I love this robot. If you know what you're buying, I can't imagine not being happy with it. The oscillation feature is not incredibly useful because it doesn't do a great job of keeping the balls on the table, but if you set the robot up to shoot the same shot at the same spot on the table, it has decent accuracy and is a really affordable solution to practice repetitive motion and gain muscle memory. I'll spend 30 minutes just returning top spin with my backhand, then top spin with my forehand, then backspin etc. A couple of tips - first, you need to have both the topspin and backspin turned up some. If you have topspin set to max and backspin turned off, the balls just won't come out. I don't ever have the dials on those setting offset by more than 4 (aka topsin=2 backspin=6). Second, if there is a jam in the machine (which honestly I don't experience that often), I just crank up the frequency dial to max for a second. That fires the motor up all the way and almost always pushes the jam out of the way. This is not the highest quality robot on the market, but it's bizarrely affordable and a great way to practice the same shot over and over again.
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→ 2-Wheel Table-Top Robots → IPONG Pro Reviews
→ IPONG Robots → IPONG Pro
14 Reviews for IPONG Pro
← Back to IPONG Pro
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You get what you pay for. Cheap materials and very irregular performance.
It is easy to assemble and the 'manual' has all the information you need to set it and start playing. First of all, it can not hold 100 balls as advertised, with 85 balls it was already full (over the top). I am very disappointed of the performance of this robot. The oscillation feature does not work well, so I tested it once and I did never use it again. Regarding the other features, if you set it to throw the balls without spin, it works very well as expected (~95% ratio of hits on the table), but if you set it to backspin or topsping, the ratio of hits is reduced to ~50%. I tested different setting with top/back spin and always the ratio of hits was very low (sometimes the ball was directly to the net, and other times directly out of the table, using the same setting!). It is very imprecise. I think it would be useful to any level that want to have fun (or learn if your are newby) hitting no-spin balls.
It is easy to assemble and the 'manual' has all the information you need to set it and start playing. First of all, it can not hold 100 balls as advertised, with 85 balls it was already full (over the top). I am very disappointed of the performance of this robot. The oscillation feature does not work well, so I tested it once and I did never use it again. Regarding the other features, if you set it to throw the balls without spin, it works very well as expected (~95% ratio of hits on the table), but if you set it to backspin or topsping, the ratio of hits is reduced to ~50%. I tested different setting with top/back spin and always the ratio of hits was very low (sometimes the ball was directly to the net, and other times directly out of the table, using the same setting!). It is very imprecise. I think it would be useful to any level that want to have fun (or learn if your are newby) hitting no-spin balls.
Useful robot ,very well priced.Did not have problems with jamming.Have no problem to recommend it as a good budget buy.I hope my review is helpful.
Just received ipong pro it works very well! Plenty of topspin for a comp player few common mistakes can be
made when putting balls in hopper so just have common sense! Kinda hard to set up for different drills or for a unexoirenced player but once you get the feel for it its pretty easy.
made when putting balls in hopper so just have common sense! Kinda hard to set up for different drills or for a unexoirenced player but once you get the feel for it its pretty easy.
never use the oscillation feature - it will result in obscenely frequent jams.
without oscillation , it jams roughly 1-3 times per 100 balls.
there is adjustment of topspin/backspin. but putting backspin without topspin will result in the ball not shooting out(very often) , just spinning in place inside the machine.
resulting in a max back-spin combo of minimum topspin + 70% backspin , any higher backspin and the ball will fly out of the table more than half the time. alternative would be to place the machine outside the table.
max-allowed backspin is good enough to simulate a good backspin serve by human , but not those hard chops by long pips.
lack of adjustable throw height , means its quite hard to simulate counter looping.
conclusion -
4/10 for usability
8/10 for price
good buy mainly because of its price , decent enough to practice shots and work out a sweat . not good enough for training.
good budget robot if you want to get back in your groove after a long long layoff.
Megaspin reached IPONG and here is their reply:
We at iPong are very sorry to hear about your negative experience while using the iPong Pro robot. We would like to assure you we take our customer’s feedback seriously to help us continue improving the quality of our products, while maintaining the product at affordable prices. The complete iPong robot line has been recently overhauled to improve functionality and durability. With a majority of products sold there is always a small chance of customers receiving a defective product, however we encourage all customers to reach out to our Customer Service department if you feel you have received such a product or would like help with troubleshooting. Again, we do apologize for the poor experience with your current model and assure you the iPong Pro and the oscillation feature does work without causing balls to jam. May you continue having fun practicing and working up a sweat while using the iPong Pro.
without oscillation , it jams roughly 1-3 times per 100 balls.
