Has anyone used their arduino to control a Minn Kota trolling motor? I have a pair of motors with hacked controllers. The "soft pot" on the controllers seem to be fried, and I am looking to use the majority of the minn kota controller with a differant input. I am hoping someone has attacked this problem.
I haven't used one with an Arduino, but I have torn one apart (a ~15 year old Minn Kota) and used an off-the-shelf speed controller with it.
Mine had an odd three-wire scheme leading to the motor. It was not a like a typical brushed or brushless motor; supplying DC to two of the wires would make it go forward but reversing the polarity would not make it go backwards (?).
I am messing with mine right now. The plan is to robotize my boat so it will maintain a heading attitude during a drift. I like to keep the boat perpendicular to the wind so several people fishing off one side don't get their line crossed. After some experimenting It appears that the soft pot in the foot controller is no more than a voltage divider that sends a voltage to the control board. The control board adjusts the speed of the motor in proportion to this voltage.