Anyone have any experience with the Newstar 2080 robot? There's an old thread in the mytt board with some enthusiastic posts, but no activity for a couple years.
http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47943&PN=1
Apparently a newer model was released that can be stored in a more collapsible format. It seems there is a “B” model (~$1900) that requires the robot to cool down after a number of balls (~200) while a “C” model apparently has larger motors that don’t require the cooldown (~$2300). The robot has 2 throwing wheels and the head can automatically rotate to get side spin. The catch net is designed to allow placement of the robot far away from the table while still recycling the balls. The downside is that it looks like a lengthy setup time so unless you have a dedicated space for the robot, one of the more portable models might be better.
There are a couple videos on youtube:
And a long video at a Chinese web site (gives a sense of how long it takes to move the robot when changing positions). http://www.56.com/u68/v_NTYzNTgyNDk.html [3 min: Falkenberg-like drill with robot in corner, 7 min: robot height low, 11 min: some drill with robot back in center, 19 min: robot away from the table]
Trying to embed below (same as link above):
There are more pictures of the robot at Far East Sports, but it’s out of stock there. http://www.fareastsports.com/products/robots/newstar/1339 From that website it seems like there are 5 positions that have preset programs (center, left, right, [all 20 cm from the table] center – 1m behind table, and center – 2m behind table). 4 of the positions have programs with two different head heights.
It appears to be controlled & programmed by a wireless remote. There's a 3-digit LED above the robot that appears to aid in programming. Doesn’t seem to be anyone selling this except for a vendor on ebay.
Image below shows one robot 2m away from the table with another one at the table:
