When I set my Terrova on a course it will not hold it. The head will move like it is working but it veers of course. What could be the problem?
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When I set my Terrova on a course it will not hold it. The head will move like it is working but it veers of course. What could be the problem?
A terrova will hold course strait into the wind atleast that's what mine did if your trying to go sideways against the wind it will always adjust itself until it going into the wind.
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There are two different settings that a lot of people are unaware of. One is "Navigation via GPS" and the other is "Navigation via Compass". If you are only hitting the N button, you are navigation via GPS. The head will move and wind will effect your straight line.
Example: Point your boat at a fixed object on shore (lighthouse) and hit the N. Lets say the lighthouse is due North of your postion at a heading of 0. As the wind blows from the West (270 degrees) your boat will be pushed East. The bow of your boat will still be pointed at the lighthouse however, instead of having waves coming at you from the left (west) they will now be coming more off from your bow. That is GPS navigation and I seldomly (if ever) use it. You will know you are on this setting when you look at your remote and there is an "N" with a circle around it.
For Compass navigation. Push and HOLD the N button on your remote. After a few seconds, the "N" will appear on your remote screen WITHOUT the circle around it. This is COMPASS navigation.
Same senario as above. Point boat towards light house (a heading of 0). Wind is out of 270... As your boat shifts east because of the wind, the bow of your boat will still be pointed at a heading of 0 and will NOT be pointed towards the lighthouse.
Hope that helps you out.
Is this N without a circle an "option" on all Ipilots, or just the newer models??
It is on all of them. Make sure you have the remote on, set your speed, then push and hold the navigation button. The n with circle will come on the screen for a second and then the circle will dissapear. Hit the n again to cancel.
I will try that. Thanks.
thanks for the info. Did not know that "option" was there. :yikes
Thanks for the info. I've only had mine about 2 weeks so I'm still learning. Love it so far. Best thing ever for river fishing with the spot lock. Push the button and fish. Doesn't get much better than that.
I'm glad I was able to point out that little feature. Like I said, NOT a lot of people know about that one and, from what I have found (or lack there of) it is NOT documented in any of their reading liturature.
I use this feature almost every single time on the water whether I am tournament fishing for Walleye on Lake Huron, Jigging walleye in the Detroit river, crappie fishing along a lilly pad field, or drift fishing over deep water.
Once you use this feature, you will see tons of other uses.
Here is one: Last year I was fishing a small crappie tournament. It was a terrible day weather wise with rain and heavy wind out of the North. I had three people in my boat. The fish were located over deep water (for this lake) and there were several pods of fish. They wanted to bait moving. Normally, I would put the nose into the wind and use the TM to go into it BUT, the wind was heavy enough to wear I was not making much headway and the baits were not hitting their target depth. At this point in time I had two options. The first option (which worked well for one or two people) was to go to the far Northern Most end of the lake, point the bow into the wind, put my TM on compass navigation, and slow the tm down to control the drift. This worked great however it didn't leave much room for a good spread.
The best option was to go to the Northern end of the lake and Turn the boat a little less than 90 degrees to the wind. Put the TM on compass and it held the nose of the boat in the direction I wanted it. I would then slip forward and back slightly while allowing the boat to slip sideways with the wind and allow for every person in the boat to run multiple lines. GPS navigation would not have allowed for this feature as it would have continued to turn the nose of the boat to point towards the "fixed" position.
Oh, we won that tournament.
Well I would like to understand for sure what you are describing when you say "course". Moving the boat to a specific place or just a direction?
From reading some of the replies to this thread it makes a difference.
If you are trying to go from point A-B the GPS navigation is what you would use(N with circle), the trolling motor head is going to turn in the direction it takes to keep you on that line.
If you are simply wanting to travel on a azimuth of ??? use the one without the circle. However if the wind is pushing from the side it could very well run you aground, as it is not compensating for your path.
Another problem is weather, clouds can limit the GPS ability to get a good lock. Also the GPS accuracy of most trolling unit's that I have heard about is 15'. There is no way I can fish a dock using spot lock, boat gets to far out of position before GPS realizes it then over corrects bringing it back to point.
Supposedly the new "Ultrex" has a GPS capability than what is out there now.
FWIW
Mildot
I point the head toward a point or object on the bank. The head will work back and forth but it will be pointing toward another spot after a while. I use the one with the circle since I didn't know about the one without. When I am unhooking a fish and putting in a the box, I look up and I am pointing in a difference place.
What you are describing definitely isn't typical. Maybe give Minn Kota a call and see what they have to say.
Does this happen with a fresh charge on the batteries?
I never use the N with the circle around it.....i want to go straight not zig zag so i use the N without the circle.....works great.....been doing this for six years now.
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I guess we are in for a discussion.
The N with the circle is "suppose" to put you on a azimuth from where you are and what it is pointing at when you punch the button. It will try to correct movement caused by outside sources such as wind.
The N without the circle just sets a "direction", not a specified point, if you were heading north a west wind could (theoretically) blow you 500 miles off course to the east while maintaining the same azimuth.
You are experiencing the same problem I had with my first unit, the GPS is bad.
Once mine was replaced, the problem became acceptable.
The GPS sensitivity in these units is sub par. If you look at the little diagram about how close spot lock will hold you, it's a farce.
They are not going to keep you dead on a track, a dock, structure better than a fifteen foot average in my humble opinion.
FWIW