Support & FAQ

SimBandit is a golf simulator controller app for Apple & Android tablets, phones and watches. It replaces physical button boxes by turning your existing devices into unlimited, fully configurable simulator controls. Combined with the free Windows companion app, SimBandit sends keyboard shortcuts directly to your simulator PC over your local WiFi network.

SimBandit is free to download and use. The Windows companion app is also free.

You need an iPhone, iPad, or Android phone/tablet running the SimBandit app; a Windows PC running your golf simulator and the free SimBandit Windows companion app; and both devices on the same local WiFi network. That’s it — no cables, no accounts, no cloud services required.

No. SimBandit requires no account, login, or registration. The app communicates directly with your simulator PC over your local network.

Install the SimBandit Windows companion app on your PC and launch it. Open SimBandit on your phone. If you are on the same WiFi network, in most cases, SimBandit will automatically connect to your PC and the Windows app. If for some reason, it does not connect, on your SimBandit phone app, go to Settings, and click auto-detect PC. If you are still having difficulty connecting, click on the SimBandit app in your PC system tray to open the dashboard. The dashboard will display the IP of your local machine. Return to the app setting screen and manually enter the IP address to connect. If you are still having difficulty, email support@simbandit.com for further assistance.

The SimBandit Windows companion app displays your PC’s IP address on the dashboard when it launches. To open the dashboard, click on the SimBandit app in your PC system tray. Alternatively, open Command Prompt and run ipconfig — look for the IPv4 Address under your active network adapter (usually Wireless LAN or Ethernet).

Yes. The SimBandit Windows companion app must be running in the background while you play. It runs in the system tray and uses minimal resources — you can minimize it and forget it’s there.

SimBandit theoretically can work with any golf simulator that accepts keyboard shortcuts on Windows. This includes GSPro, TGC 2019, Awesome Golf, FSX Play, and others. Since SimBandit is pre-configured to work with certain simulators, we may be limited in our testing abilities. If you are interested in having your simulator work with SimBandit, simply send us an email at support@simbandit.com as we are interested in having additional beta testers.

Yes. GSPro supports extensive keyboard shortcuts for camera control, scoring, shot tracking, flyover mode, and more. SimBandit was originally built with GSPro in mind and includes pre-built profile suggestions for common GSPro actions.

The mobile and watch apps run on iOS/Android. The Windows companion app requires Windows 10 or later. Mac support is not currently available, as most golf simulators run exclusively on Windows.

Open SimBandit, tap edit layout, then tap the add button to add new buttons to your profile. Give it a name (e.g. GSPro — Course Flyover), then click done editing when done. To edit existing buttons, click on the button and select an alternative function, edit the color, then click close. Drag and drop buttons to change the order, or click the X to remove them. Click the done editing button when done.

You can create one profile for phone/tablet per simulator and one for the watch per simulator.

Profile sharing between users is on the roadmap. For now, profiles are stored locally on your device.

The SimBandit Watch app pairs with your phone using the native connectivity. On WatchOS, when you tap a control on your watch, the command is relayed to your paired iPhone which forwards it to the SimBandit Windows companion app over WiFi. In the case of Android, the Watch communicates directly with your PC over UDP. The entire chain is nearly instantaneous — there’s no perceptible delay during normal play.

SimBandit Watch requires watchOS 7.0 or later, which covers Apple Watch Series 3 and newer. We recommend Series 4 or later for the best performance and display size. For Android, Simbandit requires Wear OS (formerly Android Wear) to operate. For example, Samsung Gear smartwatches began using Wear OS with the release of the Galaxy Watch4 in August 2021. Prior to that, they used Tizon OS, which is not compatible with SimBandit.

Yes. The Watch app relays commands through your paired iPhone, so your iPhone needs to be connected to the same local WiFi as your simulator PC. In practice this just means your iPhone is somewhere in your sim room — it doesn’t need to be in your hand.

Android Wear OS watches need a phone to receive the initial configuration; however, after that you should not need to have your Android phone nearby to use SimBandit.

Check the following: both your phone and PC are on the same WiFi network (not guest networks), the SimBandit Windows companion app is running on your PC, the IP address entered in the app matches what the companion app shows, and Windows Firewall isn’t blocking the companion app — allow it when prompted, or add a manual inbound rule for UDP port 4243.

Make sure your simulator window is in focus on the PC — keyboard shortcuts only fire to the active foreground application. Also verify the keyboard shortcut you bound in SimBandit matches what your simulator expects. You can use the companion app’s Dashboard, accessible from the system tray, to verify button presses are being received without them triggering actual input.

Make sure the SimBandit phone app is open and connected to your PC. Check that your Watch and Phone are paired — you should see a green indicator in the Watch app. Try sending a test button from the Watch app while your mouse is focused on the SimBandit dashboard in windows. If issues persist, close and reopen the Phone app, then relaunch the Watch app.