Homebrew Trailcameras

[Craig]

Nice bull.

Has anyone else tried to email Yeticam and take a longtime to get a response?

[Bones]

Mark is an electrical engineer. His day job keeps him away sometimes. You have to be patient sometimes. He is very good about getting back to you as soon as he can. There are four other guys that sell control boards. These run $20 to $30 higher, and in my opinion they are not as good.  Mark's boards are well worth the wait. On November 19, one of my cameras took 755 pictures in 4 hours and 35 minutes. It only stopped taking pictures because the 2 gig card was full. There is not another board or camera anywhere that can do that.
Bones

[gkowen]

With the redeye reduction off and the focus assist off there is still 2 flashes. They happen very fast but they are there. The first sets the exposure and the second takes the pic. My slave flash fires during the first flash and therefore is not able to assist in the picture.   it is not hard to build a second flash trigger but the camera has set the exposure for one flash and then when it takes the pic there is the added flash that leads to over exposed photos.  But the pics are useable out to 20 feet with the built in flash. That's not too bad.

[bigdave]

Current List of expected attendees:

Bones
Bigdave+2
Ridgeratt
Grizzly95 +2
Bearbait
Gramps
Machias
Baseballstud20
Olsy
Whacker1

Which one of you have been outbidding me on ebay!!!!!? 

[Grizzly95]

I think you should have started the thread after you got your supplies, now there is a demand for the cameras, hell I was thinking of putting mine back on ebay and wait a few weeks when all of the group quits buying them.

[Craig]

what kind of glue do you use to glue the lens the the pvc pipe/ the pvc to the case, and the flash lens to the case?

[gkowen]

Bones uses goop for his gluing I believe. It is strong and provides some waterproofing. I used 5 minute epoxy and hot melt glue. 

[bow4elk]

I wanted to see some pics of this detail given how close it is to the flash.  gkowen, do you have pics from your build?

[gkowen]

I didn't take any pics hardly during my build. What I did was mark where the camera was going to be and then measured for the lens hole.  I then drilled this hole and made sure the camera sat in square and added the aluminum angle so I could bolt the camera in.  I made sure the camera would turn on and extend the lense a few times.  Then I measured for the flash and the focus assist led and drilled 1/8 inch holes for these. I mounted everything together and judged where things were. Then used a sharpie marker and drew the out line of the area for the flash and the focus assist led. Then I dremelled these out.  There is about 3/16ths or so of plastic between the flash hole and the lense hole.  The camera sits just far enough out that the glass covering the flash hole isn't a problem.  Just be sure to seal it well.  Then I attached the lens extension with the lens extended and hot melt glue tacked it in place. Made sure the camera would turn on and off and the lens would extend freely.  Then I epoxied the lense extension and sealed it with hot melt. Just go slow and measure twice and cut once. I should have taken more pics.  But this closeness is why I bought a W150 for my next camera. It doesn't have the flash so close.

[yetinme]

Woo Hoo! I am in.

Please let me know if someone hasn't gotten their parts yet. I can still ship some tomorrow and Saturday that should make it there.

Craig, sorry for the slowness, your message sat in my outbox since yesterday until I rebooted today. Not sure what is up with outlook but working now I think.

You will notice that we are in the middle of a design change on the board. Well sort of anyway. Some of the boards had the type of connector that Bob used. We now have some with a green connector with screws. They both work very well but I got tired of making the 4 wire connector so I changed the connector. Hope I didn't throw anyone for a loop.


Thanks a ton Bob for the classes!
Mark

[Bones]

Thanks, Mark

bow4elk,  There is no problem with the flash being so close to the camera lens, and it is very easy to seal this. I have never had a leak, and there are no shadow problems. We are going to finish Gramps camera in the morning, so, I will post some pictures tomorrow night. We worked on his camera about three hours Wednesday morning. Tomorrow morning, we will finish it, and it will have the camo and paint finished also. The entire project will be about six hours. I could have done it a little faster, but I was teaching Gramps how to do it.
Bones

[Machias]

Woo Hoo! I am in.

Please let me know if someone hasn't gotten their parts yet. I can still ship some tomorrow and Saturday that should make it there.

Craig, sorry for the slowness, your message sat in my outbox since yesterday until I rebooted today. Not sure what is up with outlook but working now I think.

You will notice that we are in the middle of a design change on the board. Well sort of anyway. Some of the boards had the type of connector that Bob used. We now have some with a green connector with screws. They both work very well but I got tired of making the 4 wire connector so I changed the connector. Hope I didn't throw anyone for a loop.


Thanks a ton Bob for the classes!
Mark

Spent everything I had last week on my truck so I had to wait.  I just order my stuff so that would be AWESOME if it makes it here by the workshop day.    Thanks

[bow4elk]

Thanks Bones...welcome Mark!  Bones got us all hot and bothered about getting off our hineys to build some trailcams.  Thanks for your support with all the orders.

[bigdave]

 

Mark, welcome to the board. I think we might send you some busyness, I mean business!

[Bones]

Bigdave, I will answer your PM here.  We will not be able to finish everyone's camera in one day, but everyone needs to see all of the steps involved. First off, I will show you how to take the camera apart, and how to wire it. As far as I know so far, the cameras are all 80's and 90's. Everything on these cameras are exactly the same. After you see how this is done, Gramps will show you how to use the template to drill your case. I will show Grizzly 95 how to do his W55, and if he ever buys another 55, I might put a knot on his head. While everyone is working on their cases, I will wire the other cameras, All anyone really needs to bring is the camera and the parts from Yeti. I will show you how to do the camo and paint. You can do that when you get home. You install your eyebolts  and put the camera together when you get home. I will bring the aluminum angle, pvc extension and lenses for all that PM me what camera they have and are bringing that day. After your case is drilled, you can start putting it together.
  All anyone needs to bring besides the camera and the order from Yeti is "
2-  i/4"x 3/4" bolts and nuts
1- 1/4" x 1/2" thumb screw with one nut
4- 6x32 screws 1 1/4" long

I will have bondo, paint, tools, soldering iron, drill bits, tools.