It’s been a long time coming but as promised, I will chronicle my latest trail cam build.  I’ll have to do this in a couple of segments.

 

This is a cam I’ve wanted to build for a couple of years now.  I did my research and ordered all of my components quite some time ago.  I typically don’t have a lot of time to do a build so good planning up front allows me to get the build done in just a couple days.  I had a recent hole in my schedule and immediately filled it with doing this next cam. 

 

I coined this cam my long term cam.  This is the cam I can leave a long distance away from the road in the winter so I don’t have to check it every week in knee deep snow when its over a mile away.  It’s the cam I can leave in the woods for the couple of summer months I hate being out there because of the heat, mosquitoes and deer flies.  This cam will have an external set of batteries wired to the camera inside to provide enough juice that I think this could shoot three or four thousand flash photos over the course of a year without needing new batteries.

 

I chose to build this cam using the Sony P41 digital camera as its heart and sole.  This is my favorite point and shoot camera for trail cams as it shutters its initial photo quite quickly, doesn’t have an extending lens, and has an excellent flash.  The Pelican 1060 Micro Case is what I will use as the housing for everything.  I normally use the 1040 but the extra batteries needed for this build require some more room than the 1040 offers.  PixController’s Universal board is the board I chose.  Regrettably, Pix no longer sells components to builders and only sells finished trail cams.  I purchased a few boards before they ceased components sales.  And for external camera power I decided on C-cell batteries as they just fit the case better.  I honestly only need a few months worth of power so rather than jump up to a larger case for D-cells, I opted for the C’s and decided to use as many as would fit. 

 

This battery set up is also a kind of “best of both worlds” scenario.  NiMH rechargeable batteries have a quick recovery time so flash photos can be taken at a much quicker rate.  They also hold their amps at a higher level and then suddenly dump so their life in digital devices can be much longer than alkaline batteries.  Their drawback is that they loose roughly 1% of their charge daily, even without having a drain on them like photo taking.  Alkaline batteries are slow to recover from flashes and slowly drop their amps and can quickly not have enough juice to power a camera, but still be fine for something less demanding like a remote control.  The plus side of alkaline batteries is that they hold their charge for a long time when they aren’t being used and don’t drain away.  This set up of having two AA NiMH batteries in the Sony and a bank of alkaline C-cells wired to them allows the quick recovery and high amps of NiMH and the longevity of alkaline.  The alkaline batteries will keep the NiMH rechargeable batteries fully topped off with power.

 

For me, initial layout is critical.  I’m not the kind of guy that can just start tossing stuff together and hope it turns out.  I place all of my components into the case in the way I’d like to lay everything out.  Then I sit and stare at it.  I try to find fault and potential problems with my layout.  There are things I really wound up disliking about my first couple of builds after I got them to the woods and I want to avoid those types of issues on anything I build now so looking for faults has become the best way to wind up happy when the cam hits the woods.  I place everything in the case and try closing the lid, try changing batteries, try to pull the camera out of the case, etc.  When a fault is found I do my best to find a solution or a better resolution.  Often times completely redoing my layout.

 

I prefer a vertical format for a cam this large.  Meaning the long dimension of the case will run up and down.  It fits on trees and fence posts so much better.  Due to the depth of the 1060, I felt it would be best if I mounted the camera to the lid of the case.  To avoid the potential for a sniffing deer or a climbing squirrel to flip my external on/off switch, I decided to locate that on the bottom of the case.  The controller board battery pack fit very nicely opposite the Sony.  And I liked the eight C-cell batteries to the lower portion of the case so that the cam didn’t become top heavy.  This layout just seemed to work best.

 

 

 

My first steps are usually to get all of the case modification chores done.  I drill all the necessary holes for switches, eye bolts, mounting brackets, lens/flash/PIR holes.  I also fabricate any shelves or brackets that will be needed.  I have a supply of acrylic sheet from a previous life and I really favor using that material to create my shelves and other fixtures when ever possible.  But it’s available at hobby stores and even some hardware stores.

 

 

 

 

 

My next step is to start gluing all of those fabricated items in the case and to install any other hardware.  Any penetration of the case is sealed with Marine Goop to provide a long lasting water tight seal.  Many of my cameras stay in the woods 365 days a year.  They endure 95° degree summer temps and -40° winter temps.  Rain, hail, sleet, snow, etc.  The cams see it all and being water tight is important.  I glue down the lenses for the motion sensor (PIR) and the flash enhancer.  I like to put UV filters over my lenses so I purchase a 25mm to 30mm step ring and glue that into the hole over the camera lens.  I use eye bolts on the sides of my camera so that I can run a Python cable lock around the tree and thru the eye bolts to keep any potential trespassers from stealing my cam or even opening it to erase “evidence”.  I also mount half of a sliding bracket to the back side of the case for mounting the cam to trees and posts.  And for this build I fabricated shelves for the Sony to sit on, the C-cell battery packs to sit on and the control board.  All of which got installed at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The easiest tasks are now completed.

Stay tuned for the next installment…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Custom, Electronics, Hunting, Maintenance, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.