# Trail Cam Project



## CutTheLoop (Dec 26, 2007)

I reached the point where I was tired of spending money replacing the batteries weekly on my Wild Game Innovations trail cam.

It's not too bad of a trail cam, for the price... but it is hell on batteries, usually takes 4 C cells which lasted about 2 weeks.

I found that it runs great on a 6 volt rechargeable lantern type battery, coupled with a 6 volt solar panel, should last for months without worrying about missing pictures.

I wanted something slightly compact, weather proof storage for the rechargeable battery and connections, easy to carry and mount all as one unit.

Started with a .50 cal ammo can, couple bungee cords, eye bolts & other hardware, silicon, about 12" of wire and some alligator clips, heat shrink tubing and came up with this.

All it required was removing 4 screws from the camera body, extending the wiring harness, drilling a small hole on the underside of the camera body to route wires into the ammo can, adding alligator clips and tubing, seal it up and presto...

Plenty of room in the box for carrying the bungee cords, SD card, Extra battery etc.

Will mount the 6 volt solar panel tomorrow.


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## Blood_Trail (Jan 23, 2008)

Great ideal, bro. I got the same cam and my batteries last a long time. I might have to give that a try.


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## RatherBArchery (Oct 31, 2006)

*battery*

That battery is rechargeable????? Great idea!!
I have build security boxes and was going to piggy back something like this to it, COOL DEAL!!


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## CutTheLoop (Dec 26, 2007)

RatherBArchery said:


> That battery is rechargeable????? Great idea!!
> I have build security boxes and was going to piggy back something like this to it, COOL DEAL!!


Not that particular battery, it was being used to test to voltage requirement for the camera. I'll be adding a 6 volt feeder type, rechargeable and solar panel today.


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## Mapes (Feb 17, 2008)

cool idea, however that is a bit bulky looking for just that small battery..Could you do something a bit smaller is all im wondering?


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## cold1984 (Oct 7, 2009)

thats awesome


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## RJPOUTDOORS (Jun 2, 2009)

That is great, I think I will make one for my camera later this week.


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## General-08 (Feb 2, 2009)

exactly what I was thinking of doing, my batteries last about a week if I'm lucky. I get anywhere from 15-75 pictures a night on mine and the flash on that thing just drains the batteries. :thumbs_up


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## REB57 (Feb 12, 2008)

Great Idea


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## CutTheLoop (Dec 26, 2007)

Mapes said:


> cool idea, however that is a bit bulky looking for just that small battery..*Could you do something a bit smaller* is all im wondering?


Certainly... the ammo can was what I had handy, and I know they are tough as nails and water tight.. The eybolts on the back are a bit overkill, but was the only size available when I was gathering parts.

Could very well leave one out in the Texas elements for a year and it would survive. The camera itself, probably not... 
Another bonus for the size is being able to wrap the battery in egg crate foam or other insulation, helps to keep the battery from dumping its charge on a very cold night.

My next project will be to mount the entire camera inside the ammo can.


I was first going to make battery box out of 4" PVC pipe capped on one end and add a threaded clean out cover on the other end, drill a hole, attach camera to pipe and hang. Would make for a very solid and compact version.


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## hunter_orange13 (Jan 2, 2009)

i have the same camera and i know what you mean about battery life :thumbs_do


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## CutTheLoop (Dec 26, 2007)

hunter_orange13 said:


> i have the same camera and i know what you mean about battery life :thumbs_do


Aside from battery life, it's great cam for the price. Ditch the C-cells and hook up a 6 volt rechargeable. :thumbs_up


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## Powerstroker (Oct 2, 2008)

*WGI cams*

They are VERY good cameras for the money. Here is a thread that I started a while back about these cams. There are some pictures and info in there as well. The thread is closed now (Don't know why), but there is a lot of good reading in there.

http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1004162


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## H.Hill (Dec 28, 2006)

seeing as you guys are interested in modding this cam, why not try and build one from scratch. its as addicting and fun as shooting a bare recurve and the pics are outstanding, day or night. heres one i built thats on whitetail duty in the forestry up north. hope to get some real dandys. buggers ate three hay bales in one night. lol.


