Lowrance Auto pilot

I've been looking at those since they were announced a few months back. For some reason though, they don't recommend their use with twin engine configurations. Does anyone know why that is?
 
third-hand from obsessive googling, but someone posted that they called a lowrance rep and they are fine with twin outboards, but do not work with twin helms.

I have no idea whether this is true, but it seemed genuine enough to me. Wish I could go find the URL for the post/info, but no dice.

Looks like this unit is shipping now. I'm dying to find out if anyone has one and likes it? I would be the first in line for one, but the Admiral/CFO has other ideas at the moment (new kitchen).
 
One of the questions was why and when was it going to be available to use with gen three MDF? When at the boat show about a month ago, it was "any time".
 
I'm not even sure that it works with all HDS Gen2 MFDs yet. When first released there was info on some retailers' websites indicating that it wouldn't work with the "Touch" models yet.

I think the "good" news is that the hardware is compatible (or so I'm told), but the software is not yet. So, if you were to purchase the Outboard Pilot and had one of these MFDs that weren't supported, a software patch would become available at some point.

I've decided that I'm going to forget about this thing for a bit though. I've been excited about it for so long, and it has just not been released. It makes me think the price point may be too good to be true, and that they can't really make it work right at that price. I'm sure they can make it work, but likely they are cutting corners on materials or build process to hit that price point. It makes a lot of sense to me, because the price was announced so long ago, but no product followed, so they really can't be designing a good, low cost unit, they are designing something to fit that $999 promise. I'd rather pay $1200 and get something that is less compromised.

This is all a guess, but they really kind of shook my confidence in the unit by having it announced so long, and to have the release delayed so long afterwards. Something ain't right.

I'm hoping that I'm off the mark and that this thing is awesome, but I'm going to need to hear it from someone braver (or with more boat bucks to waste) than I.
 
I think that's a very good move to just hold on a second.
I recall my time at WM when our chairman Randy Repass tore a major strip off some big name mfg's for having our customers do their product testing in his opening address to 450 managers, reps and CEO' etc
He was mad!!
His state of the art, up to the second ('06)Raymarine auto pilot had recently failed as his cat ketch Convergence was running at 15 knots at night halfway to Tahiti from Hawaii. Major damage has averted but pilots should hold. The boat did an uncontrolled gybe while surfing. C is a quick boat.
Most of the big name stuff on his new boat failed. I believe the manufacturers still recall that day and are more reluctant to release early. Garmin is strong in pilots. Lowrance is strong in sounders for fishing. They have a ways to go to catch in GPS and pilots in my opinion. If I was going to do an auto pilot, it would be all Garmin. If I was outfitting a new boat today I would put Simrad and Garmin systems side by side and pick the one that was easiest to use. As some folks have found out, the cheapest one isn't usually the best one. In my history when asking for quotes, the lowball got tossed. Obviously they missed something. Quality is really appreciated, when it's too dark, it's too windy and you're tired. Cheap stuff starts to fail and cascade events begin. No fun.

George
 
So, has anyone tried one of these out yet? It seems that they should be working well now with everything but the HDS Gen3 units.

I've been looking at prices, and they are all advertised at $999 (minimum advertised price), and many vendors sell for that price, but have seen several online retailers show prices down to around $850 once you have added the item to your cart.
 
Kushtaka":2kui8tcv said:
So, has anyone tried one of these out yet? It seems that they should be working well now with everything but the HDS Gen3 units.

I've been looking at prices, and they are all advertised at $999 (minimum advertised price), and many vendors sell for that price, but have seen several online retailers show prices down to around $850 once you have added the item to your cart.
Click to expand...

I do not own one (and probably would not--I would go with Simrad, the old Robertson, which are some of the best small boat pilots. Reading on the electronics Forum of The Hull Truth, these Lowrance pilots were very slow shipping, there have been many issues with the software, but a few people have gotten them working (I believe with a compass heading, but not well with the chart plotter). Lowrance keeps saying "new software is going to fix the issues.

