BWCA Fish Finder: Garmin Striker 4cv (100% portable) Boundary Waters Gear Forum
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rayljr1
senior member (68)senior membersenior member
  
04/02/2019 06:49PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
So, earlier (or more like late 2018) I asked about using a fish finder and any experiences anyone may have had with one.

Well after a bit of research and videos, I purchased the Garmin Striker 4 cv (top model) and I believe have created a very, very portable way to use it.

So here is the scenario. I will be going with a friend June 17th. It is his canoe. We portage in pretty deep to start usually. I needed the unit to be completely portable with easy battery options.

So, I have neatly attached the transducer to a 1 liter (empty) water bottle to act as a float. I have created a 12v battery box that uses 8 AA batteries from a hobby battery box I found on Amazon. I got a water-tight small plano tackle box (perfect size and less than $6 on Amazon. I drilled a hole in the back, ran the power cable through, and silicone'd it up (doesn't look so great back there, but should be water tight).

I have not field tested it yet, but I know the transducer floats well (tested in the sink) and the battery pack works fine (just have to take about 24-32 AA batteries with me for the trip).

So as I ride in the front of the canoe, I can just sit the transducer float device in the water, and attach it with a string. It will glide along, and should work just fine.

I hope to get some pictures and maybe a video of the setup soon that I can post.

Wish me luck!
 
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04/02/2019 07:24PM  
Is there a reason you aren’t shooting through the hull? Being able to use it at traveling speed is really nice when you are trolling cranks or looking for structure.
 
rayljr1
senior member (68)senior membersenior member
  
04/02/2019 10:07PM  
From what I have seen, in order to shoot it through the hull, you need to set up something to put water in, and then put it in. It is not my canoe, so I would not be able to do anything like that.
 
walleyevision
distinguished member (246)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/02/2019 10:48PM  
rayljr1: "From what I have seen, in order to shoot it through the hull, you need to set up something to put water in, and then put it in. It is not my canoe, so I would not be able to do anything like that. "


No water needed. Stick a glob of plumbers putty on the floor of the canoe and smoosh the transducer into it. Done. Perfect readings every time. At the end of the trip, peel the putty off, easy peasy.
 
GickFirk22
distinguished member (175)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/03/2019 10:52AM  
walleyevision: "
rayljr1: "From what I have seen, in order to shoot it through the hull, you need to set up something to put water in, and then put it in. It is not my canoe, so I would not be able to do anything like that. "



No water needed. Stick a glob of plumbers putty on the floor of the canoe and smoosh the transducer into it. Done. Perfect readings every time. At the end of the trip, peel the putty off, easy peasy."


Walleyevision Does your plumbers putty trick work on Aluminum canoes?
 
walleyevision
distinguished member (246)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/03/2019 11:42AM  
Yes. Just make sure to wipe away any dirt or grime to get better adhesion.
 
04/10/2019 07:39AM  
Nice trick with the plumbers putty, I’d also say is isn’t often there isn’t a tiny bit of water in my canoe and I just set the transducer under the seat in it. If not just splash a little bit from your paddle. It doesn’t take much. Occasionally I kick it over but then you can tell because the readings go crazy, but much better than the drag on your canoe IMHO.

T
 
04/10/2019 08:05AM  
I have a Garmin Striker 4. I just take a 4x4 inch square of blue closed cell foam and cut a hole the shape of the transducer. For use, the ducer gets set in the hole and I drip about one hand full of water on it - that's it. The foam keeps it upright and seems to help hold the water there. Then for storage the foam helps protect the screen.
 
Chuckles
distinguished member (256)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/10/2019 01:35PM  
> I just take a 4x4 inch square of blue closed cell foam and cut a hole the shape of the >transducer.

I love the simplicity of this. What kind of foam? Like the old sleeping pads? Or like the blue-foam insulation? Do you have a pic?
 
