# FIsh Finder batteries - A better solution ??!!



## landyman (Oct 17, 2007)

Sitting here at work nutting out the last details for my impending FF install and dont like the idea of having to secure a big sealed lead acid in the hull..

Now I work in the electronics industry so have access to some pretty cheap bits and am thinking about making up a waterproof box that houses 10x rechargable 2500mAh AA's giving 12v obviously.. These would run the FF easily for longer than I would want to be out there for.. and easier to "clip" in somewhere than a big SLA..

Anyone done something similar - or does everyone just use SLA's because they are the cheapest solution ??


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## landyman (Oct 17, 2007)

Lazybugger said:


> Check out the humble lunchbox
> 
> I don't have a photo of mine to attach from here at work, but if you do a search on the keyword "lunchbox" in the 'rigged kayaks' and 'do it yourself' forums you should pick up a few good pic's on what others have done in the past.


have seen the lunchbox with the big 12v 7ah SLA and that is exactly what I dont want to do.. I am looking for a smaller, neater more efficient solution 8) 8)

thanks


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## Rodman (Jun 29, 2007)

I'm guessing they would cost more than a small 12 volt. Have a look at the 4ah Century at Supercheap, its not as long as the 7ah brick, and they also have smaller ones again, I think they were 1.2ah and 2ah or something from memory, depends on what the sounder draws. Don't look at the other brands, the contacts of these were corroded (in the shop!!).


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## fisher (Aug 30, 2005)

I've gone the 8 x AA's route, but not the rechargable type - secured in a plastic fruit jar surrounded by pool noodle offcuts its light and almost indestructable to either the battery casing or the kayak. I've estimated about 4 hours out of the AA's, which is 2-3 trips (as I turn the sounder off when I don't really need it) - its as waterproof as I need it - there is a tiny hole in the lid that the wires pass through - if water gets in there I've got more worries than killing the sounder! :shock:


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## water_baby (Oct 26, 2005)

pvc tube may be the better way for you then. just cap the ends and turn into 1 big battery. or those adaptor things that hold 10 AAs, like for remote control cars etc. but look in DIY, there are plenty of people who didnt take the SLA route.


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## landyman (Oct 17, 2007)

yep.. I have been looking through my suppliers catalogues and I think I am going to make up a 10x AA pack.. heatshrinked and sealed in a waterproof jiffy style box..

will be nice and neat and can be placed anywhere really.. light, compact, no chance of leakage and cheap enough at my buy prices 8)


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## Gigantor (Jun 27, 2006)

Landyman,

I use the 7ah 12 Volt lead acid in my yak. Works a treat and lasts for a few trips before it needs a charge again. I simply put it in a small dry bag and strap it to the inside of my yak with a velcro strap. Doesn't go anywhere.

I know a few others use a bank of the rechargeable AA batteries too, such as Polylureosis (Ashley). he gave me some great advice on this aspect - as follows:

http://www.kayaksportfishing.com/equipm ... finder.htm

I went down the AA path for a few reasons. 
Size/Weight - Smaller/Lighter than lead acid 
Longevity - Can be charged/discharged many 100's - 1000 times, Can be run dead flat (not recommended for lead acid batteries). 
Flexibility - Can be used in other applications, Can easily buy AA's if you run flat.

Cost wise I think it worked out similar: I ordered them from megapc

http://www.megapc.com.au/category_list. ... _cat_id=31

About $40 for the charger and $40 for batteries. 
The holder I got from Jaycar and was only a couple of $.

The only negative I would say is that you are limited to 2.7 amp hours (2700mah x 10) where you can get sealed lead acid batteries at much larger capacities. (7amp hour seems to be the standard one Kayakers use).

viewtopic.php?t=5932&highlight= 
Ash


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## landyman (Oct 17, 2007)

Gigantor said:


> Landyman,
> 
> I use the 7ah 12 Volt lead acid in my yak. Works a treat and lasts for a few trips before it needs a charge again. I simply put it in a small dry bag and strap it to the inside of my yak with a velcro strap. Doesn't go anywhere.
> 
> ...


yep.. the other oprion would be to get some packs made up like they use in radio control cars.. except get 12v instead of 7.2v ... they come in 4.5ah and some even 5ah.. that would be a neat solution and you could just use some clips to hold it in place...

we have the 12v 7ah SLA here at work that we use for out field test equipment.. so might just experimnet with that tonight.. they just so big and bulky..