There are a number of good pilots, for example W H (Willie Hamm), ComNav, Furuno, The Simrad series, Garmin bought an Autopilot company, and there seem to be some issues with the pump size for even our small outboard boats. The Lowrance seems to be an unknown still, in that folks have the pilot finally, but soft ware issues, keep them from using the pilots. RayMarine also having some issues with the smallest pilot.

I realize that it is great to try and save money, by buying a less expensive auto pilot, but where the products are now, I would oft for a more expensive unit. Maybe in another year, these sub $1,500 units will be working better!
 
Last weekend at the Channel Islands Landing in Oxnard, CA, one of the fellow boaters was complaining that his Lowrance Autopilot was still not working, and was very upset.

That is the only information that I can supply.
 
That's what I'm seeing as well. The software should now work with all but the latest MFDs.

I have seen some positive feedback on it for those who have the oldest HDS MFDs, once they got it working. Most folks seem to have spent a grand and have no functionality.

I really want this product to work though.
 
An autopilot is a simple basic device. You give it a heading, it measures cross track error and when it reaches a given amount (10 ft?) it switches on a electric pump/actuator to move the steering device so as to correct the error and turns it off when the proper damped heading and/or cross track error is achieved. Every GPS I've owned gives cross track error if you've laid out a course so that function is standard.. Turning the pump on and off is basic servo design. I've had Raymarine autopilots since the 80's and they've all worked out of the box. So what's the problem?

Journey On has a S6000 autopilot I bought in 2005 and it's worked well for 10 years. Greatest operational aid on the boat. It consists of a flux gate for direction, a processor for the calculations and pump switching, a control/display unit and a hydraulic pump. It includes a NMEA0183 interface, which works, but I don't use it because it's a pain in the ass.

So here's my guess. Electronics are straight forward to design and build. Look at all the MFDs on the market which work well. Feedback sensors have become optical rate gyros augmented by GPS. So that leaves the pump as the last expensive item. You can only make those so cheap, since they have to move a motor, sometimes rapidly and always dependably. And finally now there's software to tie all this together.

So I'm guessing that software development is done in cheap places and not well tested, certainly not integrated. My experience with my Lowrance HDS2 MFD is that they issue software updated every few months. I do know that the updates don't always work as they should and Lowrance support can't contact the software developments via a problem report; so they've told me. All this is a sign of crappy but cheap software development.

Next, since the 2005 Raymarine hydraulic pump has worked for 10 years, I suspect that product improvement has reduced both the capability and dependability of the 2015 pumps since i"m hearing of pump failures. Just as comparison, the Raymarine autopilot cost $1200 in 2005. So a $1000 autopilot in 2015 has to be 30% cheaper and how are you going to do that?

So I'll wait for a couple of years to invest in a new autopilot. Great bells and whistles, but poor integration and dependability.

Boris
 
Boris, If you want to get simple, my first Auto pilot (other than the Signet Tiller pilot), was a B 26 Bomber compass, with two parallel tungsten wires, and a set of contacts between. When the compass (cross track error) was about 2 degrees off, then the contacts drove a relay, which turned on a motor to a chain drive and turned the rudder. No worry about GPS, waypoints or anything so esoteric!

I think that Boris is right--too many add ons, and fancy things to do!

One of the problems with current motors, is that they are being built in China (back to that). As one of the techs from Norway said, they could not even buy the Simrad pilot hydraulic pump/motor set for $1,000!
 
OK, Bob, my first autopilot was a teen age daughter or which I had a serial supply. After one trip to and from Catalina, I got a cheap Autohelm and never look back. The original autopilots are now raising a new generation of autopilots, just as willing and able.

Boris
 
Well, after some research, it seems there is a groundswell of satisfaction with this gear after the most recent software update's release. While these are small murmurings on various message boards, and product reviews at online retailers, it seems the current release works (?).

