Xi5 control repair

Second time in a year breaking the little plastic piece that holds the lanyard on. I have seen some guys put eyelets under the screws but here is my fix. Drill two holes in the bottom case and feed wire through. Enough room in there for two crimps under the circuit board. Seems pretty sturdy and if it ever comes apart I can replace the wire and crimps in minutes. Could put a dab of sealant if needed but the wire fit in snug.

 

I ended up just using braid on mine and also extended it so it hangs at my waist for easier access.

 

Hard to believe motorguide hasn't come up with a new back piece to change out. Something a little more stout. Obviously a big design flaw...

 

Yeah it's crazy. I bought mine used and the previous owner had just replaced the remote under warranty for the same reason. I treat my things nicely and I still managed to break it within 3 trips..... I'll stick to the braid.

Sorry for the giant picture I didnt realize was so big

 

Mine is still perfect dating back to 2016....

Good idea on the fix though.

 

Wow must be a bad batch. This last one lasted two trips and never even got tugged on. I snapped the remnants off like nothing.

 

Internet is littered with my same experience.

 

Yep I think it's just a bad batch of plastic because like yours mine was so brittle it broke in the storage compartment trailering....

Random side question but the Battery light has never worked properly on my Xi5 either... always shows Yellow. Anyone else have that one? Besides these two things I love the motor.

 

Green most of the time so far. Think yellow or orange is suppose to be below 40%

 

Those motors should’ve never been released to the public. Lots of widespread issues. Sold mine once the warranty was up....good riddance

 

Mine always shows green, but I've got Lithium so the discharge curve would be totally different from lead acid.

 

Mine gets used very little but from what I have experienced so far it seems like a real nice unit. Very quiet, ultra smooth and really like the anchor mode.

 

So an update on this XI5 remote business.... I took my brand new to me remote out on the weekend. I broke it pulling my fish out of the livewell when it caught the edge of the livewell hanging off my neck briefly. Snapped in the same old spot. Almost got one day lol

 

I never bothered getting another one. My wire and crimp fix is tough and no issues.

 

Why is that? Mine works awesome. Not a single complaint to date.

 

Third season here. 0 complaints. And the spot lock has been amazing in both current and wind.


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Piles of issues with bad gps modules, head would wrap the cord around so tight it would rip the wires out. Warranty shop outside of wpg had a big box of failed units filled when I went there to have mine replaced.

Foot pedals failing within a single season. I went through 3. First one wouldn’t even connect to the motor.

Lots of guys have 0 complaints. The first couple model years had issues though. I loved it when it was working. Wicked spot lock. Integration with Lowrance via the gateway was the cats ass. But a piece of equipment at that price shouldn’t have the issues that it did have.

 

I just added a network to my boat over the offseason and a 80lb xi5. The first day on the water was full of learning headaches. I repeatedly got an alarm telling me "no autopilot computer" on both units..... I'm running the latest software from Lowrance on both units. I silenced them for the day but it was triggering constantly. Basic reading on it says to reset NMEA network..... I really hope I don't have to do that every time I drop the motor. My point 1 worked all day so I hadn't considered the network to be the fault. My original thought at the time was I had heading lock on and killed the prop, leaving heading engaged and stowed it causing the alarm..... but seems to be a wider issue. Going to keep reading but I'm curious if any of you Xi5 gateway users have experienced this one?

The gateway was pretty sweet using it to go to waypoints but I was surprised to find that once it got to the waypoint it just maintained the heading and kept going. I have now 3 ways to control the unit (pedal, screen or remote) so wasn't sure if it was related to those. The previous 55 lb I had was amazing and didn't have any issues outside of the remote lanyard breaking off. I'm not convinced anything is wrong yet with my setup and think it's just something I have to learn the process but it was an interesting feeling out on the water with basically the same motor but it felt so different to use.

 

@ribbie there is a setting called “arrival mode”, I believe under settings\autopilot that dictates what the motor does when you reach your go-to waypoint or the end of a route....the options are anchor, standby, or heading lock (might not have all the terminology correct...but that is the jist). Sounds like yours is probably set to heading currently.

Regarding no-autopilot error message, I have seen that pop up (albeit rarely) over the years...but it always goes away almost immediately. I attributed it to the gps temporarily loosing signal, but then finding it again a few seconds later. Sounds like your situation might be different though.