Humminbird Smartcast RF15 Wireless Fish Finder
Email This Article To a Friend| HUMMINBIRD SMARTCAST RF15 WIRELESS FISH FINDER | |||||||||||||||
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Product Description |
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The Humminbird RF15 is a great little fish finder for our personal fishing boat project. It's lightweight, portable, battery operated and you don't need to attach the transducer to the bottom of your boat. This isn't a cheap'o fish finder, it's just as accurate as any boat-mounted fish finder. It will give you the water depth and temperture and it will show you all the bottom habitats. It even has a sensitivity control and fish alarm feature.
If you want to use the Smartcast RF 15 as a traditional fish finder, simply attach a short line from the back of your boat to the green wireless transducer and tow it behind you. I like to attach mine to a spare rod/reel so I can cast it into areas I can't reach by boat to see where the fish may be hiding. The only negative part of the Humminbird Smartcast RF-15 is the 8 AA batteries it uses. Good quality alkaline batteries are expensive and I was dissapointed when I found out the main unit eats up the batteries after only 3 or 4 hours of use. There is an easy fix for this problem and I have provided detailed instructions at the bottom of this page. |
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Works Great in My Favorite Crappie SpotsHow to Eliminate The AA Batteries From Your Humminbird Smartcast RF 15:
As I mentioned above, the 8 AA batteries used to power the Smartcast RF15 don't last more than a few short hours and make this otherwise great little fish finder expensive to use. After some contemplating and a few mad-scientist experiments, I figured out a simple and cheap way to extend the battery life from a few hours to a few days! Actually, we're going to do away with the AA batteries all together and use a small inexpensive 12 volt 7 amp hour rechargeable battery in their place. We can do this because the 8 AA batteries originally in the RF-15's base provide 12 volts to the main fish finder unit.
Special Note: If you plan to purchase the Minn Kota Power Management battery box as part of your personal fishing boat, you can skip buying the 12v battery below and the female plug modification because the MinnKota battery box has 2 12v cigarette lighter typle receptacles built-in. In this case you will only need to attach the male part of the extension cord to the fish finder power cord.
Here's what you need to buy:
- A new rechargeable battery (described below)
- A 12v universal Extension Power Cord (described below)
- 12v 7ah Rechargeable Battery - Click Picture
12 Volt 7 Amp Hour Rechargeable Battery
Here's the battery you will need. It measures about 5" long x 4" tall x 2" thick and only weighs about 4 pounds, so it's the perfect size for our portable fish finder. I left my Humminbird Smartcast RF 15 turned on in simulator mode for 15 hours before the battery needed to be recharged. Then it only took about 3 hours to recharge the battery with a small 2 amp charger.
This cool little battery isn't easy to find and it probably won't be at Wal-Mart or your local auto parts store. I got mine from the "Battery Gallery" for only $13.95 and free shipping. The Battery Gallery is a eBay seller and I know a lot of people don't like buying things on eBay, but I can assure you these people are honest and provide great service to their customers. Click the battery picture to open a new browser tab and go to the Battery Gallery on eBay to get one.
| 12V, Single Outlet Platinum Series Cigarette Lighter Adapter w/10' Coil Cord |
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| Retail Price: $22.05 |
| Amazon Price: $8.03 |
Modifying The Power Cord For The Smartcast RF-15
Modified Female End of Power Cord
Cut off the female end of the 12v extension cord about 1 1/2" above where the coil stops so you still have enough to splice the wires. This should leave the female receptacle with about 5" of wire attached to it.
Now crimp two 14ga. female slide connectors to the stripped wire ends of the female receptacle paying careful attention to the polarity of the wires so you don't get them crossed between negative and positive. Clearly mark the positive wire with a peice of red tape or something similar.
Battery With Female Receptical Connected
As you can see in the photo to your left, the two female slide connectors on the female power cord receptacle are a perfect fit for the male tabs used as posts on the battery.
Once the male power cord connector is spliced into the fish finders's power cord, all you will have to do is plug one into the other to get power to your Humminbird Smartcast RF15 fish finder.
Male Power Cord Connected to Fish Finder Cable
Now look under the fish finder's base unit and find where the fish finder's power cord wires attach to the battery compartment in the base. Clip the two wires close to where they connect to the battery compartment, then strip them back and connect them to the wires on the male end of the extension cord. Again, be careful to observe the correct polarity so you don't get negative and positive mixed up.
You can use crimp connectors here, but I highly recommend that you use solder and heat shrink tubing to connect the extension cord wires to the fish finder's power cord wires.
Below is a larger photo of the completed Humminbird Smartcast RF-15 Power Modification. Simply attach the female receptacle connectors to their proper battery posts, connect the fish finder's power plug to the back of the fish finder, then connect the male end of the extension cord into the female receptacle and you have about 15 hours of use from each battery charge. Enjoy and good fishing!
Completed Humminbird Smartcast RF15 Power Modification
Return to the main fishing boat project page...
