Beating the "Blue Brick" drum again

That sure doesn't seem like a lot of Amp Hours.   How long will it run a FF with GPS?

Probably depends if you are running a color FF with GPS or but I think most of us are running 7 AH batteries and they usually last 1-2 days of fishing. I believe 7 AH equals 7000 mAH hours, right?

Yes, 7 Ah = 7,000 mAh.  And you'll get that amount of life when the current draw of the device being powered is equal to the rated current and voltage spec of the battery, which is determined by the manufacturer for these types of batteries.  I believe these particular batteries are advertised using the rated specs for USB(5v) device powering.  If you try to power something that requires a higher voltage through the 9 or 12 volt options that these things provide, you will get less amp hours out of them than they advertise.  My fish finder pulls around 0.6 amps so when I used one of the 10 Ah Lithium Ion batteries to power it at 12 volts I think I got less than about 5 hours of life.  I'm using a 10 Ah lead acid gel cell for my ff.

These rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries are pretty awesome though.  I use mine to charge all sorts of stuff(cell phones, cameras, etc.) and they are amazing to have on vacations.  I'm planning on getting a few more of them as spares to have around in the case of emergencies or whatever.

The ratings on these are the raw "native" rating of the internal battery used.  But keep in mind that the output is regulated, so inefficiencies enter the picture when talking about realized ratings.  I talked with a battery manufacturer about this very issue and the response I got is that these designs are about 70% efficient (and as an electrical engineer with experience in batteries, I believe that).  So my 10,000 mAH rated battery is really a 7,000 mAH battery at the end of the day.  It's still lighter and smaller than a 7,000 mAH SLA battery.

-Allen

Thats interesting...seems like there are a lot of fellow EEs on here.

Amp hours should be amp hours.  If not it should be so many amp hours at 5V and something less amp hours at 12V. 

If you change the voltage that will change the watts. 

V=IR
P=IV
so P=I^2(R)

Just not quite seeing how a higher voltage means less amp hours.

Then again I barely passed the electrical engineering classes in undergrad, and have repressed most such memories since.

Like polepole said, they produce a regulated voltage.  This means you're not getting your juice straight from the terminals of the battery, it's going through a regulator circuit first.  To change the voltage from whatever the original cell voltage is, say it's 5 volts, to get 9 or 12 volts by sliding that little switch on the side of the battery, a DC to DC converter is being used.  In this example, since we're going from a lower voltage to a higher voltage, it's considered a boost converter.  The chips that can do this range from really shitty to really good in terms of efficiency.  We used a buck/boost converter chip for a senior project that boasted something like a 98% efficiency.  I've also played with DC-DC converter chips that were extremely inefficient(they generate a bunch of heat and some even generate audible noises they are so bad). 

Here is the email I got from Anker last year.

3.7V is the voltage of the internal cells. The built-in battery cell has a voltage of 3.0-4.2V. The PCB will boost it from 3.0-4.2V to 5V or higher (12V / 9V) to give a USB output to charge you devices. This procedure consumes power, plus the power will also drain on the Resistance of the cable and phone's circuit, those makes the anker external battery have an efficiency of about 70% (most of other external battery products' efficiency in market is lower than 65%). Therefore, the actual output of this external battery is 70% (10000*70%=7000mah). Hope this helps.

-Allen

I'm frustrated with the brick I have 2 and one is brand new. On my old garmin 150 it lasted for about 20+ hours. Now I have the new lowrance elite 4 hdi unit color gps and down scan and I can only get 6-7 hours out of one. Granted I love the size and weight but the lowrance shuts off at 10 volts where the garmin would go to 8 volts. Is there a battery that runs at 17 volts because thats what the lowrance will take and then I can run it down to 10 volts. Just looking for something to run a little longer so I don't have to stop fishing to change out the battery. Any suggestions would help. Thanks in advance.

See my link above. It's a nice unit.

See my link above. It's a nice unit.

Hey Noah....Do you pull an extra kayak (read: barge) for all of the accessories? 

I'm frustrated with the brick I have 2 and one is brand new. On my old garmin 150 it lasted for about 20+ hours. Now I have the new lowrance elite 4 hdi unit color gps and down scan and I can only get 6-7 hours out of one. Granted I love the size and weight but the lowrance shuts off at 10 volts where the garmin would go to 8 volts. Is there a battery that runs at 17 volts because thats what the lowrance will take and then I can run it down to 10 volts. Just looking for something to run a little longer so I don't have to stop fishing to change out the battery. Any suggestions would help. Thanks in advance.

