Doug, you'll be pleased to know that the first i-Pilot Link field video to be released is built around bass fishing...topwater Trigger X soft baits over pads to be specific. Even long-time users of cable steer motors will find many applications worthy of having a Terrova/i-Pilot Link combination on board.
When you watch the video, promise not to laugh at the modest size of our northern Wisconsin largemouth! :)
I'll post a link as soon as it's ready to fly!
The first field test video is now available:
i-Pilot Link in the field with Jason Halfen
Originally Posted by Jason_Halfen_#511
You can control the Trolling Motor but you can't control the size of the Fish...but I love the Video...Excellent job.
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http://www.dougvahrenberg.com/
BASS Central Open- Competitive Bass Angler and Humminbird Guru
Visit my website to learn about my sponsor's products, fishing tips and techniques.
Learn More About Humminbird Side Imaging Visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sideimaginggroup/
Good video/article. Thanks. A question that occurred to me from each. Can you tell the system to not dial all the way up to 10 when going to a location, or when it drifts off the spot and wants to go back? That's one of the complaints I hear, that it goes nuts on the speed if it gets blown off a bit. So being able to tell it a max setting would probably alleviate a lot of that.
Man, I sure wish MK had had the foresight to marry the copilot and the ipilot instead of violently divorcing the products. For example, to use the iPilot on my PD V2, I'd have to give up the foot pedal. I don't use it alot, but I'm not willing to be without it, either. Just some very odd design decisions going on there. Given the real world bass fishing scenarios most of us fish in, driving the motor manually is going to be the thing we spend the vast majority of our time doing. I guess MK just dismisses us copilot die hards and says to use the foot pedal instead, since fishing with one hand doesn't work well. But that kind of flies in the face of the remote control pluses the system brings to the table. I can be facing any direction, standing anywhere in the boat, and run my TM. It'd be tough to give that up.
Here's another question for you. I can go down a shoreline here on Beaver Lake and be in 80' FOW and only a rod length from the bluff wall. 50' further on, I might be in 15' FOW at the same distance from the same bluff wall. If I locked onto 15' as the depth I wanted to fish at and went off a huge and sudden under water drop off , would the iPilot try to take me into the bluff wall looking for 15'?
John
I love my ipilot Terrova but don't believe the 5 ft hype. It's actually a 10 ft diameter but I'd say mine is realistically 20 ft. One thing that worries me with the new ipilot though, the remote is HUGE! I know it has alot going on with it but that thing is not going to be "handy", sometimes I actually think about getting the copilot for mine just because the remote would be easier to work with.
I would say many are going to use the Humminbird to control navigation...at least what I'm thinking for myself versus using the remote as much...I like the big screen and ease to use the Humminbird to start navigation...spot lock might be my only remote function. Probably mount two holders in the boat one on the bow and one at the console.
--
http://www.dougvahrenberg.com/
BASS Central Open- Competitive Bass Angler and Humminbird Guru
Visit my website to learn about my sponsor's products, fishing tips and techniques.
Learn More About Humminbird Side Imaging Visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sideimaginggroup/
The default speed setting when using the <Go To> function with a Spot Lock location is 10.
However, <Go To> can be used with a wide variety of positions: waypoints, contours, cursor positions, i-Tracks. When using <Go To> with any of these other locations, the prop speed is defined and controlled by the user.
Regarding your last question: i-Pilot Link navigation is not depth based (like the old Pinpoint models). i-Pilot Link navigation is GPS based. Link does not chase a depth as indicated by your transducer; rather, if you are using the <Follow the Contour> feature, you will be following a set of GPS position targets that are dictated by the position of that contour on your LakeMaster digital GPS map chip.
Doug, I completely agree. Today, I used i-Pilot Link to record an i-Track and followed the recorded track without ever touching the remote....which was good since my hands were busy unhooking Mississippi River crappies!
This is one of the features of the NEW iPilot Link that excites me versus the old iPilot or CoPilot is it can be used Hands Free with only the need for using your unit...don't have to remember where the remote is or have it hanging off you. Which is a HUGE Plus for Bass Fisherman...I know exactly where my Unit is all the time....just bend over!
--
http://www.dougvahrenberg.com/
BASS Central Open- Competitive Bass Angler and Humminbird Guru
Visit my website to learn about my sponsor's products, fishing tips and techniques.
Learn More About Humminbird Side Imaging Visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sideimaginggroup/
Here's an example of the type of i-Pilot Link interface you'll see on your Humminbird. Look towards the bottom of this XPress menu and you'll see two i-Pilot entries associated with the Spot Lock function: SpotLock at Vessel and Mark SpotLock.
If your Terrova/i-Pilot Link was deployed and you hit SpotLock at vessel, i-Pilot Link would immediately go into Spot Lock mode at that location. Could be great for the guy in the back seat to do when the guy up front is battling a big bass.
In contrast, if you were to select Mark SpotLock, i-Pilot Link would generate a Spot Lock location at those GPS coordinates, but would not enter Spot Lock mode. Doing so would generate a Spot Lock location that you could return to using the Go To function.
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Here is the next entry in our video library about i-Pilot Link: recording and replaying an iTrack:
Recording and replaying iTracks using i-Pilot Link
I understand. That's the same thing I was asking about, but I guess I didn't state it well. If I set it at a 15' countour line and run off a bluff end where the 15' contour on the LM map is right on the 80' deep sheer bluff wall, will the iPilot take me into the bluff?
