Charging questions

[icewoman]

I had this happen to me the other day and I am wondering if this has happened to anyone else. I went to charge my Vex and I dropped the charger head on the floor. I plugged it in and connected it to the Vex. Not but a couple of seconds later I smell smoke and the cord on the charger had melted right thru. It was confirmed by a second party that I did indeed have the leads connected correctly. Any suggestions?

[I_Got_One]

The only thing that I can think of is that when the charger head fell on the ground it broke or crossed the lead inside the head and shorted out the unit.

[Todd_J]

I had battery go bad at the beginning of this season, probably due to my own repeated laziness in charging. I would often let the charger run for days on end... My bad.

I picked up Marcum's Digital Charging System. What a sweet outfit! Now I know what percentage of battery is left AND it will automatically turn off and trickle when the charge is complete. It also chargers much faster than the Fleet Farm 'Zeus' charger (1 amp charger)

[matt_bewley]

Its never happened to me but i think what I got one said is more than likely correct

[Random guy]

The head of the charger is full goodies, little wires and all sorts of circuit boards and solder connections. So it is very possible a good blow to that little bugger could make it malfunction that way.

[icewoman]

I have read some posts about the Marcum and only using the marcum charger. I have bought tons of batteries with charges and never take any consideration about which I use on what battery. Does it make any difference which charger one uses on any particular battery? I have tow Vexilar's and an Aqua View and a Marcum camera and interchange all the batteries as needed.

[Rick]

As long as they are the same size and type the batteries can be inter-changed between all the units you mention.

[Dave]

As long as the charger's positive and negative leads are connected correctly to the battery, it wouldn't matter which charger you use.

[thehawk]

I have a vexilar and an aqua view and a mopod for the camera, I have had many battery issues this year. They are all 12volt 7 amp batterys and I cannot tell how much true battery life is left. I check them on the battery meter on my vexilar and they show 100%, but then I get them to the lake and use them in my camera and they last 15 minutes. I am thinking of getting a lawn tractor battery to run the camera off of that. I will make the leads longer coming from the camera to accomidate the lawn tractor battery placement. Any suggestions, will this work? I am tired of carring around 5 differnt batteries for oone day of fishing.

[blueroof]

 Originally Posted By: thehawk

Any suggestions, will this work? I am tired of carring around 5 differnt batteries for oone day of fishing.

A larger battery is a good solution.

Regarding your 7ah batteries, you probably have some old/worn/bad batteries. The best way to find out is to test the batteries while loaded. I know batteries plus and other battery vendors usually have units that can do this. You can do it at home by hooking up your battery to something that will draw about 1amp, then test your voltage with a multimeter. If you have batteries that when fully charged test to 12.8volts without anything drawing current, but when hooked up they drop to near 12 they are bad, if they drop only slightly they are good.

LB

[BK19]

if you have one of those battery booster pacs that have the cig, power outlet on them you can just make an adapter with the right leads to hook up to your flasher,camera or whatever and it lasts for days on end

[thehawk]

thanks blueroof, i will give the test a try.

[slipperybob]

 Originally Posted By: BK19

if you have one of those battery booster pacs that have the cig, power outlet on them you can just make an adapter with the right leads to hook up to your flasher,camera or whatever and it lasts for days on end

LOL's just don't run it for days out there and never starting the vehicle up.

[icewoman]

I use a Battery Pack to run my Aqua View and made an adapter like above to run the Vexilar if needed and the lights in the house.