The fast-fleeting open water fishing season has seen a lot of hard work both on and off the water at ProNav Marine. This summer we have not only made the fishing experience easier but also added many additional capabilities for ProNav customers. We have implemented numerous product enhancements, increasing the overall stability of the ProNav Angler system, improving upon our boat control algorithms, and enhancing the functionality of our app. One such example was the integration of world-class lake maps directly in the ProNav iOS mobile app with the announcement of our partnership with Navionics. Additional user experience and user interface enhancements have been kicked off, and we are underway on multiple efforts to increase our technology offerings to customers.
Starting with the current product: The beauty of having firmware upgrades via an app (the first in the trolling motor industry) is that we can continuously innovate and provide product upgrades directly to customers without needing to bring the product in for service or requiring a deep understanding of the workings of the system. The app will simply prompt that an upgrade is available, and the user can easily perform all that is needed to complete it without interfering with a good day of fishing.
In the upcoming September firmware update (launching the week of September 25,2017): Users will see upgrades to their hardware that include the following.
- Improvements to the connectivity of the Bluetooth Radio. This is done via a couple of key enhancements, including improving the signal receive and send strength and allowing the device to broadcast on a wider range of channels, which will allow for a wider variety of mobile devices to secure a connection.
- Improvements to the straight-line boat control algorithms. This enhancement will provide the users with tighter line following in the GPS course algorithms– user will see improved accuracy to their Course Over Ground (COG) in both Vectoring and Routing. Behind the scenes here at ProNav, we have spent significant time dialing in the control parameters to provide an experience to the user that is robust and will allow more fish to be caught and memories to be made, as boat control is simpler and requires less thought.
- Enhancements to the sensor algorithms on-board. This provides the ProNav Angler system with higher accuracy and better error rejection.
- Bug Fixes. As in any software project, bugs inevitably come up, and with the ProNav firmware update process the user will be able to access those simply by running the update process.
We recently released a new update to the ProNav iOS mobile app: The major change with this update is integrated Navionics lake maps, now available on the Apple App Store. With your active Navionics subscription, you can have the same industry-leading maps you have in the Navionics Boating app. The maps you will see are the most-up-to-date maps that Navionics offers to the boating community and are equivalent to those found on your Navionics fishing chips. We are continuing to add features that will improve your experience and are looking forward to the release of the Navionics SDK for Android as soon as that is available from Navionics.
Our android app continues to be enhanced: With the next major release, users will see a redesigned user interface. This new design was created by taking in account customer suggestions and ideas. Changes in the live map view screen are going to be the most apparent, with a more intuitive mapping experience and more capabilities to save and organize your favorite fishing spots. Users will also see additional customization options, saved boat tracks, and enhanced route making capabilities.
Looking forward to the 2018 fishing season, ProNav has undertaken significant efforts during this year to provide our customers with the best equipment to make their fishing top-notch. We are in the process of designing a waterproof, feature rich remote control that will change the way you interact with your trolling motor. We anticipate a release for the 2018 season, which will also be backward-compatible with all current ProNav Angler systems, allowing current users to get in on the action. Additionally, we are in development of hardware that will enable compatibility with more motors and have already successfully tested additional motors with our product.
We love to hear from our customers! Most importantly, we need to hear from you when something isn’t quite what you expected, as it helps us to design a better product and user experience. We also enjoy hearing about your successful fishing experiences using ProNav as well as your suggestions and ideas for enhancements that you would like to see. Our customers are our top priority, and we value your opinion. While we’d love to hear how awesome our product is from every single one of you, our innovation does not come from the best features, but from the features that you would like to see improved or features and methods you would like to see added to our product.
Tight Lines!
Nels Benda, PE, Chief Technology Officer | nels@pronavmarine.com