new to me fish finder

[Toni]

For helping my neighbor with his computer he got me an older Eagle Magna 2 fish finder.
My question is how to make it portable?
This is my first fish finder.

[Rollin with Rolland]

Congrats on the new FF Toni!! You will be surprised how much it can help. I don't know that exact finder personally, and I'm not sure what kinda "gear" you got with it. Does it have all power cables and transducer?? What exactly do you mean by "portable"? Do you want it to be a true portable, where you can carry everything in a small case (say for ice fishing), or just portable to be able to put it on different boats??

Well, in general, this is my take. If it is a complete setup, you should just be able to hook the power up to your trolling motor battery. If you don't have a trolling motor battery, you could always buy one (a little spendy and heavy, but decent). Or, like my finder, I sometimes hook it up to a smaller 12 volt battery, say like a motorcycle battery or riding lawn mower battery. A little cheaper, and MUCH lighter. My finder will run approx. 25-30 hours on a fully charged 12 volt motorcycle battery. So, the battery is pretty straight forward.

Now, the transducer. If you don't want to permanently install (or semi-permanent I guess) your transducer to your boat, you more than likely need a suction cup mount. I also have one of these, and they do work pretty slick for smaller boats at lower speed. They may be kinda hard to find for an older model ff, but I know Lowrance (same as Eagle) does have them. Cabela's online I'm sure has them, but again, with most everything about finders might be a little spendy. If the transducer doesn't match exactly to the suction cup mount, you may have to do a little "rigging" to make a bracket or whatnot. Either way, it can be done. I think the cheapest way to go would be to drill two holes in your transom, mount the transducer, and buy a $8 tube of good caulk and seal up the screws.

Hope it helps, Good Luck!!

[Toni]

It came with everything but the bracket for the transducer that attaches to the boat.
I need to make it portable because I have a 12 foot row boat and I don't want it stolen and also to keep it out of the weather. It almost looks like it has never been used.

[Rollin with Rolland]

well in that case...

Usually most FF units (screens) simply unplug from the power/transducer cable. That is what i do, because i am also worried about theft. I pull my unit off the boat when not in use, but leave the transducer. Usually (and let me say again, USUALLY) you don't have to worry about the transducer being stolen. That's because the unit is where the money is at, I'd say out of the total cost of a FF, probably only 10-20% (depending on model) is in the transducer. Yeah, it would suck to have the transducer stolen and have to pay $80 for a new one. If you get a permanent mounting bracket, most of them just have a simple bolt to hold the transducer in place, so theoretically you just undo that bolt, pull the transducer off, disconnect the battery cable, and WHAM-O, put your whole FF in the basement!! (just don't "bury" any of the wires)

[Marc Martyn]

Here you go Toni:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... /en/common
/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=perf&id=0014025013194a&navCount=1&podId=0014025&parentId=cat21402&masterpathid=
&navAction=push&catalogCode=IJ&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat21402&hasJS=true

[Toni]

Marc it said "page not available". What was it about?

[Marc Martyn]

Cabela's links are horrible#-o

They have a suction cup mount for your transducer for around $10.00 and a rechargeable 12 volt battery

Go to Cabela's and search for:

Lowrance/Eagle® Suction Cup Kit
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... ISO-8859-1

Search also for:
rechargeable 12 volt battery

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... ISO-8859-1


The cabela's links are a mile long and don't always post well. Search in the site.

[Toni]

I have an electric motor and battery (both new this year) which I forgot to mention. Sorry.
That suction cup looks interesting.
This will work out. Just need to get it hooked up and put it in the water and see what it sees.
Oh yes the inline fuse holder was broken but I went to Radio Shack and got one to replace it.
Thanks everyone.

[Marc Martyn]

Let us know how it works out.:thumright

[VHMLLC]

congrats, toni i got the portable 130 fishing buddy for my pontoon, and it fun to see what down there.

good luck have fun.

:viking:

[Toni]

IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yahoooooo! It is so cool to see the bumps on the bottom and then a fish right behind it. Sorry to say that the fish were only on the screen and didn't get into the boat. I forgot the worms.
We will have to figure out at what feet the fish are at.

[Toni]

IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yahoooooo! It is so cool to see the bumps on the bottom and then a fish right behind it. Sorry to say that the fish were only on the screen and didn't get into the boat. I forgot the worms.
We will have to figure out at what feet the fish are at.
Maybe at a later date I will put pictures on of how my son made it portable.

[Marc Martyn]

Great Toni:cheers: Happy to hear you got it running. If you have the manual, be sure to read through it. Understanding the gray line is very important.

If you don't have a manual for the unit, you can download it at:

http://www.eaglenav.com/en/Downloads/Manuals/

[Dave]

Congrats Toni,

I don't know how I ever lived without a fish finder. It is so nice to know water temp, depth, and see bottom structure. It sounds like you are all set up but I wanted to share with you the transducer mount I bought from Cabela's which is great. It is pictured and is the "Standard" mount/ It extends to what ever length you need and the transducer mounts to the bottom piece. The best part is it takes about 20 seconds to loosen it and take it off the boat. I also found a finder bracket just in case you were interested. I'm sure you have already looked at these on the Cabela's site but in case you haven’t, here they are. Again congrats. Dave