Questions about homebrew cameras

Today I received a message from someone about building a homebrew camera. I inadvertantly erased the message and I can't remember who it was from. So in the interest of answering their questions I am making this post that should answer any general questions about this topic. First of all, let me say I am no expert on this subject. There are others on this board, such as wolvenkinde and MGH_PA, that are much better at this than I. I also have another problem that really handicaps me in this hobby. I have a very severe hand tremor that keeps me from soldering anything. So if it's a build that requires soldering, I have to have someone else complete that step for me and then I do the rest of the build.

The first thing you need is a camera. There are many cameras that can be used in these builds but most guys are using older Sonys. Later in this post I will attach a list of common cameras that are used in homebrews. It is by no means an exhaustive list but they are the most common one used. The first thing you must do is "hack" the camera to enable it to be hooked or wired to a control board that allows the board to trigger the camera. "Hacking" or wiring the camera sounds dificult but is really not that hard once you know the correct points to wire to. Almost all cameras are different so you have to learn where the correct contact points are on each camera.

The next thing you will need is a control board. There are three major makers of these boards. They are www.yeticam.com, www.bfoutdoors.com, and www.snapshotsniper.com. There are others but these are the main ones. These boards run anywhere from $40-$60. Once the camera is hacked, you attach the wires from the camera to the control board which is labled so that you know you are placing the correct wire in the correct port.

The next thing you will need is a waterproof box to mount everything in. The boxes are made by Pelican, Otterbox, and a few others. I, and most others, use the Pelican 1040 box. It is a small size and is still large enough to hold all your components. There are a few other things you will need such a fresnal lens, liquid nails, goop, and glass lenses but you will understand more about it once you look at the link from snapshotsniper. I hope this helps anyone who is interested in building their own trailcams. I know it sounds complicated but it really isn't.

Here is a link that will explain nearly everything you need to know about doing the build, from hacking the camera to the actual assembly.


http://www.snapshotsniper.com/TechInfo.htm



This is a PDF file of commonly used cameras
SONY SONY PENTAX PANASONIC

H55 W30 E50 F2H70 W35 E60 F3P1 W5 E70 FH20P100 W50 E80 FH3P150 W55 E90 FH25P31 W7 ​

OLYMPUS FP8P32 W80 D360L FS15P41 W90 D370 FS20P43 WX1 D380 FS25P52 FUJI SAMSUNG FS3P72 A610 a402 FS42P8 F20 a503 FS6P92 F40FD DIGITAL FS7S40 J10 CONCEPTS FX12S600 J20 2.1 FX33U30 J38 HP FX48W1 Z10 E337 FX55W130 NIKON CASIO VIDEOS​

W150 L11 Z80 ​

DXG​

W200 L14 567W220 L22 125W230 S550 ​

Jazz​

W290 S640 DV150​

Below are some pics of a build I am doing that is in progress.

This is a pic of the Pelican 1040 waterproof case before it is cut and drilled for the build.



This is the case cut and drilled to match the flash and lens of the camera.





This a pic of the hacked camera that I am using in this build. In this case it is a Nikon L11



This is a pic of the control board that will operate the camera.




This is the finished product on the inside and outside. The extra batteries on the right are called externals and give the unit longer battery life.















Blessings........Pastorjim

 

wow, really cool.

 

Do you have issue with the white flash, or do the deer not mind?

 

I can honestly say that most don't react to it any more than they do my IR cams. There are deer that freak at any flash but especially if there's food out, most completely ignore it.

Blessings........Pastorjim