there is adjustment of topspin/backspin. but putting backspin without topspin will result in the ball not shooting out(very often) , just spinning in place inside the machine.
resulting in a max back-spin combo of minimum topspin + 70% backspin , any higher backspin and the ball will fly out of the table more than half the time. alternative would be to place the machine outside the table.
max-allowed backspin is good enough to simulate a good backspin serve by human , but not those hard chops by long pips.
lack of adjustable throw height , means its quite hard to simulate counter looping.
conclusion -
4/10 for usability
8/10 for price
good buy mainly because of its price , decent enough to practice shots and work out a sweat . not good enough for training.
good budget robot if you want to get back in your groove after a long long layoff.
Megaspin reached IPONG and here is their reply:
We at iPong are very sorry to hear about your negative experience while using the iPong Pro robot. We would like to assure you we take our customer’s feedback seriously to help us continue improving the quality of our products, while maintaining the product at affordable prices. The complete iPong robot line has been recently overhauled to improve functionality and durability. With a majority of products sold there is always a small chance of customers receiving a defective product, however we encourage all customers to reach out to our Customer Service department if you feel you have received such a product or would like help with troubleshooting. Again, we do apologize for the poor experience with your current model and assure you the iPong Pro and the oscillation feature does work without causing balls to jam. May you continue having fun practicing and working up a sweat while using the iPong Pro.
Gets jammed all the time, can't get much spin at all. It feeds the balls in very weird angles that you never get from a real player.
In short, it sucks. Don't buy.
Megaspin note: If it does not work as expected for our customers we ask them to return it for a refund (free return) or we just send a new one.
In short, it sucks. Don't buy.
Megaspin note: If it does not work as expected for our customers we ask them to return it for a refund (free return) or we just send a new one.
Pros:
- Low price
- Sufficient top spin and bottom spin. This was actually surprising.
- Usable for light practice session or repetitive practice on basic forms.
Cons:
- The ball feeder kept coming off the rotating motor part. This happened about 2 times per 100 balls. It's quite frustrating when you start getting into your rhythm.
- The oscillation feature is pretty much useless. The cables behind pulls on the machine, which in return limits the usability and keeps moving the machine itself.
- Poor built quality. The top and bottom rubber disks are a bit off center so the trajectory of fired ball is a little bit inconsistent, But not much maybe a few inches left and right.
For the price it's great. But definitely requires some diy modification to make it work better (or as it was meant to work) I can forgive everything but the ball jam is just so frustrating because once it happens I have to unload all the balls and put the bottom rotating disk back on. Must be fixed diy style!
- Low price
- Sufficient top spin and bottom spin. This was actually surprising.
- Usable for light practice session or repetitive practice on basic forms.
Cons:
- The ball feeder kept coming off the rotating motor part. This happened about 2 times per 100 balls. It's quite frustrating when you start getting into your rhythm.
- The oscillation feature is pretty much useless. The cables behind pulls on the machine, which in return limits the usability and keeps moving the machine itself.
- Poor built quality. The top and bottom rubber disks are a bit off center so the trajectory of fired ball is a little bit inconsistent, But not much maybe a few inches left and right.
For the price it's great. But definitely requires some diy modification to make it work better (or as it was meant to work) I can forgive everything but the ball jam is just so frustrating because once it happens I have to unload all the balls and put the bottom rotating disk back on. Must be fixed diy style!
Just received my iPong (original). Seems to work pretty well. Yes, it leaves the last few balls in the "hopper" (I'll have to see if I can fix that), & it does fire the odd ball at a weird angle &/or off the table.
An additional problem that I haven't heard mentioned is that the base of the robot rotates gradually as the balls are released, so that after a while it is shooting balls at such an angle that they start flying off the table. Anybody developed a fix for this?
All in all, it's a pretty effective tool, for the price, although certainly not without its limitations.
An additional problem that I haven't heard mentioned is that the base of the robot rotates gradually as the balls are released, so that after a while it is shooting balls at such an angle that they start flying off the table. Anybody developed a fix for this?
All in all, it's a pretty effective tool, for the price, although certainly not without its limitations.
Received the first unit a few weeks ago and it had some problems. Megaspin immediately sent out a replacement that works very well. The first time I used the new one, there were a couple of ball jams in the feeder, but, I have run it more and there have been no jams (I may not have had the rotating disk seated down all the way). The first unit was also very noisy, but, the new one is not. I could see that the top wheel was a bit out of round; therefore very noisy at high speed.
I've seen other reviews that say the unit has very poor quality. Well, it's not the Cadillac of robots and perhaps they could improve on their quality control, but, they stand behind the unit, one year warranty, and were very prompt in replacing mine.
