Has anyone done the comparison between the two?

I believe a Werker 7-8Amp 12V battery from Batteries Plus is still under $40.
A 12V 7.5 Wild Game deer feeder battery from Academy is under $24.

Tractor Supply's 12V 7.5 Wild Game batteries are under $24 as well.

My small multi amp charger was under $15.

Haven't had my Werker battery long enough to know how long it will last but it's only been charged 3 Xs. My battery set-up & charger combined cost a total of $45.

QUESTIONS:
How much is & where would you find a 8 AA pack?
Long term, is a deer feeder battery more cost effective & less hassle?

If 8 AA Energizer or Duracell (take your pick) batteries are being used each full trip. How many full trips would it take to add up to $45?


I'm I missing anything?

You could probably find a battery pack at Radioshak. I know Ive seen 2's and 4's there.

Retail, AA batteries are gonna be probably $3-4 bucks per 4 pack. At those prices ... you could hit $45 with 5 or 6 trips.

I look for sales promotions and buy fairly bulk packages for, say an average of $0.25 per battery. At that price point, you would be looking at $2 per trip or just over 20 trips to get you to $45.

The 12v 5ah battery is rather common, here's the best price for one I've found online including shipping.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010Z4...;pf_rd_i=507846

And here's a 12v 7ah for a few bucks more.

http://www.amazon.com/Volt-Rechargeable-Battery-187-Terminals/dp/B002QGVWBW/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_c

I'm using a Cabela's deer feeder battery. It'll run my 522i GPS all day on the brightest screen setting. I'm thinking about getting another to switch out on long trips.

There is a very significant difference between the current draw by different units.

A small screen, black and white, low resolution might draw as much as 80% less power than a high res 5" screen. My deer feeder batteries have run as long as 2-1/2 days on my older small b&w eagles. I could get a full weekend out of 1 charge even if night fishing. Same battery would get me a day and a half at best when I went to high res color and multi-beam unit. Same battery gets only about 5 hours on my Humminbird SI unit. Some higher end unit power down the transmission when in shallow or over highly reflective bottoms. They stretch the battery quite well. The lower end units not surprisingly may or may not have power optimization programmed in.

I have about 5 7-8 AH deer feeder type batteries and three 4 AH batteries for nav lights and LED fishing lights. I cycle through them all to keep them serviceable. I get noticeably different run times from the different batteries of the same AH rating usually predictable by age of the battery. I have 2 FAT 20 AH batteries that really only get me about twice what the 7-8 AH batteries deliver in run time.

My budget keeps me from playing with the flashlight cells at all but all you have to do is read the MHA rating and you will be able to closely predict the available power and possibly run time.

the best deal I have found is the Academy battery and charger combo for about $24 on sale regularly. That keeps you with a charger for every battery. I have had 2 of the $15 ( tucker electronics surplus) specials go south on me in a very short number of cycles.

If one was to add the right solar panel to their crate, to charge their battery, could it potentially eliminate the need to ever charge it again?
Wonder how this Wildgame Innovations Trophy Hunter™ Solar Panel would work. Site says it list for $19.99

Product Weight (lb.): 0.85
Amps: 0.07
Volts: 6

A typical fishfinder runs with 10-20V so you'll need at least 2 (2x6V) of them to get to 12 V. A typical unit uses between 0.5A and 1+ Amps.

A pair of cells will extend you outing by less than one hour if you stay out all day with the cells facing the sun all day and it's very sunny all day long.

I have a solar cell that I used to use to charge my battery when I am home. Even with it being out in the sun all day long during the summer, with me moving it to keep the sun on the charger, it takes a good week of 8+ hours of charging to get a full Volt or so charge on my battery. Finally said screw it and built a battery charger for my deer feeder battery for $2.

Also if you are going the 8AA batteries you can get the battery packs from Radio Shack. Last I saw they came in 4 packs so you are going to have to wiring them together is all and build a little waterproof battery case for them.

Also do not get rechareables like I did before I bought a deer feeder battery. They do not put out enough volts and all 8 wired together will give you something like 11.2 volts or so.

Thanks Rythe,

I think im a lil confused though...

R U saying that running my hummer 170 off of solar panels is not doable? Because, I didnt think that it would be practical. Or R U saying that the solar panel would not even be enough to keep my battery topped off or both?

This is from my solar panel recharger that Habor Freight made, when I put my multi-meter on it I had anywhere from 6-14v at any given time. I imagine you could not run a FF on a solar panel due to way to inconsistant voltage outputs.

From what I have seen using mine at home I do not think it would be enough to even keep it topped off, especially since you would have to make sure you are positioned in the sun at all time. Factoring in the cost, running the wires and the bit of extra weight I do not think it would be worth it at all. This is all testing from my solar panel that I own though and I am not sure if other panels would vary on the output.

You can not run off the solar panel. You would need a battery and that one you looked up Zombie is 6v. Harbor Freight has the battery charger panels but not very cheap. Plus the smaller one is only about .4 amps at it's best. Not much of a charger but more of a maintainer. I think it would only keep the batteries from running down as fast. Might be good if going on a several day river trip.

Thanks for unconfusing me dudes.
So the reason why small solar panels work on electric gate batteries n deer feeder batteries is because the battery is only in use for a few seconds at a time each day. Unlike sonar which is on for hours at a time?

Exactly, think of a barrel that starts full of water and has a 2in hole in the bottom. Water enters via a 1in hole in the top. The water entering will slow it down but it'll eventually run out. In your electric gate analogy, the barrel is plugged after a very short time and the barrels keeps filling up.

Nice analogy Ricardo, I am so going to steal that for the next time I am teaching my students about rate of charge vs discharge in my battery lecture.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062251

get 24 aa batteries at harbor freight for 5 dollars usually. with cheaper ff the batteries last about 18 hours or so. but with a 570 di humminbird they dont last probably but 6 hours or so.

I did the comparison last month and decide to use rechargeable AAs for light weight and flexible use. I have a garmin 140. Based on my calculation, my 12 AA batteries (2000mAh each) can gave me a continuous operation of 3.5 hours (with the each battery discharged by 50%, we don't want to fully discharge them). Two thing motivated me to use 12 batteries. 1) my fish finder operates at 12-18V 2) the voltage of my battery drops gradually. I got an 8-pack and a 4-pack battery holder from radioshack for around $6 and connected them in serial. I would say the total cost of using batteries is not less than the lead-acid battery you showed above. AAs also last shorter. The main advantage is mainly light weight and flexible use. Hope this helps.

I use the small 8 pack AA Battery Pack with rechargeable batteries. Last around twelve hours.

I use this battery and can usually get 3 to 5 trips between charges. It is physically smaller but does the same job as my old deer feeder batteries. And it's a lot less expensive.

http://www.futurlec.com/Marine_Solar_Battery_Charger.shtml

Here's a 10A 12V marine solar charge controller, would be needed between your array and your battery should you actually have enough output to overcome the draw of the FF.

The electronics guru at work suggested it. He also pointed out that because kayaks move and you cant always have 100% sun that you should expect lower than average actual output from the solar cells.

He said that sadly Solyndra made a panel that was perfect for marine use because it was curved(convex) and would provide better coverage. And well, that's no more...

Side note, my Humminbird 570 draws a puny 200ma... I was shocked, I was sure it was going to be a solid 500ma+