these robots can produce true no-spin balls.  The fact that a no-spin ball starts to spin when it hits the table, has no place in this conversation. The effect of a ball that is traveling with no spin and one that is traveling with some spin, are quite different. The question is: Can a TTmatic robot produce true no-spin? The answer is obviously, NO.

Pongstein, no human being can produce the kind of no spin ball you are talking about - at least not with a ping pong bat. No matter how you hit the ball, it will spin at least somewhat.
We are talking about real world TT on this forum and not about purely theoretical constructs like your definition of a no spin ball which has no place in real world TT. Even if you have a true floating ball the ball will start to spin after it bounces on the table.

I believe YATTP already covered this. If the ball is no-spin when it comes off the racket (if this is even possible at an absolute level, eg. 0.000 spin) it will become topspin after its first bounce, so you will never receive a 0.000 spin ball.

No spin really means very weak spin. If TTMatic can make very weak spin, then it serves its purpose.

gotovacs wrote: Thanks a lot for your awesome review, YTTP. I know that TTmatics 500 & 400 are top of the line. By the way there is a new generation of 300 model - TTmatic 303. I don't know the Canadian price yet though. Thanks everybody for inputs! Serge <!--[if !supEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->

I never recommend this product If you have a problem with this robot manufacturer never help you. They always think selling another product. I personally experienced this. they never support when you have problems