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## truper (Sep 23, 2007)

*Cam Mod*

CTL, I not an electronic wiz, but could you have just replaced the batteries with rechargeable "C" batteries and run the extra wire for the solar hook up and be done with it?? Might could have saved alot of extra work with the ammo can and etc.


joe


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## CutTheLoop (Dec 26, 2007)

truper said:


> CTL, I not an electronic wiz, but could you have just replaced the batteries with rechargeable "C" batteries and run the extra wire for the solar hook up and be done with it?? Might could have saved alot of extra work with the ammo can and etc.
> 
> 
> joe


Probably so, but this was on a beer budget, and I already have several 6 volt feeder type batteries, the ammo box and other parts lying around.

And from what I had read on a couple other forums about this particular camera, there were many who felt the battery posts and connectors in the camera, were it's main problems with draining batteries and just getting them to turn on and stay on.

Plus, I kinda like tinkerin.


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

If someone can tell us which side of the camera is the positive for the camera, then we could just make up a dummy battery (a device to hole the wire from the external battery on the correct camera terminal) and then connect the dummy battery to a rechargeable battery. If small connecting wires are used the camera case could probably just be closed on the wires with no holes needing to be drilled. 

So which side of the camera takes the positive side of the battery?


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## CutTheLoop (Dec 26, 2007)

jim p said:


> If someone can tell us which side of the camera is the positive for the camera, then we could just make up a dummy battery (a device to hole the wire from the external battery on the correct camera terminal) and then connect the dummy battery to a rechargeable battery. If small connecting wires are used the camera case could probably just be closed on the wires with no holes needing to be drilled.
> 
> So which side of the camera takes the positive side of the battery?


Another good idea... I am running out to the lease this weekend to off load pics, I'll take a look inside.


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

Thanks. I guess that I could solder some leads onto the regular batteries and then take my meter and measure the voltage to tell how the dummy batteries would need to be connected.

Thanks for a good thread.


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## Huckelberry75 (Nov 9, 2009)

*Trail Cam*

Couldn't you use a 30cal ammo can to make things a little more compact? Regardless of which can you use, GREAT THREAD. I will have to do a little tinkerin' myself now.


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## petrey10 (Oct 24, 2008)

H.Hill said:


> seeing as you guys are interested in modding this cam, why not try and build one from scratch. its as addicting and fun as shooting a bare recurve and the pics are outstanding, day or night. heres one i built thats on whitetail duty in the forestry up north. hope to get some real dandys. buggers ate three hay bales in one night. lol.


now that is awesome!! how in the world do you do that? and is it better quality? cheaper? or just for fun?


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## BowHunterFett (Nov 21, 2009)

This is great, I just started using my camera like this, and am upset about putting batteries in it all the time. I will definately be using this idea!! I won't get around to it until after season, because I stocked up on C batteries yesterday, darn I wish I had seen this first. Thanks for this great info, well done!


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## ILBowhunter22 (Sep 10, 2009)

Would this work with a Moultrie D-40? Or does that cam get good enough battery life to begin with?


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## g_c_c_23 (Jul 19, 2008)

I also would like to know where to hook the wires up to before i wreck my cams


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## OneBooner (Dec 12, 2009)

*lookn 4 advice*

The 6 volt idea is great i was wanting to do the same thing to my leaf river it takes 4 d cell batteries and 3 c cell batteries could u tell me if 6volts would b plenty or do u think i would need 2 i looked into rechargables n looking 38.00 for the ds n 38.00 for cs i think a 6v would b cheaper


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## Fldeerslayer (Jan 14, 2009)

truper said:


> CTL, I not an electronic wiz, but could you have just replaced the batteries with rechargeable "C" batteries and run the extra wire for the solar hook up and be done with it?? Might could have saved alot of extra work with the ammo can and etc.
> 
> 
> joe


Four C-cell NMH batteries will be 6v but only have about 2 AH, Compared to a 6v rechargable lantern batt will be around 5AH.


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## Dewberry (Jan 25, 2009)

ILBowhunter22 said:


> Would this work with a Moultrie D-40? Or does that cam get good enough battery life to begin with?


i just bought a moultree 1-60 for $199.99 on sale at BPS. it has been in the woods for 2 weeks now and taken over 125 pics. the battery life is still over 95%. im not worried about upgrading the batteries anytime soon... but i am curious about making a steel "safe box" to protect the cam from critters and thiefs. any suggestions?

but if you had bad battery life this is a great idea.


