Motorguide electric
Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 6:30 pm
Hasn't been the best of weeks.
Had just decided to do something about the H'Bird sidescan when I noticed that the MG "anchor" function was dropping out every few minutes. Persevered for the day (bl..dy nuisance though) and decided to have a look at home.
Thoughts of complicated electronic repairs and/or shipping costs came to mind. Decided to do a bit of diagnostics before going to Motorguide rep in town.
Put MG on fitted out diagnostics bench (tailgate of ute) with a battery. When "anchor" function started dropping out I had a little H/Held GPS to test if satellites were problem. Satellites ok ( 5 bars) so problem internal.
Took off head covers to find it chock-a-block with electronics. Not. One little black box connected to small curly cord down to bottom unit.
Took off bottom control covers to find it about the same as the head unit. Practically empty. Looked at curly cord from top head unit connection into bottom little black box and found the problem. Notice how the wires are exposed and frayed through from rubbing on the plastic housing. Shield wire was completely broken off small control wires inside were also exposed.
Then went to local MG people to see about taking in the damaged control cord with the black boxes on each end to get fixed.
Turns out that this is common enough problem for MG to have a replacement kit available. Simply plug-and-play. You get the 2 GPS "jesus" boxes, connecting curly cord along with a new remote control unit. Don't know why a new r/c as all they do is get flat batteries once in a while.
Anyway, inserted a new GPS "jesus" box top and bottom with the new curly cord, put covers back on and started it up. No more dropouts after 3 hours of running on ute tailgate so I declared it fixed.
Interesting that the new little curly cord now has connectors on each end so each GPS box can be replaced separately. Hope thats the plan anyway.
Couldn't find any kits like that for Minn Kota. Maybe they don't have those sorts of problems.
Had just decided to do something about the H'Bird sidescan when I noticed that the MG "anchor" function was dropping out every few minutes. Persevered for the day (bl..dy nuisance though) and decided to have a look at home.
Thoughts of complicated electronic repairs and/or shipping costs came to mind. Decided to do a bit of diagnostics before going to Motorguide rep in town.
Put MG on fitted out diagnostics bench (tailgate of ute) with a battery. When "anchor" function started dropping out I had a little H/Held GPS to test if satellites were problem. Satellites ok ( 5 bars) so problem internal.
Took off head covers to find it chock-a-block with electronics. Not. One little black box connected to small curly cord down to bottom unit.
Took off bottom control covers to find it about the same as the head unit. Practically empty. Looked at curly cord from top head unit connection into bottom little black box and found the problem. Notice how the wires are exposed and frayed through from rubbing on the plastic housing. Shield wire was completely broken off small control wires inside were also exposed.
Then went to local MG people to see about taking in the damaged control cord with the black boxes on each end to get fixed.
Turns out that this is common enough problem for MG to have a replacement kit available. Simply plug-and-play. You get the 2 GPS "jesus" boxes, connecting curly cord along with a new remote control unit. Don't know why a new r/c as all they do is get flat batteries once in a while.
Anyway, inserted a new GPS "jesus" box top and bottom with the new curly cord, put covers back on and started it up. No more dropouts after 3 hours of running on ute tailgate so I declared it fixed.
Interesting that the new little curly cord now has connectors on each end so each GPS box can be replaced separately. Hope thats the plan anyway.
Couldn't find any kits like that for Minn Kota. Maybe they don't have those sorts of problems.