Bringing my LSS-1 back to life

[Team Colibri]

I bought a small tin to use in lakes and rivers where 1,5 tons of boat is overkill. Keeping the budget low I reused some electronics I had laying around: LSS-1 ducer, LSS-2 module, HDS 10m Gen 2 for structurescan and HDS 5 Gen 2 with HST-WSBL for 2D. Even dusted of an 20 year old electric motor with 21LBS pull to motor it. Mainly used for yellow perch.


Found some perch as well:






The last pic is from a river, thus the turbulence midwater. This is how the ducers are mounted:



Using a cheap buble-leveler off ebay to make sure the ducers are level while running, since the RAM-mount I use is very flexible and can be adjusted in just about all directions.

[Sasch]

Nice! I like the idea with the leveler

[Schins]

[Team Colibri]

Thanks guys. :)
I use a box for the electronics. In it I have the LSS-module, a Sonarserver and a panel and main switch to cut power. I even mounted a USB-charger. It all runs of a 20Ah Topband Lifepo battery. The battery holds out for 8 hours with both the 10 and 5 at max light, I`ll probably change it for a slightly larger battery in due time to ensure I can charge my IPhone/ IPad that I use for Sonarcharts Live with the Sonarserver getting NMEA0183 from the HDS 5.



What is really neat with the TopBand-battery though, is the buildt in Bluetooth that corresponds to an app that shows data from the BMS. Remaining A in %, number of cycles and (on Android) you can even se the status of the individual cells. Really a cool thing, since there is no way to use the batterys volt to determine its status like you can on lead-based batteries.

[skeeter91]

dang thats slick! very nice job on the routing and mounting!

[fishin couillon]

Pretty cool!!!

[Schins]

Im assuming you trailer that boat?

I hope you have a garage to pull it in and not have to assemble/disassemble for every trip

Edit: yup...I see the trailer in one of the pics

[DonnieG]

Real nice set up, TC

[Team Colibri]

Im assuming you trailer that boat?

I hope you have a garage to pull it in and not have to assemble/disassemble for every trip

Edit: yup...I see the trailer in one of the pics

Yes, I have a trailer that I use (and a garage to keep it all in). But the HDS-units are also used in my larger boat so they move around according to what boat I`m using for the day. I also bought a set of wheels designed for transporting a canoe, and with some tinkering they fit under the boat so I can tow it manually to places where I can`t drive my car. (In Norway, motorized transport offroad is illegal as a general rule.) This pic is from last spring, me out walking my boat. :D

[Schins]

Do you get any interference when using the electric motor on the same battery?

[Team Colibri]

Do you get any interference when using the electric motor on the same battery?

Never do, but if I did I probably would. Do not mix sensetive electronics and high-amp-users in the same system.

[Lkmbjb502]

Nice craft!

[kandybass]

Nice set up

[fisheye216]

Do you have to tilt the motor backward when using side scan to avoid blocking the transducer signal?

[Team Colibri]

Not on this boat and with LSS-1. The LSS-1 is shorter then LSS-2 and StructureScan 3D so it fits between the hull and my electric motor. I do get some (very litle) turbulence close to the surface that I guess is created by interrrupted waterflow hitting the lower part of my TM.

I do get turbulence from my oars (when not using the TM) in on SideScan though. As can be seen here:


On my larger boat using LSS-2 or StructureScan 3D I have to tilt out my outboard a bit to avoid a shadow on sidescan.

[mcdye]

very nice setup!

[moetorola]

I would like to know more about this battery?

[Team Colibri]

I would like to know more about this battery?

I`m planning to switch the battery-bank in my larger boat to Lifepo, and thus started out small with a Lifepo in the small tinn to test the tech. So far it works great, and the only downside is the price.... In the long run that price might even out compared to quality AGM or Gel since the Lifepo is supposed to last a lot more cycles. But I can`t comment on that part yet after just one season of use. I can say though, that after completely flattening the battery (ie running my units until they die from a flat battery) I see no negatives as to the charging (no loss of Ah). So far so good I guess.

The only negative apart from price that I can think of, is that you no longer can use V as a "statusbar". With AGM or Gel I have always used volt as an overlay on my units, and through that known fairly well what the discharge-status of my battery has been. Since Lifepo gives a constant V from full to empty, reading V has very litle meaning. One needs to track Ah to know how how many hours of run-time one has left in the battery. You can offcourse just use it untill its BMS cuts the power, but I like to know that before my screens goes black. :) This is why I bought this specific battery, through the app I get the info I need. It simply uses the BMS in the battery to provide info, the BMS will offcourse do this in any Lifepo but not many output the info so you can see it. It only works in a 12V-setup though, not as 24V or 36V. For 24/36 one needs the models without the Bluetooth.

But for my simple setup the app basicly means I don`t need a more complicated (and expencive) battery managment system. Whenever I go "full monty" in my larger boat where i use 24V something like this will probably be on my shopping-list:
https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/bmv-700

[moetorola]

Thanks for the info!

Can you use a standard charger to charge the Lipo battery?

I was looking at the TOPBAND info and they have a 100AH 12volt.

[Team Colibri]

I use "normal" chargers on my battery. As with all LiFePO with a BMS, you need a charger that will start even if the charger measures 0V from the battery. (Since the BMS cuts the power to avoid damaging the cells). All my chargers have done that (i have tested three different ones) but I have read that some chargers might not start. Ohh, don't overdo the charge (in A) if you want maximum cycles. You can "rapid-charge" most LiFePOs, but that comes at a price of fewer cycles. My Topband can take a 20A-charge in theory, "filling" it in one hour. But I usually use a 3A-charge. But if you are in a hurry it is nice to know it can be done.