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## buckeye carter (Dec 18, 2009)

could you do that with a cuddeback i r where did you find solar panel


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

It only took me a month to get to my dummy battery project. I took a C cell and cut the negative end off the battery. They don't make batteries like they did 20 years ago. The 20 year old batteries had a carbon rod in the center for a positive terminal. The new batteries have a carbon sleeve deposited on the inside of the case for the positive terminal and the negative terminal is a metal rod like a nail that sticks down in the center of the battery. I washed the chemicals out of the battery parts so that the chemicals would not cause any problems in the camera. I then took about 18" of phone line extension cord and stripped the outside cover off. I was left with a small green and red wire. I soldered the red wire to the positive part of my battery and I soldered the green wire to the metal rod of the negative part of the battery. I then found a rubber hose about 1/2" diameter and cut two pieces to a length of 2 C cells in length. The purpose of the rubber hose is to hold the parts of the battery in contact with the contacts in the camera. So now I can put the hose inside the positive part of the battery and I put the metal rod of the negative part of the battery inside the other hose. 

Ok so now I have my dummy battery. How do I hook it up? Well I took my volt meter and with some old C cells I soldered a small diameter wire to the negative of one battery. I then installed the batteries in the camera and measured the voltage from the negative wire to the positive of the battery on the other side of the camera. When I got a reading of +6 volts I knew which side of the camera needed the negative side of the battery and which side needed the positive side of the battery. 

For the Wildgame S1.3
The positive battery terminal goes on the bottom right side of the camera.
The negative battery terminal goes on the top left side of the camera.
The above is as seen when the camera is open and upright as when you would be installing regular C cell batteries.

You need to verify the correct connection for your camera because there is always a chance that your camera is wired differently. 

My next step was to take an old worn out power drill and steal the power cord off of it. I soldered the cord to the small wires and then put battery connectors on the other end of the cord. When you do this you must keep up with the color of the wires so that you know what color is your positive wire and your negative wire. Now that my cables are made up and my dummy batteries are in the camera, I saw that the heavy cable might pull too hard on the little wires so I took a little metal tie like is used on a bread bag and wrapped it around the large cable and secured it to one of the mounting holes in the camera. 

Now the moment of truth. I connect the wires to the battery and press the on button. The camera powered up with no problem. I closed the camera on the small wires and everything worked great. 

The battery that I ended up using was a moultrie 12 AH and I did not make a container for it. It is out in the woods scouting now and the battery is inside a plastic garbage bag. I set the battery on the ground in the upright position inside the plastic bag and then placed a couple of stick on the bag to keep the wind from blowing it away and I also put some leaves on the bag to cover it.

Now I wonder how long I can go before I need to recharge the battery and if there are any special things that I need to do to help my battery have a long and productive life.

The reason that I went with this setup is because you don't need to modify the camera in anyway and I am hoping to get 2 months of pictures before I need to recharge the battery. The battery cost $26 but should last for at least 2 years and 2 years of C cells would be $100 to $200 plus.

If anyone else decides to go this route or has any questions let me know.


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## Maxtor (Jan 7, 2007)

jim p said:


> Now I wonder how long I can go before I need to recharge the battery and if there are any special things that I need to do to help my battery have a long and productive life.


 Hey Jim, the 12ah battery that you're using, is it similar to this:










If it is, I can tell you this. Sure, it may last quite a while before going dead, but after doing this a few times, you'll be buying another battery soon. These types of batteries need to be charged all the time and the more/longer you let it go without charging, the sooner it will need to be replaced. They can't handle being drained all the time, the way that a deep cycle battery can.
I know this because that's what I do for a living. I work at a battery shop. If it's a 12v battery you're using, you'd be WAY better off using a deep cycle type battery. Me, I would have two deep cycles. Have one running the camera and the second one at home, making sure it is always fully charged. Let the one on the camera run as long as you can, then bring the second one with you, swap them out and bring the dead one home to recharge it. You can do this multiple times with a deep cycle without hurting it.


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

The battery is very similar to the one in your picture. I was hoping that it was a deep cycle battery. So you are saying that it need to be on a continuous float charge? The battery is a 6V battery and I happen to have a 12v solar cell that I could use along with a zener diode and maybe keep it charging that way. 

Thanks for posting about how to keep the battery in shape. If you think that the solar cell used as a charger might work let me know. Also what float voltage do I need to run for the battery?


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## Flat Line (Oct 2, 2009)

CutTheLoop said:


> I reached the point where I was tired of spending money replacing the batteries weekly on my Wild Game Innovations trail cam.
> 
> It's not too bad of a trail cam, for the price... but it is hell on batteries, usually takes 4 C cells which lasted about 2 weeks.
> 
> ...



another thing to try is hooking up a solar panel charger up to it like the ones that go on the feeders


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## hookinbull (Oct 20, 2009)

Tagging


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