Fish Finder Battery Installation

HELP! Where is the best location to secure the battery for the fishfinder in a P15? After reading as much as I could find, I now think I bought the wrong battery  . It's a 12v 10ah. I'm thinking I should return it and get the 12v 7ah battery. Does the battery need to be tied down inside the yak?  Cannot find pictures on the forums of the battery mounts. For some reason I cannot open the X attachment to the threads. Nothing happens. Would appreciate any advise and photos.

Thanks
Ben

Ben it depends on your power needs. I have a FF w/gps and its burns a little more juice. I'm using 12aa rechargeables that last a long day or more. If I use my livewell and FF a 7ah gell cell will last all day. The 10ah should give you many days of FF use but it weighs a ton.

You're battery will work fine.  Actually it will work longer than a 7aH battery, but it's probably a bit large and heavy.  A lot of people here have switched over to a set of rechargeable AA batteries.  Here's Sean "Scwafish"'s article on the "New School Power Supply". http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?page=19

I'm still old school and have a heavy battery much like yours.  Basically follow along with Scwafish's advice, but get a box big enough for your battery.  As for where to put it in the kayak.  I found that a nice central location is best.  If you have a center hatch that the battery box will fit through you can put the battery box in there and use either a big piece of velcro or some sort of bungie/clip system to tie the box to a scupper hole post inside your kayak.

Brian

If you want to use a gelcell, you can get them much smaller than 7ah and stll get a full day of fishing.  Interstate sells a 3.3 that is reasonable light and will still run most ff's about 10 hours.

Fishshim, bsteves, scwafish,

I truly appreciate your responding. That AA cell battery pack is pretty slick and definitely cuts down on the weight. I'm only operating the fish finder (no gps) so I think I'm going to go that route. Not only will it provide the power I need, it will also be much easier to mount being much lighter.  Thanks again for the advise, you really helped to ease my frustration.

Ben

Has anyone ever tried a 1.2amp battery?  The size/weight seems very appealing when compared to my current 7amp.

I'm curious about the battery life to run just a FF.


There are a few listed on ebay, but here is one for e.g.

http://cgi.ebay.com/12-Volt-1-2-Amp-Sealed-Lead-Acid-Rechargeable-Battery_W0QQitemZ270143149189QQihZ017QQcategoryZ40975QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

Stuart

Stuart,

I'm sure some of the electrical engineers here will correct me, but I'm pretty sure an 1.2 aH (amp hour) battery means that it can deliver 1.2 amps of power for an hour or .12 amps for 10 hours or 12 amps for 6 minutes.

I don't know the specs on your particular fish finder, but the Cuda 242 with the backlight off runs on 170 milliAmps or 0.17 Amps.  So in theory, after doing the math we find that 1.2 aH/.17a =~ 7 hours of run time for that battery/fish finder combo.

I guess that means my big ol' 7aH battery will run my fish finder for about 40 hrs.  Given that I charge it about every 10th trip, I'd say that's about right.

Brian

Hey Ben,

Here's what I did - I found a foam block and shaped it into the size of the tupper wear battery container and gooped it inside the hull of my P-15. The tupper wear now fits snug in the foam block....

here's some pics:

Thanks for the explanation Brian.

I hate carrying the 7a lead brick.  I just might go the route of the 1.2 for day use and use the 7 for multiday trips.

Stuart

Stu,

They have the 1.2Ah batteries at Fry's.  I just picked up a 4Ah.  Smaller than the 7 but still quite heavy.  If they had a 2.4Ah that would be a perfect balance of size and duration.

Kevin

They have those batteries in every possible Ah imaginable if you look around.

Just a stupid question, do we really care about 5lbs of weight, does it make a difference in the boat?

I have been using the 7ah battery for over a year now and I have yet to run out of power charge about every 4th trip

If you keep it simple and shave weight in a few places it can add up and make a noticable difference.

Just ask that same ? half way UP the hill at ELK!!!!
  6 days and counting. Hoo Ya!!!
 I recieved an early B-day gift Yday. I am going for a shopping spree. wetsuit is on its way 2.5 mil farmer. Vhf and ff today or tomorrow. If I dont sleep I might get PS and ff installed before Elk.

Hey Ben,

Here's what I did - I found a foam block and shaped it into the size of the tupper wear battery container and gooped it inside the hull of my P-15. The tupper wear now fits snug in the foam block....

here's some pics:

Thanks Mooch,

I've got the transducer and FF installed. I still don't have a perminate mount for the battery. I'll need to look for a foam block. Do you know if the battery can be used on it's side?

Ben