To display battery information on a Lowrance, open Instruments, create a new layout from the digits two-by-two template, then change the fields to Battery and pick readings like time remaining, voltage, and state of charge, which the NEMA connection on a Lithium Pros battery feeds straight to your screen. In this How 2 Tuesday I am on the boat showing exactly how I set this up so I know precisely how much trolling motor battery I have all day.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
Go to Instruments and choose New Layout. You can start from blank, copy an existing layout, or use a built-in template. I pick the digits two-by-two template, which gives me four spots for digital readouts. Then I tap a field, hit Info, and change it to Battery, where I can choose current, temperature, voltage, ripple, state of charge, state of health, or time remaining.
Time remaining shows how many hours of trolling motor use you have left at your current rate of expenditure. When my Lithium Pros battery is full it reads ten ninety two, and under heavy current on high it might show twenty-six hours, then count down like a fuel gauge. It is one of the most important gauges on my entire boat.
Besides the normal positive and negative terminals, the Lithium Pros battery has a third fitting, a NEMA connection that ties into the network running through the whole boat. That connection is what feeds real-time battery data, like state of charge and time remaining, to my Lowrance so I can see it right on the screen.
Because it tells me whether I can run the trolling motor all day. I use the trolling motor to catch bait in the morning and then to fish all day, casting lures or flies to the mangroves. With lead acid batteries I used to just guess how much juice was left. Seeing remaining hours lets me plan instead of guess and avoid getting caught short.
The two I want to see first thing in the morning are the remaining hours reading of ten ninety two and the voltage of 41.8. Together those tell me the battery is at 100 percent and we are ready for the day. I also like to add the clock and water temperature so one screen shows me everything important.
The Power-Pole Move is the quietest, most efficient, and most durable trolling motor I have run, and the Lithium Pros battery is the one with the NEMA connection that makes all of this possible. Not all lithium batteries are created equal, and it is that data connection that lets me display real-time battery info on the Lowrance.
I run a Power-Pole Move trolling motor, the quietest and most efficient I have used, to catch bait in the morning and fish all day. With my old lead acid batteries I could only guess how much juice was left and whether to slow down to conserve. The Lithium Pros battery and its NEMA connection fixed that. I walk through the whole setup in the episode, so press play in the player above.
Here are the steps I walk through in this How 2 Tuesday, with the full demonstration in the episode.
I unpack each of these in the episode. Press play in the player above.
When the battery is full it reads ten ninety two, and on high under heavy current it might show twenty-six hours, then count down like a fuel gauge as the motor works harder. Knowing exactly how much time I have left tells me whether I can fish the way I want all day. I explain how I use it in the episode, so press play in the player above.
I add voltage so I can confirm 41.8 and ten ninety two for a full charge in the morning, then the clock so I know what the tide is doing, plus water temperature. Once I save it, I can jump from the chart or sonar back to this one screen any time. I show the exact taps in the episode, so press play in the player above.
Setting this up takes a few minutes once, and then you have your most important boat information in one place for good. Remaining hours, voltage, time, and water temperature right where you can see them.
It has made me far more efficient through a fishing day, and it all hinges on that NEMA connection on the Lithium Pros battery. Press play in the player above.
How 2 Tuesday is my weekly series where I break down one fishing skill at a time, from knots and casting to gear, tactics, and the habits that make you a better angler. Watch and listen to every How 2 Tuesday episode from Tom Rowland.
Lowrance · Lithium Pros battery · Power-Pole Move trolling motor · NEMA connection · state of charge · battery voltage · time remaining · trolling motor · How 2 Tuesday · Saltwater Experience
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's How 2 Tuesday series I break down one practical skill or lesson at a time, from fishing technique and gear to the habits that make you a better angler, in short, focused episodes you can put to use right away.
Tom Rowland Podcast — Episode 904: How 2 Tuesday with Tom Rowland (Lithium Pros x Lowrance)
In this episode: using our trolling motor to its maximum efficiency, the NEMA connection on the Lithium Pros battery, building a new instruments layout on the Lowrance, and remaining hours that count down just like a fuel gauge — in the exact words spoken.