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## ManjiMike (Jan 24, 2007)

I use a 7Ah SLA battery because I got it for nix and I already had a charger.

If I hadn't been that fortunate, I most likely have gone the cordless drill battery road - even if I had to buy a new one :lol:

I know the Humminbirds run from 10-20v so an 18v cordless would probably keep you going for a week

Cheers Mike


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## polylureosis (Jul 24, 2006)

Gigantor said:


> I know a few others use a bank of the rechargeable AA batteries too, such as Polylureosis (Ashley). he gave me some great advice on this aspect - as follows:
> 
> http://www.kayaksportfishing.com/equipm ... finder.htm
> 
> ...


And just to let you know I am still very happy with this decision...
I would recommend Sanyo Eneloop batteries, although slightly lower rated mah,they don't go flat between charges like 'normal' NiMh batteries.

Ash


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## landyman (Oct 17, 2007)

polylureosis said:


> Gigantor said:
> 
> 
> > I know a few others use a bank of the rechargeable AA batteries too, such as Polylureosis (Ashley). he gave me some great advice on this aspect - as follows:
> ...


yes, Iv heard good things about the Sanyo's.. however we have access to the Jaycar range at wholesale.. so those are usually the ones I buy 8)


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## Jeffo (Sep 10, 2006)

I have a humminbird Max 10, I use the cordless drill battery system & it works well.

Admittedly my sounder is lower end of the range but I had used it for up to 4 /5 hours a session with no recharge required.


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

2 different yaks, 2 of the same sounders, 2 different soloutions...

* Outfitter - Removable finding system that runs on 8 x AA ( Gets about 12 hours on my Max 10 ).

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4602

Nice and portable, light and fits into my fishfinder mount easily enough ( Not waterproofed )

* Quest - SLA which plugs into permanent system ( Havent charged for weeks so probably 30 + hours ).

Heavy and cumbersome, sits on velcro and holds well enough ( Made a waterproof box, only used in salt )


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## Donutslayer (Jun 9, 2007)

if youve got the sounder on the bench, check to see what current it draws. I was looking for the smallest battery that wouuld run for at least 8 hours at the draw stated in the manual.(400ma with backlight on full) I got a 3.3 Ah SLA.
On the bench i found it was only pulling 150ma with the backlight on. 100ma without. Im now in the position where it lasts dam near forever so when i am running out of juice i forget to charge it. Devastating.


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## Guest (Nov 2, 2007)

I just bought my sounder and am looking for a battery now. I'm looking at the 7.2ah 12v for around $30 and charger for $25

Does that sound about right?


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## mcbigg (Jul 14, 2007)

I use a 12V cordless drill battery. I bought the drill from K-mart for $11 when they had them on special a few months ago. I cut the handle off the drill, soldered the contacts to the sounder cables and araldited it upside down to the base of the kayak, under my front hatch. When I go out, I simply open the front hatch, clip in the battery just like clipping it into the drill and it gives me more than 8hrs of continuous use (two decent trips out for me). When I get home, I take the battery out and and whack it in the charger that came with the drill and it's ready to go again the next day. The drill was so cheap I bought two and so I carry a spare battery, but have never needed to use it.

Cheers.


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## Guest (Nov 2, 2007)

> Zone you can pick up the battery for about $19-$20 from Jaycar, I think Battery World was about double that when I was looking around.


Thanks Lazybugger. That's one of the things about this forum, other peoples former ground work can save a lot of running around.

Interesting mcbigg, you pose an interesting idea. Hmmmmmmm $11 you say! :shock: Obviously a cheap Chinese brand or something to get it on special for that.

It's going to be fun working out how I am going to mount and position the battery.


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## Biggera Yakker (Jan 25, 2007)

That's a great idea mcbigg!!
Having the handle of the drill makes the perfect craddle for the battery!!


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## Gordon (Oct 14, 2007)

Hey guys im new here. Ive been looking for a few weeks as to what to do about batteries for my sounder. Ive devided im going to use eneloop;s (10x) in a sealed container with brass terminals.

