Frankenshuttle for LX7

[prospector]

After reading a few of  the threads on the new Marcum shuttle, I decided to try my hand at making my own.  I like the idea of being able to put the fishfinder upright in a 5 gallon bucket. This works very well with my run and gun approach to finding fish while on the move. I was able to get it pretty much perfectly balanced  which will be nice for hole hopping.  My base unit is a Humminbird shuttle. I made a custom bracket to hold on the bracket that came with the LX7. I may add a light to it for charging Lures but I am not sure I really care about that for now.  To hold the transducer while traveling, I put it in 2 inch rubber coupling commonly used in the plumbing industry. One main reason I wanted to build my own was so that I could easily change the batteries from day to day on trips that are more than a week at times. The Marcum shuttle looks great but I did not want to have to deal with charging it every couple of days. When I go fishing on my long trips , Charging batteries is the last thing I want to do. On many of my overnight trips, it is not uncommon to have the fishfinder on for 20 hours straight. For now I will probably just use lead acid batteries, but may go to lithium ion in the near future. I run a lot of Milwaukee batteries, so I may just use my Milwaukee  power source to run the finder with. I have used it on several other fishfinders with great success. Thanks for reading, I will post some pics below. Tight lines, prospector

[icehound67]

Nice, interested in seeing pics.

[JaminWI]

Very cool, always enjoy seeing people getting creative and DIY'ing!

[icehound67]

Very nice.

[3300]

interesting!

[muskyon46]

Looks good Joe. I really like that you got that into a bucket. May just have to have you set me up with one of those 

[prospector]

thanks guys! decided to lighten it up a little bit with a lithium ion makeover. 12.2 volts.

[OldSailor]

thanks guys! decided to lighten it up a little bit with a lithium ion makeover. 12.2 volts.
(Image removed from quote.)

I thought the M18 was rated at 18 volts

[prospector]

I thought the M18 was rated at 18 volts

They actually put out about 20 V. What you see on top of the battery is called the Milwaukee power source. It has a built-in USB and a 12 V port for powering the heated jacket that they make.

[OldSailor]

They actually put out about 20 V. What you see on top of the battery is called the Milwaukee power source. It has a built-in USB and a 12 V port for powering the heated jacket that they make.

Ok... Gotcha!! 

[prospector]

Took the sun shield from the LX9. Now that I have an LX7, the LX9 will stay in the wheel house most of the time. Still have yet to let the wife know about the new LX7 in the lineup!

[theflatlander]

thanks guys! decided to lighten it up a little bit with a lithium ion makeover. 12.2 volts.
(Image removed from quote.)

how many hours you getting off the battery with lx7? i have the dewalt 20v batteries and see the make a power source for it also and wondering how well this would work with my lx9 as a back up source.

[prospector]

Just put a fresh battery on it and will let you know in the morning on the run time.
I am not sure if the Dewalt will work unless they have a new power source that I am not aware of.
This is the one they made a few years back. It has two USB ports, but not the 12v. port like the Milwaukee does.
To run their jacket with a high current load, I am not sure how it is done. Maybe they use different pins on the USB port to get a higher voltage. Does any one reading this know exactly how they power their jacket? You have me curious now!

[prospector]

Here is the Milwaukee Power Source.

[prospector]

Looks like Dewalt does have a port on the jacket power source! just learned something, Thank you for asking the question! You should be good to go on your LX9.

[prospector]

how many hours you getting off the battery with lx7? i have the dewalt 20v batteries and see the make a power source for it also and wondering how well this would work with my lx9 as a back up source.

14 1/2 hours on a 9ah 50% backlight on night background. Not bad! Probably won’t get as good during cold temperatures.

[theflatlander]

thanks for the info! so what i am seeing it has two usb ports, and where that black plug is also a power out female port?

[3300]

prospector, the test on the shuttle battery was 20 hours on 50% back light in demo mode.
i don't use mine that bright and will be doing another test at 10% back light because that's what i use the most. 50% is for day time, but i don't get on ice til a few hours before sunset and i turn it down to 10% before sunset.
it will be a good comparison test to see how much life the back light uses.

theflatlander, the round jack should be 12 volt out.

[prospector]

thanks for the info! so what i am seeing it has two usb ports, and where that black plug is also a power out female port?

Yes. I assume it is 12 volts.

[prospector]

prospector, the test on the shuttle battery was 20 hours on 50% back light in demo mode.
i don't use mine that bright and will be doing another test at 10% back light because that's what i use the most. 50% is for day time, but i don't get on ice til a few hours before sunset and i turn it down to 10% before sunset.
it will be a good comparison test to see how much life the back light uses.

theflatlander, the round jack should be 12 volt out.

Thanks for doing that! Unfortunately, in demo mode the transducer is not working, so it is probably not giving us an accurate real life test. I agree with not having the brightness of that high. Most times in my tent I am about 20 to 30%. Even in demo mode, 20 hours seems about right compared to what my battery did. Not bad at all!

[3300]

any time! it helps all of us who are interested in the unit know what they may expect from it.

going for the longevity test now and not in demo mode. i've been reporting tests here. i haven't been clogging the board this way.
https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=347410.msg3703799#msg3703799

[prospector]

any time! it helps all of us who are interested in the unit know what they may expect from it.

going for the longevity test now and not in demo mode. i've been reporting tests here. i haven't been clogging the board this way.
https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=347410.msg3703799#msg3703799

You are a stud! I will go check out that thread. Thanks a lot again! Going to be a good year on the ice.

[prospector]

Found a new use for my Marcum LX7 base. I have used my phone in the past to run the deeper app. This should work much better and it plays movies and music too. On the ice, I will power it with another 9.0 Milwaukee battery and power source. Don't mind the kid's fingerprints!

[muskyon46]

Another prospector DIY, I know your going to watch plenty of movies on that thing for sure. Looks good

[3300]

great idea! i like it.

[prospector]

Thank guys! This might even be better. Put a RAM mount on the Frankenshuttle.

[3300]

fish tv!

you can get right angle usb connectors so the cable isn't sticking out as far if you wanted to.

[prospector]

fish tv!

you can get right angle usb connectors so the cable isn't sticking out as far if you wanted to.

I wondered about that. Thanks!

[gman51]

so will you actually find time to fish. looks like alot of time dickering around with all the gagets. maybe not hole hoping..... lol

[prospector]

so will you actually find time to fish. looks like alot of time dickering around.maybe not hole hoping..... lol

Some guys just practice catch and release to do their part for the fishery. I practice not catching them in the first place most of the time! Even in the summer, I spend more of my time watching other people fish on TV instead of getting off my rear end and taking the boat out. Who knows, maybe this year...lol