Homebrew Trailcameras

[Grizzly95]

     
               Current List of expected attendees:

Bones
Bigdave
Ridgeratt
Grizzly95 +2
Bearbait
Gramps
Machias
Baseballstud20
Olsy

My neighbor has shown interest in the build, I am inviting him. Great guy. If you have any classic guns you would like him to check out let me know, he understands loads and pressures, very meticulious on fire arms. If there is time.

[gkowen]

Thanks Bones.  Perfect answer. I just bought a couple more cameras for more cams. 

[Machias]

  Got my camera in the mail today.  I'm ordering the other stuff from Yeti tomorrow.

[bow4elk]

http://www.whitetailsupply.com/Lens-Extension.html

Bones, have you ever used one of these lens snorkels?  Seems like a great way to save time and get a "thinner" wall between the lens and the flash.  Unfortunately, they are out of stock.

[Bones]

They are too flimsy, but they would be okay where there are no bears. The pvc fitting I use is 3/16" thick, but is is sanded, tapered and dremmeled on the inside. There is nothing better.
Bob

[bigdave]

Received my yeti cam stuff today! I'm going to review and make sure I have everything.

[Bones]

The case extensions from Whitetail Supply are made out of plactic 1 1/4" pipe thread protectors. Daryl has them camo dipped, so they look nice, but they are flimsy.

In September, I built a W55 unit for a friend of mine in Wisconsin. I wanted to field test that camera for a couple of days before I sent to to him.
Grizzly 95 here are some pictures from a W55.



You can see in this picture, there is a very small shadow in the bottom right corner of the pic




 This shadow can be completely removed from the pics by fine tuning the case extension before you goop the lens in place. Since the camera is mounted in the lid of the case, you can manually take pictures through the extension to look at this shadow. The larger diameter barrel of the extending lens only comes out of the case about 1/4". You can thin down the inside top part of the fitting with a dremmel tool. Then you can lower the pvc fitting and this gets the flash higher above the fitting. But in the picture above, the shadow is no big deal to me. The editing software that comes on the CD with these cameras allows you to add the time and date stamp to your pictures if you care to do that. There are several different formats to choose from, the date only or the time and date, and you can even use military time. You can put the date stamp in any of the four corners of the picture, and you can choose from four colors, red, yellow, blue or white. That small shadow is a good place for the date



  Ater the bear finished off the apples that night, he decided to try and eat my friends camera



 The bear chipped a small amount of the Bondo off of the extension, but the damage was cosmetic. The extension, lens and seal remained intact. The extensions made from the pipe thread protectors would not have survived this bears attack on the camera

[bow4elk]

Great info!  how are you ensuring water-tight integrity on the flash lens given that area between the flash and lens itself is so small?

[Ridgeratt]

Gathering up items now. Is the wall thickness on the aluminum angle 3/16's or 1/4?

[BaseballStud20]

Those are some amazing pics Bones...never seen down a bear's throat before. I cant wait for our get together on the 24th so I can see a visual representation of everything your explaining.

[Bones]

bow4elk,  I will post some pics and explain how to make the case extension and lenses in a day or so. It is not hard and I have never had a leak.
Bones

[BaseballStud20]

Hey Bones...are the Sony W series cameras the only ones you have built a trail cam with?

[rackattack]

I am looking into starting one of these projects myself.  One question I have is how do you secure these cameras to trees, and can you put a padlock on the case? 

[Ridgeratt]

Bones I have read and reread the post until my eyes are bleeding!!! I downloaded the templates from yeticam and after I scaled them they are short is that to allow for the inside of the case or do I need to cut to the dimension size? I also see where Yeticam has a round lense for the camera. OK so are you cutting a round piece of single strength to work?  I do have perhaps a access to double strength glass will that work also?

[Machias]

The first bear photo is OUTSTANDING!!  "I can move this tree with my mind"  "Use the force Luke"        Very cool photo!!!