MagicPaddler
distinguished member(1495)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/10/2019 02:38PM  
Just so you know what to expect for battery life. I would estimate the draw of your detector to be similar to my Hook 4 which is about 220mA this assumes you do not have the GPS in the detector.
8 quality Alkaline AA will run your detector about 4&1/2 hours.
10 quality Alkaline AA will run your detector about 10 hours.
8 Energizer ultimate lithium will run your detector about 14 hours.
 
walleyevision
distinguished member (246)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/11/2019 05:37AM  
MagicPaddler: "Just so you know what to expect for battery life. I would estimate the draw of your detector to be similar to my Hook 4 which is about 220mA this assumes you do not have the GPS in the detector.
8 quality Alkaline AA will run your detector about 4&1/2 hours.
10 quality Alkaline AA will run your detector about 10 hours.
8 Energizer ultimate lithium will run your detector about 14 hours.
"


Wow, that's a big difference from my black and white unit (Garmin as well). I can usually get 3 1/2 long days of fishing off my 8 AA Duracells.
 
04/11/2019 06:33AM  
walleyevision: "No water needed. Stick a glob of plumbers putty on the floor of the canoe and smoosh the transducer into it. Done. Perfect readings every time. At the end of the trip, peel the putty off, easy peasy."


Wow! Great information Walleyevision! I am eager to try this on my Spring trip... Thanks!
 
MagicPaddler
distinguished member(1495)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/11/2019 07:23AM  
walleyevision: "
MagicPaddler: "Just so you know what to expect for battery life. I would estimate the draw of your detector to be similar to my Hook 4 which is about 220mA this assumes you do not have the GPS in the detector.
8 quality Alkaline AA will run your detector about 4&1/2 hours.
10 quality Alkaline AA will run your detector about 10 hours.
8 Energizer ultimate lithium will run your detector about 14 hours.
"



Wow, that's a big difference from my black and white unit (Garmin as well). I can usually get 3 1/2 long days of fishing off my 8 AA Duracells."

Yes walleyevision and from what I have been told the units with GPS draw more than 2 times what my unit draws. Wish I had not sold my old gray scale unit.
 
wannabeoutthere
distinguished member (285)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/11/2019 11:35AM  
MagicPaddler: "
walleyevision: "
MagicPaddler: "Just so you know what to expect for battery life. I would estimate the draw of your detector to be similar to my Hook 4 which is about 220mA this assumes you do not have the GPS in the detector.
8 quality Alkaline AA will run your detector about 4&1/2 hours.
10 quality Alkaline AA will run your detector about 10 hours.
8 Energizer ultimate lithium will run your detector about 14 hours.
"




Wow, that's a big difference from my black and white unit (Garmin as well). I can usually get 3 1/2 long days of fishing off my 8 AA Duracells."

Yes walleyevision and from what I have been told the units with GPS draw more than 2 times what my unit draws. Wish I had not sold my old gray scale unit. "


Magic paddler,

How long will a unit run at 220 ma with 10 energizer lithium batteries?
Also I cannot find the draw for my humminbird 170 unit, do you know what it is?
 
MagicPaddler
distinguished member(1495)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/11/2019 01:20PM  
wannabeoutthere: "
MagicPaddler: "
walleyevision: "
MagicPaddler: "Just so you know what to expect for battery life. I would estimate the draw of your detector to be similar to my Hook 4 which is about 220mA this assumes you do not have the GPS in the detector.
8 quality Alkaline AA will run your detector about 4&1/2 hours.
10 quality Alkaline AA will run your detector about 10 hours.
8 Energizer ultimate lithium will run your detector about 14 hours.
"




Wow, that's a big difference from my black and white unit (Garmin as well). I can usually get 3 1/2 long days of fishing off my 8 AA Duracells."

Yes walleyevision and from what I have been told the units with GPS draw more than 2 times what my unit draws. Wish I had not sold my old gray scale unit. "



Magic paddler,


How long will a unit run at 220 ma with 10 energizer lithium batteries?
Also I cannot find the draw for my humminbird 170 unit, do you know what it is?"


