Ice Fishing Trip Tip: Flasher Charger in a Flash

[Shack]

Right now is the time to check and charge your flashers battery. Here is a tip for a no charger situation that could help during the season:

In a rush the night before an ice fishing trip and have found yourself without the charger for your flasher, under water camera or GPS? Your away from your house and find yourself needing a 12v charging source for your GPS, under water fishing camera, or other rechargeable device? Then watch this video as I show you how to cheaply and quickly get you charging again fast.

An additional tip which is not relayed in the video is the option of adding a cigarette lighter/heating element/power-point receptacle at the end of the cord instead of the alligator clips. This would be great for laptops & cell phones, drills and tools that have 12v charging capabilities built in to the unit or in the cord. This would even work for electric ice augers that run off of battery power.

If you run it off of a battery, or recharge/charge it back up in your car, this will help you.

I hope this helps, if someone finds themselves in a lost or have forgotten their charger situation. All it takes is look around the house or asking the front desk/check to see if they have an transformer-based adapter (black box hanging on the wall socket) that has an output of 12v.

Key notes: Next your charge your flasher's battery, time it. Help with gauging the charging time, pull a low or drained battery off around 3 hour mark. The higher the milliamps, the quicker the charge time will be. If you find an transformer-based adapter with an output of 12v 1500ma, I would check the battery for signs over heating around 1.5 hours. Even at 300ma, 3 hours should be plenty to get you going for a good portion of the day, if not all day. If your unsure of or can not find an adapter in the area of your specs, the best is frequently check on the battery while it is charging. Feel the sides of the battery for any hot to the touch, smoking, stink/oder. Remove if you see any of this. The battery will be warm during charging. This is normal. The next time you charge your battery at home with the original charger, check the sides to get an idea of what the warm level feels like. Also note how the battery looks. If it is hotter or looks any different than when using the factory original charger, remove the charger.

It does seem on almost every big trip that includes a good group size of my friends, someone always forgets their charger. I always carry extra chargers for the common named flasher.

Here are some additional key & spec notes:

1 amp=1000 milliamps

Factory specs just for reference:

Marcum: LX-5, LX-3, VX-1P, Any Device that uses the Marcum DCS100 Wall Charger:

300-400 milliamps per hour draw

1 amp “Digital” Charging System w/LCD display in percentage

Automatic 3 stage bulk rate, absorption, trickle charge.

If you find an adapter that has the same extract specs as the factory wall charger adapter, you can use this in the plug going into the digital display. If the specs are not the same (not sure of the digital) just remove the charging terminals from the digital display and clip right to the battery.

Humminbird Ice 385c1, 55, 45, 35

GCBK Gel Cell Battery Kit

12 Volt Battery

7-Amp Hour AGM battery and wall charger

Vexilar: FL-20, 18, 12, 8, Anything that uses the V-410 Charger

12 volt 9 amp sealed, lead battery

275 milliamp per hour draw

1 amp (1000 milliamps) charger

Vexilar’s V-110 Fisherman’s Battery & Charger Kit:

Sealed Lead Acid

500 milliamp charger

LED indicates when charging is complete

[FISHINGURU]

Nice one man!!

[Shack]

Thanks Guru

Added some info towards the end. So unless you are in a remote location, good luck locating charger, you can call up a relative or friend and have them check out the specs about.

A general rule of thumb is 12v, output with a range between 300-1000 milliamps, charge when you can keep an eye on it and check frequently. Not sure why it cut out, but the video missed about 15 seconds of my explaination when finding an adapter to plug right into Marcum's DCS100 charging system. If you do not have a straight forward clarification of what the out put is, disconnect the digital display and clip right to battery.

This is meant to be temporary fix for an unenforceable, trip ruining problem. I would recommended to replace with the proper charger from the manufacture. ASAP. Come on ice!!!!

[tsande00]

Nice video Shack! I'm going to go through my mess of DC adapters/wall transformers when I get home. Like you I have a tangled mess in a box somewhere. Just need to find a 12v one.

Another thing worth mentioning while on this topic:

I ruined my battery by forgetting the flasher out in the truck on a couple of occasions. Then the morning I planned go go fishing I would run outside, grab my ice cold battery and plug it in to charger for a few hours before I left. Did this 2 or 3 times and my battery was completely shot not even 2 full seasons in.

DON'T CHARGE AN ICE COLD BATTERY!

I even knew better but did it anyways because I was in a bind. Well, it ended up costing me $30

[Shack]

Good advise.

I know a frozen battery should not be charged, but a cold battery I assume would depend on how cold it is as it being a factor. Just letting a low amp 12v battery freeze is enough to cut down the life or even shut it down then and their. Temperature definitely is a factor when it comes to batteries and charging. Always like to bring them inside and bring up the temp a little before charging if they are close to or are dead.

Batteries, ice fishing, cold, ice, are an interesting combo, but needed.

[herm0026]

Awesome video thanks for sharing!

[Gordie]

great stuff shack I also purchase two of those jumper boxes at an auction this spring and have done what you said with the dc adapters for one and will use the jumper as a spare battery also and whats really nice is that they typically have the cig lighter built in also.

[Shack]

Thanks herm0026.

LOL! Gordie. Dude have I got a tip for you that I just found out with my own jump pack box. If the battery cruds out in that jump box, guess what? They use Marcum/Vex style 12v 7-9amp batteries.

Instead of buying a new jump start box, I just tossed in one of my extra batteries and it works great. I am sure different brand jump pack/boxes require different batteries, but my was a 12v 9 amp just like I use in my flasher.

This also works with those PC/Computer battery power supply backup deals:

Just fixed one and have another to fix for a friend. I will pull that up and maybe some video of the jump pack.

Why spend a $100+ to replace this stuff when you can just replace the battery for $10-$15.

[bobbymalone]

any good way to work up a cig lighter charger? seems kinda silly to run an inverter just to flip it back to 12v.

[harvey lee]

I guess I simply cary a few extra batteries in the truck.

[Ed Carlson]

any good way to work up a cig lighter charger? seems kinda silly to run an inverter just to flip it back to 12v.

The economy $20.00 200 watt cup holder converter will do a Vex charger and most basic cell phone and pod charges often used in a vehicle.

A little handier one will run a bit more, like $39, with multiple utility's.

Price tends to make converters the most popular option, and most economic answer. As we already have a very good smart charger in hand.

The ideal smart charger for this application, is not cheap. $99.00. The I-Tec XS 800 a totally smart fast charger for 12 V to 12 V maintenance charging in a vehicle.

[Shack]

Ed I like that little deal. I now know what I can drop hints for with X-Mas coming up.

I am on this mission. Just need to find something everyone has, throws away because it is worth nothing, but safely does the job. Not every solution to a problem or fix requires a new purchase.

[Ed Carlson]

I hear ya....I'm a Cheap Swede... "Anything for free, is worth saving up for" is a Cheap Swede's Motto ...Don't Ja..Know.