NEW Pro Boat Impluse 31 RTR V2

[Niky]

Hi Guys,
I just hope that on 6s, the electronics of the new IM31 would not behave as electronics of the Spartan.
There's some resemblance between elect. of these two boats; 80A ESC+1800Kv motor!
Salute,Niky.

[dana]

Why don't they just put the 5.5 mm bullets on the darn things already?
Nice looking hull for sure, I dig the new paint.

[hobby_man]

I have the Impulse 2 V2 in he hobby room.

If you plan to run this out of the box forget it, some assembly required.
Out of the box the steering servo is not mounted correctly, the laminated wood is broken apart from not drilling deep enough b4 running the screws in.
They could have moved the servo 1/4 toward the Bow, this would give better access to the servo screws, I am rebuilding this.
No collet on the 5MM motor shaft for the .187 dia. flex cable this will have to go. I did not look to see if the motor has a flat for the set screw yet.
The one way to tighten the prop onto the .187 dia, shaft was to insert an Allen wrench into the set screw on the brass colored collar.
They ground a flat on the flex shaft, the set screw will tear this up after a couple of set screw tightens.
Running the antenna wire is a pain, I ran a cable into the boat and taped the antenna to the cable with my Hatch tape.
An 80 amp speed control with EC3 connectors, they will get cut off tomorrow and replaced with 6MM bullets

I will post some pictures
IMG_3072.jpgIMG_3071.jpgIMG_3070.jpgIMG_3069.jpgIMG_3068.jpg

[hobby_man]

IMG_3068.jpgIMG_3067.jpgIMG_3066.jpgIMG_3065.jpgIMG_3064.jpg

[hobby_man]

Impluse 31 V2

IMG_3062.jpgIMG_3060.JPGIMG_3058.JPGIMG_3056.JPGIMG_3054.JPG

[Niky]

Hi Guys,
these fotos are not lovley!
Ater the feilure of the Spartan,seems that the new Impulse also goes in the same direction.
Now the question is: what deep V boat to buy?
Salute,Niky.

[hobby_man]

the first run with all the factory settings. the progam card will not work so I had to go with the factory settings.
after 5 minutes burned out the RX, big cloud of blue smoke, desoldered the bullets to the motor.
boat was sitting in the lake with a 2 second beep from the speed control.
1. servo tray was broken upon arrival
2. esc progam card would not work
3. burned out the RX and de-soldered the bullets to the motor/escIMG_3074.jpg

they are telling me no refund on this boat, What the H are you kidding me
BUY THIS BOAT at you own risk

[hobby_man]

Bounce

The boat is a bouncer as well, just like the video by Jordan,

[hobby_man]

playing the waiting game as I had to send the boat back, the warranty is date of purchase

[hobby_man]

anyone else got this boat???

[bigcam406]

not after reading that and viewing your pics....

[Darin Jordan]

The boat is a bouncer as well, just like the video by Jordan,

If your boat is "bouncing", then you don't have it tuned correctly... Any "bouncing" in the marketing videos are simply the result of running the boats directly out of the box, and from marketing people believing that a little "action" is more exciting for the viewer.

The IM31 is just like any other mono... and the hull quality (flatness of the ride-surfaces, sharpness of the edges, etc.) are all above par. It's a good quality hull. I've been racing these hulls since before they were available to the public, and since before there was a "V2" version (heck, before there was ANY version... ) and have never had an issue with "bouncing". Adjust the strut angle to neutral, set the strut height to put the bottom of the strut about 3/16" or so above the bottom of the boat (more will drop the transom down into the water, less will raise the transom), set your CG to about 30% of the length (about 8 3/4 to 9" from the actual transom), and then adjust your trim-tabs down as needed. If the boat is "chine-walking" at speed, push your right tab down a bit more, and more to the inside of the tab. You can also bend in "training wheels" on the tabs if you think it's required (shouldn't be)...

If you boat is "bouncing", then you are loading/unloading/loading the power system with huge amp-spikes, the result of which will be a power system that gets pretty hot, starting at the point of most resistance, the contacts.

The issue with the screws for the steering servo not being drilled deep enough has been brought to Pro Boat's attention. If you understood the nature of getting things made in China, you'd have a clearer understanding and appreciation for the challenges in getting something "consistent" from them. Not an excuse, just a statement of consideration. Pro Boat will work to get that issue, if it's a persistent and common issue, resolved. In the meantime, it's fairly minor and relatively easy to band-aide.

As for the rest of your complaints, I would have to understand your background with R/C Boats, and exactly what you are expecting from a RTR R/C boat.

1) The Antenna?? It was placed where it was placed on purpose, to keep it out of the way of your run-to-run access to the interior of the boat. Is it a challenge to get installed... It can be. Do you have to do it on a regular basis... I should hope not. Install it once and your done. I'd take the inconvenience of it's location over it being in my way every time I need to access the hatch anytime.

2) Servo location?? The servo location is right where it should be, which keeps the steering rod as short as possible for less flex, and also to allow the balance of the boat to be more controlled by the battery location. It also keeps the wires located near the RX, which helps reduce the chances for RX interference. Again, you put a steering servo in ONCE and run the boat for a season. The screws are rather easy to get to, so again, this seems like a rather trivial complaint. I've never had an issue replacing servos in mine, and this is the first time I've heard this complaint. We'll keep it under consideration, however, for future implementations. Pro Boat is aware now, thanks to this thread, of the screw depth issue and will address it.

