Smish wrote:I recently went through all my gear after a few upgrades and worked out the total amp draw, at night when I'm using the LEDs the setup is drawing a bit over 3 amps. I currently have 18 ah of battery storage but unfortunately when the whole rig is fired up I've only got about 3hrs effective running time, you could go a bit longer but run the risk of permanently damaging the batteries.

The LED draws just over 2 amps and the sounder draws 1.

How do you guys get through an all night session?

Cheers,

Smish

the other night out with Winchbitch we put our lights on around 8 pm and by 3.30 am 7.5 hours later I was getting a bit thin on charge
I use a 8.4 AH battery which I need to up cgrade
my nav light should use around 0.8 amp ( about 2 meters of LED strip light ) and I only sounded till we parked up

at the end of the night if I turned on the sounder the light went dull

cheaterparts wrote:
the other night out with Winchbitch we put our lights on around 8 pm and by 3.30 am 7.5 hours later I was getting a bit thin on charge
I use a 8.4 AH battery which I need to up cgrade
my nav light should use around 0.8 amp ( about 2 meters of LED strip light ) and I only sounded till we parked up

at the end of the night if I turned on the sounder the light went dull

The strips I use have 60 LEDs per metre, each LED drawing 20 ma, i.e. 1200 ma per metre or 1.2 amps, so 0.8 amps seems low for a 2m strip. Sounds like you're really caning your battery, from what I understand about SLA's ideally you should avoid discharging below 50% so an 8.4 ah battery effectively gives you a working 4.2 ah. My previous sounder drew 300 ma so if I were running LEDs drawing 0.8 amps the total would be 1.1 amps which give me just under 4 hrs before I started stressing the battery, at 7.5 hrs I would've imagined I'd be causing damage.

How long have you had that battery?

If it's been holding charge after putting in that kind of an effort then maybe I shouldn't be so soft on mine!

Smish wrote:
How long have you had that battery?

If it's been holding charge after putting in that kind of an effort then maybe I shouldn't be so soft on mine!

going by the strip light it was ment to use 2 amps for 5 meters , I never checked it but I used 2 meters and guessed at 0.8 amp

I've had the battery about 3 years and it was a sealed Motor Cycle battery - I dont know if it was a better quility unit that a jay car SLA batterys
but it has been hanging in there - there was never a problem with my older nav light it wasn't as bright though it draged less amps

I spotted these comments from a couple of boaties in a post over on Mr Fisho:

bourbondrinker wrote:

stessl58y wrote:A picture of Patto River Monday night 18/11. Picture really doesn't give you an idea of how many boats were coming in at the same time. There would not have been 5 metres between each of the boats. This included two kayak's with no lights that I almost drove over as we approached the port/starboard entry markers.

We also came across the twits in the kayaks without lights just as we were coming up to the markers
anyway another photo of Monday night

Cheers
John

I hope it wasn't vyakers but in any case kayakers should never be out at night without lights and especially not in high boat traffic areas. And even if a small white light makes you legal don't assume its going to make you be seen. If you see anyone out without lights or not enough light, don't be afraid to pass on a bit of advice. Its generally pretty hard for boats to spot us at night and I wouldn't be surprised if there is a serious boat/kayak incident around the corner with the number of yaks out with inadequate lighting.

I'm running 1m of leds and my sounder say's in specs it runs 1.1A (I reckon the sounder uses more but I don't have a tong meter to test that)
I'm running a 15ah battery and get through a dusk to dawn session ok.

On overnighters I also take a spare little 7ah battery just incase and head torch

Not sure if anyone is aware but if you turn down your sounder screen brightness this reduces the amount of power needed.
I was lucky to get through 5-6hrs with the sounder running constantly, then for some reason I turned down the brightness and I had a lot more volts left.

GoneFishn wrote:Not sure if anyone is aware but if you turn down your sounder screen brightness this reduces the amount of power needed.
I was lucky to get through 5-6hrs with the sounder running constantly, then for some reason I turned down the brightness and I had a lot more volts left.

Not sure what sounder your running but I've been forced to turn the brightness down on my last 2 lowrance sounders at night, otherwise I get blinded by it.

U should see the lite I'm makeing for scuba sue.
Similar to mine, 1.3m of 5050 led,
(Mine had 1.5m, no one getting one like that from me lol) it will have a full remote control to turn on and off, adj brightness and have a few differant flash/fade settings that can also have their flash/fade speed adjusted.

I figured sue being of the baby boomer generation, not having to twist around to turn on or off or adj the flash/fade or brightness would be far easier just to point the remote over ya shoulder and press a button.
It is totally waterproof, (lots of silicon and ip67 rated conections)

Thinking about making a few of these as well to sell to some members who either don't have time or the skills to do so.
What do u guys think would be good price?
Remote setup is $10
And each end of the waterproof conections is $10 also.

vikodin wrote:

GoneFishn wrote:Not sure if anyone is aware but if you turn down your sounder screen brightness this reduces the amount of power needed.
I was lucky to get through 5-6hrs with the sounder running constantly, then for some reason I turned down the brightness and I had a lot more volts left.

Not sure what sounder your running but I've been forced to turn the brightness down on my last 2 lowrance sounders at night, otherwise I get blinded by it.

You should have a night time setting on the sounder. Mine (Garmin 300c) has it and it works really good but turning down the brightness would be just as affective. I still turn the brightness down in night mode.
As I have my sounder right in front of me I had the same problem at night, hate loosing what night vision I have.

GoneFishn wrote:

vikodin wrote:

GoneFishn wrote:Not sure if anyone is aware but if you turn down your sounder screen brightness this reduces the amount of power needed.
I was lucky to get through 5-6hrs with the sounder running constantly, then for some reason I turned down the brightness and I had a lot more volts left.

Not sure what sounder your running but I've been forced to turn the brightness down on my last 2 lowrance sounders at night, otherwise I get blinded by it.

You should have a night time setting on the sounder. Mine (Garmin 300c) has it and it works really good but turning down the brightness would be just as affective. I still turn the brightness down in night mode.
As I have my sounder right in front of me I had the same problem at night, hate loosing what night vision I have.

At your age wouldn't be much would it Kelly. babylon.