Lithium Blue Battery Feedback

I'm remodling my Adventure and part of the plan is to streamline my sounder and battery. In particular the battery mounting/wiring etc.  Really close to ordering one of the "blue" batteries.  Any feedback or advice from you early adopters.  Was it a good move?  Problems?  any advice?   lessons learned?

No problems yet. 

Advice - SMALLEST waterproof container you can get, and use foam to secure it, as it can move, and if it does, murphy's law kicks in and makes sure that the battery's power button will get switched off.

Try using double-sided foam tape to hold it in place inside the box.

Also, adhesive velcro works great.

I'm remodling my Adventure and part of the plan is to streamline my sounder and battery. In particular the battery mounting/wiring etc.  Really close to ordering one of the "blue" batteries.  Any feedback or advice from you early adopters.  Was it a good move?  Problems?  any advice?   lessons learned?

Mine worked fine at first, but shortly after it stopped putting out the correct voltage; it would output ~7V.  It ships from China on the slow boat so returning it for a new one really wasn't a cost effective option.  I ended up tearing off the blue shrink wrap and inspecting it closely.  I found that the individual cells are connected together with what appears to be foil tape and some very thin wire.  I found that one of those solder joints had been broken (probably when I dropped it); it was a simple repair and now it works great (minus the blue shrink wrap).

So it works great, last a long time, and is very light; however, it's not nearly as robust as the lead acid gel cell.

I've got a Hummingbird 597ci HD.  Is the 9800 mAh the one I want?

I've got a Hummingbird 597ci HD.  Is the 9800 mAh the one I want?

Looks like you FF draws an average of 615mA so a 9800 mAh batter should yield 15+ hrs on one charge.  The charger that comes with those blue bricks are pretty wimpy, so you may want to upgrade that...

Also the 9800mAh battery is still much smaller than the gel cell...

Think of the mah as the longevity.

Depending on the draw of how you're using it will determine how long.
I looked up your FF and had 615 mA as the stated power draw. So dividing your capacity (9800 mah) by 615 should give you ~ 15.9 hours.

I'm shooting from the hip with a rule of thumb calculation, so please listen if any electrical engineers chime in and shoot down my claim.

I'm no Spark-E but I do know that you probably won't quite that kind of run time due to losses and ineffeciences.  Probably more like 12-14 hrs.  But that's still 2 good days worth of fishing time.  I don't know about you, but after 6-7 hours my ass just can't take any more time in the kayak.  And even with a much better seat, my knees would be about completely seized by then anyway.  Pedaling a Hobie rather than paddling would probably help that aspect a lot though.

Links to these batteries?

There are a bunch on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Good-quality-New-DC-12V-Portable-9800mAh-Li-ion-Super-Rechargeable-Battery-Pack-/130693998479?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D14293%26meid%3D5592835987744474341%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1095%26rk%3D2%26sd%3D220857050716%26

I found this link and do not have any direct experience with these but at least based on the description, it doesn't impress me..

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/capacity-9800-Mah-with-12-6V-1A-charger-DC-12V-lithium-battery-pack-high-volume-CCTV/350067355.html

it includes this on capacity:

"With protection chip : 20% power will be saved to protect battery from over-discharge ,it can not be released to charge for your other battery .
 So for this product ,if it can discharge 5400mah-7800mah ,it is normal ,please be noted . It will not be a excuse for your to make refund or compliant . "

also:

"Note:
1. The use of this product, please connect the device, and then electricity work.
2, respectively, before and after the end of some, please use the appropriate power supply, please refer to product power connector on the tips.
3, the rain water on this product is prohibited, other construction materials, super wave, ultra-high-temperature environment on the product work will be affected.
4, the use of this product will have a fever, is normal."

They are less expensive on ebay, I'm pretty sure most of us have ordered there.  Shipping was free, but took a long time as it was on a boat from China.

As I mentioned earlier, returning it cost too much and they are fragile so you will want to secure them inside the battery box.  I suppose you're rolling the dice a bit, but it's worked good for me.

If you're not comfortable with the poorly written ebay option, spend more money and buy it from an RC car peddler.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

I'm not an RC paddler (sp? ) but am fairly engeeked with those things. Be careful with those that RC guys use. They'll typically have a higher discharge rating and the result could be bad for the FF. Unfortunately a battery with a really high capacity and low discharge would not be useful to any RC applications I can think of.

I think this is a pretty good option for the application. The crappy battery could be a good thing, it has protections already built in and a "good enough" charger.

You could try swinging by a Batteries Plus and see what they could put together for you.
Another option would be nimh batteries in a fairly easy to find 8 cell harness. Although the typical AA store-bought mah would be in the 2500 range (~3-4 hours) you could get some C or D cells in 5Ah or 10Ah; the universal ease of use could be handy.