Camera Placement And Choices

[bipedalist]

Sorry don't see how your post fits in this thread dw......to what post are you referring?

[Guest]

Bullet Maker exposes where this location is that Ciani was at. If the link is not allowed, I apologize.

I have removed the link, posted by darkwing because we are not going to give that forum any traffic or support. Bulletmaker does confirm that the event took place on his property.

Thanks,

Splash

Edited April 5, 2011 by Splash7
To remove link.

[Guest]

Well thanks for the info. Chris needing 75 to 100 at one dollar sounds reasonable, a little steeper for the Honeywell's but certainly within the budget for many.

I noticed earlier today that their is a US Taobao site. You would probably have to install and enable Simplified Chinese and translate with Google translate, but you could probably buy whatever you need.

http://sogousa.taobao.com/

The prices are all in China Yuan Renminbi (RMB), but that's easy to convert. Just divide by 6.5 and you've got USD.

[Guest]

Yah, but you got to stay within the export/import specifications (ITAR) when you start talking nv/thermal too.

I've not seen specifications sheets on the reconyx but they have a website with the manuals and basic specs that don't go into component specs really.

Yes, I do realize that, but you should be able to get the parts in North America, too. There are many amateur astronomers who are making their own photomultipliers for measuring faint starlight. I believe the same principles apply for NV.

[Guest ChrisBFRPKY]

Ok, checking in. The first experiment, I robbed a motion sensor from a cheap security cam out of a box I had out at the barn. The cam was bought at Harbor Freight tools but it had been sitting for a year or two I'm sure. This was an old security light and I found out it doesn't work, and the reason it doesn't work was indeed the motion sensor. Just my luck.

OK, I've bought a new one from Wally World and I'll begin taking it apart. Maybe I can try to rig something later in the week. This one looks much better!

For safety's sake, I'll be using a 12 volt powered security camera and the motion sensor I rob from the new security light will be used to make and break the ground (-) circuit going from the 12 volt battery to the camera.

The positive (+) 12 volt circuit will still go from the battery to the camera without any modification and it will have nothing to do with the motion sensor.

When the motion sensor is tripped, it should close the ground circuit between the 12 volt battery and the camera, the cam (LEDs) should then power on. (If everything goes as intended)

ADDED INFO: I should say this is my plan providing I don't have to power the motion sensor. If it requires a power source my wiring plan will change a bit. But not much.

Chris B.

[southernyahoo]

Chris B. I think you will have to power the motion sensor which would be wired in paralell to the camera power. So you should have two positives and two negatives running through the motion sensor.

[Guest]

I had an idea that if cameras and the bindings that hold the cameras to the tree were covered by foliage, just pulling down some vines and wrapping the cords and camera up in the vines that BF may not notice the camera.

Some people think that BF sees the camera bindings, so this could solve that problem. I sincerely hope it works.

[Guest]

The first night, I placed a Wildgame IR3D camera just inside the wheel well of my car, pointing along the cabin. The second IR3D was deployed elsewhere off-site. That night, it was difficult to tell if there was activity or not, as there were light gusts all night long. Every gust would cause the cabin to creek, crackle, and pop, although it sometimes sounded as though something was lightly tapping its fingers against the siding. At about 2 am in the morning, something hit the propane tanks under the window on the right side of the cabin, then sounded as though it dragged a stick across the back of the cabin, and then I heard a "whoosh" along the left [car] side of the cabin. I smiled, because that should have gone right in front of the camera by the car.

Yes, it is a speed blur. Using a parabolic trajectory (single long jump) for the bottom of the blur gives about a 0.3 second exposure time, with the object traveling almost 35 mph. I tried estimating the exposure length the next night with a speed blur of myself, and got 0.2 seconds, which would put the speed of the blur at about 45 mph. Oh, and the camera stamped the file creation time in local time, but seems to have set the image time stamp as something else (possibly UTC). A sign of true quality.

This sounds more like the wind blew things at the cabin, possibly a branch that kept getting smaller limbs rapped against the side of the cabin, then maybe something bigger got thrown around by the wind, hitting the propane tanks, and something else blown against the car side. The picture you got could have easily been the object blown against the car side.

When doing investigations like this, it sure would be nice to have all the information for each and every picture.

My ideal camera trap would be silent, multi-frame, sound capturing, auto zooming and centering on trip source, invisible, remote signal generating, solar powered, and collect all pertinent weather data for the immediate area (wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure, rain gauge, temperature, ambient light intensity and duration, GPS location.) This additional information is needed in order to rule out wind sources of course, but also in quantifying the incident for further analysis. Maybe the animals move more or are distraught when there are sudden changes in barometric pressure and thus the tripping of camera traps are statistically higher during those times; humans suffer this and must move their limbs in order to alleviate some of the pain caused by the changing pressure or it could just be telling them that the weather is changing and that an adequate shelter must be sought out.) Maybe lower or higher air temperatures are involved with activity. Maybe night time activity only happens at night above a certain ambient light level (moon light).

