Motorguide Xi5 and Lowrance nav

New to the forum, but I am hoping someone may have experience with what I am seeing to offer some advice.

We added the Xi5 and Lowrance Elite Ti2, and I love both individually. However, I am disappointed with the integration, and I’m not sure if there is a problem with one or both units or my expectations were too high. I calibrated the GPS on the Xi5 when we got to the lake, based on the suggestion of talking with MG tech support, but here is what I’m seeing that falls short:

• MG support said to configure Lowrance to use Xi5 as GPS source, but when I do that the Lowrance no longer:
  • shows tracking
  • shows speed
  • lists satellites seen in the settings, doesn’t seem to be getting satellite info from the Xi5
  • tracks with heading up, my preferred setting
• Navigation to a waypoint or along a route isn’t accurate – sometimes it’s close, other times it’s very off

I saw a comment on another forum that someone had problems with their Xi5 and had to swap out the GPS module, wondering if that’s true for me. The Xi5 and Lowrance work great in manual mode, setting heading lock, anchoring, etc. Any suggestions?

Extremely disappointed with this partnership. Very little updates after offering up the $250 marriage of the two. Honestly, I never use it. Maybe if I played with it more, I might try a few more things. Worst money I ever spent. I use them together, but so much more an individual units. For what I use it for, just not worth $250 for an 18″ adapter, then another $50 for the kit to join the two technologies. Had they kept up with their software and added features, or improved the ones initially offered I might have dove in a bit more.

My old boat had similar issues. The cord that connected the trolling motor to the graph. It wasn’t connected properly. By the trollling motor, there is an arrow on each connection. Make sure they are lined up. They will connect without being arrow to arrow

All is connected, and working properly. I just do not believe it is worth $250+ to connect the two. $50 would be more than enough. Like I said, they never took it to the next level. All the issues that are out there, and each company blames the other. Sadly, we are the ones that suffer.

thanks for the replies. I agree that the cost is pretty ridiculous, although I would get the value out of it if it worked for me.

David, I appreciate the tip on the connector. I never noticed any arrows on the connectors, although I thought it strange that the connectors will connect regardless of orientation. the boat is under a cover for a few days but I will check it out when the walleyes start calling my name again.

I have 2 HDS9 Gen3s paired with my XI5. I do have some complaints, but overall am pretty happy with the setup. I always use my point1 gps antenna not the one in the XI5 for my Lowrance units, I just manually take into account the difference between the two. I am able to consistently mark fish as I motor around an area and return to them and catch them. Not quite the video game fishing live scan gives you but it works for me.

How are using the gateway in that setup slawrenz? I can do all that without pairing the two, and is my entire point. $250 is a lot for the little bit it can do exclusively in conjunction with the two paired.

I put my cursor on the fish and click “go to cursor” and XI5 takes me to the fish. Without the pairing “go to cursor” is not an option, it engages the autopilot mode. the manual part is knowing the fish is going to be under my trolling motor not my rear transducer.

Navigating to a cursor or waypoint, saving routes, etc. are all the things I am hoping to do. However, sometimes it works (maybe I got the NMEA bus connector lined up on those times) and other times it doesn’t work. I am going to try to upload a screenshot with this post that shows a failure to navigate to a waypoint.

I did find a couple references to some settings to change. Here is what someone posted in YouTube comments, and they match what someone else posted in a bass fishing forum:

“I was told by motorguide you have to do 3 things. Step 1 – re calibrate the angle of your trolling motor. This is in your motor guide manual 2 re-calibrate your trolling motor gps this is also in the motor guide manual. Step 3 – change settings in your lowrance unit under data source > gps> change from auto to lowrance internal and in global to local. Under vessel >gps change to motor guide gps. (Motor guide must be on for this option to be selectable.)”

I changed these settings and will test them out the next time I’m on the water.

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   Screenshot_2019-05-30_12.48.50.png
   

I have set active anchor point, adjusted my speed, course, etc all from my HDS display and have never fiddled with the settings referenced above. I have had this since it came out. Yes, there is a gremlin or two like the motor just deciding to take off once in a while, but overall I am very pleased with it. It does everything I have asked of it. I was having trouble with the remotes while in Canada last week because I had old batteries in there. Well instead of changing the batteries in the remote since we were in the middle of a trolling pass, I just made the adjustments on the HDS display. My buddy was fighting a big walleye in some heavy wind and waves so I set the anchor mode to keep in on space and to avoid his line going under the boat.

