WOAH! I can't believe the difference!!!

That's what you'll be saying once you experience the difference in the way your Impulse performs after programming it with Brian's(Loafy) Enhanced Cricket Software program. It's a world of difference from the bland basic program that Smart Parts throws into their boards. Another Imp-pressive factor is that it's an open source........yep, absolutely free besides the less than $5 cost you'll need for materials to make a cable to hook into the printer port of your PC. A much better option in my opinion than spending $150 for a board that I won't even mention here that has absolutely nothing over Loafy's ECS program.  You would get to tell your friends that you spent a ton of money on it though, now that's Imp-pressive isn't it? NOT! ECS Main Site

Another person who's unprecedented assistance has immensely helped to keep this ECS open source alive and well is Dave(blackxknight). He has supplied an informative all around ECS site for Impulse enthusiasts to go to and download this wonderful program. He's even simplified the process of programming your board by adding a popup menu so all that's needed to do is plug the cable into your computer and board, open your downloaded version of ECS on your PC, click on the specific settings that you want entered into your board, hit enter on the keyboard and in the blink of an eye, you're done. BK's Utility Site

Parameters of ECS

Enhanced Cricket Software has added access to many technical options that the basic Smart Parts software has or could have but doesn't lend you control to. All are accessed with ECS through depressing either the on/off button, dwell buttons or trigger. 

The parameters of ECS are:

• Modes of Fire: Semi, 3 & 6 Shot bursts and Full Auto
• Adjustable Rate of Fire: From 1-30bps
• Manual Bounce Setting: From 1-20ms in .25ms increments (millisecond =1/1000th second)
• Eye sensitivity: Automatic and Manual
• Extended Dwell Setting: From 1-20ms in .25ms increments 
• Vision: On/Off

Modes are accessed by first depressing the on/off to activate the board, depressing the on/off once again for a couple of seconds to reach the 'safe mode', then depressing the dwell buttons to attain the different mode selections; (1) semi (2) 3-shot (3) 6-shot (4) full auto. Light blinks once quickly every 2 seconds.

Depressing the on/off once more from this point in safe mode enters the rate of fire setting stage. Depressing the dwell buttons advances and lowers the rate of fire. Light blinks twice quickly every 2 seconds.

Depressing the on/off once more from this point in safe mode enters the bounce setting stage. Depressing the dwell buttons advances and lowers the bounce. Light blinks 3 times quickly every 2 seconds.

Depressing the on/off once more from this point in safe mode enters the eye sensitivity setting stage. You can just pull the trigger after dropping a ball in the breech to automatically set it or depress the dwell buttons to advance or lower the eye sensitivity. Light blinks 4 times quickly every 2 seconds.

Depressing the on/off from any point in safe mode for 2 seconds reverts back to active mode. Once in active mode the dwell buttons increase and advance the dwell .25ms each time depressed from bottom dwell of 1ms to top dwell of 20ms. A stock Cricket board starts at 4ms to 15ms.

To activate and deactivate Vision mode you must push the on/off button while in active mode and very quickly pull the trigger. If you depress the on/off button and don't pull the trigger quickly then let up, there's a chance that you may put the board into safe mode. If you're confused as to exactly where you are, you can just turn it off then back on and start over. All settings beside modes will stay wherever you left them before you shut it off. Modes always defaults to 'semi/Vision' for a Vision board and 'semi' for non-Vision boards after it has been shut off.

There is a difference in the eye logic of the ECS program compared to the stock Smart Parts logic. The original Smart Parts eye logic works on the motion of the ball dropping into the breech. ECS works on the presence of the ball and makes a world of difference in the response that you'll get when shooting your Imp in Vision mode. The first time I used my Imp after the ECS program was installed, I noticed an immediate difference from the aggravating skipped shots that bothered me so much with the Smart Parts Vision program. I suppose skipped shots were better than chops but the ECS program made a superior difference in the shot rhythm I had previously experienced.

All of this may sound a bit confusing while reading it but if you fiddle with it for a short while you'll see how simple it really is.

Tuning Your ECS Programmed Impulse

Now it's time to get down to brass tacks since you now know all of the parameters you have to work with after downloading this wonderful program. Keep in mind that I will not be taking you by the hand and spoon feeding you where you're going to end up when tuning your Imp but rather give you a general direction to head in. We all have different configurations to work with so none of us will end up with the exact same final tuning results.

The ECS default settings won't often be correct after recently programming your board so don't count on that as a starting point. Always take your setting down to '0' then take it up from there and you'll always be absolutely sure exactly where your settings are at.

