Riptide autopilot?

I feel a little dumb for this.

Had our boat for 3 weeks or so now, it had a 80lb minn kota riptide with the co-pilot remote. Just yesterday while trolling along a bank making some casts in heavy wind, I looked down and saw the motor turning on its own. Its had some quirks with the remote control, sometimes it turns large amounts with a quick button push, but this was new.

Then I noticed the red autopilot light was on. I skimmed over the manual when we got the boat, and guess I just assumed the auto pilot didnt work- as I believe it said it was for equipped models or such. We tried it a bit more on our way to the ramp, it was far too busy to really test it out by fishing, but it seemed to hold its course, it would drift/blow 10 degrees or so off course and the motor would turn enough to bring it back on course more or less it appeared.

All this time we've been trolling along, pulling cranks, and manually correcting our course with the remote. It still worked great, but on windy days it was easy to get pretty far out of whack if we weren't paying attention. If this works like I think it will, things will be SOO much better! This is essentially the reason I was wanting the I-pilot upgrade, so it would hold a course on its own.


Anyone else have and use auto pilot? Is the point to hold the given heading you steer it at?

Check the motor when deployed with a normal load. It should be as close to perfectly vertical as possible. Not leaning left or right or fwd or back. If you manually turn the motor with the Co-pilot on it should assume the new course. Loved that thing when it first come out.

So, what are the main benefits of the I-pilot over this then?


I get that it can adjust speed as well, but other then the spot lock (which may or may not work all that great?), How is it worth 400+$ for an open water troller as Ive been doing?


Is it mainly because of the ability to talk to sonar units and follow contour lines or such?

With the auto pilot you have 2 settings for steering control. One uses built in gps to maintain heading and one uses compass heading which I like best and think that's what you have. New spot lock is great. Also you can record up to 6 tracks and gps will follow them. It has cruise control and a couple other options you don't have. To connect to birds you have to have i pilot link for around 700. My opinion is the i pilot is worth the money over copilot having run both.


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like what Clay said:

Copilot:
Wireless system allows you to control speed, steering and prop on/off .

iPilot:
delivers speed, steering, Spot-Lock, and the ability to record and retrace paths on the water.

I think you may have one of the older trolling motors that had the autopilot built in to the foot pedel. The CO-pilot was an add on feature with allowed for auto corrections with the remote.

I'm not sure if they still make some of them this way or not? The benefit with I-pilot is that everything can be done from the remote. Like Clay said, you can GPS navigate (hitting the N button once) or compass navigate (holding the N button until the circle goes away on the screen).

I'm only mildly familiar with the older autopilot setups as I've only been in one boat that had one.

I'm not sure of the year. Its a 2002 boat, and its the second trolling motor because I can see the mount marks from one with a longer base. This one doesnt have the foot pedal, its the co-pilot remote only.


And yikes, another $700 to hook up to HB's? :yikes

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wicklundrh

I think you may have one of the older trolling motors that had the autopilot built in to the foot pedel. The CO-pilot was an add on feature with allowed for auto corrections with the remote.

I'm not sure if they still make some of them this way or not? The benefit with I-pilot is that everything can be done from the remote. Like Clay said, you can GPS navigate (hitting the N button once) or compass navigate (holding the N button until the circle goes away on the screen).

I'm only mildly familiar with the older autopilot setups as I've only been in one boat that had one.

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Could you explain the difference between (gps navigate) and (compass navigate)

Great thing about Ipilot I really love is recording t he track your making. Then hitting the right button letting Ipilot run the track with your speed set on cruise control and you can fish, do anything and let it run till end of the track you recorded while trolling jigs or cranks. Records a total of 6 tracks up to 2 miles long each. Hands free while into fish. Trollers dream.

Habits, I have a riptide 70 lb with auto and co pilot. This works off of a compass heading, so if you blow off course it will correct and bring you back to that heading. My understanding of the gPS setup is that it will do it's best to return you to the track it was previously programmed on, whereas the compass will just point to the same direction, though it may be a few feet off of the original track but parallel and going the same way. I've used mine trolling for countless hours and love mine but I would buy an I-Pilot next time without hesitation. Mine has less bells and whistles but still does a good job for me.