Solar Powered Wireless Camera

I would like to mount a wireless camera in my backyard (we live in a
rural area) to watch the typical wildlife that wonders by. I see
tracks for deer, coyotes, raccoons, and others. I plan to get a camera
that can see in the dark (infred Camera). Mount it in or near a tree
where I've seen the track and have the recevier in my home attached to
the TV and a VCR. I've found the camera I want to use. It's small, it
works outdoors and it runs on a 9 volt battery. The problem I have is
that I don't want to keep changing batteries. I would like to attach a
small lawn tractor, ATV, or motorcycle battery (12 volt) to a voltage
regulator (dropped to 9 volts) and have a solar panel battery charger
attached to the battery. What I hope to accomplish is a self-contained
power source for the camera mount on a pole or tri-pod that can be
moved is a different spot each week.

Has anyone done something like this and can you give me some advice as
to how I can made this all happen? One of my concerns is that the
camera will drain the battery completely during the night and the solar
panel will not charge the battery completely during the day. I plan to
use a Solar Charge Controller to help control the charging of the
battery. The camera is spec'ed to use 150ma.

 

[martin griffith]

On 28 Jul 2005 13:32:48 -0700, in sci.electronics.design
robertbbm@tidni.com wrote:

I would like to mount a wireless camera in my backyard (we live in a
rural area) to watch the typical wildlife that wonders by. I see
tracks for deer, coyotes, raccoons, and others. I plan to get a camera
that can see in the dark (infred Camera). Mount it in or near a tree
where I've seen the track and have the recevier in my home attached to
the TV and a VCR. I've found the camera I want to use. It's small, it
works outdoors and it runs on a 9 volt battery. The problem I have is
that I don't want to keep changing batteries. I would like to attach a
small lawn tractor, ATV, or motorcycle battery (12 volt) to a voltage
regulator (dropped to 9 volts) and have a solar panel battery charger
attached to the battery. What I hope to accomplish is a self-contained
power source for the camera mount on a pole or tri-pod that can be
moved is a different spot each week.

Has anyone done something like this and can you give me some advice as
to how I can made this all happen? One of my concerns is that the
camera will drain the battery completely during the night and the solar
panel will not charge the battery completely during the day. I plan to
use a Solar Charge Controller to help control the charging of the
battery. The camera is spec'ed to use 150ma.
how far is the camera away from your receiver?

If it is say a 100yards or so you could use a 433MHz licence free
transmitter to turn the camera on and off when you need it.

On a cheap (50€) camera, it was also spec'd at 9V. When I took it
apart, I found a 78L05 voltage regulator, which I bypassed, and then
ran off 4 AA LiIon cells in series. You might check this out.

If you could do this maybe you could use a 6V lead acid battery and a
couple of diodes in series to just drop the V enough


martin

 

[martin griffith]

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 22:48:11 +0200, in sci.electronics.design martin
griffith <martingriffith@XXyahoo.co.uk> wrote:

On 28 Jul 2005 13:32:48 -0700, in sci.electronics.design
robertbbm@tidni.com wrote:

snip

4 AA LiIon cells in series.

If you could do this maybe you could use a 6V lead acid battery and a
couple of diodes in series to just drop the V enough


martin
OOOPs, I meant 4 AA LiMh

martin

 

The camera is the cheap wireless camera you find on ebay. It can
transmit about 150 ft. Operating in the 1.2 GHz freq.

 

[Al]

In article <1122582768.493035.91340@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
robertbbm@tidni.com wrote:

I would like to mount a wireless camera in my backyard (we live in a
rural area) to watch the typical wildlife that wonders by. I see
tracks for deer, coyotes, raccoons, and others. I plan to get a camera
that can see in the dark (infred Camera). Mount it in or near a tree
where I've seen the track and have the recevier in my home attached to
the TV and a VCR. I've found the camera I want to use. It's small, it
works outdoors and it runs on a 9 volt battery. The problem I have is
that I don't want to keep changing batteries. I would like to attach a
small lawn tractor, ATV, or motorcycle battery (12 volt) to a voltage
regulator (dropped to 9 volts) and have a solar panel battery charger
attached to the battery. What I hope to accomplish is a self-contained
power source for the camera mount on a pole or tri-pod that can be
moved is a different spot each week.

Has anyone done something like this and can you give me some advice as
to how I can made this all happen? One of my concerns is that the
camera will drain the battery completely during the night and the solar
panel will not charge the battery completely during the day. I plan to
use a Solar Charge Controller to help control the charging of the
battery. The camera is spec'ed to use 150ma.

I got a couple of solar cell battery chargers here:

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/m3009.html

They have a dead 6V gel cell battery inside. You can replace the battery
and use an upconverter to get the voltage to the level you want. The
price for these is really good, $7 plus shipping.

Al