mynamenotbob wrote:
I have an out-of-warranty Newgy 2040 robot that's five or six years old. It's pretty much crap now. Sprays balls all over the place, very inconsistent and very frustrating to use.
You probably just have a dirty wheel and/or Friction Block. Have you ever cleaned these parts? They're right inside the discharge hole where the ball comes out. They're both rubber parts that will attract the dirt that is on the smooth surface of the ball as the ball is pushed past these two parts as it is ejected.
When dirt builds up too much on these rubber surfaces, it decreases the distance between them, in essence, squeezing the ball too tightly and causing the ball to be propelled in almost any direction except straight ahead. Normally, a simple cleaning of the wheel and Friction Block is all that is needed. But beware, dirt binds tightly to the rubber surfaces, so either use the Rubber Drive Cleaner (RDC) that Newgy sells or use a water-based cleaner (Fantastic, 409, Simple Green, etc.) with an old toothbrush to scrub the rubber surfaces to remove the dirt.
The RDC truly makes this job much more simple and faster. With RDC, I simply wet a rag with the fluid, insert the wetted part of the rag into the discharge hole, and while holding the wheel still with my other index finger, rub the wetted rag over the rubber surfaces and the dirt comes off easily. This might take perhaps 5 minutes, top.
If cleaning the wheel and Friction Block does not resolve the problem, then it is time to replace those 2 parts as they are worn out. In rare cases, other parts of the head may also be worn out, but in 20+ years of fixing Newgy Robots, cleaning the wheel and FB fixes the problem perhaps 75% of the time and replacing those two parts 24% of the time. The other 1% requires replacement of other head parts.
mynamenotbob wrote:
Anyway, Newgy has a $479 Digital Upgrade Kit that basically reuses the catch net, but otherwise is a replacement robot that offers some additional functions.
IMO (I'm biased, of course, as I am one of the designers of the digital system), the digital system is probably 10 times more capable than the older analog system that you have. The digital controller offers:
64 drills by simply selecting a number (drills are described in the Owner's Manual--available as a free download off Newgy.com if you want to check them out). Drills are not offered on our analog robots.
You can speed up/slow down both the frequency and ball speed of drills to suit the abilities of the individual player.
Customization of drills if you hook the controller up to a PC.
Randomization controls for ball speed (which varies landing spot forward-backward), oscillation (left-right), and Wait (to vary the amount of time between each shot). Analog robots offer only oscillation randomization.
Stopping ball delivery by time, number of balls (or repetitions of a drill), or manual press of a button. Analog robots can stop ball delivery only by manipulation of a button or knob.
A Right-Left switch so drills work correctly for righties or lefties (or as a new variation of an asymmetrical drill without re-writing the drill).
More precise left-right landing spots (21 oscillation positions) and the ability to string consecutive landing spots into a drill (or pattern of shots). Analog robots only offer imprecise left-right positioning unless you stop oscillation and place the ball in only one spot.
Pulse Width Modulation instead of Voltage Regulation to control ball feed. This provides more torque to the motor and allows us to vary the Balls Per Minute from about 1 BPM to 170 BPM. The range on analog robots is about 15 to 90 BPM.
Selection of languages to display the menu system--English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese.
Self-Diagnostics, Fast Ball Unloading (for quickly emptying the robot's trays of balls for service practice), and Factory Default Restoration.
Higher ball speeds--perhaps 5 MPH faster at the top end than the analog robots.
An automatic ball feed routine to speed up ball feed in case the robot misses picking up a ball.
In addition to the above capabilities of the digital controller, we also increased the range of the oscillator assembly so that balls can be thrown off the sides of the table instead of only off the end of the tables as with analog robots and we also redesigned the front cover to prevent balls from hanging up in the trays and redesigned the Ball Pickup mechanism to assure more reliable ball pickup.
There are probably other things I'm forgetting, but that should give you a pretty good understanding that the digital system is much more capable than our older analog system.
mynamenotbob wrote:
Of course, it still has all the limitations of a one-wheel robot, namely unrealistic spin.
Yes and no, IMO. There are limitations to a 1-wheel robot: it can't throw a no-spin ball or a heavy-spin, slow-speed loop or chop for instance. But for the shots it does throw, I actually find them to be more realistic than almost any 2 or even 3 wheel robot that I've tested (and I've tested many). I find the spin on Y&T robots to be lacking and inconsistent. The spin on all deflector plate robots (Killerspin, Amicus) to be truly unrealistic because the ball deflects off the plate after it is thrown forward by the wheels, changing the spin axis.
And I do agree that for lower levels, the backspin from Newgy robots could be considered too strong. However, at the 2000 level and up, the level of backspin is comparable to shots I see regularly in a game and even from below 2000 level choppers and LP blockers.
mynamenotbob wrote:
My question is should I spend $479 for the upgrade kit?
Yes, without any reservation. You'll get a much more capable, challenging, and fun product.
mynamenotbob wrote:
Other alternatives are the $269 cheaper Newgy 1040, which has a capacity of 200 balls and the added advantage of every ball not originating from the center of the table. Then again, it sits on the portion of the table I'll likely be aiming at (backhand to backhand), so probably balls will be hitting the robot and flying all over (and I won't be able to see where [or if] they land on the table).
Or simply buy a Ball Bucket and Extender cage and you can mount the robot body from your 2040 (provided of course you get it throwing balls correctly) in the Ball Bucket and turn it into a 1040. For that matter, you could simply remove your 2040 from the end of your table, insert your ball dams, fold it up, and place it on
top of the table to get the same effect as the bucket mounted 1040.
mynamenotbob wrote:
Or should I just forget about Newgy and get a different robot?
A very baaaad idea that will cause the TT gods to harden your long pips and cause them to break off!
Larry