It is available for around $850, and Lowrance has some attractive rebates, to clear out the HDS Gen2 inventory they hold maybe? Anyway, I'm still not quite at the point where I'm going to purchase this, but really only because I'm tending to some screw holes in the hull, installing a davit and maybe a radar arch, moving the heater, etc etc. But It's tempting to jump the gun!
 
The threads I have been following show that the new soft ware has finally been released, and some folks are having issues with it, others seem to have a decent install. Consider that this product was announced over 2 years ago, didn't really start shipping until slightly less than 6 months ago, and just now we have some buggy upgrades.

I may be missing some outstanding reviews, and my apology if I have missed them. One item which still worry's me is that one of their beta testers is concerned about the longevity of the motor. His comment was that the electronics are basically from the Simrad pilot--which are excellent, but that the entire package costs less than the motor does for the cheapest Simrad. Maybe the motor/pumpset will be fine--but we will only know after thousands of hours on the water.

On the large boat we took Calif to Europe, I sized the auto pilot pump (Benmar) for a boat of twice the tonnage and about 50 % larger size. Never had a problem with the pump/hydraulics. (I had to replace several circuit boards, because I didn't have all that good weather protection for the "brains". The norm for the cruising world is to either have another pump set ready to go, or have it fully installed--as a second pilot, incase the primary goes down. Yes, our C Dory's are different, and our uses are far different.
 
One of the pieces of information I have been able to glean from the cause of the delays was some aspect of the software that caused the AP to pull a "Crazy Ivan" to starboard. Apparently it was an issue with the newer models only, thus the early release for older HDS MFDs.

Apparently this issue has been sorted out, thus the current software release.

Agreed that this pump is small, but so is my boat and engine. Like you said so well, Dr. Bob: thousands of hours. Then we'll know. I may help provide those data. We shall see.
 
Reading the threads herein regarding autopilots, (Lowrance and otherwise) is incredibly helpful and encouraging, yet discouragiang at the same time: this is a good thing. I've been contemplating an install of the Lowrance AP and have spent a lot of time reading the owner's manual available on line, and talking to Navico Rep's on the phone. I thought I would share my experience only in that the folks at Navico/Lowrance have been incredibly helpful and VERY straightforward/direct with me about the issues presented to them by the public.

I don't work for Lowrance. I am not any kind of a Pro/outfitter with them, and I certainly am not getting a dime for any good words I say about their new AP.

I finally got a hold of a supervisor ant Navico and told her of the problems that people were having with the Lowrance AP. Her comments were as follows:

Issue #1. Not enough power from the batteries to run the AP: ALL, repeat ALL, AP's are power hogs that require huge amounts of amperage to to operate properly. If your charging system is not up to the task then yes, their will be the various issues that folks are complaining about. She advised that once folks realized this and upgraded their charging systems, the problems with the units shutting down at low speeds (while trolling), at the end of a long day of fishing, and losing interface with the chartplotter, were resolved.

Issue #2: Software interface with HDS Gen 2 and Gen 3: YES! their were problems earlier this year with the software. The rep advised that even the team of rep's that helped customers with this problem were unhappy with their engineering team(s) for the issues with the software. HOWEVER, customer error was also a factor in that users were improperly commissioning the AP's (that is the act of creating an interface with the boat/software/chartplotter). The user's that did call in and asked for help got the help they needed and were off and running with their AP. The stated that the happy folks do not post! Unhappy folks post their grievances. Commissioning can be done on the water or in your driveway. However, low voltage to any of the units will cause commissioning and the software interface to fail. The simple fix is a fully charged battery during the commisoning and sea trials.

Issue #3: No user manual or sets of instructions on how to use the AP: . The instructions for the autopilot ARE posted on line at Lowrance's web site, albeit in a stupid location! The actual location of the operations manual is at:

http://www.lowrance.com/Global/Lowrance ... -001_w.pdf

The operations manual is buried within the HDS Gen 2 and/or HDS Gen 3 chartplotter ADDENDA. The instructions are clear and even I can understand them (and for sure I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed). Strangely, the full installation manual for the AP is posted on line at Lowrance's "manual" page on their web site. The install manual is very easy to understand as well.

