lowbidder
10-24-2012, 10:48 PM
A guy I know brought up this concern yesterday: He was almost thrown from his boat a few weeks ago by accidentally hitting the "Rabbit" button on his I-Pilot remote. This has happened a few times to me as well and is even easier while wearing bulky gloves and could be deadly with the fast approaching frigid water temps. I couldn't give up my remote, so I took to figuring a way to disable the button and it turned out to be very easy. Read on if you're interested...
Disclaimer: This is a PERMANENT modification to your remote. Once performed you will never have the rabbit function again without replacing the rubber button mat.
Tools you'll need:
Drill & Drill Bit appropriately sized to drill out the top screw
Philips screwdriver to remove the 6 main screws
Sharp Pen Knife or Multi-Tool
Small pliers or Multi-Tool
Step One:
Back out the 6 main philips head screws on the back of the remote.
Step Two:
While holding the remote together with your hand, drill out the tiny screw at the top of the back of the remote. Unless of course you own a star bit small enough to back it out. I could not find one. Obviously this is an attempt at Minn Kota to keep us out of the remote. Only drill out enough of the screw head to allow the two halves of the remote to separate.
18477
Step Three:
Once you've separated the two halves of the remote, back out the rest of the tiny screw using pliers or whatever is available. I used my leatherman. It's important to take the screw out so you will be able to get the two halves back together easily. The screw is now useless and can be discarded. don't worry about the hole where the screw used to be. It is outside of the rubber seal and will not harm the remote.
18478
Step Four:
Pull out the green board with all the contacts to expose the back of the rubber pad that also contains all of the buttons. they're all molded into one mat so don't worry about losing buttons.
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Step Five:
Identify the back of the Rabbit Button.
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Step Six:
Pull out the rubber mat and push the rabbit button from the underside. A small rubber cone that is formed onto the back of the rabbit button will protrude out past the mat. This rubber cone is what pushes on the green contact board puts the motor into high speed.
18481
Step Seven:
Use a pen knife or multi-tool to cut off the rubber cone from the back of the rabbit button.
18482
Step Eight:
Put everything back together. Be careful when putting the main screws back together not to cross-thread. The female threads inside the remote are plastic and will strip out or break very easily.
Once I put everything back together, it worked great. Every button on the remote worked except the rabbit button. No matter how hard I pressed it, I could not get the rabbit button to work. Obviously if you like the rabbit button and use it a lot in warmer weather, this may not be the easy fix for you.
I worry about this stuff because I fish a lot by myself in freezing temps and even though PDF's will be mandatory this year, would rather not go into the drink in the first place. I'm not about to give up my remote either!
Disclaimer: This is a PERMANENT modification to your remote. Once performed you will never have the rabbit function again without replacing the rubber button mat.
Tools you'll need:
Drill & Drill Bit appropriately sized to drill out the top screw
Philips screwdriver to remove the 6 main screws
Sharp Pen Knife or Multi-Tool
Small pliers or Multi-Tool
Step One:
Back out the 6 main philips head screws on the back of the remote.
Step Two:
While holding the remote together with your hand, drill out the tiny screw at the top of the back of the remote. Unless of course you own a star bit small enough to back it out. I could not find one. Obviously this is an attempt at Minn Kota to keep us out of the remote. Only drill out enough of the screw head to allow the two halves of the remote to separate.
18477
Step Three:
Once you've separated the two halves of the remote, back out the rest of the tiny screw using pliers or whatever is available. I used my leatherman. It's important to take the screw out so you will be able to get the two halves back together easily. The screw is now useless and can be discarded. don't worry about the hole where the screw used to be. It is outside of the rubber seal and will not harm the remote.
18478
Step Four:
Pull out the green board with all the contacts to expose the back of the rubber pad that also contains all of the buttons. they're all molded into one mat so don't worry about losing buttons.
18479
Step Five:
Identify the back of the Rabbit Button.
18480
Step Six:
Pull out the rubber mat and push the rabbit button from the underside. A small rubber cone that is formed onto the back of the rabbit button will protrude out past the mat. This rubber cone is what pushes on the green contact board puts the motor into high speed.
18481
Step Seven:
Use a pen knife or multi-tool to cut off the rubber cone from the back of the rabbit button.
18482
Step Eight:
Put everything back together. Be careful when putting the main screws back together not to cross-thread. The female threads inside the remote are plastic and will strip out or break very easily.
Once I put everything back together, it worked great. Every button on the remote worked except the rabbit button. No matter how hard I pressed it, I could not get the rabbit button to work. Obviously if you like the rabbit button and use it a lot in warmer weather, this may not be the easy fix for you.
I worry about this stuff because I fish a lot by myself in freezing temps and even though PDF's will be mandatory this year, would rather not go into the drink in the first place. I'm not about to give up my remote either!