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Unique Trail Cam Need...

TNFlinger76

TNFlinger76

New Member
Joined
May 17, 2020
Messages
36
Hello everyone!

I have a friend who lives here in Tennessee most of the time. However, he also has a home in Alaska. Since he's only at the Alaska home about 3 months out of the year, he's been searching for a cellular trail camera that can also run off of 120v and not require battery changes.

We were thinking possibly a security camera instead of a trail cam, but he also has no internet at the house.

Anyone ever run u to a similar situation? Any ideas from anyone are appreciated.
 
I'm sure you can probably wire up some sort of 12v power brick to power the camera. You'll prob have to setup some sort of weather proof case for the power delivery though. If that's not a option you can always go for the alternative: 12v car battery + solar panel + cheap charge controller.
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

As far as a hot spot goes, he's on Verizon up there, and if I'm not mistaking, they only allow up to 15 Gb of data per month before capping your speeds at 600 kbps. Since it's a regular occurrence to have bear and moose in the yard, I'd say he'd go through that allotment pretty quickly.

I wouldn't mind taking on the project of creating an adapter to run the camera from a car battery, but I don't think it's something he would be interested in. He's just looking for something that's a simple plug and play solution.

I'm afraid there may not be such a device available.

Great ideas though.
 
spartancamera.com

GoCam 10W Power Saver Kit

Keep an eye on your properties with our best-selling Spartan GoCam. Connected by some of the nation’s best wireless carriers, now you can receive photos from your camera right to your phone, tablet or computer in near real-time. Access your camera’s settings and manage your pictures right from...
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I’d get this. Add it to your Verizon plan 4.50$ extra a month for unlimited pics and videos. Works way better than any spypoint.
 
Tell him to go with an Exodus Render Cellular Trail Camera with the “SP18 solar panel /Li battery accessory”. The panel contains 18650 battery cells and does a good job recharging them via the solar cells in the panel. If the panel gets good sunlight it can go without running out of power. Another good option is to use a Voltaic Systems V88 powerpack, (which stores way more power than SP18) and which can be run by itself, or in conjunction with a Voltaic solar panel.


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LoadedLimbs said:
Tell him to go with an Exodus Render Cellular Trail Camera with the “SP18 solar panel /Li battery accessory”. The panel contains 18650 battery cells and does a good job recharging them via the solar cells in the panel. If the panel gets good sunlight it can go without running out of power. Another good option is to use a Voltaic Systems V88 powerpack, (which stores way more power than SP18) and which can be run by itself, or in conjunction with a Voltaic solar panel.


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Click to expand...
 
TNFlinger76 said:
So I didn't realize it when I made the original post, but it's dusk/dark for an entire month during the winter while he's back in Tennessee. With a month+ of darkness with temps down to -30°, I wonder if a solar panel would work.
Click to expand...
 
My tactacam has a hookup for external battery. Maybe use an external battery hooked to a maintainer type charger. The downside is cellular cameras have yet to be proven that reliable. Seems like they have to turned off and back on from time to time.
 
Tell him to pick a cell cam he likes and then google "12v wall plug power supply" and find one that fits it.
 
@TNFlinger76 - The Exodus Render cellular trail camera has a 12V input jack that will work fine for this application. The Voltaic Systems V88 battery pack I recommended has capacity of: 24,000 mAh / 88.8 Watt Hours, which is massive for its size and might power the camera for an entire year without any solar panel feeding it. Battery performance is going to be temperature dependent. Note that lead acid and gel 12V batteries lose about 50% of their chemical energy at the low temperatures in Alaska. The Voltaic Li-Polymer battery pack will maintain its energy and continue powering the camera much better than lead acid or gel 12V batteries will in low temperature. This battery pack also features an "always on" setting that will not let it shut down until it's dead. This precludes the problem that a lot of other Li-polymer battery packs have: they shut off if the draw of electrical current drops below a certain threshold. There are certainly other options, but the Voltaic V88 is worth a look. It's sold on Amazon, but the manufacturer's link (and online store) is here:

Voltaic V88 Li-Polymer Battery Pack
 
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