Thanks for the vid on tracks. That's interesting stuff, but not useful much in the kind of fishing we do in the big reservoirs down here. It would come in handy sometimes, I'm sure. One of the issues is water level. Many of our lakes around here have been dropping about a foot a WEEK all summer. Fairly typical for us. So many of the tracks I could have made earlier this year would be on shore now. I know there is a GPS offset on the units. Is there a way to adjust the units for dropping water level? Even then, the adjusted tracks may not be where the fish holding stuff is anymore.
I guess a guy could run a track he wants to fish first and then turn around and let the iPilot follow it. But that seems a waste of fishing time. I still see manually driving the TM as the most used method of running the iPilot, at least on big lakes for bass fishing.
John
Yes it would be possible for i pilot link run you in to the bluff if the 15 foot contour was less than the distance from the i pilot to the side of the boat +- 10 ft.
Let me ask you a question, do you fish those places that are on land now? I would guess not, so you have to manually drive your boat to a different place. With I pilot link you could manually drop way points along that previously record track but offset the distance for water level drop, connect them in to an i Track and then have unit drive you along it without going over it first or even being on the lake. This could also be done in a series of i Spots and you could command the unit to move to the first, then the next.
I see it differently, the bigger the lake the less manual driving I would do with the TM.
Allow me to add that when following an iTrack or a user defined route (or using Go To for waypoints, iTracks, routes, or contours), the user determines the prop power/speed that is used. If you use too little power, especially in wind, waves, or current, then i-Pilot Link (nor any of the other generations of i-Pilot) will not automatically compensate for the lack of power and will invariably be forced off course.
On a slick calm day, you can probably get away with a low prop power setting if 1-2 and i-Pilot Link will happily putt along and keep you on the desired course. Add wind/waves/current at that same prop power and you'll have no hope of going where you think i-Pilot Link should be taking you. Dial it up into the mid-range and things will start to go much more smoothly.
If it were me, and I was trying to stay on a 15' contour that was only a couple boat lengths away from a sheer rock cliff....you better believe I'd be driving manually, or be ready to hop on at a moment's notice, to guard against a wave, wind gust, or loss of GPS reception that tried to put my fiberglass boat into the rocks!
Jason you are right about that. When I'm spot locked with my current I pilot casting distance from an oyster bar with winds and tides trying to ship wreck me the remote is at my side and I pay attention. My i pilot has never let me down though.
If you were to set a course for the TM to follow can you set GPS speed and have the TM automatically adjust power to keep you at that speed? Example would be a very typical situation for me...a gusty, windy day on a very big lake following the break of a river delta in my sail-like tin boat. Sounds like I could set a course to follow on the TM, but can it keep the boat moving at a constant speed along that course even in highly variable wind--possibly even to slow down the boat along that course if it's a downwind drift? I'd think the walleye guys especially would love that feature.
Also, since lakemaster does not have ANY maps available in my region, am I just SOL?
Thanks, sounds like a cool rig.
It is not going to slow you down when following a recorded track down wind if the wind is pushing faster than you want to go down wind. That is how fast you are going to go but it will keep you on course. If the wind is not pushing you faster than you want to go the yes it will turn the motor down (not sure I have ever seen mine go to 0) to keep the cruise control speed that was set.
Here is what I do with my current i pilot in those situations. I do a few test drifts to gauge my drift I get lined up for the real thing bow in to the wind/current set the advanced autopilot to 180 degrees from where I want to end up and then dial the motor up to get the drift speed I want. This works pretty good for casting or dragging (flounder fishing technique) but not for trolling unless you can troll from the front of the boat.
The system will work without lakemaster, lakemaster is only needed for follow the contour feature. If you have a navionics card that shows the break you can set waypoints along the break and then connect then together in to an i track and then have the TM follow that automatically, these are limited to 2 miles. I think if you have lakemaster it would follow a contour all the way around the lake if that is where it went.
Thanks for confirming. I was afraid of that.
I must not be getting something here. How or why would anyone fish dry land?Let me ask you a question, do you fish those places that are on land now? I would guess not, so you have to manually drive your boat to a different place.
That's interesting, but it would be a lot of work for up to 50 tracks and rapidly changing water levels. So there is no "master" depth offset?With I pilot link you could manually drop way points along that previously record track but offset the distance for water level drop, connect them in to an i Track and then have unit drive you along it without going over it first or even being on the lake. This could also be done in a series of i Spots and you could command the unit to move to the first, then the next.
John
Good info. So it's only on Anchor Lock that it controls it's own speed? I'd assume there is some kind of pause button or something, in case you get into some fish and want to manually control it for a while, and then tell it to continue on after you've fished it out?
That's the way it sounds. We do quite a bit of that on the lakes in this area.If it were me, and I was trying to stay on a 15' contour that was only a couple boat lengths away from a sheer rock cliff....you better believe I'd be driving manually, or be ready to hop on at a moment's notice, to guard against a wave, wind gust, or loss of GPS reception that tried to put my fiberglass boat into the rocks!
John
These answers are out of order.
Cruise control will control the speed, cruise control can be used in conjunction with follow track, advanced autopilot, and auto pilot to control boat speed. What it won't do is turn the motor backwards to slow you down. All I track and advanced autopilot wants to do is move the boat to the next arrival circle of a track point. This means that it will not drive itself backwards.
Yes, Lake Master has depth offset.
"Would you fish dry land?" My point was you manually have to drive a different place with foot control, with i pilot link you have options to let TM do it.
I spot lock when I get on fish, then resume by telling unit go to end or start of that track depending which way I was following it to start with. This takes 4 button clicks on remote, about 2 seconds once you are familiar with the remote.
If the Bluff wall was on the North side with clear view to the South it would probably work fine. It is all about the gps reception, the better the gps lock the better it controls the boat in spot lock, follow track, and advanced autopilot.
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