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Forum member Marco Borrillo writes about his experiences with the Butterfly Amicus 3000 Plus Ping-Pong Robot.Buy Direct

$2700. $2700. $2700. Is it worth it? How much coaching can you buy with this money. Trips to Europe?

I'll be spending more time in the future with this robot, but for now here are my impressions.

2 head design, and limited to only 45 degrees of side spin; this robot is going to have many of the same problems that the TW2000-05 had.

You won't be making pure side spin with this thing. Only side-top or side-under. You won't be adjusting this thing instantly if you are practicing serves, going from one type of side spin to the next (for example, switching from pendulum side spin serves to backhand side spin serves in an instant like you can on Newgy and Y&T.)

Also the net is the same as the TW2000-05; which means a long time setting up and breaking down the robot.

With all these issues, is it worth the money?

Let's examine what it CAN do. The head height is adjustable, from down near table height up to 1 foot over the table. That's good. It will make serves seem much more real.

It has MEGA spin. I am told this thing can make an underspin short serve so heavy that the ball will go over the net, turn around and come right back. That's good.

You can adjust QUANTITY of spin INDEPENDENT of SPEED. That's a mouthful. No other robot does this. TW2000-05 tries to do this, with very limited success. But this is the first robot that can truly give you a slow spinny short serve OR a fast dead serve.

(most robots give short dead serves and fast heavy spin serves b/c spin and speed cannot be separated).

It has a lot of gimmicks. Time delay on backspin for "realism," and 99 presets bla bla bla. This does up to 4 balls to ANY LOCATION short or long, and you can change the spins (not side spins though, only underspin or topspin or dead ball) and speeds on any of those balls. So short heavy underspin to the left followed by a high looping arc to the right, etc. Very cool. But that trip to Europe seems like a better idea....

So there you have it, that's the sum of my experiences so far. Someone said I need to try the TTMatic line of robots. They said that these are very good and realistic, especially the "505B". But I've heard that they use "brushes" not wheels to create the spin, and that the "brushes" are very expensive and wear-out quickly. So you are spending upwards of $50 every few months to replace brushes. O.K., so that's not "very" expensive but I think you get the point. Anyway, that's second-hand info I haven't actually tried them myself or seen the brushes wear out myself.

If anyone would like to do a review of TTmatic robots in this thread, please do so it would be appreciated.

I guess the perfect garage would have both an Amicus and a Y&T to have the best of both worlds. That would cost $3600.....

Right now I've borrowed that old Newgy that me and Chetan used last year, and you know what, I still like it. As for the dead balls, I'll have to teach Bekah to feed multiball.

Comment from Forum Member 'mts288'

You say the head height is adjustable on the Amicus, are you sure? I don't think it is.

Marco Replies

The old Amicus did not have this feature. The new Amicus does. It is a very good feature. If you search the Internet for some better pictures, you will see a 1 foot long tube under the head. You can slide the head up or down by 1 foot.

If they can solve the issue of not being able to make pure sidespin, I think they will have a very serious robot on their hands.

Comment from Forum Member 'flyingpoo'

Just read through this great thread in regards to robots. It's amazing that this kind of practical information isn't more readily available, so thank you everyone for taking the time to post your opinions and experiences. I am the happy owner of the Amicus 3000 (purchased used from Constantine...thanks!). It was my upgrade from the Newgy 2040.
It sounds as though the Prakttismate is quite an impressive machine. I was compelled however to post a response to one thing that Marco had said:

"Is there anything this robot can't do? Well, it is not programmable so you can't have a short underspin followed by a long topspin automatically. But do you need that? Further, do you need that functionality at the expense of having no ability to make sidespin, and having to pay $2500+? (Obviously I'm talking about Amicus)."

"But do you need that?"

While an argument can certainly be made as far as the tradeoff for pure sidespin (as well as the somewhat prohibitive cost of a new Amicus), the programmability of the Amicus is one of the features I find to be absolutely essential for my training. Of course learning to respond correctly to different spins and practicing fundamental strokes is the primary use of any robot for many, in my opinion combining these individual skills into something that more closely resembles a real match couldn't be more important.

Some interesting notes about my own progress/learning. Often I have found that I will drill the hell out of a particular stroke until it is committed to muscle memory. I start feeling pretty good about myself and my ability to perform that stroke. Yet as soon as I find myself in a match I often fail to use it. It's as though the change in context (from robot drill to game) has significantly degraded my ability to put it into 'real' use. Most of this is psychological - perhaps it's a bit of the 'deer in headlights' syndrome. (continued on next page...)

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