I too have two of them, too.    I used to be able to get 28 hours on one with my old Eagle FFs.  Now I get about 6-7 hours form my Lowrance Elite 5 with downscan and GPS.  I figured it would be less, but I was surprised by how much less. But, that is because I didn't look at the specs of the Elite 5.  I had thought about just making an adaptor to run both batteries in parallel to get a good long day out of them.  However, they sit in the hatch between my legs and I found it easier to just reach down and swap them out.  To make it so the battery could sit in that hatch and still be able to power the finder cable in my front hatch I added an extenstion cable similar to one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-081-0148-12-Extension-Cable/dp/B002DU3TTO/ref=pd_sim_e_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HRFCA0C7V9FGHDFAWGT

Of course one would have had to have started with the 2 Pin Quick Disconnect Harness in the first place, so this may not be helpful for you. It works great for me so far.  I actually bought a 25 foot cable (http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-EC-25-Cable-Connector-Extension/dp/B003WDEYPE/ref=pd_sim_auto_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0TTC5BNSM3Z3FVCA8VY2) and cut it in half. Then, I spliced in two new ends from one of these (http://www.amazon.com/Allstar-Performance-ALL76232-Universal-Connector/dp/B003C01FD6/ref=pd_sim_e_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=0WWRZR6YSAF4R6Z9MSY0) to make two 12 1/2 foot cables so I could put one in each of my yaks.

This discussion began because I'm trying to get the Revo I picked up water worthy and as you know, part of that will have to be a ff. I originally intended on one with GPS as getting lost on the salt, in the fog sounds like it may leave a little to be desired. That said, I've decided to lean toward a basic sonar/ff like the Lowrance Elite 4 (or even more basic), but having my hand held GPS (Garmin Legend) with me on a RAM mount. Beside being sonar/ff challenged, I think leaning toward a remedial/basic model will help preserve battery life too.

Low-budget ff and a hand-held Garmin is the setup I used for many years and I caught plenty of fish that way.  Long battery life while using small batteries was really nice. 

On the other hand, the difference in performance of a low-power ff compared to one that draws around a half of an amp is pretty noticeable.  Life is all about trade-offs.

Low-budget ff and a hand-held Garmin is the setup I used for many years and I caught plenty of fish that way.  Long battery life while using small batteries was really nice. 

Ha, ha, Jeff....Watching one of your videos was my inspiration for ordering the RAM mount for my Garmin Legend. Truth be known, if it weren't for the skills/ideas/videos from NWKA members, I'd probably still be sitting in a kiddie pool with my rubber ducky and dreaming about fishing. Hey, wait a minute...Weren't you the guy with a gosling in your cup holder last month? 

This is what I did for my Revo13. Used the rear gear tray for the battery. The page shows the original SLA battery, but it was replaced by a blue-brick 4 pounds lighter and with more capacity. I used the connectors shown in post #37 of the original blue-brick thread. Because my blue-brick is so protected and secure, I've not had any problems with it. And using an intelligent charger avoids overcharging which kills Li-ion batteries quickly.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54098312/kayak/HMR/Battery.Transducer.Hull/HMR.Battery.html

The connectors, and intelligent charger are discussed in the original blue-brick thread. Read the whole thing. It is worth it.
http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=7606.0

After hearing about all the quality problems with the blue bricks, I purchased the unit Noah linked to.  It appears to be designed for use in the real world.  Time will tell.

-Spot-

Now that I've had the EZO15000mah unit in the field a couple of times I thought I'd report back:

Life:  I'm currently getting about 16hrs out of a charge (plus a phone boost or two and topping off my gopro on the way).  My FF draws about 700ma so that means I'm getting about 11Ah of useable power at 12V.

Power Conversion: Just for grins, I kept the battery unit topside for a trip to monitor temp.  Using a calibrated hand, I didn't notice any appreciable heat being generated by this unit while in use.  No buzz, hum or vibration either.

Beyond the substantial savings in weight, this units allows me to easily charge my (or my kids) personal electronics on the way to my fishing destination. 

Less weight, substantial charge, flexibility, ease of use..... What more could I ask for?  Two thumbs up!

-Spot-

16 hours at 700 mA is great?  I get about 7 hours @ 650 mA out of my 7000 mAH blue-brick at which point it is down to 9V.  I could get two full days of fishing out of 15000 mAH.

I looked up a similar Anker 15000 mAH unit for weight - only 316 grams - 0.7 pounds.  Wow!  I might pick one up for general use.

Done and done. I've a had a few warnings that my blue brick will fall apart at any minute so jumping on this problem before it happens. So, any documentation on how anyone wired their fish finders? Pics?

Done and done. I've a had a few warnings that my blue brick will fall apart at any minute so jumping on this problem before it happens. So, any documentation on how anyone wired their fish finders? Pics?

I simply soldered the included 12V output cable to a 2 prong trailer connection.

BTW: I fished the ORC all day and still had 3/4 charge left on my 15AH EZO unit.  Charged 6 different handheld devices back at camp and on the way home and only drew it down to 1/2 charge.  And did I mention that it weights next to nothing?  Dang, I love this thing!

-Spot-