I like it because I can do top and back spin and also have control of the speed. Very compact and easy to move around the table for different shots.
I've seen other reviews that say the unit has very poor quality. Well, it's not the Cadillac of robots and perhaps they could improve on their quality control, but, they stand behind the unit, one year warranty, and were very prompt in replacing mine.
I like it because I can do top and back spin and also have control of the speed. Very compact and easy to move around the table for different shots.
At first i was hesitant of the I Pong robots. I heard they had problems with the old line. The price was the main reason i got one, and so far very happy. Top spins good and back spins have an insanely fast spin. I got 144 gambler gold balls and IP pro (actually 2 ip pros. They messed up and shipped out 2 for the price of 1) for $170, you can't beat that. Great robot 4 price
I had heard some bad things about the oscillation feature of an older version of this robot. It's supposed to be fixed now so I bought one on sale from Megaspin.
I was very surprised and disturbed by the robot's tendency to "oscillate" all be itself -- even with the oscillation turned OFF! This thing would shoot balls all over the table, and there was no way to ensure they would even stay on! This was NOT an occasional glitch but a constant annoyance whenever I tried to practice a stroke. It was VERY frustrating!
Since the design looked simple enough, before contacting Joola I decided to try fixing it myself without doing anything to void the warranty.
First I cleaned the rubber wheels that spin the balls from above and below to see if some dust or other particles were to blame for the erratic behavior. This made no difference.
Then I noticed that the top wheel was fashioned with more of a concave surface to keep the ball centered as it's ejected, while the bottom wheel was flatter. Hmmm...
I thought about filing down the center of the bottom wheel so it would match the top, when I noticed that the little plastic ramp the balls must roll down to be fed into the spinning wheels was not as solid as it could be. Pressure from the balls above may sometimes move the ramp and the ball at the bottom just prior to ejection, changing the ball's trajectory. So I decided to jam some cardboard between the ramp and the side of the robot to keep it stable, at least in the horizontal plane.
And it worked! Now the robot shoots balls only where it's aimed and is very usable!
This does not seem to be the same fix Frank was referring to in his review on September 18, 2011 when he wrote about balls jamming, but I think it reduces jamming too. So I'd say jamming is rare now.
I gave this robot an 8 overall because you can't beat it for the price, esp. when it's on sale or part of a package. It has enough spin and speed (but no side spin) and I like the fact that it can be moved to different parts of the table to simulate shots from different directions, left-handed opponents, etc.
I have not yet tried the REAL oscillation feature but I can see that it does work. I'm just too traumatized from the initial shock of having practice balls aimed at my forehand go to my backhand instead, and CLEAR OFF THE TABLE on both sides at random intervals! That's enough "oscillation" to last me for a while. ;)
I was very surprised and disturbed by the robot's tendency to "oscillate" all be itself -- even with the oscillation turned OFF! This thing would shoot balls all over the table, and there was no way to ensure they would even stay on! This was NOT an occasional glitch but a constant annoyance whenever I tried to practice a stroke. It was VERY frustrating!
Since the design looked simple enough, before contacting Joola I decided to try fixing it myself without doing anything to void the warranty.
First I cleaned the rubber wheels that spin the balls from above and below to see if some dust or other particles were to blame for the erratic behavior. This made no difference.
Then I noticed that the top wheel was fashioned with more of a concave surface to keep the ball centered as it's ejected, while the bottom wheel was flatter. Hmmm...
I thought about filing down the center of the bottom wheel so it would match the top, when I noticed that the little plastic ramp the balls must roll down to be fed into the spinning wheels was not as solid as it could be. Pressure from the balls above may sometimes move the ramp and the ball at the bottom just prior to ejection, changing the ball's trajectory. So I decided to jam some cardboard between the ramp and the side of the robot to keep it stable, at least in the horizontal plane.
And it worked! Now the robot shoots balls only where it's aimed and is very usable!
This does not seem to be the same fix Frank was referring to in his review on September 18, 2011 when he wrote about balls jamming, but I think it reduces jamming too. So I'd say jamming is rare now.
I gave this robot an 8 overall because you can't beat it for the price, esp. when it's on sale or part of a package. It has enough spin and speed (but no side spin) and I like the fact that it can be moved to different parts of the table to simulate shots from different directions, left-handed opponents, etc.
