Wiring a Garmin fish finder to a battery source on your kayak (and fixing the fuse) 

@@NickOnTheWater ah man yea i guess it’s bound to happen being in the saltwater. I’ll prob need to just get a new power cable soon too. Yea I hate not having it too so it’s a nice feeling to get it working again

AWESOME. haha i don't blame ya for trying it out in the rain, you were prob so stoked. I'm glad you got 2 things done already and it's nice to hear that my videos helped ya a little. How'd setting up your fishfinder go? the Striker series transducer fit in the hull opening on the bottom ok?

Nice man glad it helped you! Yea I can see how this would be a common place for the wire to corrode as it’s sort of exposed and really thin.

Appreciate it! Starting out, this was one of the more daunting things to try and figure out. I'm not really good with electronics either, and I still don't fully understand how it works but a basic understanding of the concept can go a long way, especially when something breaks and you have to try and fix it. Haha yea this is def just a very basic janky setup that works as well, it is by no means a good setup but it works so I'm happy for now, lol. It's great though to get feedback from other kayak fishermen that have better ways to do this and I've learned a lot from everyone that comments. Dying to get out there man, rain this weekend doesn't look great, oh well...

lol Im glad it helped you. I never thought this video would help so many people, I was honestly figuring out how to fix it myself as I went 😂

That sounds like a great setup. I def want to get a better box and battery soon, did you drill a hole in the ammo box for the SAE cable? I like that idea of adding SAE connector so then you just leave the battery in the box always, and your wires are always on the terminals so they're protected?

That was my plan to keep the terminals protected and enable a quick connection for charging. Nice thing about the lithium battery is you can toss it in the hatch and not worry about how it’s situated. And at 1.65# it’s less than half the weight of a small lead acid or AGM battery.

Yes I did drill to install the SAE connector but it’s waterproof.

@@PeterRanieriII Use these to pass the wire through the box and keep it waterproof. I added some silicone just to be sure. www.amazon.com/Agile-Shop-Plastic-Waterproof-Adjustable-3-5-13mm/dp/B01M9J2HCU/ref=dp_prsubs_1?pd_rd_i=B01M9J2HCU&psc=1

@@matthewmatassa4795 great idea, was thinking a gasket of some sort, this looks perfect, thanks

Glad it was helpful! I really never thought this video would reach as many people as it has, I plan to do another video soon on installing the fish finder without a transducer mount (through-hull install).

@@PeterRanieriII Good job friend.

thats a serious battery, and probably wasn't cheap, if it also doubles as your power tool battery then its a win win

@@PeterRanieriII use these batteries for work so I literally always have one charged up that I can borrow. Should be able to get some serious run time out of them.

how did you make the connector on the box waterproof? I figure that you had to drill through the box to get the power lines out, right?

I’m so happy to hear this! Glad you could get it to work in time for the tourney!

I use this: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001G8AIMU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I used to have an SLA battery but recently upgraded to a lithium battery and this charger still works for that one as well

And how many awg

so the unit's power cable comes with only 22 AWG which I think is just so small. Even if it works electrically its just not durable so I spliced this area with 18 AWG and the terminals are called quick slide solderless I believe. Here's a link: amzn.to/3VnrK4A but I would go to your hardware store it will be cheaper and you can talk to the person about it.

🤞 I hope you get it, and with the seat too, haha. Is setting up the fishfinder high on the priority list for you?

@@PeterRanieriII yes I have everything I’m planning on doing for the boat sitting in a bag on my half sanded down BMW that I’m painting 🤪. I bought the striker 4 vivid, the front keel guard, an anchor trolley and beach wheels. I’m getting the seat to because my dealer is hooking me up for not being a pain in the a$$ and paying in full when I bought it. Also since I keep buying mor from him. Great dealership. Eventually I’ll do the rectangle hatch a cooler bag, h crate, and possibly that metal jobber that goes up front for standing up.

@@PeterRanieriII went with the vivid because I’m not a fan of Lowrance (junk) and every FF I’ve ever owned has eventually broken even the $1000 ones. Lowrance CS sucks though. Figured go cheap and keep it small but wanted down imaging and chirp sonar.

I think theyr for data transfer if you needed to put your waypoints to another unit. But you can also use the SD card to transfer so I’m not really sure. They don’t have to be connected for it to work tho

@@PeterRanieriII Mainly used for bigger boats where a finder is mounted at the captain's consol snd the bow or to move data to an upgrade Garmin

@@CatmandoTNR your absolutely correct, they connect other garmin devices to your unit

@@PeterRanieriII so frustrating, where would a person connect the blue and brown? usually a brown is for running lights and a blue for charging

I agree that is better. This is a very crappy fuse and for sure not the best way to do it but I'm all about just making it work with what I got. This probably took a couple minutes to fix and it lasted all of last year's season. But I do plan to make a better box and wiring altogether for the upcoming season, thanks for the suggestion of the auto inline fuse 👍

Good to know, lol thanks - yeah I guess if you needed to monitor other metrics in navigation you could add other types of units but it’s pretty pointless for a basic fish finder to have - also data transfer via the SD card is very simple. Just seems unnecessary to have those wires for this type of device and it has confused so many people,

Lol yes that is way better

Didn’t work when you tried it out? Can you send me a pic or video? I’d be willing to try and take a look and see. Pr2fishing@gmail.com