JOOLA TT Buddy Pro

I have had a Buddy Pro for several years now and it has done thousands of balls. Sure it is flimsy but it is also very cheap. If you want something cheap that does topspin and backspin and can oscillate then it will do. It needs constant attention or it will stop working properly. Balls jamb regularly. I poke a plastic tube up the mechanism to free jammed balls. Takes a few seconds. The issue is in the hopper where the rotating table sometimes does not allow a ball to drop into the chute. I largely fixed this by hot melt gluing a 20mmx12mm plastic strip from an ice cream lid onto the side of the hopper just before the drop chute. I bent it in a curve so it acts as a spring and guides the balls into the hopper. This loosens the balls in the hopper. This largely stopped the number of jams I was getting. Before I was getting 5 or 6 jams per hopper. Now I get a few every 10 hoppers. I have worked out why it is still jamming but have not worried about doing further modifications. Balls often come out in all directions. I fixed this by removing the front plate and leaving it off. It was causing the problem. All balls come out straight after doing this. After hundreds of balls the wheels need cleaning. The crap on them makes them lose friction. Undo the screws, use a knife to lever them off from the back. I gently clean them on a rotating wire brush. It roughens the surface. A lot of the problems are caused by the two wheels not being directly in line. There is nothing that fixes them and they can shift on the motor axel. Use a knife and push from the back to reline them. loosen the screw first. Use a vacuum cleaner to clean the fluff out of the motors regularly. I prop up under the front to give different throw angles. A wire broke once and I re soldered it. I would like to get two new wheels. I think that would make it work better but can't get any. Hope this helps.

A good and cheap robot! U can use topspin, backspin and oscillation (that means it goes from fh to bh). And another setting is that u choose how often the balls have to come. In the lowest, the ball comes about 2 seconds after each other and in the highest they come really really fast and its hard to take all the balls. A bad thing is that when u play sometimes the robot changes spin suddenly for a ball or 2. So when u are playing on fh topspins, there can suddenly come a ball backspined or 2 and it goes straight down. For the price its a very good robot, sometimes it jam but thats easy to fix.

Got mine halfway the month of June. The Pros: The remote works flawless and is easy to understand. Easy assembled. Good spin on the balls. The Cons: Ball trajectory isn't always the same so it takes some time to set it up right at the end of the table, a small wedge comes in handy sometimes. Construction wise the whole robot looks and feels flimsy, cheaply manufactured. Oscillator function does not live up to my expectation. Real color isn't as bright red as on the pictures (I know, it's cosmetic) Mine broke down after 4 or 5 sessions of approximately 1 hour and it's in repairs now for more than 6 weeks. Hopefully the repaired one will last must longer but with the fragile construction in mind I fear the worst. Used it in combination with a Joola retrieving net. I'll get back with this review after I tested my repaired robot. *update 1* After 9 weeks, the robot is still in repairs. Retailer is pointing at Joola, Joola is pointing at retailer. I'm stuck in the middle unfortunately. *update 2* Almost forgot to write again. I got it back in September, de middle part (the robot part) was new. After a few tries the problems were the same as with the first robot: Irregular flight paths and regular ball jams. I've sold the thing in March. I know, it wasn't expensive, but I really don't know how the robot has won some prizes.

Time to time I use it in our local club, which is a Joola partner. It has limited gears, and no sidespin. Gets jammed time to time. When oscillating at max underspin about 20% of the balls are shot over the table. For it's price it is more than affordable fitness partner on boring days.