Oh, you can't get it to deploy. I have heard of problems with accidental deploy and thought this is what you are talking about. May need some greasing on the mechanism that releases the motor into the water. I will take mine apart tomorrow and look for what may be causing your problem. Are you able to post pics of your unit?

I have also wanted one of the hand held dial type speed controllers, but the co pilot is the closest thing to it. I have looked inside my foot pedal and there is too much going on in there to make a control that we are looking for. Minn Kota should take this into consideration and look to develop one. I did find it easier to maintain the speed with the foot control and use the fob for steering and wind correction. Had plenty of time to get the hang of it. Sunday was supposed to be light and variable, but turned out to be 5-15.