Yesterday I got a call from Larry at Motorguide support. He seemed very knowledgeable and worth asking for if you ever need to call in for support. Here is what he told me, in no particular order:

• He said to change the settings to use Local and not Global, and set GPS source to the Lowrance internal device.
• He did say that the integration between the Xi motors and Lowrance units doesn’t work the way they hoped.
• He said that in later Xi motors there is the ability to configure the motor to operate in either heading lock or compass mode. I’ve attached a copy of the document for your reference.
• Larry mentioned an occasional glitch where the motor will take off at 100% on its own. Sounds like that may be what you’ve experienced, CaptainMusky.
• Larry also said that MG and Lowrance have weekly conference calls to discuss plans and customer feedback. It sounds like an opportunity for any of us experiencing issues to contact MG support and ask that the feedback be given to Lowrance in the weekly call.

I will provide another update once I’ve had a chance to test the different tweaks in our boat in the coming week or so.

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   Course-and-Heading-Mode.pdf
   

ElliottM wrote:

Larry mentioned an occasional glitch where the motor will take off at 100% on its own. Sounds like that may be what you’ve experienced, CaptainMusky.

We fished Sunday through Thursday of last week and it would happen about twice per day. If unprepared it could be dangerous! I always have the remote around my neck so all I do is hit the heading lock button and it turns off. Then I can immediately set it up for the heading and cruise after the glitch and it will work fine.

Well, the plot thickens for me. I took the boat out a couple days ago to test the change in settings on the Lowrance. However, the Xi5 appears to have experienced a failure in the GPS module (per MG support). The GPS lock blue indicator light comes on about 30 seconds after the Xi5 is powered on, then the light goes out, and stays out, after about 3 minutes. The only way to get the GPS lock light to come on at all is by powering off the Xi5 and powering it back on, but the GPS indicator light goes out every time. Definitely something wrong, and maybe it was failing all along and was causing the errors in navigation.

So the Xi5 is heading to an authorized service shop, and I learned there are no repair shops in Washington (my state), none in Oregon, and none in northern Idaho. The closest shop is in Montana, over 360 miles one way from me. Thus the Xi5 has to be shipped, which is not going to be cheap. I haven’t heard back from MG support, but they better reimburse me the shipping charge – it’s not like we live on another planet. With the difficulty in finding a repair shop, coupled with the problems I’ve been having with the Xi5 and its integration with the Lowrance, I think I blew it by not buying a Minn Kota.

Has anyone spoken to Motorguide about the GPS rollover that our Lowrance sonars have experienced? I had to update my Gen2, and Gen 2 Touch devices twice for this specific issue. Odd that a trolling motor that relies on GPS to function properly would not have had a similar update.

New to group. My motorguide xi5 is connected to a lowrance elite and the trolling motor works while running it from the elite. Once I made the connections using the nema 2000 cables I lost all the lights on the xi5 that indicate the battery anchor and such, also my hand held control will no longer work. Has anyone else had this issue? These units are less than 3 months old. as someone said earlier, I like both units but I’d love for them to work together as well as working independently.

This is an old thread and I hope that everything got fixed. My HDS Gen3, Carbon, and now Live works great with the i5. Now that Brunswick has purchased Navico I suspect that in time any issues will be resolved and hopefully upgraded, maybe easier to update the software. Mine works excellent (Live/i5) like the go to curser (either on the map or graph), the anchor lock, heading lock, and cruise control. On Lake Erie anytime we would want to reverse our trolling direction would go to Autopilot and tell it to do a U turn, put in the radius and voila. Just remember to change your end of destination from anchor to heading lock!!

David Blais wrote:

My old boat had similar issues. The cord that connected the trolling motor to the graph. It wasn’t connected properly. By the trollling motor, there is an arrow on each connection. Make sure they are lined up. They will connect without being arrow to arrow

Thank you Dave!!!
I have been messing with this on and off since last fall. I read your post.. line up my arrows and BADA-Boom. I can’t believe I was so dumb!!