Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Coleman, a staff engineer at Grafana, got tired of golf launch monitors that cost $30,000, charge monthly subscriptions, or give inaccurate readings — so he built his own. Meet GrotShotPro (based on his open-source project OpenFlight), the first open-source golf launch monitor.
In this GrafanaCON Science Fair talk, Coleman explains how GrotShotPro works: a Raspberry Pi running Python drives three radars — a Doppler radar that measures ball speed and spin (the same technique used to observe planets spinning in space), and two FMCW (frequency-modulated continuous wave) radars that use dual receivers to triangulate the ball's direction and trajectory. After each shot, the radar data is processed into a JSON log and shipped to Loki via Grafana Alloy running on the Pi. A custom Grafana app plugin polls Loki every few seconds and feeds shot data into a Claude-built physics engine, rendering a live ball flight simulation. The project has 300+ GitHub stars, contributors from around the world, and 30,000 social media followers across platforms.
0:00 Introduction
1:25 Problems with Commercial Launch Monitors
2:11 Introducing OpenFlight / GrotShotPro
3:27 Radar vs. Camera: How Launch Monitors Work
4:52 Doppler Radar: Speed and Spin
5:52 FMCW Radar: Direction and Trajectory
6:32 Grafana Stack: Loki, Alloy, and Ball Flight Demo
Links/resources:
Learn about OpenFlight: github.com/jewbetcha/openflight
Get started with the Grafana Cloud forever-free tier: grafana.com/g/cloud
Have a question? Ask Grot, your AI helper: grafana.com/grot
Reach out in our community forums: https://gra.fan/communityyf
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Connect with Grafana Labs:
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Facebook: (facebook.com/grafana)
#Grafana #Observability #OpenSource #Golf #IoT #RaspberryPi #OpenFlight #Python
Coleman, a staff engineer at Grafana, got tired of golf launch monitors that cost $30,000, charge monthly subscriptions, or give inaccurate readings — so he built his own. Meet GrotShotPro (based on his open-source project OpenFlight), the first open-source golf launch monitor.
In this GrafanaCON Science Fair talk, Coleman explains how GrotShotPro works: a Raspberry Pi running Python drives three radars — a Doppler radar that measures ball speed and spin (the same technique used to observe planets spinning in space), and two FMCW (frequency-modulated continuous wave) radars that use dual receivers to triangulate the ball's direction and trajectory. After each shot, the radar data is processed into a JSON log and shipped to Loki via Grafana Alloy running on the Pi. A custom Grafana app plugin polls Loki every few seconds and feeds shot data into a Claude-built physics engine, rendering a live ball flight simulation. The project has 300+ GitHub stars, contributors from around the world, and 30,000 social media followers across platforms.
0:00 Introduction
1:25 Problems with Commercial Launch Monitors
2:11 Introducing OpenFlight / GrotShotPro
3:27 Radar vs. Camera: How Launch Monitors Work
4:52 Doppler Radar: Speed and Spin
5:52 FMCW Radar: Direction and Trajectory
6:32 Grafana Stack: Loki, Alloy, and Ball Flight Demo
Links/resources:
Learn about OpenFlight: github.com/jewbetcha/openflight
Get started with the Grafana Cloud forever-free tier: grafana.com/g/cloud
Have a question? Ask Grot, your AI helper: grafana.com/grot
Reach out in our community forums: https://gra.fan/communityyf
---
Thanks for watching!
👍 Was this video helpful? Like and subscribe to our channel for more videos.
Connect with Grafana Labs:
X: (twitter.com/grafana)
LinkedIn: (linkedin.com/company/grafana-labs/)
Facebook: (facebook.com/grafana)
#Grafana #Observability #OpenSource #Golf #IoT #RaspberryPi #OpenFlight #Python
