Well, I did it…. Minn Kona help needed

I remember reading that you must be careful running a trolling motor at full speed with a lithium battery for extended periods.

Well, we were fishing at the Virginia Beach, Chesapeake Bay bridge tunnel. The tides there are extremely strong. We got into some nice red fish in very shallow water, so we used the trolling motor to hold us in place. The tide was screaming, but the trolling motor was doing a great job. Spot lock was running between five and nine typically.

At one point, we noticed that we were barely keeping with the tide while chasing a large redfish. The fish kept running toward structure and we had to run at 10 to stay ahead of it.

We got the fish in and ran back to the spot with the gas motor, but when we engaged the trolling motor, the prop would not spin. Everything seem to work according to the remote, and it turned properly and so on but the motor itself would not spin.

Has anyone else had experience in this area?

I’m guessing that the motor itself is dead, but it could be in the controller, I don’t know. I’m guessing that I can take it apart and find out quickly but if anyone has any suggestions, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks

Your certain it didn't just trip the bms in your lithium battery?

Well, that certainly sucks!

I'm sure you unpluged and pluged it back in. That is the typical fix when on the rare ocassion my MG Wireless lost its brain.

Prop still turns easily by hand? Hear any hum when you try to give it high thrust? Yes, probably motor.

With giving it thrust, try spinning prop in normal rotation, with a stick. If it takes off, probably bad brushes.

Otherwise, think you have to take it apart.

At least you landed the fish!

I'm not too sure, but I think I may see the problem.
In your thread title, you said your motor was a "Minn Kona", and normally, it's spelled "Minn Kota" for a genuine trolling motor from that mfgr. Might you have mistakenly purchased a Chinese knock-off?

Can't help with the technical stuff, otherwise.

Roger

If, as Minn Kota warns, the motor might have overheated is there some kind of thermal cutout that would keep if from burning out? Similar to circuit breaker protection against overloading that would just need resetting?

LDUBS said:

If, as Minn Kota warns, the motor might have overheated is there some kind of thermal cutout that would keep if from burning out? Similar to circuit breaker protection against overloading that would just need resetting?

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I can say from experience that if you don’t have a circuit breaker on your power source at some point, you certainly can fry the wires in a minnkota terrova. Smelled it first, then the smoke. Was an easy fix.

Billy H said:

I can say from experience that if you don’t have a circuit breaker on your power source at some point, you certainly can fry the wires in a minnkota terrova. Smelled it first, then the smoke. Was an easy fix.

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Yikes! I "liked" your post but didn't really like what happened to you.

If I understand what is happening, the problem is lithium batteries maintain full power longer which, according to Minn Kota, can ruin the motor. It doesn't sound like a typical circuit breaker would protect against this issue.

Seems the handwriting is on the wall that Lithium batteries are in our future. I suspect the trolling motor manufacturers are in high gear to address this.

In the meantime I hope @thill discovers an easy fix for his motor.

If the lights are on and the trolling motor seems to be online then that pretty much eliminates any sort of power supply issue.

I'm not sure what model you have, I do know that on the Terrova and Powerdrive, if you disassemble the head, the wires for the motor can be disconnected there for testing. I'd start there, see if there's power coming out of the controller. Will isolate the issue to the control board or the motor itself. Could also apply power directly to the motor and see if it runs.

LDUBS said:

Yikes! I "liked" your post but didn't really like what happened to you.

If I understand what is happening, the problem is lithium batteries maintain full power longer which, according to Minn Kota, can ruin the motor. It doesn't sound like a typical circuit breaker would protect against this issue.

Seems the handwriting is on the wall that Lithium batteries are in our future. I suspect the trolling motor manufacturers are in high gear to address this.

In the meantime I hope @thill discovers an easy fix for his motor.

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Do the minn kotas with brushless motors have this same issue?

flatheadsteve said:

Do the minn kotas with brushless motors have this same issue?

