Using DeWalt 20volt to Power a Graph?

After Gunflint’s endorsement, I modified a Ridgid USB charger to mate with my Garmin 73SV ice kit. Lugging that bowling ball around hole hopping was getting pretty old! I went from an 11 lb. unit to 7.5 lb with the same capacity. If I don’t need a 80WH capacity for the day, I can use one of my smaller batteries and save a few more ounces. My graph reads 19.7V with the first battery I put on it.
Update: I made a holder for the battery adapter that fits in the pocket for the SLA battery. Ready to rock!

Steve, I am pleased that everything is working as you hoped. It is so much better to have things lighter and easier to deal with. Best wishes this year!

Gunflint

Question for you guys: can a USB-C Power Delivery cable run a graph? It looks like they can provide a range of voltages up to 20v. My Makita 18v battery adapter only has USB ports so might I run an Ice Helix 7 with it?

For those getting ready to try this conversion, I made some measurements today. I hooked ups an ammeter in line with my Ridgid 18V 2AH battery, and checked the current draw on my Garmin 73SV with the ice kit. Since the voltage of the battery will drop from the 20.2V I measured down to somewhere around 15-16V when the battery cuts out to protect itself, I assume the current will go up to compensate. From reading, the cells in these batteries should not be discharged below 3V, and there are 5 of them, so I set my voltage alarm at 16V (3.2×5) until I am sure that the battery has the means to protect itself. The voltage drops pretty fast at the end, so I don’t feel like that loses much.
Powered on, sonar off, I get .27A at 100% brightness, .16A at 60%, which is what I use.
Sonar on, the readings fluctuate, but I get .29-.33A at 100% brightness, .17-.25A at 60%.
I used this setup yesterday, and stopped at about 5 hours of life and 17.7V at 100% brightness. I still had 2 bars on the battery. I think by running lower screen brightness and letting the battery voltage go lower, I can almost get 1 day out of this setup. Gives me something to do with batteries that are too small to run the auger.

Great thread. I’m going to bench text my Helix 5 with a 20V dewalt battery this week. Would be slick since I’m running a 6″ light flight on my dewalt drill anyways.

I used this setup again. I charged my battery, and after a few days, I noticed that it only had 3 bars even though I had not used it. Either there is some parasitic loss, or my battery is failing and has a short. I charged it up the night before, left the battery disconnected, and I got 6.5 hours fishing with 2 bars left. I think the 2AH batteries are enough for the 73 SV ice kit. I plan to take an extra 2 AH battery just in case, but I don’t think I need it. Good thing to do with those dinky batteries they give you with some kits.
My measurements say that the unit consumes around 4.5W, and the battery has around 36WH, so around 8 hours is the estimated life.

I’ve been using some of my Milwaukee batteries for my 73SV ice kit and they are the 4.0 XC which came in my drill kit. The last trip my unit ran almost all day on the first battery all the way down to 8v on the graph but it didn’t shut down the screen brightness just changed so I changed the battery and everything was fine except that night when I went to charge the dead battery it won’t charge. It must be discharged past where it will take a charge from the Milwaukee charger. I have a 9.0 coming so I’ll use that exclusively for my Ice Kit.

glenn-d wrote:

I’ve been using some of my Milwaukee batteries for my 73SV ice kit and they are the 4.0 XC which came in my drill kit. The last trip my unit ran almost all day on the first battery all the way down to 8v on the graph but it didn’t shut down the screen brightness just changed so I changed the battery and everything was fine except that night when I went to charge the dead battery it won’t charge. It must be discharged past where it will take a charge from the Milwaukee charger. I have a 9.0 coming so I’ll use that exclusively for my Ice Kit.

This is the issue I have been worried about: I believe some batteries have protection for the cells, and some do not. The flasher will work across a very wide voltage range, but if the voltage of the battery pack goes below about 15-16V, battery damage can occur, or at least the charger throws a fault and will not charge. I set a voltage alarm on my Garmin at 16V- and I believe the pack is good down to 15V. Let me know if you figure out a way to bring your battery back.

I’ve been using my Dewalt batteries to power everything (locators, lights, phone charger, heated vest, heated boots, underwater cameras…) for years now. I’ve discharged them many times. Its no issue at all. Just follow this guys instructions and the batteries can be charged. I’ve noticed no damage to the batteries at all.

My understanding is that these batteries degrade over time- they have less and less capacity with each cycle. If you charge them too fast or too high , more damage, run them too low, more damage. The shutoff that these batteries have is designed to limit the low voltage to about 3V per 18650 cell. (15V for the 5 cells in series)
If you run them out, the charger senses a fault at startup. Charging it with another battery puts a surface charge on the cells which is enough to satisfy the charger and start charging, but the warmth noted in the video is not a good sign.
From what I read, these packs lose capacity with each cycle, and cycles that press them to the max charge and drop them to the minimum have more effect. While they are not instantly killed, even time going to zero charge reduces the number of cycles you will get from that battery before you notice it does not have enough capacity any more.

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Steve Johnson wrote:

My understanding is that these batteries degrade over time- they have less and less capacity with each cycle. If you charge them too fast or too high , more damage, run them too low, more damage. The shutoff that these batteries have is designed to limit the low voltage to about 3V per 18650 cell. (15V for the 5 cells in series)
If you run them out, the charger senses a fault at startup. Charging it with another battery puts a surface charge on the cells which is enough to satisfy the charger and start charging, but the warmth noted in the video is not a good sign.
From what I read, these packs lose capacity with each cycle, and cycles that press them to the max charge and drop them to the minimum have more effect. While they are not instantly killed, even time going to zero charge reduces the number of cycles you will get from that battery before you notice it does not have enough capacity any more.

