What were the bad years- iPilot

Does anyone know what years to avoid for the Minn Kota iPilot? My boat came with a 2019 Terrova I think that is new enough to be clear of those bad years but wanted to double check.

PRE-2018 I believe are the ones to avoid, they are not bluetooth. You should be fine with a 2019, if you have the heading sensor, should be good to go.
Last fall on p4 you could tell the boats that had the older spotlock, everyone spotlocked about 10-20ft apart then a boat would be right next to you and nothing had changed current or wind wise, 2 minutes later he would be back 20ft away again.

1st version came out in 2009 and was pretty good.
2nd version came out in ???? and was terrible .
3rd version came out 2018 and works excellent.

Bluetooth version with the good/current spot lock with heading sensor came out in 2017.

Didn’t realize there was a bad year range for spot lock. Good to know.

Are these things still more rare than a pink diamond? I have a 2016 that was acting up a little last year

hmmmm? i curse at my 2019 plenty of times but it is still one of the greatest innovations in fishing.

crappie55369 wrote:

Are these things still more rare than a pink diamond? I have a 2016 that was acting up a little last year

Not sure but if it’s just the i-Pilot acting up you can save a bunch of coin and just buy an upgrade kit.

eyeguy507 wrote:

hmmmm? i curse at my 2019 plenty of times but it is still one of the greatest innovations in fishing.

Mine is about the same year and was having a little trouble. Called Minkota and they walked me through some settings and man did it make a difference. Something about needing to be changed back to legacy mode….. I’ll have to see if I can find the notes I took when I talked to them. Definitely helped.

I really want spot lock but I don’t have $99,999 laying around.

SR

beardly wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>eyeguy507 wrote:</div>
hmmmm? i curse at my 2019 plenty of times but it is still one of the greatest innovations in fishing.

Mine is about the same year and was having a little trouble. Called Minkota and they walked me through some settings and man did it make a difference. Something about needing to be changed back to legacy mode….. I’ll have to see if I can find the notes I took when I talked to them. Definitely helped.

YES…I actually asked about it on these forums and switched mine to legacy mode after some suggestions last fall after I put the boat away. I also learned that my Terrova has Bluetooth so another bonus! Giving it a shot again in 9 days and I hope it helps? Current on P4 will be rippin so it will get a good test right off the bat.

Steve Root wrote:

I really want spot lock but I don’t have $99,999 laying around.

SR

I upgraded the powerdrive on my 16 footer with Bluetooth i-Pilot with spot lock last year and it’s incredible. Only thing I don’t have is “link” which doesn’t bother me. Around $400 and took me less than an hour to install.

I had a 2016 80# Terrova and the spot lock worked fine. Then I updated the software and it started the wander syndrome. I called Johnson to see if there was any way to undo the update. Nope. Needless to say I sold that one and bought the 2018 blue tooth 80#.

I have a 2015 Terrova and really dont have any complaints. When using the spot lock, I dont mind that the boats drifts a little, seems to stay in a 10ft area which allows me to cover a bit more area while staying mostly vertical when jigging

My brother has the newer version on his boat and there is a noticeable difference in the sport lock, it holds to a much tighter area.

To me, its not worth selling wheat I have to pay for the upgrade, I will pay for it when I have to get a new one

I’ve had good luck with my 2019 model. Any issues were self induced, low battery one time and forgetting to take the bungee off the shaft. The bungee keeps the shaft from whipping in rough weather

I have the 2016 Terrova- I have no point of reference for it “straying” but I LOVE it.
Works great.
When it’s really windy I do get moved around some but that is the exception and not the rule for me.
Not worth spending the money to upgrade til the Terrova goes Kaput.
My two cents

I have a 2012 its not perfect but it works fine for what I need. If I was going to keep the boat I would upgrade to an ultrex since I want the cable steer.

Don’t lose or damage remote. I have a 2018 terrova and I have had one on back order for six months now. I did buy the small remote (thank god.) I hoping it will do the job.

Mine is a 2016 and my buddies all refer to it as “area lock”. I actually prefer it. Covers a nice little area. A bit more stressful in traffic especially with current and wind.

The 2nd version would stay in the “area” pretty good but the high speed correction would almost throw you out of the boat.

MX1825 wrote:

The 2nd version would stay in the “area” pretty good but the high speed correction would almost throw you out of the boat.

Gotta imagine the newer units with less correction are a little easier on the batteries as well.

In addition to the vastly improved accuracy of the spot lock is the jog feature and no high speed correction (it ramps up to speed).

MX1825 wrote:

The 2nd version would stay in the “area” pretty good but the high speed correction would almost throw you out of the boat.

this was my main complaint. evidently changing to legacy mode and adjusting the scale to fit your boat size will allow slower ramp up? i guess we shall see if it works? the autopilot on mine seems to have a mind of its own at times as well?

I have a 2013 model and besides the spot lock, the Autopilot and following a recorded track were horrendous. 2 years ago I spent $400 on the bluetooth upgrade and have been happy with it since. I did not install the heading sensor so I don’t have the jog feature.

eyeguy507: how do you change to legacy mode and adjust scale?

Joe Jarl: I’m considering doing the upgrade. Where do you look for options on that? Did it help a lot with the spot (area) lock for earlier models?

acarroline wrote:

Joe Jarl: I’m considering doing the upgrade. Where do you look for options on that? Did it help a lot with the spot (area) lock for earlier models?

Here’s the thread from a couple years ago talking about this upgrade. There is a link in that conversation that shows you the items you need to do the upgrade. I bought the items separately (from Fishlectronics) and did not get the heading sensor which saves a little cash.
upgrading-legacy-terrova-ipilot-to-new-bt-system

acarroline wrote:

eyeguy507: how do you change to legacy mode

The old ipilot that you have doesn’t have the option to change scale. To change to legacy on it hold the autopilot button down for 2 seconds. It won’t have a circle around the N on the screen anymore once that’s enabled