Rather than pull it appart to charge the batteries im going to get one of these

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BNIB-Swallow-2-A ... dZViewItem

It will happily charge 10 NiMh cells from AC or DC. (there is a cheaper version but none on ebay at the moment). This way at the end of the day all I need to do is connect 2 wires from the chager to the terminals and wait a few hours. The chager has an auto-cutoff too which prevents overcharging.


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## landyman (Oct 17, 2007)

greyburn said:


> Hey guys im new here. Ive been looking for a few weeks as to what to do about batteries for my sounder. Ive devided im going to use eneloop;s (10x) in a sealed container with brass terminals.
> 
> Rather than pull it appart to charge the batteries im going to get one of these
> 
> ...


I used to use a Swallow 2 charger on my RC Crawler buggies.. they work pretty well HOWEVER if you can find a charger with a user settable "Delta Peak V" setting - they are better.. basically what happens is when your NimH batteries are fully charge the voltage in the cells actually starts to drop.. this drop (or delta V) is what alerts the charger to the batteries being fully charged.. Chargers that auto-detect this delta V sometimes "miss" this drop and overcharge the cells OR see a small drop too early and undercharge them..

Nonetheless - the Swallow2 has served me well.. just cycle the cells every 4 charges with a small trickle charge or 1% or their capacity.. i.e. a 2500maH @ 0.25a


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## Gordon (Oct 14, 2007)

thanks for the tip's, much appreciated. Do you know of any reasonably priced delta V chargers?


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## landyman (Oct 17, 2007)

Rightio.. so I think I have come up with a solution for me that works..

What I have done is raided my radio control gear and taken 2x 7.2V stick packs which are 4200mAh and soldered them in series to provide 14.4V

I purchased a small IP67 rated waterproof "jiffy" box and will hot glue the 2 packs in there with an inline fuse and run the wires out a small flange in the box..

Weight of 12V 7aH SLA - 2.4kg
Weight of 14.4V 4.2 Ah NiMH - 1kg

the pic below shows the difference in size.. plus I have room in there for adding more fuses etc for when I want to add nav lights in the future..

as for the charger.. Supernova 3000's can be had cheap.. as can ICE chargers..


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## Sunhobie (Jun 22, 2006)

Donutslayer said:


> if youve got the sounder on the bench, check to see what current it draws. I was looking for the smallest battery that wouuld run for at least 8 hours at the draw stated in the manual.(400ma with backlight on full) I got a 3.3 Ah SLA.
> On the bench i found it was only pulling 150ma with the backlight on. 100ma without. Im now in the position where it lasts dam near forever so when i am running out of juice i forget to charge it. Devastating.


I only ever use a 3.3 AH. Lasts longer than I can sit in a kayak and weighs half the weight.


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## Baldy (Oct 1, 2007)

Gday all

I remember reading somewhere recently[could have been here] about the batterys in those jumpstarter packs you can get at supercheap and the like. dont quote me on this but I think they said they are a compact battery for their power. Some of the lower rated ones can be had fairly cheap to I think.

I guess someone with a head for electronics might be able to make use of the inbuilt charge system they have.
Might be good for someone who wants a semi permanant install for their battery. Run an extention lead to the Yak and plug it in!

Just thought I'd mention it, seems like theres alot of options. I like the cutoff drill handle idea, thats very clever 

cheers
Baldy


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## xerubus (May 17, 2007)

I was using a 12v 7ah battery from whitworths, but found the charge time was too long, and I'm one of those freaks that doesn't like to leave things charging or turned on when i'm not at home. 

So last night I grabbed a 8 AA battery holder from DSE for $3 odd dollars, grabbed a 9v wire connector, and connected the sounder to it. Inserted batteries, and voila. Checked sounder, and it was running at 12.3v with a runtime of 19 hours. Got to be happy with that.


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## mikepapow (Sep 11, 2007)

mcbig love your use of the cordless drill mate... great stuff


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## mcbigg (Jul 14, 2007)

mikepapow said:


> mcbig love your use of the cordless drill mate... great stuff


Thanks, I'm happy with how it worked out.

The idea to use a drill battery was one I pinched from someone else on this forum, who was using one.

The idea to use the cut-off handle, was a moment of clarity I had when I was trying to work out how to mount the battery. Using the handle just seemed to make sense. The ease of being able to click it in and out quickly without connecting and disconnecting wires really appealed to me.

The fact the the drill was so cheap made the decision to chop the handle an easy one.


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