I have not yet tried the REAL oscillation feature but I can see that it does work. I'm just too traumatized from the initial shock of having practice balls aimed at my forehand go to my backhand instead, and CLEAR OFF THE TABLE on both sides at random intervals! That's enough "oscillation" to last me for a while. ;)
This Robot came with my table, I hate the table but love this robot. I'm just a beginner so it does fine for teaching me how to hold my racket on different spins. I have had no issues so far with it. I wish it could hold more balls so I don't have to refill it all the time. I did have to put a towel underneath the robot to make sure the table doesn't scratch, but again that might be cause my table sucks (Joola World Cup S)
The chord that connects the robot and control box is not long enough to allow the box to reach all the way to the end of the table. Whenever I want to stop the machine, I have to move several feet to reach it which means at least one or two balls always shoot past me before I can shut it off. Also, occasionally I will set it up for practice and when I turn it on, nothing happens. [Edit: After the first week of use, it no longer fails to start up.] Regardless of its issues, it has been a useful tool for practicing shots. By positioning the robot at various location and at various heights and angles, I can reproduce some pretty specific shots that I want to practice hitting. Two throw wheels is a nice feature to have when fine tuning a shot. Lastly, I should mention that the trajectory from the iPong Pro when sitting on the table is much lower and flatter than I was anticipating. Maybe that's how all robots are, but it feels a little unnatural and harder to hit than a similar ball from a human. Finally, the oscillation feature barely works [at a low oscillation speed setting.] Sometimes, it refuses oscillate for unknown reasons. When it does work, the chord from the control box can't be pulled too tight, or it will restrict the machine's movement. This seems like a poor design attaching the the chord to the moving part of the robot, so that you have to make sure there is extra slack in an already too short chord. Bottom line is that I like the two throw wheels, and the flexibility to create almost any type of shot, but the cheap build quality is disappointing. Even for the low price, I wish they had been able to provide about three more feet of chord for the control box. I had issues with jamming early on, but after being more careful to wipe dirt off of the balls before reloading, I have had any more jams.
It has 2 wheels (contrairally to what it says above), thus permits flat balls.
The bottom wheel motor a too strong for the control max position (you need to bring it down or tilt the robot.
Cons:
You need to put something on the robot itself as the balls will fly out when they it the robot.
The one I have needs to be returned (as per joola) since the base plate is too loose and sometimes a ball gets under it and jams the machine. If my replacement does this again, I will simply add a small piece of carboard to prevent a ball from getting under the plate
Enven though I tried hard, it seems nearly impossible to create a recycling systemt that will feed back inside the ipong (I gave up when the the time got to add a motor to move the ball from my recycling basket (the second part was concluded.. which consisted of pushing air in a pipe and sucking the balls via a T adapater to that tube (inconvenient was to keep the shopvac running all that time)
Pros:
You can practice your feet work (Personnally, I vary with 2 routines.. Route 1: I alternate front end / backend while it oscillates
Routine 2: I keep hitting with either front end or backend and move continuously to follow the osciallation
Route 3: I simply hit 2 FE followed by 2 BE (has it has time to shoot 4 balls per round of table (at max osciallation speed)
I added a pierced bucket on top so that it can hold +200 balls. After putting a lot of thinking if I would swich to a 2040, i decided it was kind of a good thing to empty my 200 balls bucket every 3 minutes or so.. (this resemble more a tabata training..where one needs a small break after doing a heavy efforts.. et than get back to hitting 200 balls
The bottom wheel motor a too strong for the control max position (you need to bring it down or tilt the robot.
Cons:
You need to put something on the robot itself as the balls will fly out when they it the robot.
The one I have needs to be returned (as per joola) since the base plate is too loose and sometimes a ball gets under it and jams the machine. If my replacement does this again, I will simply add a small piece of carboard to prevent a ball from getting under the plate
Enven though I tried hard, it seems nearly impossible to create a recycling systemt that will feed back inside the ipong (I gave up when the the time got to add a motor to move the ball from my recycling basket (the second part was concluded.. which consisted of pushing air in a pipe and sucking the balls via a T adapater to that tube (inconvenient was to keep the shopvac running all that time)
Pros:
You can practice your feet work (Personnally, I vary with 2 routines.. Route 1: I alternate front end / backend while it oscillates
Routine 2: I keep hitting with either front end or backend and move continuously to follow the osciallation
Route 3: I simply hit 2 FE followed by 2 BE (has it has time to shoot 4 balls per round of table (at max osciallation speed)
I added a pierced bucket on top so that it can hold +200 balls. After putting a lot of thinking if I would swich to a 2040, i decided it was kind of a good thing to empty my 200 balls bucket every 3 minutes or so.. (this resemble more a tabata training..where one needs a small break after doing a heavy efforts.. et than get back to hitting 200 balls
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