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A friend of mine recently purchased a Minn Kota Terrova equipped with I-Pilot Link. He had to call on me to show him how to work it. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to get out in his boat with it yet, but the instructions were pretty straightforward, so I was able to figure most of it out and explain to him how to use it.
The problem is, he doesn't yet own a fish finder that is compatible with it, so he can't yet utilize all of the features on it.
Anyway, it sounded so incredible that I started doing some preliminary research since my boat needs a new fish finder, and I would really like to upgrade my transom-mount electric trolling motor to a bow mount.
Upon doing a little research I found that the follow the contour (and related) feature(s), only work with the Lakemaster maps SD card. And the folks at Lakemaster seem to think that no one west of the Mississippi likes to fish. Okay, I am being a bit sarcastic here, but it looked like they had NOTHING for Utah and Idaho, which is the only two states that I fish.
So my question is, is it worth it to get the i-Pilot Link over just a regular old i-Pilot if Utahns and Idahoans potentially may never be able to utilize the Follow the Contour features??
What additional features do you get with the Link that could justify the extra dough?
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I'm pretty sure you can upgrade to link whenever, so until they get more maps I would just get one without.
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If I was buying new I would get it. Following contours will not work for most of the western US like mentioned but all other features would. It would be nice to be able to click on a waypoint on one of my Humminbirds and have the TM take me there. I have a Terrova with I-Pilot and for what the I-Pilot Link would do for me is not worth the upgrade cost to me. Plus my dash unit is already ethernet linked to my bow unit so to be able to use a I-Pilot Link I would have to buy a Humminbird Ethernet expansion port hub. $200 bucks for that alone much less the cost of updating my I-Pilot to I-Pilot Link... Not happening.
Big downpoint to me that I have read is battery life. One has to charge the handheld controller often. My "normal" I-Pilot controller will go years on a battery.
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I have one on my Ranger and love it. I have Lowrance, so I am in the same boat on the missing feature, but it does what I want. I like the anchor feature the most, when I hook up, I hit one button and the boat stays pretty much in the same area. Also, steering with the "compass feature" is cool, point it in a direction and it auto corrects its path to get there. I do you the memory/route feature some, its cool, but I don't usually fish the same area multiple times.
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Thanks for the responses guys, I appreciate your insight.
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If the link's major features (over and above the regular plain venela i-Pilot)
If the selling points of the Link are mostly tied to mapping, I personally would not pay extra for the link. Just the basic i-Pilot alone is absolutely fabulous. I absolutely LOVE mine. I've watched for good fish finder mapping for western states for years and never yet seen one worth spending money on ... let alone trying to make the Link work with mapping.
Now, if the Link has more features that are NOT map related, then I might think again.
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Thanks Coot, I was hoping you would chime in since you were the first place I ever heard of the i-Pilot.
I think there is quite a bit more two it than the bathymetric lake maps. Most of it stems from the advantages of having your fish finder linked to your electric trolling motor so the two can talk back and forth. There may even be some improved GPS accuracy from it, I'm not sure.
Problem is, I don't know enough about the original i-Pilot to know what the feature differences are between it and the Link. I guess I just need to get back on Minn Kota's website and do some more reading. [crazy]
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[quote Got_Bait]I guess I just need to get back on Minn Kota's website and do some more reading.[/quote]
That's me too. But until I do, there are a couple of thoughts that run through my mind;
"Man, this i-Pilot is so useful with so many cool features, why would anyone want for more?"
... or on the other hand ...
"Man, this i-Pilot is so cool, can you just imagine what Minn-Kota could do if they were to "link" it in with a fish finder?"
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New product makes i-Pilot Link more useful to western states: Lakemaster Introduces AutoChart User-Generated Mapping
(I was following the i-Pilot Link conversations because I want one for my future fishing sailboat and I just searched some more and found there is a new product that makes all unsupported lakes in the western states available for you to map them yourself. See links.)
http://www.thefishingwire.com/story/292892
http://www.lakemap.com/AutoChart/#.Uf2L74xMHMI
http://www.bigfishtackle.com/forum/Utah_...ot;#832554
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That is some pretty interesting reading Ron. Thanks for sharing.
It looks to me like it would be quite useful to someone like a guide. But whoever was to use that technology would probably have to really dedicate some time to using it. But yea, interesting stuff.
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Thanks, Ralph!
Perhaps it might be the answer. But, that's hard to know because so far I haven't found more information on it or even on it being sold or anyone who has used it.
My guess from just the name "AutoChart," it might work well for those with favorite lakes because I can imagine it creating the map of contour lines while I sail a sailboat for fun and eventually cover enough that it has the data to make all the contour lines.
But, that's just what I can imagine it might do and like I said my searches haven't produced anything on them actually being used. Still, I did buy one of the first MarCum LX-9 fish finders before I heard any reports on them and I've really enjoyed it's advantages.
Besides, you wouldn't need to map all of the lake -- just the structure and hot spots and routes you fish.
I wonder if a few people got AutoChart and each mapped their favorite lake, then they might trade mapped lakes with each other and soon all have a database of Utah lakes. But, that's just me guessing at the possibilities again.
I signed up for LakeMaster's newsletter, so I should be getting more information for us as it becomes available.
But, whoever hears anything first on it, then please post.
I anticipate buying AutoChart Pro with a Riptide 36 volt with i-Pilot Link for whatever small sailboat I buy for sailing and fishing fun. Eventually it will go on a future larger sailboat, so that's why I'll buy the powerful one.
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