The Ultimate Portable Fish Finder

This is the bad boy I've been eying up. This is the 787c2i Combo which features a brilliant color, ultra-high resolution 640V x 480H 5" display, DualBeam PLUS sonar (which I will upgrade to the QuadraBeam sonar) with 4000 Watts PTP power output, GPS Chartplotting with built-in UniMap, and advanced Fishing System capabilities. It also includes internal GPS receiver so I won't have to go buy the cables and hook up my hand held Garmin GPS receiver. I will be updating it with the QuadraBeam sonar transducer (XPT 9 QB 90 T Portable Transducer) which is a portable version of the QuadraBeam that has 3 sonar units operating at 20 degrees, 60 degrees or 90 degrees and a built in temperature sensor. Basically with a 90 degree cone, at 20 feet deep we can see 10 feet to each side of the boat, or 20 feet across.

To make the whole thing portable, besides the portable transducer, I plan to mount the unit inside a pistol case on a piece of plywood which will either be glued down or bolted down to the bottom of the case. The foam from the gun case will be utilized to cushion the unit during transport. To lower the footprint of the case while in use I'd like to replace the hinge with a metal rod that has a pin in one end. I can then remove the rod (hinge) and remove the top of the case.

As for power the plan is two fold. First, I did some math today concerning the use of a 12Ah battery. Ah stands for Amp Hour. to figure out the amp hour you take the Ah and divide by 20 hours. Example: a 12Ah battery is 12/20 = 0.6 amps. This means that a 12Ah battery can maintain 0.6 amps for 20 hours. The 787c2i draws 560mA or 0.56 amps. So I figure that a 12Ah battery would run this unit for about 20 hours. This will also be supplemented with a 12 volt hook-up that will have a cigarette lighter adapter and alligator clamps allowing hook-up to any 12V source. The batteries are small 4"H x 6"L X 3.7"W and are as low as $35. This would fit in the case with the unit making the whole thing completely portable.