3) "No collet on the 5mm motor shaft for the .187 dia flex cable"??? I'm not sure what you mean here. The coupler between the motor and the .150-sized flex cable is clearly there. It's a standard set-screw style coupler that works very well, considering it's application. It's a RTR, not a $850.00 race boat, and, frankly, the coupler is a HUGE improvement over RTR couplers of the past. It works just fine. And, YES, the motor has a flat for the set-screw.

4) "They ground a flat on the flex shaft"... This is FALSE. Nothing was "ground" on the flex-shaft. The flat is PRESSED into the end of the cable, just like they might do to form a square drive for an Outboard or a speedo cable. Additionally, the stub shaft is not only soldered to the flex, but it's also "swagged" on with 4 "crimp-holes" to help ensure it's a solid connection. I've been running the stock flexshafts (again, .150", NOT .187"), in my MG's, Impulse 31s, and Mystics, under both P-Ltd and P-Open power configurations, and have yet to have one fail. In fact, I'm currently running a stock Miss Geico flex cable in my P-Ltd Hydro (~60mph setup turning an H-10) and have yet to have an issue with it. The flex cable setups in these boats are solid, overkill, and well built for the application.

5) "80A Spped control with EC3 connectors" - Yes, this is true. They are "industry standard", and what Pro Boat decided to go with. The wiring on this controller was upgraded to 12-awg, however. I have always recommended that people replace all the contacts on their boats before pushing them too hard.

You mention in a later post that "after 5-minutes", the connectors burned off the ESC, etc... 5-Minutes?? If you ran the boat for 5-Minutes, bouncing, in a state of poor tune, then I'm not surprised at this. I haven't read through the manual recently, so I'm not sure how it's instructing users to get up to speed with these boats, but it's common practice, with RC Cars, Helis, Planes, AND Boats, to run them for a minute or minute and a half, then check temps, adjust accordingly, then run them again, and BUILD UP to completely thrashing on them for 5-Minutes... 5-minutes is a LONG time to run any "Performance" oriented sport boat. Our race boats run for 1:30-2:00 minutes, tops... and use around 2300-2500mAh in the process...

If you were running hard for 5-minutes, then you likely used up 5,000mAh:

Runtime/3600 * Avg Amp Draw = Total Amps Used

300 seconds / 3600 * 60Amps = 5Ah or 5,000 mAh)

Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Doing that long of a run and pulling the batteries down that far will quickly overheat a system, and risks damaging the batteries, etc.


I'm sorry you are unhappy and having troubles. Hopefully, working with the Pro Boat/Horizon Hobby customer service dept. you'll be able to get them resolved.

[hobby_man]

yea blame it on china, I know all about China, im in the MFG. trade
2. the rear servo screws are under the deck , tough to get an angled screw driver into them.
3. a compression collet
could not run it wide open so you math is off boat is factory set a 80% top end, with the bounce and the ESC programming card not working. IF it did run wide open it would have burned up the motor.
Heat gun was at the dock with me and I was trying to get the boat set up when it died on the lake. Tough to do in 5 minutes

pro boat, not a word from them yet. Horizon says warranty is time of sale!

I have a Traxxas Spartan, UL-1, Revolt 30, they all ran out of the box, for a very long time!

[Darin Jordan]

yea blame it on china, I know all about China, im in the MFG. trade

I figured that responding might get me in a back and forth situation. But, what the heck... Let's do this...


NOT "blaming it on China", just stating reality. Unless you'd like EVERY one of these to go personally through me before they head out the the consumers, stuff is going to get through. Stuff happens. It's being looked into.

Every boat you listed that you own or have run was introduced with "issues"... None of these are perfect. All we can do is try to make them so, but if you are in Mfg., then you already know this...

2. the rear servo screws are under the deck , tough to get an angled screw driver into them.

Again, it seems like a minor problem to me, but I'll suggest that Pro Boat take this into consideration next time around. I've never had an issue getting a servo in and out of any of mine, and I've done it more than most...

3. a compression collet

On the majority of my boats, I replace the collets to the Octura 5mm to .150" unit (long, 2-set-screw style usually), ESPECIALLY if they come with factory "collets"... On my IM31 and Mystics, however, I've purposely NOT done that, and have run this set-screw coupler, on purpose, to see if it is a point of failure. It's not... Or at least hasn't been, through two race seasons, several 2-Lap attempts, a SAW or two, and one National Championship week. However, if you don't like the coupler that comes out of the box, Octura makes a really nice piece for around $10.00... This isn't a "quality issue"... or a poor design issue... it's a personal preference. The coupler that comes on these boats is a VAST improvement over the steel collet that came on earlier Pro Boat models.

could not run it wide open so you math is off boat is factory set a 80% top end, with the bounce and the ESC programming card not working. IF it did run wide open it would have burned up the motor.

A simple recharge of your batteries will tell you for sure. How much mAh did you put back into them?? I'd suggest that by NOT running "wide-open", my math probably is off... you probably used MORE mAh, do to the increased loading of the wetted hull and amp spikes. You are NOT going to "burn up" the motor running this boat wide-open with the factory prop.

[roadrashracing]

The servo setup has been my only grip with the boat, the placement might change depending on the day or the person making them? The back half of my screws require taking them out at an angle. And the wood mounts to fail over time. Over the winter I am going to epoxy a new non wood mount with a little more access. What I used to do for the antenna was drill the ant. mount out so the tube could slide all the way through. I then bent a old tube and ran it into the hull, I slipped the antenna in and pulled the tube out, what you should be left with is the antenna sticking out. Its been a good boat other than that.