MinnKota I-pilot

[drbrand]

After reading about the new Minnkota I-pilot accessory coming out the end of the year, I started thinking about replacing my Powerdrive motor with a Powerdrive V2 seeing the I-pilot only works on V2's and Terrova's. Right now I have an autopilot sonar Powerdrive motor.

What I wonder is why the I-pilot accessory would include an autopilot feature? Autopilot is a $200 upgrade when buying a trolling motor. And the co-pilot is another $200 accessory add-on. Why would anyone buy an autopilot trolling motor anymore? It will almost definitely make the co-pilot obsolete. Its as if MinnKota is competing against itself.

http://www.lakestatefishing.com/modules/newbb/dl_attachment.php?attachid=1248367821&post_id=213964
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I-PILOT FEATURES
The i-Pilot has 4 revolutionary functions, enabled by its internal GPS-based system. These include:

Record a track
Simply push the Record button and fish along your desired course. i-Pilot will store that track to memory (up to three separate tracks). When you want to retrace a course, i-Pilot’s Playback functions will automatically guide your boat down the track.

i-Pilot can record your track (A to B), and then retrace the path automatically. To retrace your path in either direction, just press the Track to Start or Track to End buttons.

Spot-lock
Spot-Lock works like an electronic anchor. With the push of a button, Spot-Lock will keep you on the fish. Spot-Lock Recall lets you return to that spot later.

Select your spot, and if you drift more than five feet away, i-Pilot will trigger your trolling motor to bring you back.

CoPilot™ and Cruise Control
Select and maintain a consistent speed for optimum bait presentation with cruise control, and use the legendary speed and steering functions of Minn Kota® CoPilot™ to precisely control your boat.

Advanced AutoPilot™
Just point your trolling motor in the direction you want to head and activate Advanced AutoPilot™. i-Pilot keeps you on your heading and delivers you there with GPS accuracy, compensating for wind, waves, currents or drift.

[budsbud66]

They may as well call this the "genesis 2"

I am a little skeptical about the claims.. put any boat in the tough conditions we all fish and i think these advance features may have a few issues.

[Shellback]

Well, maybe they won't offer an Autopilot motor once the I- pilot is on the market.

[southerncomfort1]

Sounds like a pretty cool feature.So if I understand correctly this is a add on so my questions are what is the price and is this something the angler can install himself or does a certified tech have to do it and when is it available of course??Thanks

[drbrand]

Its a simple user install and from what I read, it retails for $399. Suppose to be available Nov. 09.


Sounds like a pretty cool feature.So if I understand correctly this is a add on so my questions are what is the price and is this something the angler can install himself or does a certified tech have to do it and when is it available of course??Thanks

[ozarkeyes]

I was wondering when GPS control wwould be introduced. Just hope MK has a reliable source with "high quality control" to produce the circuit boards for this system.

[JAK]

After reading about the new Minnkota I-pilot accessory coming out the end of the year, I started thinking about replacing my Powerdrive motor with a Powerdrive V2 seeing the I-pilot only works on V2's and Terrova's. Right now I have an autopilot sonar Powerdrive motor.

What I wonder is why the I-pilot accessory would include an autopilot feature? Autopilot is a $200 upgrade when buying a trolling motor. And the co-pilot is another $200 accessory add-on. Why would anyone buy an autopilot trolling motor anymore? It will almost definitely make the co-pilot obsolete. Its as if MinnKota is competing against itself.

Advanced AutoPilot™
Just point your trolling motor in the direction you want to head and activate Advanced AutoPilot™. i-Pilot keeps you on your heading and delivers you there with GPS accuracy, compensating for wind, waves, currents or drift.

I ran one of this last fall for about 5 weeks. It was an early version that I was beta testing.

The unit I ran had both standard auto pilot and the new “advanced auto pilot”. The advance auto pilot used GPS for positioning. As most know standard auto pilot uses a compass. At that time they were still considering if they were going to keep both auto pilot and the “advanced auto pilot”.

I found that during certain conditions that the standard auto pilot worked better than the advanced, however this was on an early version and I know of at least a couple of software revisions that may have corrected my concerns with the advanced version.

Just a thought – maybe they are offering it with advanced auto pilot because then users that have a V-2 without auto pilot can still make the upgrade. If that is the case, then they just would not have the option of both types advanced and standard auto pilot? I will check with the engineers and see if I can get a definitive answer and report back. It might be a few days, as I am headed out fishing. 

I should be able to give a more complete review near the end of September as I am scheduled to test the last pre production version soon.

I will say this …I was very impressed with some of the features. I didn’t get a chance to use all of the features because of how I was fishing at the time. However it appeared to me that the I-pilot holds promise that will help in a number of presentations. It is another tool that the fisherman can put in the “tool-box” and use it when appropriate.

[JAK]

I just got back from fishing. I received a response from the Minnkota engineer about the question if the I-pilot would have advanced auto pilot (gps controlled) and the standard auto pilot (with compass).

Here is the response I received.

“We still plan to include both versions of AutoPilot, just like the last system you tested.”

I hope that helps.