minn kota power drive v2 i-pilot problem

Was out last week when the wind picked up so much that I had to put it in a motor speed of 9 & 10 just to keep my trolling speed. When I did this it would lose GPS signal strength. First thing I thought of was the remote battery, so I put the spare in and it did the same thing. Then the thought was maybe my trolling batteries were to low. When I got back to the campground I put the charger to it for the night and did a relearn. The next day was working fine until the wind picked up again and the same thing happened. On Monday went to Batteries Plus and got anther remote battery, cleaned the trolling batteries terminals and fully charged them. Yesterday while I was out I hit high speed bypass and the samething happened again. Any ideas on what the problem could be.

something else to check is to make sure there is nothing obstructing the IP head from having a clear view of the sky/satelites. Might try taking the IP head/cover off and checking for a loose wire underneath. GL

I will check for a loose wire. Nothing obstucting the head. Was out in the middle of the lake.

I would check for a poor connection at the trolling motor plug or at any other connections in your wiring between your batteries and your trolling motor. (fuse, holders, circuit breakers, ect.) I would also remove the top cover of the head and check the red & black 10ga wires inside the head, I have heard the spade connectors on these sometimes are prone to overheating.

I forgot to mention that the GPS signal strength comes back when I take it back down to a slower speed.

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Originally Posted by lowe rider

I would check for a poor connection at the trolling motor plug or at any other connections in your wiring between your batteries and your trolling motor. (fuse, holders, circuit breakers, ect.) I would also remove the top cover of the head and check the red & black 10ga wires inside the head, I have heard the spade connectors on these sometimes are prone to overheating.

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The over heating has been a thought I'v had.

Being that problem disappears when you reduce speed I would suspect a voltage drop due to the higher current at higher speed. Check your connections and I also like to run 6 gauge wire on my 80 pound thrust Terrova, I had put it in my old boat and will upgrade to it in my present boat sometime this winter. Good luck.

lowe rider has it figured out I bet. I had the exact same problems develop thid spring. I never figured out what or where my problem was but the bottom line is I was losing voltage and the I-pilot does not like that. This summer I ran new 6g gauge wiring and no more problems. With the wind we had today I needed every drop of power.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lowe rider

Being that problem disappears when you reduce speed I would suspect a voltage drop due to the higher current at higher speed. Check your connections and I also like to run 6 gauge wire on my 80 pound thrust Terrova, I had put it in my old boat and will upgrade to it in my present boat sometime this winter. Good luck.

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:hesaid

SeaRay

I agree with lowrider! I talked to Minn kota when mine was doing the same and they said the wire had to be 6 guage and a 60 amp breaker. 8 guage was fine if less than 15 ft.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Forgot to mention that my batteries were parallel. Called Minn Kota tech. He said if the batteries are parallel to make sure that they are the exact type of battery and that serial numbers are within a couple of digits of each other. Well they are the same but the digits were way way off. Put the meter on them and the one with the lowest digits was not taking a full charge. Went back out with the one fully charged and eveything worked fine. Now I'll get another battery and use it as a spare. No more paralleling batteries for me.