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With the quality, feel and range of the transmitter etc… Comparing to the old iWaver 01 controller, this one feels better. The wheel grip is now soft sponge over the old solid rubber one. Weight and dimensions are about the same. Two noticeable improvements are the power switch which has a definite click on feel (with an electronic confirmation beep) where the old one when you slide the switch sometimes you had to wiggle it around to make contact. And secondly if you remove the antenna it screws back in easily where the old one you had to use brute force to push it past some metal contact to sort of line up the nut thread.

There is a wheel tension adjustment via a screw hole just to the bottom left of the wheel, haven’t tried this out yet but tension seems fine to me.

Power light is a very bright purple blue color which looks cool, much better than the old dodgy 3 crooked LEDs, there’s a voltage reading on the LCD display that also has an alarm that kicks in when the voltage drops to 8.5V. Fresh rechargeables i got a reading of 11.1V.

The batteries (x8 AA’s)sit in a flat tray at the bottom which you can remove, i imagine to be able to charge. The plug however doesn’t seem an industry standard though, looks a bit like a Futaba flat servo plug with a notch.

They’ve defintely improved the controller and looks like they spent more time on this than the 04 truck itself!

I haven’t tested out the range yet, but with the old one i remember driving the car away until you can barely see if is more than enough. I think the range (easily 40-50m) would be the same if not better at the least. It’s definitely more than enough for hooning down your street until it’s barely visible or on any track.

Sorry don’t have a digital camera so can’t show you pics of the quality niggles. Basically what i’ve found:
1. Cheap plastic bits prone to breakage
2. Sticks on the body misaligned
3. No pre-drilled hole on the body (Need 4.0mm drill bit for this)
4. A new horizontal piece “glued” between front and rear suspension mount, break either front or rear then you have to change the whole thing (front and rear with that horizontal piece) See Kerosene’s pictures above.
5. Noisy gears, nore sure if it’s the differentials or meshing issue, sometimes when you reverse then slam it forward can hear some crunching.

I would definitely do the following which would be a bare minimum:
1. Install ball bearings
2. Upgrade motor, iWaver X-Speed works fine without FET upgrade
3. Get rid of the front and rear suspension mounts (they will snap in a front collision) and go aluminium or just get the Kyosho version if you want to save money.
4. Aluminium front knuckles as i think they will go next in a collisio n.
5. Get rid of the plastic wheel nuts, the threaded hole will strip easily. Get the proper aluminium ones.

These upgrades will still be much cheaper than a stock Miniz Mad Force.

Hope this info helps those thinking about getting an iWaver 04, be prepared to break something, it will happen, especially once you put in a beefed up motor and crash!

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Tend to agree man. Actually i think i might follow your footsteps and carefully place the stickers in the bin too:D Let me know when you smack your suspension mounts! Gotta figure how to get around this one. Haven’t even used the crap polycarb body to smack around yet.

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Lol! Check my treads and at least they got the direction correct 🙂 While the stickers are fresh, and not to mention not stuck on properly, nows your chance to carefully peel off the misaligned ones and make them right. Must have got some work experience kids from a bus stop to whack the stickers on when churning these out in a hurry:D

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Thanks to Kerosene for posting the nice pics. That horizontal plastic piece connecting the front and rear shock mount is freakin glued on man! Trying to pry it off will just snap everything else! So far according to ToyEast’s website site, only the front and rear shock mount is available at $1.80 but that horizontal piece aint there! Maybe better to go for the real Kyosho mount which RCMart sell for USD $5.90. Might have to hack that thing with a Dremel :angry:

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Actually one major complaint, when i smacked the iWaver 04 truck and snapped the front suspension mount, there’s a horizontal piece of plastic that is glued between that and the rear suspension mount which you cannot remove. Another words you have to replace the front, back and that piece that connects the two as a whole unit! That piece of plastic as holes (left and right of truck) where you push clips from the outside of the body in it, this part is different to the Mini Z MF.

What this means is if you buy the front and rear aluminium suspension mounts, you won’t be able to mount the 04 polcarb body on, maybe that’s a good thing since it’s so crap!

Very annoying. Those with the 04 will know, can someone post a pic if they can as i don’t have a digital camera handy yet:(

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Oh Yah the TRANSMITTER dudes!!! No pinion gears supplied man:(, only the stock in the gearbox (haven’t seen what T yet) Keep in mind as they do state that the ABS function only works with iWaver 02 which i also got. If you switch of the ABS the car (02) slams in reverse, ABS on when you slam it in reverse the car stops without (i’d say minimal) skidding. Too fast and too close to a wall won’t help though!

Basically you can dump the old iWaver 01 clear and dark grey jobbies as this one has 10 memories with 3 label for each which is handy for a fleet of cars, only thing you gotta do is swap crystals. At least there is a charging jack, not like the old controller where there was a hole for it!

As you all may have seen the pics on ToyEast’s site, the controller has an LCD display all the stuff that you need to adjust like:
-Steering Dual Rate
-ABS (only on iWaver 02 & 04)
-Digital trim for steering & throttle trim, steering D/R.

Quite handy the steering and throttle response which you can adjust. You can adjust the steering so that it’s gradual on instead of fast left/right which would normally flip/spin the car no matter how fast you steer. Same goes for throttle, can ease it so if you let crazy unco drive your beast, there’s less chance of them pranging.