A little shorter time than it will run on 8 energizer ultimate lithium. It has to do with running the detector on the voltage it was designed to run on. Lithium batteries are higher voltage than alkaline.
I think the gray scale Piranha series draw 80 to 110 mA.
 
wannabeoutthere
distinguished member (285)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/11/2019 01:35PM  
Magic,

So your saying to obtain the longest run time I should run my 197c on 8 lithium batteries correct? On my Pmax 170 I should use 10 or 8 lithium? or use alkaline 10 or 8?

Thanks for the info
 
MagicPaddler
distinguished member(1495)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/11/2019 04:03PM  
wannabeoutthere: "Magic,


So your saying to obtain the longest run time I should run my 197c on 8 lithium batteries correct? On my Pmax 170 I should use 10 or 8 lithium? or use alkaline 10 or 8?


Thanks for the info"

This applies to both detectors. The longest run time per set of AA batteries will be with 8 Energizer Ultimate Lithium (EUL) batteries. The next best is 10 alkaline batteries. The 10 alkaline battery configuration will give you the longest run time per dollar. The EUL batteries will give you the most run time per pound of battery. The EUL batteries have more energy per cell and they weigh less per cell but cost more.
 
04/12/2019 09:07AM  
Chuckles: "> I just take a 4x4 inch square of blue closed cell foam and cut a hole the shape of the >transducer.

I love the simplicity of this. What kind of foam? Like the old sleeping pads? Or like the blue-foam insulation? Do you have a pic? "

Its just a piece of the blue sleeping pads they sell at REI. Wish it was my own idea, but I copied from someone else here on another thread. Seems to work great for me on 3 trips so far. Shot below from my GoPro shows my whole setup. The transducer seems to stay put pretty well, and it all packs up nicely for travel.

For what it's worth, I use a Garmin Striker 4 which draws 230 mAh (the CV model draws more like 400) with 8 Energizer Lithiums, and it seems to me I get at least 20 hours of so of use. I've never timed it, but I think I fished about 4-5 hours day last year for 6 days and did not have to change to spare set of batteries. That's just an estimate. Maybe having the brightness turned down on the screen helps.
 
PatrickE
distinguished member (152)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/13/2019 02:57PM  
Can anyone give recs regarding the 2 or 3 different models of Styker 4's available? I know nothing about fish finders. The base model the way to go with conservation of battery power?
 
flynn
distinguished member (385)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/14/2019 09:46AM  
Jaywalker: "
Chuckles: "> I just take a 4x4 inch square of blue closed cell foam and cut a hole the shape of the >transducer.


I love the simplicity of this. What kind of foam? Like the old sleeping pads? Or like the blue-foam insulation? Do you have a pic? "

Its just a piece of the blue sleeping pads they sell at REI. Wish it was my own idea, but I copied from someone else here on another thread. Seems to work great for me on 3 trips so far. Shot below from my GoPro shows my whole setup. The transducer seems to stay put pretty well, and it all packs up nicely for travel.


For what it's worth, I use a Garmin Striker 4 which draws 230 mAh (the CV model draws more like 400) with 8 Energizer Lithiums, and it seems to me I get at least 20 hours of so of use. I've never timed it, but I think I fished about 4-5 hours day last year for 6 days and did not have to change to spare set of batteries. That's just an estimate. Maybe having the brightness turned down on the screen helps.
"


How are you mounting the Striker 4? I figure you're using the included base but how is it fixed to the thwart?
 
04/14/2019 02:15PM  
I screwed the base plate straight into the wood. I have a Teal yoke and it's plenty wide enough next to the gunwale. It was hard to put acres into such a beautiful piece of wood, but it works very well. The batteries just hang underneath, suspended by a small beaner clipped to a BDB or piece of webbing.
 
04/14/2019 02:46PM  
PatrickE: "Can anyone give recs regarding the 2 or 3 different models of Styker 4's available? I know nothing about fish finders. The base model the way to go with conservation of battery power? "

I got the "base" model last year and am very happy with it. It is my first finder, so I may not know what I'm missing from other types, but it helped me find and catch more fish. The ClearVu certainly looks cool in videos, but I didn't want the extra power drain and just plain didn't want to spend more money.
 
