Android wrote on Feb 11^th, 2011 at 11:08am:

It IS quick and easy.  Still I'd recommend putting a fuse clip of some kind in the line.  I used a small blade fuse unit and carry a couple of spare fuses on a trip.

OK.  That's the easy part.  Cutting out 20 or so feet of transponder cable and splicing it back together ... that's a bit more tedious.

dd

Never mind DD I figured it out by looking at the pictures of the products on Radio Shacks web site. Looks easy! the holder costs $2.50 and the 9 volt clip cost about 2 or 3 bucks. Cheap and easy!

Hey DD,

I was lookin' at buying a locator for this seasons trip. Then I saw your suggestion of the 8 "AA" holder and thought, "I have an older locator I could just convert!". The battery holder only costs about $2.50.

Here is my question. Could you (or anyone else who has preformed this operation) give us a link to a thread or picture that show a detailed description of preforming this conversion?
Thanks

If you get better detector performance out of lithium than alkaline it is a sign your detector is voltage starved.  I would recommend Lithium if you are using 8 batteries on a detector. For 4 reasons
1 more power per pound of battery.
2 more power per battery.
3 better voltage match to load.
4 better discharge characteristics (voltage does not droop until the battery is almost dead).

Quote:

I run a lithium AA 8-pak.  Seems to be enough to carry me for a two week trip (under moderate use).  As a matter of fact, on the last trip I pulled a couple out to put into my GPS who's batt's had succumb (since I wasn't fishing my way out to the exit).  I've used the GPS several times since my trip and the batt's seem to still be going strong.

dd

Most depth finders are designed to operate in a motor boat with a car type battery.  12 volt car batteries are about 14 volts and when charging are about 16 Volts. I have read where others (Jimbo) reported his detector worked better on lithium batteries.  He was using 8 AA batteries.  Lithium batteries are a little higher voltage than alkaline batteries.  I use a power hog detector so I need to use C cells to operate it for a week (C actually last quite long).  I found the detector did not work well and got lower performing as the week went along running on 8 C cells.  I changed to 10 alkaline C cells and the detector worked very well.  When the 10 batteries are fully charged the detector is getting about 16 volts which is not higher than what it could be in a running motor boat.  The detector seems to work quite well ( can pick up a rubber twisty tail) between 12 and 16 volts.

Snow_Dog wrote on Feb 10^th, 2011 at 1:03am:


Get two of the 8 pak battery holders, put your backup batteries in the backup holder. Tape all batteries in their holders with a few wraps of electrical tape. Then, when your initial set dies after about 5-6 days of heavy use, it's a simple matter to swap the whole set. Quick & easy.

PB, yes, you will catch more & bigger waldos if you are fishing where they hang out. I don't actually 'mark' waldos hanging on the bottom, but I can read the structure to determine where they are if they are home. I do see suspended fish which can serve as an indicator.

I'd love to know the percentage of QJ members who use or don't use fish finders in the QP or BWCA.

I've never used one.  Always caught enough fish to eat. 

Would I catch more and bigger fish if I had one?  Probably.  Would I catch more walleye?  That would be enough incentive for me to bring one!

prouboy

moonman wrote on Feb 10^th, 2011 at 2:59am:

I just made a tilt/swivel mount for my Eagle to fit the round thwarts on my Prism.

dd

Yup - AA is the way to go. After reading Denton Doc and others posting about converting standard, non portable finders it seems fairly straightforward. One of the reasons I'm not looking at the Garmin 150 is that its  200 watt rms model so more power consumption. The only thing I'm not sure about yet with the Garmin is the screen readability in direct sunlight. I'm used to eagle products and always found seeing the screen in sunlight fine with them. what I do like is the look of the tilt and swivel mount. Looking forward to seeing an actual unit when they come out in a couple months.

Moonman.