Quick start
Everything you need to get your LoadCell measuring. There’s no leaflet in the box — this page is the manual, and it stays current in a way a printed sheet can’t. Once the device is running, the app has a guide of its own.
Switch it on
Slide the switch on the device to power the battery up. The LED lights red and stays lit. Red at rest is normal — with nothing pulling on it, the device sits at the bottom of its colour range. A lit LED means it is awake and ready.
Three red blinks first, for about a second? That is the low-battery warning. Charge it before you train.
Get the app
The LoadCell streams force and battery data to Impulse Train, our free app. Without it the device shows you a colour and nothing else, so install it before you set up.
Free on iOS and Android, forever.
Connect it
Open Impulse Train and look for your device. It appears as “Impulse LoadCell” followed by its unit number — the same number printed on the label, because every unit is individually numbered and individually calibrated. Select it and you are connected.
There is no pairing code, no PIN and nothing to confirm. Connect from inside the app rather than your phone’s Bluetooth settings.
Strap it up
Thread the included strap through the metal loop on the device, and stand on the strap. You pull upwards against your own foot, so the length of strap you leave sets how far you have to lift — set it so your arm works at the angle you want to train.
Set it up the same way each session. Consistent strap length and body position are what make one session comparable to the next.
Pull
Pull up against the strap. The app shows live kilograms, ten readings a second, and the LED changes colour as the force climbs — one colour per 10 kg, so you can train off the light alone and keep your eyes off the screen.
Swap the insert whenever you like
The wooden edge lifts out of the front of the device and another drops in. Every insert profile we make fits the LoadCell and the Mini alike, so an edge bought for one works in the other.
Inserts are made to order in Maple and Dark Walnut.
Learn the app
That is the device working. The rest — benchmarks, guided protocols, plans, trophies and the games — is the app, and it has a guide of its own: first run, what each tab is for, and how a session runs from the floor without touching the phone.
Worth ten minutes before your first real session. The one setting to get right early is which insert is fitted, because every result is filed against it.
What the colours mean
One colour per 10 kg of pull, live as you load it.
| Force | Colour |
|---|---|
| 0–10 kg | Red |
| 10–20 kg | Orange |
| 20–30 kg | Yellow |
| 30–40 kg | Green |
| 40–50 kg | Teal |
| 50–60 kg | Cyan |
| 60–70 kg | Blue |
| 70–80 kg | Violet |
| 80–90 kg | Magenta |
| 90–100 kg | White |
Above 100 kg the colours start again from red — so red means either 0–10 kg or 100–110 kg, and the app is the authority at high loads. The blue band is a little dimmer than the rest; that’s the LED, not a fault.
Sleep and waking
After ten minutes without a pull, the LoadCell switches its LED and its Bluetooth off entirely. Asleep, it won’t show up in a Bluetooth scan at all — so an unlit LED means asleep, not idle. This is the usual reason a device looks broken.
To wake it, pull on it. It checks for a pull every couple of seconds, so hold the pull rather than tugging — you’ll get a brief white flash to acknowledge it, and it’s back about a second later.
It will never sleep mid-session: a live app connection keeps it awake, and so does being plugged in. Left on charge, it stays awake and connectable.
Battery and charging
Charge over USB-C. The charge light glows red while it is filling and goes out when the battery is full — an unlit charge light is the finished state, not a flat one. A full charge takes about two hours.
Don’t confuse the two red lights: the charge light means charging, while the main LED sitting red means the device is awake with nothing pulling on it. Three red blinks at switch-on is the low-battery warning, and the app shows you a percentage.
The percentage won’t move while you’re pulling, and that’s deliberate. A hard pull briefly sags the battery voltage, so a live figure would leap around mid-effort. It refreshes between efforts instead.
The USB-C port charges and nothing else — plugging the device into a computer won’t give you a drive, a serial port or any data.
- Rated to 150 kg.
- Designed for single-handed use.
- Warm up properly before you use it.
If something’s off
The LED is off and nothing happens
Check the slide switch is on. If it is, the device is asleep rather than broken — see sleep and waking below. Pull on it for two or three seconds. If there is still nothing, charge it.
It doesn’t appear in the app
Almost always because it is asleep: pull on it, then scan again. Otherwise check it isn’t still connected to another phone — it talks to one device at a time. Switching it off and on at the slide switch gives thirty seconds of rapid advertising, which is the easiest window to find it in.
Three red blinks when I switch it on
Low battery. Charge it before you train.
The connection dropped mid-session
Move your phone closer. It reconnects on its own and reappears in the app’s list without you doing anything.
It reads a load when nothing is pulling on it
Take your weight off the strap completely and check nothing is resting on the edge. There is no tare, so this isn’t something you can zero out yourself: if it persists with the device completely unloaded, email us.
It always reads 0.0 kg
Either no load is reaching the cell — check the strap is through the metal loop and taking your pull — or there is a fault in the cell or its wiring. That second one is ours to fix, so email us.
It restarted by itself
It carries a self-recovery timer and restarts within a few seconds if it ever locks up. Once in a while this is harmless and by design. If it becomes frequent, tell us.
The colour looks wrong at very high load
Above 100 kg the colours start again from red, so red means either 0–10 kg or 100–110 kg. At loads that high, read the app rather than the light.
Can I use it with the Mini?
The inserts are shared — every profile fits both devices. The app is not: Impulse Train works with the LoadCell only, because the Mini has no electronics in it to read.
How do I look after the wood?
Keep it dry and brush the chalk off now and then. Don’t soak it, and don’t leave the device somewhere damp or baking — it is a wooden edge in an aluminium body, and both prefer the conditions you do.
Still stuck? email us and tell us what the device is doing — we read every one.