PatrickE
distinguished member (152)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/14/2019 03:23PM  
Jaywalker: "
PatrickE: "Can anyone give recs regarding the 2 or 3 different models of Styker 4's available? I know nothing about fish finders. The base model the way to go with conservation of battery power? "

I got the "base" model last year and am very happy with it. It is my first finder, so I may not know what I'm missing from other types, but it helped me find and catch more fish. The ClearVu certainly looks cool in videos, but I didn't want the extra power drain and just plain didn't want to spend more money. "


Thanks for the input. Seeing how my knowledge of finders is minimal, the base model is more that sufficient I’m sure.
 
AluminumBarge
member (48)member
  
04/26/2019 09:06PM  
I’m trying to decide between the Garmin Plus 4 and Plus 4cv. My plan is to use this for power...
https://www.wildernesssystems.com/us/products/lithium-battery

The transducer with the cv seems much larger. Anyone have any experience shooting thru the hull with this transducer? Also trying to determine how long I could power the cv unit. The Plus 4 uses .23A vs .40A for the cv. I’m not an electronics whiz but I’m thinking I could get 4 days at 6 hours a day with the cv, would that be possible?

Thanks for help provided.
 
MagicPaddler
distinguished member(1495)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/27/2019 07:25AM  
AluminumBarge: "I’m trying to decide between the Garmin Plus 4 and Plus 4cv. My plan is to use this for power...
https://www.wildernesssystems.com/us/products/lithium-battery


The transducer with the cv seems much larger. Anyone have any experience shooting thru the hull with this transducer? Also trying to determine how long I could power the cv unit. The Plus 4 uses .23A vs .40A for the cv. I’m not an electronics whiz but I’m thinking I could get 4 days at 6 hours a day with the cv, would that be possible?


Thanks for help provided.
"

If it is too good to be true it is probably not true. The specks are buried pretty deep in that add but it weighs 14 ounces and has 15Amp hours at 12 volts. WOW! That is twice the power density of the best batteries on the market and for no extra weight you get a fancy case with protection circuitry and fancy connector covers. This Battery will probably run your fish detector for about the same length of time as the one you linked to.
If you are interested in one of this type of batteries let me know and I will go over what you need to protect and charge the battery.
 
Frenchy
distinguished member(1065)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/30/2019 10:37AM  
I just use a suction cup to attach transducer to hull when using. Detaches and stores quickly and easily for portages.
I have a striker 4 as well but found the battery life to be very short. The GPS is really hard on batteries. I have tried to shut off GPS without any luck.
 
flynn
distinguished member (385)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/30/2019 11:04AM  
MagicPaddler: "
AluminumBarge: "I’m trying to decide between the Garmin Plus 4 and Plus 4cv. My plan is to use this for power...
https://www.wildernesssystems.com/us/products/lithium-battery



The transducer with the cv seems much larger. Anyone have any experience shooting thru the hull with this transducer? Also trying to determine how long I could power the cv unit. The Plus 4 uses .23A vs .40A for the cv. I’m not an electronics whiz but I’m thinking I could get 4 days at 6 hours a day with the cv, would that be possible?



Thanks for help provided.
"

If it is too good to be true it is probably not true. The specks are buried pretty deep in that add but it weighs 14 ounces and has 15Amp hours at 12 volts. WOW! That is twice the power density of the best batteries on the market and for no extra weight you get a fancy case with protection circuitry and fancy connector covers. This Battery will probably run your fish detector for about the same length of time as the one you linked to.
If you are interested in one of this type of batteries let me know and I will go over what you need to protect and charge the battery. "


That Wilderness Systems battery is bogus. I bought one and am returning it. On the bottom of the unit itself, it says 15000mAh, 55.5Wh. If you do the math for 55.5Wh, at 12V, it's only 4.625Ah. 15000mAh and 55.5Wh breaks down to 3.7V. It is a nice looking unit but the advertisement is misleading. They don't say 55.5Wh ANYWHERE on their website and even the documentation the battery comes with doesn't say it. Thankfully it's printed directly on the battery itself so I don't have to take it apart. My Striker 4 ran for about 18 hours on the dot using 200kHz CHIRP and 70% screen brightness. If I assume power draw to be what Garmin states (0.23Ah) then that comes out to 4.14Ah, close to what the math says for 55.5Wh and 12V.

