Follow contour issues

[Diesel Pro]

Ulterra 112 Ipilot Link with Solix 12 SI


I've tried the "go to" feature on my rig for the follow contour and it just seems to want to turn the Ulterra's head and go in the opposite direction. Unfortunately I had lines in the water and had to cancel the navigation or risk wrapping them up.

Last trips out I decided I would like to try it again, but now I can't even find it in the menu on the Bird. I am thinking that when I went through the setup a while back I made it default to the external GPS and that may have disabled the feature in the pull down menu?

I realize that I cannot test at home on land, but what is minimum requirement for this to show in my menu? I would guess that I should only need to deploy the Ulterra and have it outside where I have GPS signal? Pull up a lake on the chart mark my contour and check the menu?


On edit: My issue with the feature not in the menu was Legacy Autopilot being engaged. I like this feature to help get me on course to the contour. It is necessary to cancel this navigation first then the FTC feature will show up. Unfortunately you then need to reselect the contour etc which can be tricky while actively trolling.

[ntslam]

these are shots taken in my boat barn with a legacy ipilot link with a solix 12 with my motor deployed

[Diesel Pro]

Thanks I'll give it a try in the garage before I pull it outside . Garage is metal and no GPS signal though so it shows the lake where it last connected.

I set a cursor point and when the contour option did not show I selected go to cursor and it went the opposite direction as well.

One other thing that I did that should not affect this is I rotated the head so that it stows with the lobe of the powerhead facing inward versus outward and the prop to the front so it does not hit the dock when maneuvering.

[Diesel Pro]

I went out and checked and it showed up in the menu. It does apparently come and go as available though. I was running the Ipilot remote and while I thought I had cancelled the navigation I may not have.

I think in the big picture I may end up being better served by making itracks, but I want to master this contour thing as well.

[ntslam]

Is this the Bluetooth version? If so have you tried the calibrating process or may even try it again

[Diesel Pro]

Yes it is Bluetooth and I did calibrate but it was pretty rough out that day. I hit the calibrate several times successively and got a different number every time.

When it goes to follow contour it is supposed to go directly to the junction between the purple and orange lines correct?

[ntslam]

you choose which color you want the boat to go on the contour. Once you choose the color(direction) a solid dark navigation line should appear. It will be drawn from the boat directly to the contour and will turn left or right depending on which direction you chose. The colors will disappear once you select the color direction you want

[JiMinneye]

I have had sooo many problems with the “ Follow the Contour “ since installing the last two updates that I have pretty much given up on it ever working correctly again. When I talked to Humminbird Support they tell me that they don’t know of any problems with that feature and they cannot replicate it so therefore they don’t know what is wrong with my locator or trolling motor! I personally think they should have a house cleaning of their software engineering process and personnel or they are going to make people way to apprehensive when it comes down to what they are going to purchase! If only the technology worked the way it is supposed to, they would have a great product!

[Diesel Pro]

OK so my understanding of how it is supposed to work is correct. What I hope to do is try again and if it acts up I'll clear my track log and shoot a pic of the contour setup and then see where it tracks to and save the log along with the picture of where it is supposed to go.

[Diesel Pro]

Had a chance to use Follow Contour this weekend with mixed results. I learned a bit and have more comments, but the forum will not let me paste into a post. I reached out to HB, got a very friendly and knowledgeable front line rep who recognized that she needed to pass on further up the chain which I did via email.

[Diesel Pro]

I have posted more detail at Walleye Central in the electronics forum. There is much less activity there, but the forum software is much more user friendly

[Diesel Pro]

Still out here HB with a feature that does not work properly. Others have compared the actions to the Crazy Ivan maneuver.

My initial issue was I was using legacy Autopilot to get to where I was going and I needed to cancel that navigation first.

Now I can activate the feature, it works as advertised for a while then as it approaches the end of the track (couple hundred yards) it decides to reverse course. This is unacceptable and makes for exciting times when trolling. I've learned to watch for the end of the track and try to start another FTC before it gets to the end.

This feature has SO much potential. It would also be nice if a guy could record the track of this feature so one could resume more easily.

[northlander73]

I have found if your point on the contour is behind where your boat is currently sitting it will head to that point, not the closest point on the contour. I now always make sure the boat has to go forward to the starting point.