10' Talon Issue?

[wiel0059]

Hi All -

I've read the old threads, most are outdated or the links don't work unfortunately so reaching out here to see if anyone has a similar experience. I know Power Poles are amazing, I know Raptors are amazing, I fish a lot and my Talons been literally flawless in 5 years of heavy use until yesterday - so I get it, they all are wonderful and what you have on your boat is best but I'm hoping I can get some helpful feedback from this amazing community.

Yesterday will pre-fishing for tournament (of course), both of my Talons just randomly stopped working. Following the other threads here, Minn Kotas FAQs and a call to their support team today that was just "take it to a service center but they are out of warranty" I've tried all the obvious stuff.

1. Updated the one that turns on.
2. Checked Fuses/Power Sources.
3. Reset the one that will turn on.
4. Took apart the casing, all cables seem fine I can see.
5. About everything else obvious under the sun.

First Talon: It has ZERO power. Its basically like it has no power source, just completely out of the blue. Battery is great - running two 12" Garmins off it on same power source/switch to a lithium battery that they have 13.6 volts. Fuse is fine. I've connected direct to battery just to see. Anyone ever had this? Is it obviously just the Control Board randomly going out (which is what the Minn Kota service tech 'assumed' based on it having zero power and nothing working)?

Second Talon: It HAS power (on same switch), everything works except when I put it "down" it clicks and the spike goes down about 1/4". I hit the button like 300 times to get it down about 4 foot, retracting it works flawlessly. However, when I turn key at ignition it make the 'beep' like its down. So, best I can tell, it "thinks" that its deployed all the way but it won't actually deploy. Could this be Control Board too?

If anyone has had either issues or has any obvious trouble shooting tips it would be greatly appreciated!

[8AnDrEw9]

I have 8' talons. I had the boards go bad on both of them at the same time, same as your one it acted like it had no power connected. Turns out the battery post was broken internally on my battery plus x2. It shorted both boards out. The battery was replaced under warranty but I had to replace the talon boards out of my own pocket. I think I bought the boards off ebay. It wasn't a hard job to replace boards and no issues since probably happened 2 years ago. I cant believe it didn't blow fuses before it messed up boards. All my graphs was hooked to same battery when it happened all the graphs restarted but did not effect them.

[wiel0059]

Thank you, sir!

This is actually super helpful and much appreciated.

Perhaps a stupid question... Was this on your cranking battery? If so, did your motor still start, etc?

My talons are hooked to my cranking battery and motor/other accessories work fine but this really does connect some dots for me. I've had my TH Jackplate Solenoid blow three times in the past year (which I know isn't wildly uncommon but to this extent it is). TH was amazingly helpful this Spring, replaced it again for free, and the support tech said to put a smaller fuse in there to see if that might blow instead of the Solenoid. Low and behold a week ago, fuse blew, solenoid safe and up and running with a quick on the water swap.

This is connected to the same cranking battery as my Talons and with your experience this absolutely could be the case as I connect the dots here. Going to shoot Amped Outdoors a call tomorrow to get their thoughts, battery is under warranty. Thanks again for the help on this, I never would have thought about the battery being the issue with other electronics/motor working. This is why this community is so awesome!

[Bradrodfish]

Fuse holder have been an issue with the Talon. I would try to bypass the fuse holder and see if that works. If it does not then it is the board. It has a 5 year warranty on all parts and labor. If you can bring to an ASC They should be able to help.

[wiel0059]

Bradorfish: Thank you! I actually had issues with the fuse holder a few years back so I replaced them with heavier duty ones (wire wise) that I use on all my graphs and then used a better/standard 30 AMP blade fuse that has seemingly resolved the issue. Obviously, in this case, I was hoping the fuse would blow and protect the board but that didn't happen.

Has anyone run a smaller fuse? Not sure if that would have saved me but it did on the Atlas Solenoid.

Quick Updated from Amped Outdoors who was pretty helpful quickly this AM - they wonder if my outboard is (and they explained this in much great/better detail than I will) 'overcharging' the battery above 14.6 max volts. On my Lithium Cranking Battery, the battery is built to protect itself which could be bypassing that power directly to my devices so they don't think this is an issue with the battery itself but are helping me troubleshoot. They were pretty honest this is a downfall of using a lithium as a cranking battery.

I only have a 115 Pro XS on my Renegade, which I believe my alternator puts out 35 amps. If this was happening I would 'think' it would be blowing the fuses across the board but I'm not remotely a battery/electrical expert (in fact, quite the opposite!). It also seems this would have blown out my Talons in the past (they are now out of warranty, being 5 years and 2 months old - I ask Minn Kota and SOL, of course)?

[8AnDrEw9]

Thank you, sir!

This is actually super helpful and much appreciated.

Perhaps a stupid question... Was this on your cranking battery? If so, did your motor still start, etc?

My talons are hooked to my cranking battery and motor/other accessories work fine but this really does connect some dots for me. I've had my TH Jackplate Solenoid blow three times in the past year (which I know isn't wildly uncommon but to this extent it is). TH was amazingly helpful this Spring, replaced it again for free, and the support tech said to put a smaller fuse in there to see if that might blow instead of the Solenoid. Low and behold a week ago, fuse blew, solenoid safe and up and running with a quick on the water swap.

This is connected to the same cranking battery as my Talons and with your experience this absolutely could be the case as I connect the dots here. Going to shoot Amped Outdoors a call tomorrow to get their thoughts, battery is under warranty. Thanks again for the help on this, I never would have thought about the battery being the issue with other electronics/motor working. This is why this community is so awesome!

Yes was my cranking battery. Only issue I had was the one time when the graphs shut down while outboard was running motor did not stall or anything else. When I got to my next fishing spot the talons would not work and acted like had no power. I found it was the battery post by trouble shooting every thing back to battery. I found the battery post would move around 1/4" by shaking it. With a volt meter power would drop and spike.

[cwilt]

Update?
I just fixed an issue with my talon after 6 years of flawless operation. It had power but it wasn't deploying. I changed the circuit board. Still same issue. Ordered a motor and when it came in i took the talon off to work it on the bench to change the motor. Before I took it apart, I connected it (hard wired) to a stand alone battery. It worked! Ended up being the fuse holder. It can supply the voltage to the talon but couldn't supply the Amps needed to power the motor. I ended removing the fuse and holder altogether and just installed it's own circuit breaker. I did change the motor out since I already had it on hand. Went out last weekend and worked great. It's even quieter than before.