Buy the Nocqua 10Ah pack. I just got one and it's giving me about 26 hours with 200kHz CHIRP and 70% screen brightness. It's not nearly as much capacity as it should be though. For 26 hours @ 0.23A draw, that's 5.98Ah. Still, it's 50% more capacity than the Wilderness Systems battery and it should be enough for me. It is also possible that, because I'm using the transducer inside and it's not getting good pings back, it's using more power than it normally would. I hope to get more juice out of it in the field, but still I think it should be enough power for me.
 
MagicPaddler
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04/30/2019 01:13PM  

Flynn
Most of the lithium ion (li) battery packs that are called 12 volt are 3 cells in series. Li cells fully charged are 4.2 volts. So 3 in series is 12.6 volts. When the rated mAh have been removed from a fully charged li battery it will be at 2.7 volts. So 3 in series will be 8.1 volts. Your detector most likely operates properly on voltages between 10 and 18 volts. Your detector may not work properly or shut off when the voltage is low. When about 86% of the batteries mAh have been used the battery will be down to about 10 volts. The above should be true for both the Wilderness system and the Nocqua batteries.
The following calculation are incorrect but it is what battery sellers do.
Note that if you take your mAh (4626) for the Wilderness system and multiply it by the number of cells in series (3) you get near what they claim for capacity.
 
flynn
distinguished member (385)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
04/30/2019 03:45PM  
MagicPaddler: "
Flynn
Most of the lithium ion (li) battery packs that are called 12 volt are 3 cells in series. Li cells fully charged are 4.2 volts. So 3 in series is 12.6 volts. When the rated mAh have been removed from a fully charged li battery it will be at 2.7 volts. So 3 in series will be 8.1 volts. Your detector most likely operates properly on voltages between 10 and 18 volts. Your detector may not work properly or shut off when the voltage is low. When about 86% of the batteries mAh have been used the battery will be down to about 10 volts. The above should be true for both the Wilderness system and the Nocqua batteries.
The following calculation are incorrect but it is what battery sellers do.
Note that if you take your mAh (4626) for the Wilderness system and multiply it by the number of cells in series (3) you get near what they claim for capacity.
"

Replying here with my reply from the Fishing forum thread:

My Striker 4 depends on a 12V power supply like basically every other fish finder. It gives a voltage alarm at 11.2V and I suspect it shuts off or the battery runs out shortly thereafter. One thing to note is that the Wilderness Systems battery delivered 12.4 to 12.3V consistently until it died, whereas the Nocqua battery dropped slowly from 12.8V to 11.2V until the voltage alarm. Since the voltage never dropped with the Wilderness Systems battery, there was no alarm, so the only way to know it was about to die was the indicator lights on the housing, 1 of 5 lights, blinking.

If you take the Wh (55.5Wh) for the Wilderness Systems battery, at 12V, it cannot provide more than 4.625Ah, regardless of what you'd expect to see from completely drained batteries, if we are to believe 55.5Wh (which does not concern itself with current or voltage). If you apply this same principle to the Nocqua battery, then I'd expect it to be advertised at ~22.5Ah (it has 50% more capacity than the Wilderness Systems battery based on actual tests). Instead it's rated at 10Ah (@12V, they are specific about that). What should we believe?

If you Google "15000mAh 55.5Wh" you will find a bunch of batteries and power packs with this spec. Some have a similar form factor to the Wilderness Systems battery, some seem slimmer. I think, though, that the Wilderness Systems OEM either doesn't know what the capacity really is @12V, or someone does know, but they deliberately advertise it at 15Ah to fool consumers. The Nocqua battery is 50% more weight than the Wilderness Systems battery, and lo and behold, it gives 50% more capacity too, yet it's rated at 2/3 the capacity of the Wilderness Systems battery. So... false advertising is how I'm treating it.
 
