Marcum ?

[Bagley]

For people with the new Marcum LX3:

I was just wondering if any of you guys have ever checked the charge of your batteries with any other battery charge testers. The reason I am asking is because my digital tester said that my battery was at a 0 charge so I grabbed the light up tester that came with my brother's vexilar. When I hooked that up to my battery it said that my battery was at half charge.

This makes me wonder how long I can run my marcum when the digital charge reading is at zero.

[Bagley]

If you guys havn't tested your battery with any other testers try it an tell me what you find out.

[Scott Steil]

You should be able to run your LX-3 just about as long as you can a vexilar. Their draw is almost the same. One thing to note on the digital battery display on the MarCum LX-3 is that your battery life will only be correct when the unit is turned off for a period of time. When there is draw on the battery the meter will read falsely low (just like the battery indicators on trolling motors). To get a true reading of battery life you shoud shut the unit off for a few seconds.

[CNY Tim]

I have seen 0 on my DCS under load once since I have been fishing with my MarCum LX-3 and that was at the end of a long day of fishing in extreme cold. After I drove home and the battery warmed up the DCS read 50%.
I have three powersonic PS1270 batteries and the fully automatic PSC-12800A charger and so far so good the DCS and the PSC-12800A both recover a battery to full charge in less than 5 hours. I have not fished it two days in a row on a single charge but I am sure some one else on this site has.

[This message has been edited by Rick (edited 02-27-2003).]

[Bagley]

I was just curious to see what everyone else said. I have ran mine for a full day of fishing when the DCS read Zero. I did notice that when the unit is shut off the charge does read significantly higher. The book said that the LX3 should run from 18-22 hrs. Does 1500 watts mean that it draws more juice when running? All in all I am pretty impressed with this flasher. It has a very bright screen. When in the 5 foot zoom mode the seperation is unreal-1.5". I really like it.. Lets hope it isnt just another new product that will end up obsolete like my zercom did.

[Scott Steil]

"Does 1500 watts means it draws more juice" Compared to what? Compared to the FL-18 the current draw of the LX-3 is slightly higher.

LX-3 Current Draw is 300mA
FL-18 Current Draw is 275mA

[Bagley]

Scott you answered my question. I was wondering compared to a vexilar.

[Guest]

Scott,the way the marcum works to my understanding is that you will draw 1500 watts at full gain(10) and 150 watts at lowest gain(1).The gain is tied into the power usage. GOOD FISHING DON

[Guest]

I notice my unit shows a higher charge by 10-20% when I have it shut off and warmed up in the house. So, 0 may be as much as 10-20+% charge.. I wouldn't think it would be 1/2 life. The vexilar battery gauge I would guess is not as accurate. I've got an FL-8 and it seems to be a rough guideline, not as accurate as the meter on the LX-3. You could easily test your battery with a handheld and see how close it actually is though..

[Scott Steil]

The LX-3 display is accurate, however, the unit can not be running when you check the actual life.