Active Target Ice Conversion

With cold temperatures approaching, us northern anglers have many preparations to do to transition from soft to hard water. For some that involves converting your live sonar into an ice fishing shuttle. Since I bought Active Target in the spring, this would be the first time I converted my setup into an ice shuttle.

Live sonar is a relatively new technology plus there’s a strong dependence on aftermarket products. As a result it is much more complicated than standard ice fishing electronics, whether it is an LCD graph unit or a flasher. Throughout my experiences with Active Target, there were so many things that I did not foresee and there were many additional purchases that had to be made over time. I will discuss the challenges of converting my Active Target setup into an ice fishing setup.

While I use Lowrance Active Target, some information will be applicable to Garmin Livescope users. Humminbird Mega Live does not use a separate black box so (from what I heard) it is easier to install.

Dismantling the Boat Wiring

As in my last blog about Active Target assembly on the boat, it is a lot of work. Now you’re going to have to disassemble it.

Depending on the wiring in your boat, it will take some time to remove the module and the required wires. If you have the funds, sometimes it might be worth it to buy the extra power cables and ethernet cable so that you don’t have to reassemble the wiring in the spring. Though that’s quite costly for me. With about an hour’s work, I was able to extract all the wires and the module, which isn’t too bad.

The Shuttle and Bag

Before I bought the Active Target transducer I thought that I would be able to use a standard flasher bag and build a shuttle for my ice unit. After using Active Target on the boat for a while, I realized this was going to be really difficult. The black box, wires, batteries and the unit itself would require a compact and light design. It’s not impossible to design such a shuttle cost efficiently and I’m sure someone smarter than me could figure it out.

I decided to purchase the Summit Active Target Shuttle (they also make accessories for Garmin Livescope as well). It costs $96.99 USD but after looking at it, there’s no way I could have built that on my own. It has a very nice system for storing the batteries and mounting the Active Target module and Elite FS 9. Plus it’s pretty lightweight.

It does require some time to assemble but it’s not hard as long as you have a basic screwdriver set and follow the instructions. Since there are so many different screws, I would recommend having a ruler beside you to measure each screw so that you know which one to use.

A bag can be purchased for $49.99 USD. It’s designed to fit the shuttle and is convenient to carry.

Transducer Mounting

Summit also comes with a telescopic pole which I bought for $119.99 USD. Since I’m from Manitoba, it has to be able to extend 60″ due to the thickness of the ice up here. It has a collapsible stand that allows you to rotate the transducer while in the hole. It is costly but I also use it on the boat as well so I find the cost justifiable.

A great thing about this mount is that it allows me to adjust the position of the transducer from down mode and forward mode without having to loosen any knobs. All I need to do is to tilt the transducer as much as I need.

Also consider getting a transducer cover, whether it’s open water or ice fishing. Summit makes one for Active Target for $49.99 USD. Since this is an extremely expensive investment, I believe that a cover is useful for protection in case it is dropped or bounces during transport.

More Power Than You Think

Most people are familiar with flashers or standard LCD graphs that have relatively low power requirements. Usually these units come with sealed lead acid batteries that have about 7-10 amp hours. Recently the trend has been to get lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries for longer battery capacity and reduced weight.

A large LCD unit like an Elite FS 9 and the Active Target module both have pretty hefty energy requirements. An Elite FS 9 has an average amp draw of 2.0 A. The module has an amp draw of 1.5 A. At this point, LiFePO4 is pretty much a must.

For those who are electronically challenged (which often times includes me). your lithium battery’s amp hours divided by the amp draw of your electronics gives you the approximate hours that you can power your electronics. Obviously there are some variables such as screen brightness and cold weather so I prefer a conservative estimate. Usually a day of fishing for me is about 8 hours long so I wanted my batteries to last approximately 10 hours long.

In this case I decided to get two 18Ah Marcum King Lithium batteries to power the Active Target setup. Each is $119.99 USD. I decided that by combining the two batteries, I would get a total of 36Ah which should be enough for more than 10 hours.

Due to the size and weight of these large batteries, make sure your shuttle can accommodate them.

Wiring

Some basic electrical skills are required in order to install the wiring system. Since I had two batteries they needed to be wired in parallel to combine their amp hours and allow for charging with one charger.

To do this project, I would recommend having the following tools and supplies which can generally be found at any hardware store:

• Wire stripper and crimping tool
• Twist-on connectors
• Spade connectors and terminals
• Small zip ties
• Extra wire
• Fuses

Something to note is that the Active Target module power cable has a yellow wake-up wire. This wire is normally supposed to be connected to the yellow wake-up wire of the graph unit power cable. This allows the module to be powered off and on depending if the graph is on or off. I combined the red negative and yellow wire of the module power cable into one wire which then connected to the switch. That way I can power the both the module and graph with a switch. The Summit shuttle comes with a switch which fits snuggly in a slot of the shuttle.

There’s a lot of ways you can do your wiring as long as you follow the wiring scheme. Personally I came up with a design that makes it easy to disconnect the power cables without having to cut wires as I need them for the boat. I had to use zip ties to manage the wiring because there are a ton of wires to coil. The power cables, the ethernet cable and the transducer cable all have to be coiled in a compact manner. It took a lot of thinking but I did eventually find a compact design for the wiring. Make sure there’s enough transducer cable to freely move the transducer (I personally recommend 5′ of slack).

I’m not an electrical guru but with some time and patience I managed to do it in an evening. Next fall will be a lot easier to rewire now that I have a good design in place.

Final Words

This is essentially how I setup my Active Target for the winter. There were many hurdles that many don’t expect when buying live sonar. Buying the shuttle, bag, batteries and transducer mount is a cost that many don’t expect. Wiring requires effort and creativity on the end user. Though hopefully in the end, it will all be worth it. I can’t wait to put this thing on the ice and see how well it improves my fishing.