Nice bright blue LED looks cool but main thing is it performs well and makes up for the tacky plastics and quality niggles. For USD $50 can’t complain too much.

Good way to save money and get 2 vehicles is to buy the iWaver 02 car chassis and the iWaver 04 which you get the controller anyway.

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Noticed after a while the reverse does have that initial kick like forward. Any ideas? Is one stack of FETs for forward and the other for reverse? Which one is which?

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Finally got the FET’s installed in the monster and she’s running again. TOTALLY NUTS! Stock motor: 10kph, X-Speed motor: 18kph, X-Speed Pro motor: 22kph. I love it! Yet to test the steering servo. Thanks Aaron!

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Thanks Aaron, will give it a try and let you know how it turns out. Hope the servo works too! If it doesn’t i’ll bugger it off and get me a real MR02!

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Hey Aaron, got the steering servo and 7389 (x10) FETs today, thanks for the fast delivery! Just looking at the board (Kyosho) orientation with the FETs right next to the drive motor terminal mounts (next to black box), do i just stack 5 on each after removing the 2 stock ones? Do i need to do anything about the stock FETs on the left side where the wires lead to the steering servo and sensor?

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Cool, thanks betty.k! Will get the 7389 set from Aaron. Better head to Jaycar soon to get myself a nice tiny tip soldering iron! Is it recommended to spray freeze the FETs prior to soldering to protect them?

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Aaron that sounds good. One question, will i lose the braking function in my monster? Kinda like to keep that if possible. Will PM you.

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Thanks for the info Aaron, see what ph2t thinks. Have no issue with removing stock FETs, will new stack keep everything hidden or will i have to butcher a cave in my new, dead & unscratched Monster? Will get back to you as soon as i get in touch with ph2t.

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Yeah will see what ph2t cab do with it. Probably fix it with better FET’s but stil retain the stock look. Not sure if ready for hyer speed as only just got the monster a few days ago. Prefer my prangs in low speed first:D

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Guess i learnt the quick and hard way:( Will get in touch with you ph2t.

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Freakin bad news man! Truck don’t smell so great, put old stock motor in. Swith is OFF and car throttles backwards. Thought the electronics would have some safety thing and more durable. I am in deep S*** now! HELP!!!

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Not good news. After about 5 minutes of driving with iWaver X-Speed (Not Pro) motor installed, she suddenly stops. I did run at low throttle first time round to break it in so to speak. Steering works fine but no go with motor. Have i fried something? Holy crap what have i done to my 2 day old baby!!!??? Will try to put the old motor back in, i’d rather the motor fried thatn the board! Panic mode!!!

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Yeah i guess those dudes at ToyEast are a busy bunch. Wonder if we can snatch the new iWaver 02 and their versions of the Mini Z monster in time for xmas?

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56kph Yikes! Hope you don’t get done by speed cameras. I put in iWaver’s X-Speed motor in the Mad Force and managed 17kph using the stock pinion. Doesn’t seem as torqy as the slow stock motor, seem to have lost ability to do the back then forwards wheelie thingy unless i give it plenty of runway room on carpet. No more polished floor wheelies:( Got top end speed but seems low end grunt is lost? Maybe my delivery of bearings hopefully next week will make a difference?

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Gee only 10km/hr on a stock Mini Z Mad Force with plastic bearings! And to think a fully mod with Nelly goes 5 times faster!

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Thanks ph2t, sounds logical. Think i’ll be lucky to get 10km/hr, waiting for my bearings to arrive which i read is the first thing you should do before upgrading other mechanicals/electrics. Been reading up on your Nelly stuff, sounds awesome and you got some sick videos there. When i get a bit more experience and clued up might get one. Thanks again.

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Thanks ph2t, sounds logical. Think i’ll be lucky to get 10km/hr, waiting for my bearings to arrive which i read is the first thing you should do before upgrading other mechanicals/electrics. Been reading up on your Nelly stuff, sounds awesome and you got some sick videos there. When i get a bit more experience and clued up might get one. Thanks again.

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Hi Mocky, the twitching is bad enough to do panel damage on the body with all the swerving. I took the TX crystal and put it in my new iWaver 01 controller (black) and the only difference is at very slow throttle it won’t slam in reverse like with the clear controller but WILL continue to twitch randomly. I got onto Steve @ ToyEast, he said will send out a new replacement controller, don’t that’s happening soon. Not sure what you mean about “motor caps with 103 momolythics” as i’m just a rookie newbie! Meadowbank, isn’t that in SYD? I’m in MEL. Will try replacing the new pot that i will get off Aaron and see how it goes. My new iWaver (black controller) 01 runs sweet.

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Cool stuff Aaron, consider it sold! Couldn’t be buggered hunting around for it. Will get in touch.

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Thanks betty.k for the quick reply. Yeah a bummer when you pay USD $39 plus another US $20 for postage, may as well go for the real deal and get me a Kyosho Mini Z. I’ll pull apart the steering section and take a look. Can you get the pots from places Dicksmith or Jaycar or need to get them from Hobby Suppliers as a bit put off by shipping costs from overseas?

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