I intend to install a new hydraulic version of the Lowrance AP in the next few weeks and will post pictures of the install and sea trials herein at C BRATS with photos under my boat name: OPA!. I'm here in central Illinois so we'll have some cold weather settling in soon. However, we're going to go down to southern Missouri and try some trolling down their. My primary use of the AP will be for slow trolling, so we'll be putting the unit through some rigorous testing once installed.
 
thataway":237pgrlh said:
The threads I have been following show that the new soft ware has finally been released, and some folks are having issues with it, others seem to have a decent install. Consider that this product was announced over 2 years ago, didn't really start shipping until slightly less than 6 months ago, and just now we have some buggy upgrades.

I may be missing some outstanding reviews, and my apology if I have missed them. One item which still worry's me is that one of their beta testers is concerned about the longevity of the motor. His comment was that the electronics are basically from the Simrad pilot--which are excellent, but that the entire package costs less than the motor does for the cheapest Simrad. Maybe the motor/pumpset will be fine--but we will only know after thousands of hours on the water.

On the large boat we took Calif to Europe, I sized the auto pilot pump (Benmar) for a boat of twice the tonnage and about 50 % larger size. Never had a problem with the pump/hydraulics. (I had to replace several circuit boards, because I didn't have all that good weather protection for the "brains". The norm for the cruising world is to either have another pump set ready to go, or have it fully installed--as a second pilot, incase the primary goes down. Yes, our C Dory's are different, and our uses are far different.
Click to expand...

Have had the Lowrance AP in a 22 foot classic since early summer. Works fine. Software now works with both Gen 2 touch and un touch (?) - I have an HDS 7 Gen 2 touch running the AP and an HDS 10 Gen 2 non touch running everything else. Actually a nice setup since the touchscreen works great on the AP and the buttons are a bit clunky. Also, the touch software has a few more features and lots easier to use.

As mentioned, the mechanical part of the system is an older model Simrad pump that has been around for years. The electronic box looks to be the standard high end consumer quality that the rest of the Lowrance line is (as opposed to say, upper end Furuno stuff which costs three times a much and is admittedly built better).

I've fallen in love with the thing. I mostly use it to go in a straight line but I've been creating some routes through some scary shallow areas that make it much less nerve racking to navigate.

I believe the AP now works with Gen 3 stuff but am not sure. Lowrance really did a stupid move by shipping it in the condition they did. Perhaps they will learn from this and actually write AND DEBUG the software before they ship the hardware.

Sigh.
 
I just installed a lowrance outboard pilot on my CD 16 OPA! and it works flawlessly. I 1) installed the software via download, 2)commissioned it as required by the manufacturer dockside and out on the water, 3)configured the gps antennae properly, and finally 4) ran through a number of sea water tests to make sure it worked as advertised.

Folks, this unit works fabulously.

I have the unit hooked up to a lowrance gen2 hds 9 and the control is very impressive. The best feature is the ability to do s curves and z curves while trolling to a heading. This is going to be such a HUGE bonus. You trollers know that running s curves while trolling activates the lures on either side of the boat in different ways initiating strikes more consistently. Running that steering wheel back and forth while trolling for 6+ hours is a chore, but gets more fish in the boat. AND, when we get a double hook up, we can set the AP on a single heading and fight/net the fish without having to man the wheel and net the fishes into the boat. Sweet.

I was initially very concerned about the AP's ability to stay activated while trolling s-l-o-w-l-y. Not anymore! This AP will troll with no issues down to 1 mph without going on standby.

If anyone is interested in more tips/tricks/suggestions, PM me or leave a message here and I'll do my best to help you out.

Pending further trials, I feel that this AP is my new fishing buddy. I'll never go out on the water alone without a human buddy on board, but atleast this will make our time out their more productive and enjoyable.

BTW: My only sponsor is my lovely bride of 27 yrs. I don't work for lowrance!

Good luck out there to y'all and safe returns to port. :thup
 
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