• Modes of Fire: Since we are tuning your Imp, I suppose semi mode would be the most practical to tune it in. Whenever you turn your board on it will always default to semi mode and if you have a Vision Imp, the Vision will be on. This is one default you won't have to worry about being out of whack so you can start out by turning the Vision off after turning the board on. If after tuning your Imp you want to tinker with the modes, you may consider flipping the bolt over to conserve on pressure. If you don't flip the bolt over in full auto 30bps, you will experience shoot down big time as the noid of the Imp can only realistically handle about 24-25bps max. So much for that wonder board that claims 36bps eh?
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• Adjustable Rate of Fire: Let's be sensible about the rate of fire. If you cannot actually shoot at 30bps, what's the real sense in setting your Imp to 30bps? A high rate of fire will affect the bounce setting. Normally a high rate of fire will require a higher bounce setting and you may be wondering why you cannot rid your Imp of bounce at even a 20ms bounce setting. Leave the rate of fire at a reasonable setting and there's no shame at leaving it at 15bps or whatever you can actually get your fingers moving at. You can always fib and tell them that it's set at 30bps if you're the local field poser. I leave mine at 17bps and it works out good for me.
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• Manual Bounce Setting: Some are confused about the term 'bounce'. There's a difference between bounce and ramping though some people think they are the same thing and/or confuse one for the other. Bounce is finding a sweet spot on the trigger that will make your marker just take off essentially on it's own into full auto. You're just laying your finger on the trigger so there is no continual pulling involved. It's like hitting that sweet spot on your girlfriend that makes her go gaga. Ramping is a whole different ballgame. It's when your fingers hit a certain bps speed, the board takes over and starts ripping the field up. Your fingers can be moving at 5bps but your marker is shooting at 20bps. Kind of like nitrous oxide in that old Chevy SS. Once the nitrous kicks in it just fly's from that point. Another thing that confuses people about bounce is that the lower the bounce setting the more prone it is to bounce. We often think in terms of a higher number means more. Not so when in relation to bounce. A bounce setting of '1ms' is an assured way to just breathe on the trigger and it'll take off. So essentially if you want it to bounce, set the bounce lower. To rid your Imp of bounce, set it higher. If your setting is maxed in bounce to '1ms' and it won't fly increase the rof if you want it to fly. If you're at a minimum of '20ms' bounce and it's still ripping when you breath on it and you don't want it to, set the rate of fire a bit lower. Trigger tuning or settings can affect bounce as well but I won't even get into that.
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• Eye sensitivity: Let's face it, reflective eyes have problems with dark paint. The most rational resolve for this is to simply not use dark paint. No rocket science here, just common sense. Some tourney goers don't have that option if they have to use whatever paint the field is supplying. They're most likely not going to make an exception just because your Imp is blind when it comes to dark paint. ECS can/may be able to help with a manual eye sensitivity setting capability. Reflective eyes can have problems with two-tone paint as well depending on the contrast and shade of paint. The auto-setting of the ECS program is simple and straight forward; when in auto-mode just drop the ball down the feed neck and pull the trigger. If the blue cricket light stays on continually, the eye is seeing the paint just fine. If not then you'll need to depress the dwell buttons up or down until the blue light stays on continually. If using two-tone paint try the auto-mode. Be sure to turn the ball towards the eye in the breech on both sides of the ball to be sure that the blue light stays on continually. If not then manually adjust the eye to both sides until it does.
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• Extended Dwell Setting: The normal dwell setting range of the stock Cricket board is from 4ms to 15ms. The ECS program extends this range from 1ms to 20ms. Chances are you'll not use a lesser dwell than 4ms but you have that option with ECS anyways. If you normally have a 5ms dwell setting for instance, it was set at 4 - .25ms increments(beeps) from the bottom most setting. With the ECS program this will now be 16 - .25ms increments(beeps) from the bottom most setting. Installing ECS will not change the dwell from your old setting at all so you can be most assured that you'll need to set it at what it used to be but you'll just have to figure out the new number of increments to set it to.
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• On/Off: Well let's hope you can handle this one on your own but there are a couple of things you may need to get used to after programming ECS into the board. The length of time you depress the button is one of them. Unlike the original Cricket board, if you hold the button down too long it will easily slip into the safe edit mode. Your Impulse will not shoot at all in safe mode and you may be scrathing your head wondering why it just stopped working. It will take a bit of using it a few times to get used to. If all else fails, just shut it off and then on and it will default back to on/Vision or on/non-Vision. The only other thing I can think of that has to do with the on/off button is, if you are using one of the first versions of ECS, you'll need to be sure to turn it off after using it. The later Cricket programs automatically turns the board off after a certain length of time. The first versions of ECS did not have this function so be sure to turn it off after using your Impulse or the next time you take it out to use it the battery may be dead.