AluminumBarge
member (48)member
  
04/30/2019 11:37PM  
Thanks for all the replies. I decided to get the Striker 4 Plus. The lower power draw vs the cv was the main reason, and the clear vu is nice but not worth the extra power drain in my opinion.

So now looking at all the battery options is getting overwhelming. Am I crazy thinking I could just get a couple of battery packs, like the ones below, that hold 8 AA Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries and switch them out when/if the first one dies. If I could get 12-16 hours I think that would be enough for me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WOKCPA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This seems it would be simple enough to just switch out.
 
MagicPaddler
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05/01/2019 05:48AM  
AluminumBarge: "Thanks for all the replies. I decided to get the Striker 4 Plus. The lower power draw vs the cv was the main reason, and the clear vu is nice but not worth the extra power drain in my opinion.


So now looking at all the battery options is getting overwhelming. Am I crazy thinking I could just get a couple of battery packs, like the ones below, that hold 8 AA Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries and switch them out when/if the first one dies. If I could get 12-16 hours I think that would be enough for me.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WOKCPA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


This seems it would be simple enough to just switch out."

Just guessing on the current draw of that unit but I would estimate about 230 mA and a set of 8 Ultimate Lithiums should supply that current for about 13 hours.
 
flynn
distinguished member (385)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
05/01/2019 09:21AM  
AluminumBarge: "Thanks for all the replies. I decided to get the Striker 4 Plus. The lower power draw vs the cv was the main reason, and the clear vu is nice but not worth the extra power drain in my opinion.


So now looking at all the battery options is getting overwhelming. Am I crazy thinking I could just get a couple of battery packs, like the ones below, that hold 8 AA Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries and switch them out when/if the first one dies. If I could get 12-16 hours I think that would be enough for me.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WOKCPA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


This seems it would be simple enough to just switch out."


Make a pack of 10, you'll get an appreciable boost in run time. Almost everyone I've seen running a 10 pack says they started with 8 and wished they went straight to 10. Keeps the voltage above ~11V for a lot longer than 25% more batteries would indicate, from what I gather.
 
MagicPaddler
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05/01/2019 02:03PM  
flynn: "
AluminumBarge: "Thanks for all the replies. I decided to get the Striker 4 Plus. The lower power draw vs the cv was the main reason, and the clear vu is nice but not worth the extra power drain in my opinion.



So now looking at all the battery options is getting overwhelming. Am I crazy thinking I could just get a couple of battery packs, like the ones below, that hold 8 AA Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries and switch them out when/if the first one dies. If I could get 12-16 hours I think that would be enough for me.



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WOKCPA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1



This seems it would be simple enough to just switch out."



Make a pack of 10, you'll get an appreciable boost in run time. Almost everyone I've seen running a 10 pack says they started with 8 and wished they went straight to 10. Keeps the voltage above ~11V for a lot longer than 25% more batteries would indicate, from what I gather."

This is not true if using Ultimate Lithium batteries. 10 Ultimate Lithium batteries will last less time than 8 Ultimate Lithium batteries.

If you are using Alkaline Batteries 10 batteries will last longer than 8 Alkaline batteries but not as long as 8 Ultimate Lithium batteries.
 
flynn
distinguished member (385)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
05/01/2019 07:07PM  
MagicPaddler: "
flynn: "
AluminumBarge: "Thanks for all the replies. I decided to get the Striker 4 Plus. The lower power draw vs the cv was the main reason, and the clear vu is nice but not worth the extra power drain in my opinion.



So now looking at all the battery options is getting overwhelming. Am I crazy thinking I could just get a couple of battery packs, like the ones below, that hold 8 AA Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries and switch them out when/if the first one dies. If I could get 12-16 hours I think that would be enough for me.



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WOKCPA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1



This seems it would be simple enough to just switch out."