I don't think the IR stuff you guys are talking about is really a problem to overcome right now. As stated in another post here, the majority of cameras on the market are using passive IR motion detection. Turning the camera on, you have to wait a bit for them to climatize to the surrounding temperatures within the camera viewing angle. This is where the operator setting one out should use a remote IR thermometer (Home Depot sells them for $20). The scene before the camera should be measured to make sure that it is a homogenous temperature and will not throw off the camera by having a hot source in a spot that would denigrate the camera tripping sensor.

Having a map of each and every camera sequence scene, showing the various temperature differentials from objects with in it could prove very beneficial later on. Not to mention help in the setting up of a camera trap that takes into account the wind blowing a branch away from a rock that has a different temperature.

Just a thought...

Edited April 6, 2011 by damndirtyape

[Guest]

Here is an example in recording moonlight amounts and duration for a wildlife study... Bats.

And here is something on why it might be very important to the study of Sasquatch...

Edited April 6, 2011 by damndirtyape

[bipedalist]

Looks like the bear is doing some investigation of the cam. LOL. I still wonder about the CMOS/CCD sensitivity. Are there any specs anywhere as to IR sensitivity on those? Also wondering ... if the parts were available ... could we not build a GEN III or IV Game cam which depended on ambient light as opposed to IR? Reason I'm asking is I know one of the manufacturers of Chinese NV equipment. They also make Chinese military devices (and believe me, these are not toys. This is some serious sh*t they are developing).

Yes that bear was apparently either hearing other animal "visitors" on the other side of the thermometer upslope or was listening to and/or watching the game cam moving it's head from side to side. It did seem to get anxious several times opening up it's mouth a time or two also.

I've seen the raccoons bristle their backs at the cams and approach it as if it's an enemy, a predator or an unknown. Whether they do this because of sound, light, both or just fear/anxiety over the strange thing who knows.

DDA, thanks for the info. on temp. sensors and light relationships and wildlife discussion. As to scotobiology the bear gamecam shots were taken near or during the new moon and my BF sighting was around civil twilight and after for some period of time during no moon on a night when moonrise was very early the next morning.

[Guest]

And for some to ponder over... Mills, A.M. 1986. The influence of moonlight on the behavior of goatsuckers (Caprimulgidae). Auk 103:370-378.

[Guest]

Here might be a term not so familiar.

Definitions of Cathemeral:

A cathemeral organism is one that has sporadic and random intervals of activity during the day or night in which food is acquired, socializing with other organisms occurs, and any other activities necessary for livelihood are performed. ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathemeral

active periodically and sporadically throughout both the day and night, as in some lemur species

pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/glossary

Refers to an animal that is active during both daytime and nighttime. The relative proportions of daytime and nighttime activity may vary with the seasons.

www.animalinfo.org/glossc.htm

... and a link to what may be applicable behavior...

Edited April 6, 2011 by damndirtyape

[Guest]

Another source that might be of interest... containing references to these two pictures. Plus a pdf on tech usage for nighttime observations.

[Guest]

Sorry if this has been tried before...has anyone just tried flooding the area with IR so the specific camera's are undetecable? Or used red lightbulbs in the regular floodlights?

Yeah....I can hear the joking now...just wondering?

[Guest ajciani]

I think most day/night cameras would still determine that they need to use the IR flash. The LEDs emit VISIBLE light, which is the give away. They are VERY noticeable in a dark environment.

I also noticed that some cameras even have a red or green LED which blinks whenever it detects movement. Depending on the camera, a person could easily map out the perimeter of the detector sensitivity, without ever getting a picture taken.

I have suggested that people use external illumination. If you were going to monitor the area around a house, I would put up a string or red X-mas light (after using a camera to make sure the IR is not blocked by the color). Red lights don't look particularly bright, but they should throw out the IR, as if they were clear white.

Gentleman,

Please use caution when using multiple IR LED's or Q-Beam type illumination, they can cause considerable eye damage and possible loss of vision when viewed directly! It's human nature to look at the IR illuminators when you finally build a custom unit to see if there is a presence of "red glow".

Good catch Bill. Yes, IR will be focused on the retina, and will be absorbed by it. Not as strongly as visible light, but potentially strong enough. On top of that, your iris will not respond to it. So if you look at an unfiltered Q-Beam, it's bright, so your iris constricts and saves your eye. If you look at a filtered Q-Beam, it LOOKS dim, so your iris stays wide open, and your eye gets burned.

If going the Q-Beam route, use it as an IR thrower for when you are using your camp fire and yourselves as bait. The biggies might unknowingly come into Q-Beam range, and become plainly visible on an image intensifier or IR modified camera.

Just a note on some previous posts, most if not all game cameras DO NOT produce infrared beams! The passive infrared sensors used on game cams are PASSIVE, meaning they just measure differences in infrared radiation that hit the sensor. The only infrared that the camera projects is from the infrared illuminators after the PIR detects heat and movement, so when the camera is in stand-by mode, the camera does not produce any IR beams whatsoever.

Ditto. Again. People get confused, because IR illumination and heat are both called IR.

Great to hear about your improved EyeGotcha system. I liked the idea of the original system too. A lot of DVR security recorders can be set to record video only when something is moving in the camera, but there are very few (or none) that can do so onto an SD card, silently, and on battery. Your new system sounds a lot like a game camera, that can be broken down and setup in pieces, so it can be more covert and doesn't look like a camera. Will it be color, IR, or color with IR sensitivity?