Scotty Black Box

[Stotch]

Hey Trollers,

Looking for any and all information (possible purchase) pertaining to the "Scotty Black Box". The electronic thingy that puts positive ions into the water via the downrigger cable while you troll along. The small amount of DC volts emitted (depending on the species you are fishing for) is controlled or dialed in when you select the setting on the unit.


Next, What does "bonding the electrical components in your boat mean". How do you check out and how do you fix the electrical current leaks found in an aluminum boat.


Thanks.....Stotch

[eek]

There are a whole bunch of explanations/suggestions on the Scotty website, scottyusa.com

[chadk66]

I'm not sure about bonding the electrical componants in your boat. However, all the electrical componants in an airplane's cockpit have to be bonded so that you don't get electrically charged ions floating around in the cabin. When that happens your compass will be attracted to them and screw up the compass so that you don't get the correct readings. I guess if you were out on erie or any great lakes, you would definately have a compass and I'm guessing that they want you to bond all your electronics in your boat so as not to interfere with your compass. If I remember right, all the bonding involves is grounding the cases of your electronics to the airframe of the plane or something like that. Also coax cable's will have the woven insulation in the cable bonded to the airframe as well. Or at least something like that. I would think that all the modern equipment since it's made out of plastic mostly would not have a problem.

[Leo Kam]

The July issue of Seaworthy, published by Boat/US, has a very informative article on bonding. In essence, "Stray DC current in the bilge, not AC, is the culprit when metal fitting corrode." Bonding will prevent the leakage of DC current into the water which will cause bronze thru-hull fittings to rapidly corrode. Plastic thru-hull fittings, or outboards, are not affected. This corrosion can also be caused by some other boat leaking DC current into the water. Conditions needed for stray current corrosion to occur are deficient/defective wiring and an alternative path through the water(the other boat). The prevention measures listed are; 1) Keep wires high and dry, 2) Provide a proper path to ground, 3) Protect wire insulation, 4)Ground DC applinces, and 5)Avoid faulty wiring.

If you can get access to Seaworthy, vol. 19, #3...July 2001, it really is interesting reading.

[mlc]

Hi Stotch. This subject has come up before. I brought it up myself last year. I am a fan of Scotty products. I use a pair of thier electric downriggers and also use their rod holders. However, the "black box" thing is not something that has been backed up by research that I have seen. I've not met a boat owner on the water who uses one. I HAVE heard of a couple of boats in British Columbia that use them.

The jury is out on this one! Want to buy some land at the extreme southern tip of Florida?

Take care,
mlc

[Spurdog]

Hey, MLC, I figured the reason I cannot buy a fish trolling has to be lack of proper ion management! I think you can put a multitester on the downrigger wire to see if it falls in the "good" or "bad" range according to Scotty. I intend to do that sometime. I like Scotty too, but really wonder about this one.

[mlc]

My lack of or excess of ions did not stop me from catching 8 or 9 of your boat's namesake on thursday and friday. They were all caught trolling.

Guess I need to acquire your technique for preparing them for the fry pan!

mlc