Calibrating Ultrex

[FTC]

Watch a couple videos of people calibrating their Ultrex one person said the smaller you make the 2 circles with the boat the more accurate it will be. Any truth to this? Thank you.

[ezfishn]

No truth whatsoever. A circle is still a circle regardless of size. The reason is to determine the difference between the alignment of the sensor with keel and compass (sensor) to know the offset.

[FTC]

Thanks for your input, didn't make sense to me either.

[TohoRookie]

I calibrated mine this weekend. I just set it at 45 degrees or so. Worked out fine. I don't know how I lived without that thing.

[rocket man]

Are you using the Troller to make the circles or Big Motor.? Thanks

[ifishinxs]

I used the trolling motor. My reasoning was that the sensor communicates with the trolling motor. Wanted to make sure that the trolling motor was facing the direction of travel as I made my circles. May not make a difference though.

[rocket man]

Thanks

[eliteangler]

That is an interesting take... to do the circles with the trolling motor instead of the big motor... I wonder what Minn Kota's take on this is. Maybe I need to give them a call. Good points in this thread.

[akaslyguy]

I used the trolling motor to do the circles. Just seemed like the right way to do it to me I guess. I never even considered using the big motor.

[rat0502]

I have seen videos of it done both ways. I chose to let the trolling motor make the circles but I don't know that it would make a difference. My understanding is that is just calibrating the compass which generally just has to find north in order to identify bearing. The offset calibration is where I think it would be critical to get the trolling motor pointing dead ahead and then set so that it can see the difference between where the compass is pointing and where the head is pointing to function properly. Just my opinion based from reading the manual.

[apenland01]

I did the circles with the trolling motor as well and it's working great for me....

[eliteangler]

Just out of curiosity, for the guys that calibrated their heading sensor by way of doing the two circles with the trolling motor... have any of you guys used the "jog" feature while in spot lock mode?

[Lowerider58]

I have and it worked good. I threw a marker out in front of the boat and jogged the boat in all directions and it worked good.

[rocket man]

Cool I cant wait.

[fishnfireman]

Just out of curiosity, for the guys that calibrated their heading sensor by way of doing the two circles with the trolling motor... have any of you guys used the "jog" feature while in spot lock mode?

Use it a lot when fishing deep ledges.

[eliteangler]

So... it sounds to me as though you can do the two circles for the calibration with either the trolling motor or the big motor. Nice!

[rat0502]

So... it sounds to me as though you can do the two circles for the calibration with either the trolling motor or the big motor. Nice!

The manual does not specify. It only states to drive the boat in 2 complete circles. I saw both ways in videos I watched, but the motor was deployed in all cases. I chose to use the ultrex as it was already deployed and I was excited to use it!

[eliteangler]

The manual does not specify. It only states to drive the boat in 2 complete circles. I saw both ways in videos I watched, but the motor was deployed in all cases. I chose to use the ultrex as it was already deployed and I was excited to use it!

My spot lock is good, but sometimes it "hunts" quite a bit. I have adjusted the boat scale a few times but it doesn't seem to help. I think I am gonna try to do another calibration on the heading sensor, only this time I will use the trolling motor to do the circles. I don't know if that will help or not.

[rat0502]

My spot lock is good, but sometimes it "hunts" quite a bit. I have adjusted the boat scale a few times but it doesn't seem to help. I think I am gonna try to do another calibration on the heading sensor, only this time I will use the trolling motor to do the circles. I don't know if that will help or not.

I haven't used mine a ton yet, but the only time I notice it hunting is in real light wind. I think it needs the wind trying to move it in a definite direction to work well. Having said that, I have found adjusting the boat scale to compensate for wind speed seems to help it hold a little better. Still playing with it.

[smalljawer]

Did mine with the boat on the trailer behind the truck in the parking lot of the mechanics shop. Works fine.