Topic: Portable Battery for any Unit!!

[MadCatter]

So I found a setup for a portable battery for 12v units that works really good.  Should be great for kayaks or for when updating your unit, as I did, from in my house. 

Stealth Cam makes a portable 12v battery and waterproof box that costs around $40 bucks. It's compact and lightweight and so far I've gotten about 3 hours of runtime on it. I haven't taken it to failure yet, but I would imagine it would last Alot longer than that.

Can't get pics to upload so the part number is STC-12VBB if you want to Google it.

Your thoughts?

[Ken L]

It's 12 volts but how many amp hours is it? I ran my first FF on a kayak for 5 hours on 8 2500 mah AA batteries. It was a very basic unit. My 598 si does fine with a 7 AH battery you can get in many places for about $20. The real question I have on these Helix and Onix series is what is the draw? How big a battery do I need to separately power these new units? Things like CHIRP and Autochart must use more juice I would think. Not much of a problem with a bass boat but here in NJ we have a lot of electric only lakes. The NYC reservoir system doesn't even allow electric motors in most impoundments and they can be worth rowing.
Comments?

[N9Phil]

Here is the current info.

Onix units        2.50 A
Helix 12 SI       1.75 A
Helix 12           0.75 A
Helix 9 SI         1.00 A
Helix 7 SI         0.80 A
1199ci HD        1.3 A
598ci HD SI      0.615 A

[Ken L]

Thanks for the quick reply. Medical issues delayed my response. I do wonder exactly what those numbers mean, not at all that they aren't meaningful but can you accurately estimate run times with them? Do they draw these a amperages steadily or do draw rates vary and these are maximums or good estimates? When you car top a kayak and launch where there really is no launch every pound counts.

[N9Phil]

Here is a site that has a calculator that allows you to get some basic information as to the size battery you should have for various loads.  Remember that these might not be exact but just an estimate of what size you should use.  A depth finder might not use as much amperage as stated depending on how many functions you are using.  I believe that the listed ratings for the units are the maximum amperage draws.
Phil

https://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tools/calculator-sizing-a-battery-to-a-load.html                               

[MadCatter]

Not sure on the mah rating of the portable battery.  I personally have one that I use for my monitor on my drone.  I ended up using it with my helix 5 for about 3 hours while updating and playing with the settings.  It was only partially charged from using it with my drone.  Worked pretty good and it is very lightweight compared to standard batteries.  Biggest benefit is the 6 ft cord that comes with it.  You can purchase an extra power cable for your unit from Amazon for about 13 bucks and add the connector for the 12v plug in and make it plug and play.  The waterproof case on the battery comes in handy too with the carrying handle and the shoulder strap.  It also comes with a wall charger, so just plug it in at the house to charge and go.

With regards to battery life, I would imagine that if you turned the screen brightness down on the unit it would extend the battery life quite a bit.  Similar to a cell phone.  If I keep my screen brightness down on my galaxy, my battery will last 2 days but if I turn it up, then I only get about 6 hours out of it.

I'm not saying this is a perfect solution, but I do know that it works and will possibly last all day.  Especially with the smaller units.  Do I think you will get a full day out of it with the TV screen units?  Probably not, however I doubt that the kayakers and canoers are using these on their rig.