Topic: Minnkota iPilot Link problems,

[geemul]

Hello,
I'm not sure if Minnkota problems are allowed here but I wasn't sure were else to ask.

I have a Minnkota Riptide with iPilot Link and the remote control. They are only about 2 months old.

On Saturday last I performed a firmware upgrade on them as I wanted to fix an issue with battery charge indication on the remote. Apparently they both have to be done, not just one of them.

I upgraded them to Ver 1.160 which is what was in my Humminbird.com support section for the iPilot Link and remote.

Now the Spot Lock will periodically get into a tangle were the shaft of the motor rotates one revolution, the propellor indicator on the remote begins to flash and Spot Lock disengages.

I was in the middle of the harbour at pre-update Spot Lock locations which hadn't ever given problems before. I even created a couple of new Spot Locks to see if there was something wrong with the previous ones but the problem persisted.

Has anyone seen this behaviour on Ver 1.160 firmware or have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Geoff

[Humminbird_Greg]

I see that no one has responded yet.  I recommend that you contact either Minn Kota or Humminbird’s Customer Resource folks directly with this.

[geemul]

I see that no one has responded yet.  I recommend that you contact either Minn Kota or Humminbird’s Customer Resource folks directly with this.

Thanks Greg,
I sent an email to support who told me to update the firmware and make sure the battery was charged.

Looks like I need to do some other research on my own.

Geoff

[Humminbird_Greg]

Geoff,
I would contact them back (after checking your battery) and let them know that it still is not working.

[geemul]

Hmmm, the plot thickens!

It would appear as though the updated firmware doesn't like conditions which for want of a better term the iPilot Spot Lock cannot "get its teeth into"

What I mean by that is I took the boat out onto the local river yesterday, the Spot Lock was working fine during the run in tide. At the top of the tide and with basically no wind, ie dead still conditions the Spot Lock would get itself into the originally posted tangle and shutdown as it had no real current and no real wind to work against.

At this point the sky was clear giving an uninterrupted GPS signal and it was early in my fishing day so the battery was at its freshest.

Later in the day during the run out tide I moved to another section of the same river and spot locked under a concrete road bridge. By this time the run out was requiring the Minnkota to hold about 5 on the prop speed to keep the boat still. It worked flawlessly at this time yet the battery had received no charge on the river and it was about 2 hours later.

Thinking back the day I first noticed this problem the wind and the tidal flow were 180 degrees opposed to each other giving the Spot Lock one big headache to maintain position. This was the first time I'd seen the extremely regular dropouts of Spot Lock.

It would appear Spot Lock requires the conditions to be steadily pulling the boat off the mark for it to function correctly.

Time to head back to support with my latest observations,
Geoff

[Rotus623]

Wow Geoff thats a bummer. I wonder if this is really whats going on or if there is more to it than that. The Ipilot motor I had for a while held its mark fine, but the motor would hold its position great, and many times the boat would spin around from one side to the other. I liked the idea of the ILink, but Im not sure I can sink my teeth into the $800 price tag......

[geemul]

It would appear as though the updated firmware doesn't like conditions which for want of a better term the iPilot Spot Lock cannot "get its teeth into"

What I mean by that is I took the boat out onto the local river yesterday, the Spot Lock was working fine during the run in tide. At the top of the tide and with basically no wind, ie dead still conditions the Spot Lock would get itself into the originally posted tangle and shutdown as it had no real current and no real wind to work against.

I took the boat out again on Saturday, same problem but only when there is swirling wind and no current!

At one stage I had it in the river in the run out tide, the propeller speed was at 10 and it was losing ground to the flow but the spot lock refused to give up!

Spot Lock definitely throws in the towel in really light conditions in Ver 1.160 firmware.

Geoff

[Rotus623]

Well thats a bummer. Did Humminbird or minnkota say that this is acceptable and normal?

[geemul]

Well thats a bummer. Did Humminbird or minnkota say that this is acceptable and normal?

They haven't really said anything beyond charge your battery and upgrade the firmware.

The first is very easy to do and wasn't the problem, the second was what got me the problem to start with!