nice job, very clean. patent pending?...

Very sweet. I'm sure you will be happy with it. The best thing is the super small size, weight, and great features of the newer finder units. And cheap. You can't beat that!

Moonman.

all done!
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ive got the plastic mount for the underside of the hull created and it just needs to be sanded and shaped, pics to come soon

excellent info! i got the monitor mounted on a piece of plastic  with velcro so its easily moveable to either seat of the canoe or other canoes. all you need it a 4" x 2" strip of the hooks side of velcro and you are ready to go. i plan to make a streamlined piece for the transducer mount as well, although that isnt going as smoothly as i had hoped. im struggling to design the bracket to be thick enough to securely hold the screws, but also thin and streamlined enough to eliminate most of the drag. the suction cup unit has quite a large plastic piece used to secure the cup so im leaning away from that plan.

Magicpaddler wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2012 at 4:42pm:

Re: Lithium vs Alkaline batteries.
Magic Paddler is correct about the voltage differences between the two types of batteries. Additionally each type "decays" with slightly different characteristics. With alkaline batteries there is initially a fairly quick drop in voltage to about 11.5 volts and then the drop becomes very gradual. You may not notice it but performance is also decreasing gradually as the voltage drops. First thing you may notice is that your locater will not find the bottom in very deep water. That starts happening at about 10.5 volts and is generally not a big problem as far as fishing goes since you're not going to be fishing bottom in over 100' anyway. You also might notcie the display becomes a bit lighter and more difficult to read in bright light. All of that said, with alkaline batteries your locater will probably function reasonably well all the way down to about 9 volts as long as you fish in less than 60' of water. The good thing is that you can constantly track the decay of alkaline batteries and predict when and what the problems are going to be.
Lithium batteries behave differently. As MP pointed out they start at a higher voltage and maintain that higher overall voltage much longer than Alkaline batteries providing much better performance for a much longer period of time. The problem is that once the voltage drops below 11 the decay can become quite rapid and unpredictable with a variety of problems in the performance of the locater. Weird stuff can happen like the locater will not  turn on the next morning or it turns off unexpectedly or the display gets unreadable etc. Regardless of these minor annoyances lithium batteries will outperform alkalines throughout their lifespan which is somewhere between 5 and 7 times alkaline batteries. Yes, they are worth their much higher cost.

mine came with a 3a fuze and housing for it. i have it all set up. runs on 8 aa batteries on a $3 thing from radio shack. reads as 12.5 volts. i got the battery pack in the long slender shape so it fits inside one of my small waterproof tackle trays that velcros everywhere. thanks for the great info!!

no it didn't come with fuse parts but i did get the in-line fuse holder and fuses from radioshack. i also used a 'project' box that they sold for 3.00 to house the batteries n such but really don't like it. very small metal screws thread into plastic. the box moonman used sounds like a far better casing.

moonman wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2012 at 6:48pm:


A 3 amp fuse is relatively common for this kind of unit.  It should be placed on the hot (red wire) side.   Accidental grounding is your biggest risk of a power surge ... like, say, getting water in the circuit some where (and when does THIS ever happen on a canoe trip!).

dd

Fuse is necessary for safety of the unit but there should be one inline on the power cords that come with the unit. It will work without the fuse but you are taking a risk re a power surge.

Moonamn.