Make a pack of 10, you'll get an appreciable boost in run time. Almost everyone I've seen running a 10 pack says they started with 8 and wished they went straight to 10. Keeps the voltage above ~11V for a lot longer than 25% more batteries would indicate, from what I gather."

This is not true if using Ultimate Lithium batteries. 10 Ultimate Lithium batteries will last less time than 8 Ultimate Lithium batteries.


If you are using Alkaline Batteries 10 batteries will last longer than 8 Alkaline batteries but not as long as 8 Ultimate Lithium batteries.
"


Why? What's the math there? What does lithium vs alkaline have to do with it?
 
MagicPaddler
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05/01/2019 10:01PM  



Why? What's the math there? What does lithium vs alkaline have to do with it?"
The short answer is voltage.
To understand it you need to look at the discharge curves for the 2 types of batteries. First look at the Energizer Ultimate Lithium. Look at the 200mA red line and follow it across to the knee on the right side. Then follow that horizontal line the crosses through the knee to the left side of the graph. It is 1.3 volts. At the knee the battery is out of power and the voltage is still 1.3 volts
Now lets look a good quality alkaline
A KirklandSignature The knee is not so sharp but the red line is braking downward at .8 volts. So you can see the lithium has higher voltage from full charge to just before it goes dead
 
flynn
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05/02/2019 09:02AM  
MagicPaddler: "

Why? What's the math there? What does lithium vs alkaline have to do with it?"

The short answer is voltage.
To understand it you need to look at the discharge curves for the 2 types of batteries. First look at the Energizer Ultimate Lithium. Look at the 200mA red line and follow it across to the knee on the right side. Then follow that horizontal line the crosses through the knee to the left side of the graph. It is 1.3 volts. At the knee the battery is out of power and the voltage is still 1.3 volts
Now lets look a good quality alkaline
A KirklandSignature The knee is not so sharp but the red line is braking downward at .8 volts. So you can see the lithium has higher voltage from full charge to just before it goes dead"


That's great, but I'm failing to see how a constant voltage output until the lithium battery dies means that more of them would last _less_ time than 10 alkaline batteries. Maybe it's something you're implying or something I should just know but right now I'm missing some information, I think. Lithium has higher voltage from full charge to just before it goes dead, it has more capacity (in Ah) at all current draw than the alkaline, so shouldn't 10 of them wired up in parallel not offer more capacity and longer power duration than 10 alkaline?

Or is it because the wiring would be 8 in series, and you'd be adding 2 to the series, which would cause the output voltage to be ~15V, which would steadily drop for alkaline, but the lithium would keep putting out 15V until they die? So technically you could run the alkaline for longer because you actually benefit from the higher voltage that steadily drops rather than having a constant 15V that dies at 15V?
 
MagicPaddler
distinguished member(1495)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
05/02/2019 09:51AM  
flynn: "
MagicPaddler: "

Why? What's the math there? What does lithium vs alkaline have to do with it?"

The short answer is voltage.
To understand it you need to look at the discharge curves for the 2 types of batteries. First look at the Energizer Ultimate Lithium. Look at the 200mA red line and follow it across to the knee on the right side. Then follow that horizontal line the crosses through the knee to the left side of the graph. It is 1.3 volts. At the knee the battery is out of power and the voltage is still 1.3 volts
Now lets look a good quality alkaline
A KirklandSignature The knee is not so sharp but the red line is braking downward at .8 volts. So you can see the lithium has higher voltage from full charge to just before it goes dead"



That's great, but I'm failing to see how a constant voltage output until the lithium battery dies means that more of them would last _less_ time than 10 alkaline batteries. Maybe it's something you're implying or something I should just know but right now I'm missing some information, I think. Lithium has higher voltage from full charge to just before it goes dead, it has more capacity (in Ah) at all current draw than the alkaline, so shouldn't 10 of them wired up in parallel not offer more capacity and longer power duration than 10 alkaline?

