Posts: 331
Location: Stevens Point, Wisconsin | Sled, I started my last post saying that I understand with what you and farmer are saying in regards that we should not rely on auto pilot in high wind, asking allot. As Farmer said he uses it in light wind around simple structure. Well regardless of what wind or structure my unit performs poorly. So the question was for those who actually own Xi5's to see how their units were performing in Nav mode.
I have been a MINN KOTA guy my whole life and thought the AP function was pretty good on those units. Power drive and Terrova I have many hours using, so I have a baseline of performance to compare the Xi5 with. I went with the Xi5 this year because I was sold on the fact that it was better than the Terrova. In some ways it is better as far as noise reduction and steering response in manual and anchor lock is great!
As far as the negatives....you cannot go into Navigation (auto pilot) without the use of the hand held remote. So you have to use the remote to select Nav mode and then use the wireless foot pedal or remote to steer. I prefer to use the pedal to steer so I can use my hands to cast and retrieve and be more efficient working structure. So this brings me back to the original problem and reason for the post. The wireless pedal and the hand held remote can steer the motor in manual or Nav mode. Because both devises are sending a signal to the trolling motor at the same time the motor gets confused and starts acting possessed. When I called Motor Guide they said they were aware of the issue and it was related to a batch of serial numbers and they were working on a fix. I took my motor to a Motor Guide service center the other day and they said they fixed it by installing a software upgrade. So seeing as I just talked to Motor Guide and they said they were working on a fix and a couple days later the service center tells me it's fixed....I wanted to see if other Xi5 owners were having the same issue and what was done to fix it?
Regardless of whether I operate it in high, moderate or no wind it fails to the point the Nav mode is useless. Imagine working a shoreline in Nav (AP) with no wind and the trolling motor spins around three times uncomanded until the cord is all wrapped up. Or half speed no wind and it turns uncomanded instantly 90 degrees to the right. If you are bent over doing a figure 8 you can see how it could cause you to lose your balance and fall in the lake. Or you are in Nav mode at a very low speed and wind or no wind you loose all steering control from both the pedal and the remote. Do you get my point? I had much better performance out of the Power Drive and Terrova. Agreed that in high winds no motor is going to perform well but in no wind, or moderate wind it should work... at least work a little considering I paid $1600 for it.
Other negatives that should be mentioned about the Xi5 that need re-engineering. Hand held remote has no digital display. Would be nice to look at the remote to know what power setting you are at or if the prop is spinning. Unit is very quiet and sometimes hard to know if prop is spinning. There is a LED on the base that indicates when the prop is turning but if your guiding or fishing from the back you can't see it. If fishing in the dark the handheld, pedal and trolling motor head nave no lights or back lighting, hard to set what's going on at night. Would also be nice to have the capability to turn the Nav mode on/off from the pedal. If you forget your hand held remote you are limited to manual mode only. Last thing is that the wireless foot pedal is touchy when making small steering changes and takes some getting use to.
With that said....I am very impressed with the fast steering response, quietness and the anchor lock/ jog feature, it is incredible when compared to the Terrova.
Sled sorry for throwing you under the bus, I guess my frustration with the lack of performance from (my) Xi5 got the better of me. I really hope they did fix my Nav issue as I really don't want to go back to a Terrova.
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