Fishfinder Battery / Lowrance Elite 4 Combo Gold

I have the same problem Martin. I'm going to do some voltage/amperage testing to see what the problem might be. Could run the elite 4x all day and then some on a 12v 7ahr . Now with the elite 5 sonar/gps its more like 6hrs. and then it starts acting goofy. When I test for voltage only it shows 12.38v.  Haven't tested amps, draw, voltage drop yet.

Thanks.
Tim

I wouldn't be surprised if your battery was going bad. I'm using a 5ah sealed lead acid & get over 12 hours on my Elite4. Looking to make the switch to a Lithium battery this year to save on weight.

Make sure the light is off too if you can. My battery will last two average days usually. Not two 12 hour days though. On day on the coast my battery died in about 5-6 hours. I wondered wtf. Found my light was on high power all day and killed it. Same battery now gets the same as it used to with he light off. GPS and FF on my HB 768.

I wouldn't be surprised if your battery was going bad. I'm using a 5ah sealed lead acid & get over 12 hours on my Elite4.

Tim, that is strange. I get a full day, maybe 7 hrs or so on a 7ah with my Elte7 HDI and still have about 40% left. It is a new battery, maybe 5 months old.
For $25 bucks or so, I plan to replace mine yearly.

Mike

Rob, I'll  check into that also. Thanks.

Mike, The battery is more like a year or so old. I'm going to test  them out and I have 2 of them one newer than the other.
Mike I'm probably going to PM you with additional questions/concerns.

Thanks,
Tim

Alright Martin.  I believe the type of battery that you are using is rated at 7 AH and if I understand you right that fishfinder which also has the GPS and draws .75 amps an hour.  By my calculations, you should be getting about 9.3 hours of battery life with that battery.

The realities of batteries mean you really only want to discharge them no more than 50%.  Regular discharge below this will substantially reduce the lifetime of your battery.  Add to this the 80% rule that FFTC quoted previously.  Doing the math means you really want .75*8/.5/.8=15AH battery for regular usage of 8 hours between charging.

-Allen

Damn!  How big is a 15AMH battery compared to an 8AMH?  I think I might need to tow another vessel just to hold the battery. 

Damn!  How big is a 15AMH battery compared to an 8AMH?  I think I might need to tow another vessel just to hold the battery.

]

Well, I have the same issues with a Humminbird 597 HD CI that draws 615 mA.  I'm still using a 7AH battery with this.  A couple of things.  As wingshooter mentioned, I plan on (and have been) replacing it at a yearly rate.  And as RacinRob pointed out, I am much more aware of the backlight setting and reduce this as much as possible, whereas with other fishfinders I've had that draw less current, I never paid attention to this.

I am, however, exploring other battery options for the coming year, but don't have enough time on them to really comment ... yet!

-Allen

Anyone know if it's possible to turn off or disable GPS on the Elite-4?  I'd like to do this when out on a lake to save on batteries.  I use AAs and my batteries usually last 1.5 trips out on a lake.  I know when the batteries start to get low because its starts to flicker white vertical bars on the sonar screen.

I wouldn't be surprised if your battery was going bad. I'm using a 5ah sealed lead acid & get over 12 hours on my Elite4.

Tim, that is strange. I get a full day, maybe 7 hrs or so on a 7ah with my Elte7 HDI and still have about 40% left. It is a new battery, maybe 5 months old.
For $25 bucks or so, I plan to replace mine yearly.

Mike

What is strange?  When I said "over 12" I mean maybe 18 hours total. I'm not 100% sure of the exact time & it might even be more on a perfect weather day. I've noticed that the battery would drop below the needed voltage earlier on the second day if the air temp was either very cold or very hot. I know it never would go 24 hours total but it's only a 5ah & just a little more than half the size of the big brick 7ah that are more common.

As far as getting myself a new battery I just stole my Shorai 9ah lipo battery out of my dirt bike. Weighs about one lb & I could probably fish for 2-12 hour days on it. At $95 it wasn't cheap but since I already have it......might as well give it a try & shave my weight down by 3lbs or so.

I wouldn't be surprised if your battery was going bad. I'm using a 5ah sealed lead acid & get over 12 hours on my Elite4.

Tim, that is strange. I get a full day, maybe 7 hrs or so on a 7ah with my Elte7 HDI and still have about 40% left. It is a new battery, maybe 5 months old.
For $25 bucks or so, I plan to replace mine yearly.

Mike

What is strange?  When I said "over 12" I mean maybe 18 hours total. I'm not 100% sure of the exact time & it might even be more on a perfect weather day. I've noticed that the battery would drop below the needed voltage earlier on the second day if the air temp was either very cold or very hot. I know it never would go 24 hours total but it's only a 5ah & just a little more than half the size of the big brick 7ah that are more common.

As far as getting myself a new battery I just stole my Shorai 9ah lipo battery out of my dirt bike. Weighs about one lb & I could probably fish for 2-12 hour days on it. At $95 it wasn't cheap but since I already have it......might as well give it a try & shave my weight down by 3lbs or so.

Id like to see how this does. Ever since I put a Shorai in my dirtbike Ive been thinking it would be great for the kayak. They are unbelievably light for the amps.

Yeah I'll definitely report back on this. I just weighed it & it came in at 1lb 5.5oz. That's close to 3lbs less than my 5ah SLA. That Zippy 5000mah looks pretty good for $37 at HobbyKing online though.

You can always look into LiFePO4.  Especially, the Lead Acid replicable battery type. 

http://www.batteryspace.com/Li-Ion-Batteries-To-Replace-Lead-Acid-Batteries.aspx

I have used LiFePO4 batteries from battery space for 4 years. They work great. Light weight and compact.

I run 5Ah Lipos on my Elite 5 DSI and never have run out but the longest I ran on a single charge was about 10hrs.

I use (2) 5Ah, 2S Lipos in series to get 14.8V. I use a balancing charger supplied by a server power supply capable 72A on the 12V rail. I balance charge the Lipos in parallel at 1C normally (10A) so I'm charged up in hour. The batteries I have are rated for a 2C charge so I can charge in 30mins if needed. If I need more capacity I can just add more batteries.

Yeah, pretty geeky and way overkill but needed the charger stuff for another project.

 

Well, I hit the water yesterday. Started by reducing the backlighting to 6-7 and used the standby mode when needed. Also ran it in 83 kHz for most of the day if that made a difference I don't know.[ just playing around with it to get to know the unit]
Started the day @ 9am with battery voltage @ 12.87 Trolled around and off the water @ 3:15 with a voltage @ 12.50
With no glitches or screen flashing and going black It was a whole lot better than the last couple of times out.
One of the two batteries is no good . Its not taking and holding a good charge. Seems to drop off after a load has been put on it. Thanks to all for the great input and I will be buying a new battery soon.


Thanks,
Tim