Follow the Contour and Terrova issue

I am new to everything humminbird and minnkota linking but when I watched a few videos on how to use the follow the contour function and when trying it out this last weekend, I would set the GO TO and select follow the contour but when I did, it would make it’s way to the contour line for a few moments then the motor would make a bunch of noise and shut back off. It sounded like it was working too hard and just shut off because of it. It did this several times and then when it finally was on contour it would do the same thing after being the contour route for a short amount of time and then shut off. I thought it was working too hard so I thought lifting the motor so it wasn’t so deep in the water would help and it did. Is this normal?

I have never run into this problem with my setup. Does your trolling motor have a problem if you use just the remote (or foot pedal), running on high (or 10), and all the way down? The only problem I have had with the motor height is if it comes out of the water from a wave or something when using follow the contour. The unit will jump back and forth left to right until it is submerge again.

it hasn’t had a problem before just using the remote but I’ve only had it on 4 at the highest

What gauge wire do you have going from your batteries to your trolling motor plug?

I have had an I Link Terrova since 2013 and haven’t had any problems like that but hard to tell from your description. Used it just yesterday and it works great, there is such a thing as to much wind or current for it to work though, and you learn to not select the contour line right next to you but a ways down so that is gradually tappers into the navigation.

I should add, I think Tuma might be on the right track, it almost sounds like an electrical issue with it shutting off. I don’t have any real experience to go on though.

What size fuse/circuit breaker are you using? I had to go with the 60A CKT BKR. The 50A would trip when I got above setting 8. That’s with a five foot run of 4 gauge wire.

Not sure on the fuse/breaker as I haven’t dug into the boat and dealer installed everything. I ended up calling minnkota and they said it sounds like the steering housing could be bad so I brought it back to the dealer to have them check it out. It stinks cause the trolling motor is only 4 weeks old and has only been in the water twice now.

Not to ask a stupid question but the lake you are on is it mapped in Lakemaster HD if not from what I understand follow the contour will not work.

Yeah, it’s mapped on the lakemaster chip, it worked when I trimmed the motor up just not when the motor was all the way down but the motor works just fine in manual mode when the motor is down all the way

My question isn`t weather it is mapped but if it is an HD map for your Lake? Only other is maybe with the motor all the way down the GPS is getting interference from someplace or a loose wire or bad connection someplace when the motor is down it is pulling on it. Has to be from the head to the boat as the wire inside the shaft never moves..

not sure if it’s HD or not but the function works better when the motor is trimmed up about 8 inches. It’s odd though because manual steering works just fine when trimmed all the way down.

Just to clarify, it has to be a link compatible lakemaster card, on an hd mapped body of water, or a zero line card that you mapped earlier. I think the lakemaster card is v5.
Also has to be a motor with I link.

I have a helix 9 g2n mega si and terrova ipilot with link and using a lakemaster MN V7. I’m confident it’s not any of those causing the issue as it works when the motor is trimmed up. It works for a few seconds when trimmed all the way down then shuts off. When I trimmed it up, I got it to work for a half hour before I brought it up and moved.

That is a very weird sounding issue, especially when you say it works fine when it’s trimmed up a little. I doubt this is the issue, but when it was all the way down, was the depth and steering collar tight? If it was loose at all, the shaft and the collar may have been slipping and the control head and steering motor would be out of sync.

You said you talked to MK and took it to the dealer. Has anything been resolved yet?

Been following this thread. I’m making an assumption about what trimmed up means but could be wrong.

Does trimming up/down mean when you are tilting it from stow position(shaft horizontal) to the locked position aka down(shaft vertical)?

Does trimming up/down meaning raising/lowering the head unit(vertical shaft only)? This is what I assume.

Something about this is sounding like a loose connection somewhere.

Another thought, have you tried managing spot lock from the Helix? This uses the same network functionality and a loose cable could impact this as well.

As always, per Bird do you have the latest software updates on the unit? I don’t know the Helix G2 series software versions(I’m Onix)

I’m not certain if the depth collar was tight when all the way down, obviously I had to tighten it when it was up a little but I have doubts that I tightened it when it was down.

By trimming I mean moving the depth collar up and down so less or more of the motor/shaft are in the water. I’ve used spot lock a few times but I think I was using it when I had the motor trimmed up a bit and the depth collar tightened

aaronbecker wrote:

I’m not certain if the depth collar was tight when all the way down, obviously I had to tighten it when it was up a little but I have doubts that I tightened it when it was down.

Yeah, that would be an easy test, to make sure the collar is tight when it’s all the way at the top of the shaft. I could imagine it acting goofy if the head and steering motor weren’t moving together.

When using spot lock and following a contour, there is some sort of sensor somewhere that restricts the cables from getting too twisted around the control head/shaft, and the sensor will “unwind” the twist by turning the shaft and then gets back on track to what navigation it was doing. It’s a cool feature, and I wonder that if the collar is slipping that maybe whatever triggers that cable twisting sensor could also be triggered with something like you’re experiencing? If any of that makes sense?

blank wrote:

Yeah, that would be an easy test, to make sure the collar is tight when it’s all the way at the top of the shaft. I could imagine it acting goofy if the head and steering motor weren’t moving together.

x2, Give this a try. If the motor is spinning the bottom collar but the head unit never moves it might sense that.

I never let the head unit rest on the collar either. Never any real reason I just tighten it a couple inches from full extension unless I have no other choice.

report back, curious minds want to know the fix