Black boxes

[BROWNBAGGN]

I have been reading about voltage / Courant produced by boats. If your boat produces any millivolts above or below the range of .6 to .7 it is rappelling fish. I'm going to check my boat next time out to see where it stands. I was wondering if anyone has been down this road before. Checking voltage, then installing a black box. I own two Scotty down rigger's and one back up cannon with ion control. I love my Scotty's more than any cannon. But I only mount the cannon for extra lip rippers on my boat. So I'm looking into a black box for the Scotty's. Is it worth it for kokes? Is it worth the extra money? I see it might if my boat tests out of range.
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[RockyRaab]

Boy, that auto-complete function can sure make for some funny reading, can't it?
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[dubob]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]When I got my new boat in 2017, I put 4 Scotty's on it and installed a black box and hooked it up to all 4 of them. I could never to get all 4 of them to work at the same time. The voltage settings would wander all over the place from .2 to greater than 1.0. I finally just gave up and put it on eBay and sold it in 2 days to somebody in Kalifornia. I then sold all 4 Scottys to somebody in SLC and put 2 Cannon Mag 5s and 2 Cannon Mag 10s on my boat. The factory preset 0.6 volt setting on all 4 has been solid at 0.6 volts dc since day one.[/size][/#800000][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]I also had to reconnect the wires 5 or 6 times between the sleeve the DR cable runs through and the black box. It is very small gauge wire and broke off at the clip on the sleeve end. Due to my experience with it, I would not recommend it. If you replace the wire cables with braid, you will eliminate ion voltage around the cable as braid is not an electrical conductor. OR, you could just use Cannons with the preset ion voltage of 0.6 vdc or the Cannon Digitrolls with a built in ion volt controller that actually works as advertised. [][/size][/#800000][/font][font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]
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[BROWNBAGGN]

Thanks dubob, going to conduct some tests on the water with the s.s. cable and all electronics powered up. If I don't like what I see, braid will be installed first, before I pinch the pocket book for a black box[fishon]
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[dubob]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]I ran braid on the Cannon Mag 5s (2 ea) on my old Tracker boat for the last 3 years I had it. Never had any problems catching kokanee or trout and that obscene, annoying whine from the steel cable was gone. But that was before i knew anything at all about ion voltage control and how it might impact fishing. Another thing to consider is the fact that the ion voltage bubble around the cable does not extend very far from the cable. If you're using close setbacks, say 10 feet or less, then there could be some impact. If you're running long setbacks, say 30 feet or more, then its a non-issue. If you run braid or use very long setbacks, then you don't need no stinkin' black box. []
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[Bduck]

I'm with dubob on this. An aluminum boat also is more prone to have voltage issues vs a fiberglass. But either way it still happens. Another way if your not wanting to change cable to braid is to install heavy rubber snubber between cable and weight. I switched over to this about 6yrs ago with no issues. If higher voltage is present it stops at the snubber and can't emit thru to the weight. That same annoying tune coming from the cable doesn't change. Also having a loss of hearing did help me. [] There are options to look at which I avoided the black box and know of a few folks that removed theirs from their boats. Make sure all your grounding connections are clean and no power connection is grounding. My opinion is save your money. Electric downriggers are built with ion control.
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[BROWNBAGGN]

Thanks all for your feedback. I think I will skip the black box and definitely look into other options.but on a side note, I was reading your zinc anodes on the back of your boat near your motor, will get a film on it and needs to be cleaned regularly to ensure proper grounding of your boat in the water. Stainless steel brush will do.
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[dubob]

[quote BROWNBAGGN]I was reading your zinc anodes on the back of your boat near your motor, will get a film on it and needs to be cleaned regularly to ensure proper grounding of your boat in the water.[/quote][font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]Me thinks you didn't read far enough. Zinc anodes (also called sacrificial anodes) are there to protect your outboards metal from corroding when used (primarily) in seawater. When two dissimilar metals are placed in seawater, one of them will corrode due to a process called galvanic corrosion. While it can, and probably does, occur in fresh water, it is negligible. My old 11 year old boat motor wore the same anode for 11 years with no visible signs of corrosion anywhere on the motor. I never cleaned it and there was just barely a discernible amount of corrosion visible on the anode. It wouldn't hurt to clean it, but certainly isn't required unless you intend to run it in the Great Salt Lake.[/size][/#800000][/font]
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[dubob]

[quote Bduck]Electric downriggers are built with ion control.[/quote][font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]Cannons are; Scotty's are not. Don't know about Walkers, Big Jons, Penns, etc. [/size][/#800000][/font]
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[Bduck]

I'm not all sure about the Scotty's but Walkers have the ion control built in. They have their own original design of the Black Box version and found that it wasn't necessary to use. My current boat came with 2 Scotty 1106 DR's. I used them for a very short time they also needed some maintenance with replacement parts. I ended up selling them and installing my Walkers removed from previous boat.
Also when I purchased my current boat the trim tab at propeller was corroded away with just a sharks pointy tooth left and large zinc anode on bottom of main motor was badly pitted and corroded, both replaced. This boat seen some salt action as I purchased it Everett WA. Internal zincs in motor also needed replaced.
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