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Tom Rowland: What's going on, everybody? This is how to Tuesday brought to you by Danco. And today, we're on the boat. We're talking about using our trolling motor to its maximum efficiency. And what I've got on this boat is something kinda special. I've got the Power Pole Move trolling motor, which I really, really like. That trolling motor is the quietest, the most efficient, and the most durable trolling motor that I've ever had. For everything that used to go wrong with my trolling motors, they seem to have fixed all of that. Very, very happy with that trolling motor. We use it to catch bait in the morning, then we use it to fish all day long.
Tom Rowland: So what we wanna do is have enough battery power to be able to run the trolling motor to catch the bait and then actually go fishing with that bait in a certain area or, you know, cast lures to the mangroves or flies to the mangroves all the way down. We wanna be able to use this trolling motor all day long. One of the things in the past is that I wouldn't have any idea really how much juice I have in my battery.
Tom Rowland: When I was using lead acid batteries, you could kinda feel that the trolling motor was getting a little bit weak. You could kinda think, well, maybe I've got another couple hours here. Maybe if I'm catching bait, maybe I should slow down and try to conserve battery power here because I don't know that I'm gonna be able to get through the day. We've got this all worked out now.
Tom Rowland: There are lithium batteries and all lithium batteries are not created equal. The ones that we use are the lithium pro battery. Come up here. I wanna show you exactly what I'm talking about. We have my lithium pro battery in this hatch right here. This battery is kinda special.
Tom Rowland: It's got a positive connection, which all batteries do, a negative connection, which all batteries do, then it's got another fitting on it. And this other fitting is a NEMA connection. It's the connection that goes through the entire boat. It hooks all my electronics up to all the things in the boat. And this battery, the Lithium Pros battery, has a NEMA connection on it. Now let me show you what I'm gonna be able to do with this NEMA connection.
Tom Rowland: I have that hooked up. I'm going to go over here to my Lowrance. I want to show you how I'm going to set this up. I'm going to go to instruments and I'm going to do a new layout. You have three things, start from blank, copy existing, or use built in template. We're going to use a built in template. It's got analog, some different things for your fuel tanks and other things, or you can set up a custom one.
Tom Rowland: I'm going to choose this digits two by two, and that's going to start off with this basic information. Four places where I'm gonna be able to display digital information.
Tom Rowland: If I wanna go have my battery information right there, I'm gonna change speed over ground, hit info and we're gonna move this down to battery. Now you can go to any of these, these, different ones. You could display any of this there, but for this particular screen, we're going to choose battery. You have battery current, temperature, voltage, ripple, state of charge, state of health, and then this one, time remaining. This is the one that we're really interested in right now.
Tom Rowland: How much time is left in my battery? So right now I have remaining hours, ten ninety two. That's what's displayed when it is showing full. So I have a 100% charge on my battery right now and if we are sitting in current, heavy current, you're gonna see this start to go down. As this trolling motor is working really, really hard, you're gonna see that you could do this particular amount of work if you're on high. It's gonna say you have twenty six hours left. And so then that's gonna start going down just like a fuel gauge in your boat. The faster you're running the motor, the faster that you're you're depleting the gas. The faster and harder that trolling motor is working, the faster you're depleting the battery. So it is really, really important to me to have this remaining hours. One of the most important gauges on the entire boat for me.
Tom Rowland: Then if I want to if I'm done with that, I just hit done. So we'll go to course over ground and we're gonna change this. We just touch that with our finger, go to info and here I want more battery information. So I'm gonna go back down to battery again, select that and this time it's gonna be current temperature voltage. We're gonna look for battery voltage so that we can see in the morning when I first get here, this is gonna be the two things I wanna see. I wanna see ten ninety two and I wanna see 41.8. That means that the battery is a 100% charged. We are ready to go for the day.
Tom Rowland: I also like to display the clock, so I know what time it is. I can put that, water temperature here. We can we can put a clock in here, if we want to. Trip time and we go to time, we want just regular time. Okay. So now, this is this is a screen that I'm gonna have up all the time. I know exactly what time it is, so I know what the tide's doing and where I need to be and how much more I have to fish at this particular location before the tide changes. I know how much fuel I've got. I know how many remaining hours in the trolling motor I have and how much battery voltage I have.
Tom Rowland: This is a very, very important screen and I like it because once I save it, now I can go back to the chart or anywhere else that we're we're gonna be and I just hit instruments. Here's my here's my most important information on the boat right here.
Tom Rowland: That's how to Tuesday for today. How to display your battery information so that you'll know exactly how much you have. You can be much more efficient throughout the day. Alright. We'll see you next week. See you.
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