Thread: Lithium Batteries

I’ll be keeping an eye on this too. Thinking of getting one for my livescope too.

The primary thing I especially like about lithium batteries. They hold a charge and not one loss of 1 amp of power since May 15th, the last time I fished due to Covid 19 and the packed ramps and lakes here in Indiana. We have small lakes,,totally packed this year, so kept the boat parked,,haven’t put a charger on the batteries. My Ionics are blue toothed to my cell phone and I can monitor them every time I walk in the garage. Now,,weather changing, boat traffic lightening up and fishing will get better,,I might get out a couple of times,,and don’t have to charge or mess with the batteries as they are good to go. One boater in Minnesota, covers his boat in the sevear winters leaving it outside, his Ionics never lost a amp of power all winter long as he left them in the boat and monitored with the phone app and was good to go in the spring.

I talked to the AMPED people. I went thru my trolling scenarios. I am not out over 3-4 hours at a time. They suggested 60 amp battery and said it would work fine for me.

On electronics, I run a helix 9 MSI g2n at the back, on the front, mega 360, 10 MDI g3n, and a 7 DI G3n, plus the GPS puc and the network with all helix units networked. Phone app shows me pulling max of 5 amps when everything is on. All attached to a lithium battery.

Originally Posted by cevans

On electronics, I run a helix 9 MSI g2n at the back, on the front, mega 360, 10 MDI g3n, and a 7 DI G3n, plus the GPS puc and the network with all helix units networked. Phone app shows me pulling max of 5 amps when everything is on. All attached to a lithium battery.

Very interesting. Are you running each power lead direct to the battery? I am preparing to upgrade to a 24v trolling motor & lithiums this winter, and might just do the same with the electronics. What size battery? Thanks

Sent from my SM-T580 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

I don’t think you will have a problem, as lithium batteries never drop their output voltage till about 10-15% left in the battery. Mine gives a constant 13.3 volts of output according to my phone app on the Ionic batteries. If running a 12 volt trolling motor, you could always get a 20 or 30 amp battery to hook in parallel to add more user amps if needed. That 60 amp battery will actually charge up to a total amps of 62 to maybe 64 amps topped off when fully charged due to the construction of the amount of lithium cells they use when building it. If ever adding lithium batteries in parallel and they are not the same size just make sure they are of the same make (Manufacturer) as the BMS system built into each battery works together when charging and using. I have paralleled before for 12 volt usage, a 100, a 50 amp and a 30 amp before for a total of 197 amps and 7 hrs of hard trolling running crankbaits in a 10’-15 mph wind in a 2’ chop only using maybe 15% total amps just to see how the BMS system works and to see how many amps I would use running a 12 volt V2 Power Drive on a 1648 jon boat. Each battery when built, has a couple more amps than advertised when built.

I run my 46 lb Newport TM on the kayak with a 50 Ah Ionic, lasts two trips before I have to charge it. Phone app shows 25A wide open, but I am not running WOT all the time.

PS
May as well use the correct units when discussing batteries, so all are on the same page. Apologies if you already know this.

Volts V is for, you guessed it, Volts.
Amps A is for current.
Amp*hrs or Ah is for capacity of a battery. It is the product of current and time (in hours). ex: A 50 Ah batt could supply 50A for one hour, or 5A for 10 hours.
Watts, W, is the unit of power. It is the product of Voltage and current. ex: A 12V batt supplying 10A current is delivering 120 Watts of power.
Sometimes battery capacity is in Watt*hours.

Note: We should capitalize A, W, V, Ohms, etc, because those are initial of last name of the person who invented them.

I ran a 8 gage wire from electronics battery to fuse box kinda in the center of the boat , then 10 gage to each power wire off fuse box to each unit’s power/neg. wires, and to the mega 360 12 gage wire and same for gps heading puc. 12 gage to network box also.

Trolling motor I have 6 gage to the plug in off battery’s with 60 amp MK breaker.

Price of lithium batteries is coming down, In this posting, you can compare a few companies prices. 12V 50ah lithium with Bluetooth for $369