Setting up GetBuckets on your court

1. Step 01

   Where to put the phone

   A clear view of the ring is everything. Ring, net and backboard in the picture, nothing in front of them. This is what decides how many shots it catches. The shooter can be out of shot.

   • A small tripod five to ten metres back, portrait, facing the hoop with the ring and a bit of sky in frame. That is the setup it likes best.
   • No tripod? Prop it on the ground near the free throw line, off to one side, against a bag or a water bottle. That works well too.
   • The ring should be at least a thumb-width wide on screen. Smaller than that and shots get missed, so move in rather than zooming.
   • Prop or mount the phone so it cannot move. If it gets knocked, redo the setup.
   • One shooter, one ball, one hoop. Move spare balls out of frame and avoid a second hoop in the picture.

2. Step 02

   Light and background

   A quiet background behind the ring is what the detector wants. Against a bright background it cannot tell a ball falling in front of the net from one dropping through it.

   • Avoid open sky, the sun or a bright window directly behind the hoop. Shifting a few metres sideways so the ring sits against a fence, trees or a wall usually fixes it.
   • Outdoors in daylight with a nylon net is where it is happiest. Early morning and late afternoon are kinder than harsh midday glare.
   • Indoor gyms are fine when they are reasonably lit and the ring stands out from what is behind it.
   • Chain nets and busy gyms with several shooters are still being tuned, so expect a few more wrong calls there.

3. Step 03

   Earbuds and callouts

   Earbuds in and each shot is called out with your running count, so your eyes never leave the rim.

   • Connect the earbuds as media audio before you start, and turn media volume up. Check the first two or three calls come through before you settle in.
   • You hear make or miss, the running count, your streak and your percentage as you go.
   • No earbuds? The callouts play through the phone speaker. On a quiet court that is usually enough.

4. Step 04

   Fixing a call

   Courts, nets and light all differ, so the odd call goes wrong. Fix it from your earbuds without walking back to the phone.

   • Double tap the earbud to swap the last call, make to miss or miss to make.
   • Triple tap to remove a shot entirely when it counted something that was not a shot.
   • Anything you miss in the moment can be fixed afterwards from the session list, where each shot has its own clip.

5. Step 05

   When the ring is not found

   On the setup screen, check the orange box hugs the ring before you start.

   • Tap Search again and it rescans the whole view. That is usually all it takes after you have moved the phone.
   • If it grabbed something else, drag the box onto the ring and pinch to resize.
   • If it gives up entirely, draw the box by hand. A hand-drawn box counts just as well as one it found itself.
   • Still struggling? The ring is probably too small in frame or the background behind it is too bright. Move closer, or move sideways.

6. Step 06

   Keeping the clips

   A clip of about four seconds around every shot is kept on the phone so you can check any call afterwards.

   • When the session ends you choose whether to keep the clips or bin them. Keeping them costs storage, so a long session adds up.
   • Clips never leave the phone. The app has no internet permission, so there is nothing to upload and nothing to delete elsewhere.
   • You can delete the clips for one session, or for every session, from Settings at any time.

You can reopen this guide from Settings inside the app.