Ok. All I know is I’ve been doing this for years and still have the same 5ah batteries and still have more than enough power do anything I need.

If you can’t tell I’m not real big on worrying about things, as long as they don’t keep me from fishing!

These 14 to 16 inch crappies didn’t care either! My entire fishing trip was powered off of four 5ah Dewalt batteries that are a few years old.

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Agreed. The graphs are talking about the degradation at thousands of cycles. If you get to fish that much, go ahead and buy new batteries!

My head is spinning here.
Is this thread for people that run an auger off a drill and you only want to carry a drill battery(s) for all your DC needs? I’m trying to see where/how this would affect my battery consumption.

BTW I find this thread fascinating. This is why IDO rules. I lotta smart guys here.

I use the adaptor Joe S recommended for my shack lights and phone charging. Basskhangs shuttle with my helix 7 g2 reduces to 12v. And a Dewalt 20v hammer drill with an 8″ kdrill. I have never run out of battery in 1 day of fishing. The helix will run 2 days with the light turned down to 60% I can pound 20+ holes in 18″ of ice with the kdrill and if I run out I bring the charger and charge in the wheelhouse or pickup. I run 2 8ah 20v dewalt batteries and 1 5ah Dewalt battery.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

My head is spinning here.
Is this thread for people that run an auger off a drill and you only want to carry a drill battery(s) for all your DC needs? I’m trying to see where/how this would affect my battery consumption.

BTW I find this thread fascinating. This is why IDO rules. I lotta smart guys here.

The advantage is more using a battery you already have, and chargers you already have, instead of buying dedicated batteries.
The sharing of the same battery to drill and power a sonar is only a backup, in my view. I saved 4+ lb. from my flasher, got much faster recharging, and only spent $10 on the parts to do it.

Steve,
Thanks for the clarification.

Has the 20V dewalt battery set up continued to perform well for your 93SV? I am close to pulling the trigger on utilizing this setup but I am also hesitant to go over the 18V rating.

Hello Joel,

Can you please provide the brand model or a link for the adopter? I would like to buy one for my garmin 75sv. Thanks

Joe Scegura wrote:

I posted on this last year on IDO as well. I run everything with my DeWalt batteries. Underwater camera, locators, drill/auger everything. I leave the house with one small insulated bag holding four 5amp hour batteries and I’m all set. This change has completely eliminated my battery frustration. I can switch out batteries as I please in just seconds. I’ve never ran out of power yet.

Hello Joel,

Can you please provide the brand model or a link for the adopter? I would like to buy one for my garmin 75sv. Thanks

Ruspirit wrote:

Hello Joel,

Can you please provide the brand model or a link for the adopter? I would like to buy one for my garmin 75sv. Thanks

“Joel”… I assume you’re talking to me so here ya go. BTW it’s Joe.

Hi Joe,
Are you using the attachment for your GLS-10 and/or Head unit or just your accessories that cant handle over 12v? Reason I ask is it seemed liked David and the other user (doesnt show a name) were directly powering their head units with 20V. I had found the link below for a seelite adapter and was considering on wiring my head/gls-10 unit in parallel to the 20V.

If you are using the auxiliary jack for ALL of your 12v needs, are you powering your units on separate circuits or do you have multiple components on one circuit?

SeeFish 20v Dewalt Adapter

Hi Joe,
Are you using this adapter for your head unit and/or your GLS-10 black box? On your original post from this forum I didn’t know if you were using the adapter for just your 12V accessories that couldn’t take higher voltages. I had found the Seelite adapter linked below and was planning on wiring my head unit/Gls-10 in parallel. Or possibly just using One adapter/battery for each and keeping them on their own circuit.

SeeFish 20v Dewalt Adapter

Joe’s method is the same I have seen locally by a lot of guys powering a single devise from a battery.
Guys wanting to run larger screens or multiple things at once that have a larger amp draw have used the boost/bucks in addition to the Dewalt 20V power connection

Thanks everyone.
Not a pro of connecting wires with various amps and step up and down of volts.
Decided to buy Dewalt DC adaptor with the following similar connector. Gonna screw directly Garmin 75sv power wire to the connector and plug it to the adaptor.

The jumping a battery trick to get it to recharge works a lot of times, but not every time. I ruined a 12 AH Dewalt a few weekends ago, by forgetting to totally unplug and having parasitic draw on it. Those babies ain’t cheap.

Now I’m sure if I pull the battery apart I can find the individual cell that is causing the issue and try to jump that individual one up a bit. Which I might one day when I have time to see what it all looks like in there.

But be forewarned. I’m a big fan of using my drill batteries, but they aren’t dummy proof. You need to have a bit of awareness on what you’re doing.

Plunker wrote:

The jumping a battery trick to get it to recharge works a lot of times, but not every time. I ruined a 12 AH Dewalt a few weekends ago, by forgetting to totally unplug and having parasitic draw on it. Those babies ain’t cheap.

Now I’m sure if I pull the battery apart I can find the individual cell that is causing the issue and try to jump that individual one up a bit. Which I might one day when I have time to see what it all looks like in there.

But be forewarned. I’m a big fan of using my drill batteries, but they aren’t dummy proof. You need to have a bit of awareness on what you’re doing.

I set an alarm on my Garmin at 16V- which should be 1V more than a tool would shut down at. I also set it up so that it turns on automatically when it detects voltage. I put the tool battery on the connector when I start fishing, and take it off when I am done- that way I protect the battery from going completely dead. I noticed the parasitic drain when I left a full battery on for a week between trips, and had only 3 bars when I started out.
The other solution ai have seen to to put a hard switch between the battery and the voltage converter, or between the battery and the sonar if you are going straight in.