Lithium Blue Battery Feedback

Here's the results of my test. The Anker 1500mah battery ran my Mark 4 (black and white) at 9V setting for 24 hours.

Thanks for sharing that, it's really helpful.  Do you have an ammeter or happen to know exactly how much current your sonar is pulling? 

Thanks for sharing that, it's really helpful.  Do you have an ammeter or happen to know exactly how much current your sonar is pulling?

And, can you run the same test at 12V?

-Allen

I will see if I can figure out the amp draw on my FF.

The Anker battery automatically selects voltage. I haven't been able to get it to choose 12V with my FF. So at this point I can't test that.

I'll let you know what I find.

Ok I believe I did the test correctly.
It appears my Lowrance Mark 4 draws .21 amps. Does this sound correct? This is on the 9V setting of my Anker battery.

Ok I believe I did the test correctly.
It appears my Lowrance Mark 4 draws .21 amps. Does this sound correct? This is on the 9V setting of my Anker battery.

Yeah, that's sounds reasonable.

If you want one of these rechargeable li-ion batteries in a 20000 mAh model you need one like this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005NGLTZQ/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1417719364&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

This one has a 12 volt output built into it.

I made an attempt this past summer with this Anker 20000mAh battery and my Elite-4.  Unfortunately, on the 12v setting, the fishfinder would start up, but the portable charger would immediately shut off the 12v output.  Though I never made an attempt to get any measurements, I got the impression that there was possibly a start-up current that the battery couldn't supply (the packs are rated at 1.5A on the 12v output).  Never tried the 9v setting, and sent it back to Amazon.

Thanks to the good advice I received on here I have purchased this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NGKR54/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Its 15000MAH and has a 9/12v output. I am in the middle of testing it now. I am testing it on my Lowrance Mark-4 as we speak. The battery has only been running at 9V. I shut the unit off and reconnected a couple times. It decided on 9V every time.

As I understood the Anker portable chargers, they don't automatically set the output - that may just be the default.  There should be a button to press and hold to toggle between 9v and 12v.

-Sam

For those interested, wanting just a bit more juice, in a similar form factor, this one has 26000 mAh:  http://amzn.com/B00BB5VQCE.

And this one has 32000 mAh:  http://amzn.com/B00DN0KBXU

 

-Sam

It is safe to assume zero inrush, or startup current when powering sonar units. This type of thing should be considered for equipment like motors, but not smaller electronic devices. If I were to guess what the problem was, I would say that there may have been a short somewhere on your power leads or the polarity was reversed. Both of these issues will cause the anker units to activate an internal cutoff mechanism that prevents short circuits. The mechanism won't clear itself until the battery is disconnected from the device and the charger is plugged back into the battery. It's a pretty awesome little feature really since li-ion batteries are crazy dangerous when shorted.

Good points, Jeff.  I'm usually pretty good with double checking on my connections, but it was last minute before ORC, so who knows - I may have been too quick to discount the Anker for my purposes. 

Planning to give one of the units another try later this winter...

-Sam

Nerds.  Both of you.    

I have been using the Ankers for two years and have not had a problem.  Well, other than my new DSI fish finder with the GPS sucks down the 10000 maH battery in about 5-6 hours. fortunately I have two of them. I have been considering buying another larger one.  Thanks for doing the research and providing the links Sam.

What kind of fish finder are you using? I just picked up an elite-4 on sale at cabelas and ordered the anker 10,000 mah battery pack. According to the manual it's supposed to only draw .75 amps. After reading this thread im debating on sending it back however the bigger battery packs are way bigger.

What kind of fish finder are you using? I just picked up an elite-4 on sale at cabelas and ordered the anker 10,000 mah battery pack. According to the manual it's supposed to only draw .75 amps. After reading this thread im debating on sending it back however the bigger battery packs are way bigger.

I have the Elite 5 DSI. I should have gone with the 4.

I got the Anker 20,000 as listed here;

http://www.amazon.com/20000mAh-Aluminum-Multi-Voltage-PowerIQTM-Technology/dp/B005NGLTZQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1421783063&sr=1-1&keywords=anker+charger+20%2C000

I haven't used it enough to get a sense of battery life, but so far it appears that it is more than sufficient and it handles the 12 volt system fine.  Plug it in and turn on the DF within a half a minute or so and you're set.  I can't see why I couldn't be charging my cell phone on it at the same time but I haven't tried that yet.

Do you have any pictures of your battery box with the 20,000 mah battery? Im going to rig up my 10,000 today and see how long it will last.