Shark Shield voltage meter mod

The early versions of Freedom 7 (GU1000A and GU1000B) have a design flaw. You will never know how much charge you have in the Shark Shield. The only time you know is when battery is fully charged, or when it is fully depleted. This is not only inconvenient, it prevents you from being able to properly care for the battery. You are supposed to store the battery with about 50-60% charge.

I sourced the thinnest 3S voltage meter I could find, and modded it so that it could be triggered by a reed switch (similar to what SS uses). This allows me to piggyback on the SS switch (the big red knob).



Then glued the meter to the only spot inside the case that could fit it, as well as gluing the reed switch close to the SS power switch. This would allow me to operate the meter by leveraging the SS switch. While the switch is in-between the Off and On position, the meter would come on. But at exactly Off or On, the reed switch is deactivated. Therefore, the meter would not be drawing power while SS is positioned at Off or On.


The result...


And while charging, you can also turn the switch to somewhere in-between Off/On, and be able to see the current voltage.


The only caveat of this mod is that you need to make sure the Big Red Knob switch is not left at in-between Off/On, so that the meter does not continuously draw power. If meter is left running, it would eventually deplete the battery. The meter itself is not designed to run continuously.


ernest

Awesome mod. Very ingenious.

My shark shield is newer version so doesn't have this issue. I've followed your and Nowhere man's battery mod,  another great mod. I'll definitely be referring back to that once the battery on mine craps out.

Just wanted to give Ernest a shout out... 

Ive been chatting with him over the last month to adapt my SS (type C) to be powered by a Nocqua 12V battery.  I had it all prepared, then got covid.  Fast forward 3 weeks and  we finally met up.  After a few flying sparks and soldiering fun, we installed and tested the setup on thursday last week.  I then took it to the cove this past weekend and powered it OTW for 7 hours straight!  I confirmed it the old fashion way and yep! - it was working.  I am super stoked to have a successful test, and cant recommend it enough for those that want to extend the time OTW without using 2 SSs.  Here is a picture of my newly improved shark shield, after some cable management.  Much thanks to Ernest for all of the support!  You're the man! 

A couple of awesome mods here.

I'm getting a new/used SS and will do some more experiments with my old one to see if it's salvageable. I'm hoping to run it off my FF battery.

Hey Nolan, thanks for confirming your setup worked. When I have some free time, I may make available a couple more of those voltage converters. For SS model "C", it is a drop-in module. No mod needed. You just need to handle the external input power, which you could use my SS external power plug... http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=98036.0

This is the drop-in module handling DC 10-16v input converting it down to DC ~8v. A totally reversible mod. I'll provide more info in a new thread when I can make more of these converters.

Just wanted to give Ernest a shout out... 

Ive been chatting with him over the last month to adapt my SS (type C) to be powered by a Nocqua 12V battery.  I had it all prepared, then got covid.  Fast forward 3 weeks and  we finally met up.  After a few flying sparks and soldiering fun, we installed and tested the setup on thursday last week.  I then took it to the cove this past weekend and powered it OTW for 7 hours straight!  I confirmed it the old fashion way and yep! - it was working.  I am super stoked to have a successful test, and cant recommend it enough for those that want to extend the time OTW without using 2 SSs.  Here is a picture of my newly improved shark shield, after some cable management.  Much thanks to Ernest for all of the support!  You're the man!

This is so cool! The DIY junkie in me wants to tear mine apart and do this but I don't feel like I can justify it yet as mine is only 1 year old. Maybe when the OEM battery starts to loose health. There is something quite satisfying about taking a mass-produced product and making it better. Great work to you both.

Question--are the two batteries (stock and nocqua) wired in parallel or is the stock battery disabled now and only running the SS on the Nocqua?

Just wanted to give Ernest a shout out... 

Ive been chatting with him over the last month to adapt my SS (type C) to be powered by a Nocqua 12V battery.  I had it all prepared, then got covid.  Fast forward 3 weeks and  we finally met up.  After a few flying sparks and soldiering fun, we installed and tested the setup on thursday last week.  I then took it to the cove this past weekend and powered it OTW for 7 hours straight!  I confirmed it the old fashion way and yep! - it was working.  I am super stoked to have a successful test, and cant recommend it enough for those that want to extend the time OTW without using 2 SSs.  Here is a picture of my newly improved shark shield, after some cable management.  Much thanks to Ernest for all of the support!  You're the man!

This is so cool! The DIY junkie in me wants to tear mine apart and do this but I don't feel like I can justify it yet as mine is only 1 year old. Maybe when the OEM battery starts to loose health. There is something quite satisfying about taking a mass-produced product and making it better. Great work to you both.

Question--are the two batteries (stock and nocqua) wired in parallel or is the stock battery disabled now and only running the SS on the Nocqua?

As Ernest mentioned, the setup is totally reversible with the Type C SS.  Simply unplug the original battery (Im storing it in case I want to revert it back), and plug in the voltage controller, adapt the plug to accept a battery, and done.  Its a great setup.  I did spend some time gooping and greasing it up for waterproofing. 

Ernest,

I have one sharkshield that only last 2hrs. Is there hope for it to run from my Nocqua? Thank you.

Ernest,

I have one sharkshield that only last 2hrs. Is there hope for it to run from my Nocqua? Thank you.

I don't see why not. If it's model "A" or "B", you don't even need a voltage converter. You only need to solder two wires inside the unit. But, you also have the option of just replacing the battery pack.

Ernest,

I have one sharkshield that only last 2hrs. Is there hope for it to run from my Nocqua? Thank you.

I don't see why not. If it's model "A" or "B", you don't even need a voltage converter. You only need to solder two wires inside the unit. But, you also have the option of just replacing the battery pack.

How do I know the model? Thanks

The last letter of the model number on the back of the unit. I sent you a pm.

Thank you to Ernest.

Your Shark Shield Voltage Converter is a genius idea and works perfectly.
Thank you again for your outstanding help.  Just finished setting up on my Outback and will be setting up our Oasis this weekend. 
Mounted a weatherproof SAE socket near where I like to deploy my SS.  Please see the attached photos for details.

Paul

That's great. It's interesting to see how people configure their setup.

ernest