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Good question and I'm the wrong guy to ask. They are supposed to run with less friction, so less prone to overheating. I would think if they solved the problem, Minn Kota would be saying so.

LDUBS said:

Good question and I'm the wrong guy to ask. They are supposed to run with less friction, so less prone to overheating. I would think if they solved the problem, Minn Kota would be saying so.

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That was my thought a brushless motor generates less heat and wouldn't be as prone to overheat on long runs under full power.

Sounds like a manufacturing problem with either the motors or wiring (I think) the wiring would be my place to begin, smaller gauge wiring will overheat and burn, with the motor fully submerged in the water I would not think that the motor is overheating; working in manufacturing like I did for many years we always had issues with components that were purchased to build the product and if that particular component had bad parts in it well then we would see many failures of our completed product during testing. Sometimes it was a nightmare, once it was found to be just bad diodes - go figure; another time Mercury had issues with their recirculating check valves, would either stick or just not work; Mercury said replace them all.

Well, I caught the fish. A LOT of fun on a little trout rod!



Batteries were fine. Trolling motor works for everything besides turning the prop. I tried the stick trick, but no dice. Prop turns freely. I suspect it's an armeture, but I hope it's just the brushes. I'm most concerned that it's the Ipilot parts. Most of the rest is relatively cheap to fix by comparison.

Would be nice if there were an internal breaker inside. The fact that it just started slowing down was the telling thing. When I get time, I'll pull it off the boat and see what I find.

thill said:

Well, I caught the fish. A LOT of fun on a little trout rod!

View attachment 120841

Batteries were fine. Trolling motor works for everything besides turning the prop. I tried the stick trick, but no dice. Prop turns freely. I suspect it's an armeture, but I hope it's just the brushes. I'm most concerned that it's the Ipilot parts. Most of the rest is relatively cheap to fix by comparison.

Would be nice if there were an internal breaker inside. The fact that it just started slowing down was the telling thing. When I get time, I'll pull it off the boat and see what I find.

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WOW! What kind of fish is that?

Good luck with the TM. Fingers crossed it is some simple thing.

LDUBS said:

WOW! What kind of fish is that?

Good luck with the TM. Fingers crossed it is some simple thing.

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A really big (BULL RED DRUM)

thill said:

Well, I caught the fish. A LOT of fun on a little trout rod!

View attachment 120841

Batteries were fine. Trolling motor works for everything besides turning the prop. I tried the stick trick, but no dice. Prop turns freely. I suspect it's an armeture, but I hope it's just the brushes. I'm most concerned that it's the Ipilot parts. Most of the rest is relatively cheap to fix by comparison.

Would be nice if there were an internal breaker inside. The fact that it just started slowing down was the telling thing. When I get time, I'll pull it off the boat and see what I find.

Click to expand...

Thill, that is a huge bull red drum, brother, congratulations !

Check the schematic for the motor. Look for a fusible link or thermal switch. If that checks out Ok test the motor windings. They should not be open, maybe a few ohms 0.5 to 5 ohms but, that’s just a guess.

If you have a gas kicker motor you can use the kicker to almost hold the position or desired speed. Then the TM makes up the difference and does course corrections. Just lock the kicker straight ahead.

Here’s an example TERROVA 80 schematic. Yellow highlight is the fuse. Green highlight are leads to check motor windings.

thill said:

Well, I caught the fish. A LOT of fun on a little trout rod!

View attachment 120841

Batteries were fine. Trolling motor works for everything besides turning the prop. I tried the stick trick, but no dice. Prop turns freely. I suspect it's an armeture, but I hope it's just the brushes. I'm most concerned that it's the Ipilot parts. Most of the rest is relatively cheap to fix by comparison.

Would be nice if there were an internal breaker inside. The fact that it just started slowing down was the telling thing. When I get time, I'll pull it off the boat and see what I find.

Click to expand...

I doubt if the i-Pilot hardware is damaged. Nice fish!

NICE FIN!