Trolling motor warning!!!

Well, I have just purchased a Minn Kota Terrova ipilot. Today it was mounted on my Lund and tomorrow it will be placed in action. The handing sensor has been paired with the motor, so I should be ready, or so I thought.
The motor needs to be calibrated, whatever that means. So I decided to look at a bunch of videos about the process. On YouTube you can see many demonstrations of circling the boat to the right twice to accomplish the calibration. Well, here is where care needs to be taken, in fact, a warning needs to be published. Most of these videos were produced in New Zealand and Australia, both Southern Hemisphere countries. So it stands to reason the the direction of the turns of the boat have to be in the opposite direction, right (correct, don't want to confuse anyone)? My motor is a Northern Hemisphere motor; I'm sure the Aussies had one from the Southern Hemisphere. Down there magnetic north is way off, so the heading compass has to be calibrated with the motor completely differently than in the USA, where we are a lot closer to the North Pole. So I guess I will just turn to the left twice and then go fishing!!!
My grandmother told me that if you took all the ingredients to make a cake, dumped them in a bowl, and beat them together in a clockwise direction for 100 beats, and then reversed the process for 100 beats in a counter clockwise direction, the ingredients would separate back to the original mixture in the bowl. We all know she was right......and she did not raise a dummy (me) !
So tomorrow I will hit the water and turn left a couple of times. I might even film it......just to confuse those Southern Hemisphere gloats !!!
;-)

I doubt direction plays as much as rotation. Two complete turns in either direction should do it. But I'd like to see the video anyway. [emoji16]

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I liked the part where she said "100 beats counter clock wise, then 100 beats clock wise and the ingredients separate back like they were", love it...out of the mouths of babes...

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Originally Posted by Jamesdean

I liked the part where she said "100 beats counter clock wise, then 100 beats clock wise and the ingredients separate back like they were", love it...out of the mouths of babes...

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You do that incase you think you forgot some ingredient.

Makes no difference, check out a UN map.


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OK, I'm serious now. I took the boat out with my wife. The motor deploys great, nice and easy. I followed the instructions and went in two complete circles and successfully calibrated the heading sensor. I knew that the heading offset for ipilot was next, but I could not resist just turning the thing on and trying Spotlock. Well, evidently my grandmother DID raise a dummy, because before I knew it the remote was locked.....wouldn't do a thing! I hailed down a bass boat nearby, who was a MK user. He was of no help. Finally, at the dock a BAMA guy with an Ultrex tried. He said the same basic thing had happened to him, but his 10 year old grandson fixed it....I hate smart kids!!! He literally punched every button berserkly for five minutes, the whole time telling me that he did not see a way to unlock it. But guess what, the magic of Saban and BAMA unlocked it, to all of our surprises!! He said he had no idea what he did, great. MK did not send me one instruction on locking the remote. And I am pretty sure Brian at BBG Marine sent everything. He by the way was great to deal with, and I see why he has earned the reputation he has! So if anyone can give me a clue.....I'll share one of grandma's recipes.
:-)

Attachment 342475

Thanks !
Grandma's Powder Milk Biscuits or Who Bar Du Bar Rhubarb Pie ? ;-)

I vote for the Rhubarb pie recipe... hmmmmm rhubarb....

For the calibration, I think you are calibrating the motor in relation to the bow of your boat so when you tell it to go straight but your motor is installed at a wacky offset angle in relation to the bow of the boat, it can still make the boat go straight. If your motor is installed parallel to the bow of the boat then the calibration is probably not needed but I'd do it anyhow.

You're not calibrating the motor with the GPS satellites, the satellites send all the information the motor needs to figure out where it's at and how to operate.

All I can say is the smarter things get, the dumber I get. I am 100% of the KISS metholigy...Keep It Simple Stupid....

The only thing the heading sensor is really used for is to keep track of the compass heading of the boat and allow for the "jog" feature to be used to move your boat within 5 foot increments of the spot lock setting. In other words, it is used for spot lock and that is about it. All other functions including navigation, autopilet etc... are handled by the GPS head on the trolling motor itself.

The calibration of the device is not any different than the Chevy vehicles of the early 2000's that had a compass in the mirror. Sometimes that compass would get screwed up because you were in different latitude lines within your state or during your travels. It would actually flash "CAL" for calibrate and you had to put your vehicle in a tight circle for a turn an a half. If memory serves me, you also had to preselect a number based on your location within the US. Those numbers ranged from 1-9 based on the latitude line you were close to.

The offset is used to distigush the angular difference between the arrow point direction on the heading sensor and the natural "straight" position on your trolling motor. Even if you were able to get that little line 100% accurate with the keel of your boat, if your trolling motor is like mine, when you deploy it, it runs out at an angle. This offset is designed to allign the head unit to be straight with the little line on the heading sensor.