Or is it because the wiring would be 8 in series, and you'd be adding 2 to the series, which would cause the output voltage to be ~15V, which would steadily drop for alkaline, but the lithium would keep putting out 15V until they die? So technically you could run the alkaline for longer because you actually benefit from the higher voltage that steadily drops rather than having a constant 15V that dies at 15V?"

Ok I think you have gotten the fact that the Lithium supply higher voltage so you need less of then in series to get the desired voltage. Now for why do they last longer. Go back to the alkaline discharge curve posted above. Since we want to run a fish detector and a fish detector runs on a minimum of 10 volts and we will be putting 10 in series we need 1.0 volts out of each battery so on the left side of the first graph find the line at 1,0 volts. Follow that line across to the red line and then down to the bottom. It hits the bottom at about 2,10. That is 2.1 Amp hours = 2.1Ah = 2100 mAh. Now divide mAh by the current draw of a detector about 200 mA and you get 10.5 hours.
Now go to the Lithium discharge curve above. We are going to have 8 in series so we need 1.25 volts from each cell to get 10 volts. So go to the left side of the first graph and visualize a line between 1,2 and 1,3 and follow it across to the red line then down to the bottom. It hits the bottom at about 3,1. That is 3.1 Ah = 3100 mAh. So divide mAh by mA and you get h. So divide 3100mAh by 200mA and you get 15.5 hours.
So 8 Lithium batteries should run a 200mA detector for 15.5 hours while 10 alkaline should run the same detector for 10.5 hours.

Now which one is cheaper per hour?
 
PatrickE
distinguished member (152)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
05/05/2019 08:36AM  
If you're into DIY, I found it fairly cheap and easy to build a mount for the Striker. I will be renting a canoe and wanted something to mount the the thwart that could be changed out pretty easily. Similar to what others have already mentioned, I just took some foam and cut a space for the transducer. Additionally epoxied the power wire out of a small waterproof Pelican case. Hopefully works out!
 
mx353
member (17)member
  
06/30/2021 12:38PM  
Jaywalker: "
Chuckles: "> I just take a 4x4 inch square of blue closed cell foam and cut a hole the shape of the >transducer.


I love the simplicity of this. What kind of foam? Like the old sleeping pads? Or like the blue-foam insulation? Do you have a pic? "

Its just a piece of the blue sleeping pads they sell at REI. Wish it was my own idea, but I copied from someone else here on another thread. Seems to work great for me on 3 trips so far. Shot below from my GoPro shows my whole setup. The transducer seems to stay put pretty well, and it all packs up nicely for travel.


For what it's worth, I use a Garmin Striker 4 which draws 230 mAh (the CV model draws more like 400) with 8 Energizer Lithiums, and it seems to me I get at least 20 hours of so of use. I've never timed it, but I think I fished about 4-5 hours day last year for 6 days and did not have to change to spare set of batteries. That's just an estimate. Maybe having the brightness turned down on the screen helps.
"


I know this is old, but I just purchased the striker 4 for a bwca trip next week. I have a wenonah mn2 and like the idea of the foam pad. Jaywalker did you glue the pad down or does gravity seem to keep the transducer in place and does it hold the water? Thanks so much!
 
BassmasterP
distinguished member (105)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
08/18/2021 11:11AM  
I shoot through the hull in rental canoes. Just bring about 12" of quality foil duct tape and construct a small rectangular well the size of your transducer on the bottom of the canoe ( I do this under my seat). Put a small amount of water in this little tape cube, and transducer, and seal tape against the top for a portage proof water tight seal. Works great!

Also, buy a rechargeable 12V power bank in lieu of your AA battery packs. I used to use the AAs, also, but man...what a landfill addition that makes after each trip. Couple a 6,000mAh bank with a 12V solar charger and you're good to go.
 
schweady
distinguished member(8071)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberpower member
  
08/18/2021 11:40AM  
There always seems to be enough water in the bottom of the canoe to set a transducer to shoot through without any need for additional gadgetry. Just have to set it away from foam floatation shapes or ribs. In this heat, you might just need to splash a little additional water from time to time...

Of course, this isn't a during-portage solution.
 
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