Hobie Cat Forums

I'm considering the new Lowrance Elite 4 DSI for my Outback and was wondering which battery and setup would work best? Any ideas would be helpful.

I have a 12 volt 7 amp rechargeable battery that came with a charger from Cabelas for $29. I'm It will work perfect.

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Rob Milam

http://www.Mariner-Kayaks.com
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Hi I have the same Cabelas battery set up and it works fine. I get several trips out of one battery charge. Rickashay52

Thank you, I'll check out Cabela's.

I also use a 12V, 8AH battery that I bought from Batteries plus. The brand is Werker and they have 8AH, 7AH, 5.5AH, 5AH, 3.3AH models. They do not come with a charger, but I already had one (basically a car battery charger). The Cabela's price sounds hard to beat, but I am not sure what shipping would be on a battery. If you already have a charger then looking at a Batteries plus (or equivalent local battery store) might make sense.

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Fish tremble when they hear my name

A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for.
--John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic, 1928

Okay. Thank you for that. I will try local battery outlets too since shipping is definitely expensive. Someone mentioned maybe a motorcycle battery would work as long as it is sealed, so there is something else to check out. I think my problem is I don't know all the particulars to look for when shopping for a fishfinder battery. One with a quick disconnect type plug connected to protected battery terminals would be nice, but I haven't found anything like that yet. Maybe that's an accessory.

Three years ago I bought a Fisher-Price "power wheels", 12 V, 9.5 A/H, sealed battery.
It comes with a automatic charger.....has performed flawlessly to date.
Paid about $55 at wally-world.
I have never run down the battery....even after 3 day's of fishing while powering my Humminbird model 768 combo gps/fish finder.
The battery is very robust as kids electric cars give these batteries a serious workout.

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Dr.SteelheadCatcher
Hood River, OR

Thank you for the great information. I will definitely check that out at my local Super Center. I've been looking for "fishfinder batteries", not "kids' electric car batteries". What a hoot. Thanks again for the detailed information.

New member and my first post. I bought a PA last week and have been researching this issue extensively.

A basic fishfinder like the Humminbird PMax 170 pulls about 250 mAh, which isn't a lot. If my math is right, that means it will use about 1 full amp in four hours.

I plan to use an 8-battery holder for rechargeable AA NiMh rechargeables at first. The holders can be found at Radio Shack. It will fit in a small Lock-n-Lock type food container. Eight AA's will give 12 volts and many hours of use.

If I find I need more capacity, I have read about people using batteries for ATV, jet ski, and even electric drills. Those require building some sort of waterproof box.

I have also found a slick 7 Ah battery that comes in a waterproof box. It is meant for trail cameras, and costs $43 complete with charger. It is the Spy Point KIT 12v and is sold through Sears, Cabela's, Gander Mountain, K-Mart, and more.

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Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult
Pro Angler-14 owner

I use a 10-pack of AA-rechargable batteries. The 8 pack would work for me on shorter trips, but the 10 pack lasts all day. My ff shuts off around 8.3 v.

I have a Lowrance 68c color duel sonar/gps unit.

HB

this is what i am using, from batteries plus if you have one near by, maybe wallly world has something similar. 36.99

http://www.batteriesplus.com/product_se ... 2--7F.aspx

3 8hr outings and still goin strong with my humminbird 597 ci hd di. probably due for some charging tho.

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2011 Hobie Pro Angler - Papaya
2012 Hobie Tandem Island - Papaya

Check out this thread on NWKA site. http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/in ... pic=7606.0

I've been using the Lowrance 4X DSI unit for about a month now and will offer these comments -

The DSI system is great, sort of. The image (not actual video but generated by the onboard software which interprets the signals) is fantastic, but very, very, very hard to see. There is no "auto-depth" feature so you don't make full use of the screen, which is small to begin with. For instance, if you set it for 40-feet depths, and you run in water that is only 20 feet deep, the bottom half of the screen is black, unused. So now you're only looking at the top half. The image doesn't automatically stretch to the bottom and enlarge as it does on the traditional type sonar units.

Screen glare is a major issue due to the background color necessary to show the DSI images. Between the glare and size issues, I have had to relocate my unit to within 2 feet of me so I can lean forward and get my nose close to the screen to really see what's going on. I suspect the second generation of the DSI units will show improvements in these areas. Hopefully anyway.

I know the issue of this thread was batteries so I'll add this - I'm getting just as much battery life when using the DSI as I did my older Eagle 350C. So current draw appears to be about the same. Whatever worked on your traditional color sonar unit should work as well and as long on the newer DSI units.

wow! I'm goin that route! lookin to get a 9800mah which would turn out to be a 9.8ah battery, which should last quite a bit longer and weigh next to nothing!

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2011 Hobie Pro Angler - Papaya
2012 Hobie Tandem Island - Papaya

I have the Elite 4 Gold in my AI and use the Sevylor 12V Battery. Because nothing is perfect I added a second battery in case of failure. Hindsight being 20-20, once the Sevylor is no longer serviceable I will create a small bank of my secondary connected in Parallel.
What am I using for the secondary? LOL a Hi-Cap Laptop battery. Small, long vs more square BUT long life and very light. Connect in Parallel and increase the capacity not the voltage!
Laptops batteries are designed to discharge and recharge many times.

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Mark AKA: River
2011 AI in Red hibiscus
Lowrance Elite 4
2 12V 700ma batteries in Parallel
Solar charging
Ritchie Compass