Game Camera Battery Pack

[Beagler]

I saw the little battery pack you could buy for the Primos Truth Cams. I figured why should I buy on for 30.00 some bucks when I have almost everything at home allready. The only thing I bought just for this build was a two pack of 5.5mm DC solder on plugs from Radio Shack. Made the power cord as long as I want and with the gator clip for the batts. I could make an enclosure and Batt. pack as big as I want. One of the boys at work bought a 2nd 6v golf cart batt. to run his cam year round and only charges it once a year. If you really want to get fancy if your in a big open area go with the solar panels for the small batts to keep'em charged. But anyway I figure if you cam takes an external backup batt pack as long as you get the right power plug for it your in business. My batteries are two 6v 4.5 amp hour lead acid deer feeder/lantern batteries hooked in parallel. Also leaving the d batteries in the cam also.

I put the cam out today. With fresh D's in cam and fully charged batts. in the can. Set the cam for 30 seconds of high res. video. Well shall see how long I can gets out of the batts.

[andremajic]

That is.....Awesome! Great idea that I'm going to use later. Thanks for posting it.

Andy

[Chicken Thief]

Amp Hours vise a deep cycle marine battery is by far the best and cheapest choise nothing else given.
They're selaed and don't give a hoot about moisture. Will tolerate deep discharge without any (severe) damage.

There's a trivial scientific explanation to the (severe) addition. Won't bother you with that now.

[Beagler]

I figure if I want to use a 12v deep cycle I would have to make a voltage regulator gizmo to knock it down to 6v. Brainstorming here. I figure I could use a +6v Fixed-Voltage Regulator on a heat sink in a small sealed box or seal it in epoxy. I think they are usually good for up to 1 amp. Would have to put the meter in line with it to see how much current it draws when it is taking a pic. If it pulls a little more than 1 amp I could probably hook up two regs in parallel to split the load between the two.

[Beagler]

Checked the cam yesterday couple resident doe every day, a nice 8 point buck saw the cam and split, lots of squirrels, woodpeckers, and the coons at night really keep the cam workin. Batts still at 99%. Archery has been open for a few weeks now and i'm finally making it out this morning. Maybe there has been some action at the mock scrape with the dripper I put out the other day. Fingers crossed!!!