Thread: Low Battery Alarm - Lithium Batteries

I would think not, unless your Helix is wired into your trolling motor wires (and the Helix has the battery charge status option)

Nope. No way to tell beyond watching the voltage, it will start dropping below 12.9-13.2 during the last 10-15% charge remaining.

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They may possibly have a gauge that can tell you the status of the battery

Kevin, so how do I watch the voltage drop? I have no gauge for that?

Originally Posted by steve telinda

Kevin, so how do I watch the voltage drop? I have no gauge for that?

If its hooked to your sonar unit, just show voltage overlay on your screen. You wont be able to tell the battery level until its on its last leg unfortunately.

You could set your voltage alarm for 12.5v or so and that will alert you that your battery is at about 10% remaining. Not sure how much warning that really is, but its about the best you can do unfortunately. The lithium battery will start around 13.2 and slowly drop to 13v during use, then all of a sudden start dropping quickly as its at the end of the charge. By then its not a huge warning, kind of a "hey your battery is about to die any second".

If this is a starting battery, theres no way to warn you before its too low to start. Sounds like its your trolling batteries, they should NOT be hooked to your fishfinder as well but you can do anything you want.

You could pick up one of those cheap digital voltage meters and hook it to one of the batteries, since it sounds like multiple in series you really would only have to monitor one. It would not be worth the effort for me, but you can do this if you want to. You would just mount it wherever you want and extend the leads to your battery. Alternatively you may be able to tap it into your trolling motor power plug somehow but you would be measuring the full voltage of all batteries.

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Thanks for all the response, I think I`ll just try to base how many hours and what settings I use per trip and compare it to minkota`s amp draw per speed settings and just wing it.

I thought about adding this to my trolling batteries. I don't know why I never worried about monitoring batteries when they were lead acid.
Bluetooth Smart Battery Monitor
– Amped Outdoors

Originally Posted by Greenwing

I thought about adding this to my trolling batteries. I don't know why I never worried about monitoring batteries when they were lead acid.
Bluetooth Smart Battery Monitor
– Amped Outdoors

Wouldnt trust it. Its simply a rebranded chinese battery monitor that they had someone design an app interface skin for. (just like all of their products, rebranded standard chinese items like on amazon). I didnt mention these as a way to monitor the batteries because they are notoriously unreliable and clunky. It will give you a general idea of charge status, kinda, as long as it stays working and you program it correctly. It uses discharge rate to calculate charge remaining, after you tell it how big the battery is. It does not monitor individual cells and SOC of the battery itself like a true blutooth battery does.

You can get the same thing for about $15-20 on amazon.

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