The Home Brew Game Trail Camera Project

Materials Required -

Setting Up and Troubleshooting the Homebrew Game Camera

Once you get the game camera wired up, it's time to test it.

1) Make sure there is no film in the camera and you have fresh AA batteries in the camera. Also, make sure to set the date stamp on the camera back. The Owl camera owner's manual tells how to set the Time/Date stamp. One trick to setting the time/date is to set the month/year first, then hit the mode button to go to the time/date setting and then adjust the time and date. Also, make sure the time/date imprinting indicator is turned on, this is the bar over the time/date setting on the back of the camera. No bar = no time/date stamp. Turn the main battery and camera switches off. Hook up a fresh battery to your game camera unit. Hook up your camera shutter leads to the unit. Turn the Owl Camera shutter switch on the the "Auto" position.

2) Turn on the main battery switch and the red LED test light should come on. Let the PIR sensor warm up and reset, this should be about 30 seconds and the red light will go off then. Make sure you have the PIR lens pointed away from any movement that will trip it.

3) Wave your hand in front of the PIR lens to make the sensor trip and red test light come on. The light will stay on for about 4 seconds and go off. If the test light works okay, turn the camera switch on without tripping the PIR with your hand. Now the unit is in the ready mode and you can walk by the unit and the red light should come on and a pic should flash on the camera. The pic number indicator will NOT advance but the flash will let you know it worked.

4) If all the tests work, CONGRATULATIONS!! You didn't burn down the house and now you're wife/husband can get reacquainted with you after your long nights in the garage. Buy yourself a root beer float and celebrate.

Troubleshooting the homebrew game camera.

NO RED TEST LIGHT - If you don't get any red test light when you stick your hand in front of the PIR sensor, make sure the battery is hooked up and charged. Make sure the battery switch is turned on. Use an electronic Multimeter or test light to trace battery voltage through the wires and battery switch to the PIR sensor. If you don't hear the relay click on or see continuity (short), on the relay contacts when the sensor is tripped, the Regent MS 20 board may be bad.

NO CAMERA FLASH - Make sure you have fresh AA batteries in the camera and have it turned on to the "AutoFlash" position. Make sure the camera switch and main battery switch is on. Check you connections from the camera to the Regent PIR board relay. If you trip the sensor and hear it click and see continuity on the relay contacts, the relay is working. Check you wiring and connectors to the camera shutter. If you have a second camera, substitute it in and see if it will take a pic. If the second camera works, you may have a bad camera and should refer to the owner's manual for help.

SOLENOID DOESN'T WORK - If you don't get any push action from your solenoid, hook it up directly to a 12 vdc battery and it should push the plunger out. If not, the solenoid is bad.

PICS ARE OVEREXPOSED IN UPPER LEFT CORNER OF PIC - If the camera flash reflects back into the camera shutter of the housing you will get an overexposed part in the pic. It looks like this and this. Make sure you have the flash partitioned off from the shutter with some insulation or muffler tape.

If you need a quick answer to any problem, many of us home made camera makers hang out at the Homebrew Game Camera Forum. You must register on the forum to access the game camera forum. You can follow current progress of this project, ask any questions you might also have and post or view pics from other cam makers.

Tips for Your Game Cam

If you have any game camera tips you would like to share here please email us at

Pic Background - Make sure to trim any high weeds or low hanging limbs that will reflect the flash at night near the front of the camera. In night pics, even a small weed will look like a huge tree because of the shadow it casts in the pic. The flash will also wash out anything the is directly in front of the camera like a leaf or twig. If possible, take a second and stand back behind where you are going to mount the camera and look through the camera's viewfinder at the same level you are mounting it to see what the camera sees. This scene is what you are going to get on all your pics, so if something needs to be moved or trimmed, do it when you first set up the camera. Make sure of your pic background in the lower right corner of the pic, this is where the time/date stamp will appear. If you have an orange or light colored background (snow), it's really hard to read the orange colored time/date stamp on the pics. If the time/date stamp is important to you, this right hand corner of the pic needs to be fairly dark for the orange time/date stamp to be readable.

One trick I found is if you have a camcorder, you can use it to quickly video what your camera sees and then play it back to see how your pics will look. I set my camcorder on "no zoom" and it's pretty close to what my Canon Owl camera sees for pics.

If your location has a light background which makes it hard to see the time/date stamp you can buy one of those cheap battery operated outdoor 12 inch clocks and put it in the area to get the exact time of the pic. This also works if you have a camera that has no time/date stamp or your camera time/date quits working.

Get the Height Right - Mount your camera about 2 1/2 to 3 feet from the ground and level. Walk out into the area you have the unit aimed at and use the red LED test light to see where the PIR sensor beam is hitting. You can make small adjustments in beam height by using small twigs or sticks between the tree and the unit to adjust the level of the beam. The diagram on the right shows what the Regent MS20 PIR sensor beam looks like to help you in placing your camera unit. You can flip the white fresnal lens upside down to change the PIR beam coverage and experiment with different setups.

Hiding the Goods - You don't want to advertise the fact you just left a good chunk of your paycheck hanging in the breeze, so a little camo and discretion where you mount it is advised. Even if you own a huge tract of land, trespassers and thieves are still a problem. If you put the camera where people would normally stop on a trail, you increase the time they have to see the camera.

Try and set the camera back off the beaten trail in some brush, just clear a spot for the pic. You can put some leaves and brush from the nearby area around the camera, just remember that if you cut fresh branches for camo they will stand out like a sore thumb after the leaves die. The side of a steep hill or cut bank, buried a bit in the dirt is an excellent spot since it won't allow the camera to stick out like when mounted on a tree. Big dead tree stumps work good. Use you imagination and experiment with different setups. When you get the camera set up, take time to walk the trail and see how obvious it is to a person walking by. Hide the camera and take a friend for a hike and dare them to find it, just make sure you make them take a blood oath on the location if they do find it.

Another trick that might help you keep your game camera is to put a little laminated note on the back of the unit to maybe convince the curious that your camera is a wildlife research project. You can put a local university's name or maybe a state agency in the first blank. Granted, the dirtbags are going to take your camera anyway but some others may just be wondering about the funny camera and this note might convince them to leave it alone. It can't hurt to try right? If you want to print out the little note below, highlight the text with your mouse and then select your printer to print the text.

Avoid Falsing - PIR detectors require heat and motion to trigger. For some reason cedar and juniper trees that catch the sunlight and then are moved by a gust of wind seem to trigger game cameras. If you suspect this is why you are getting pics with no animals, look real close and make sure there isn't any birds or small animals triggering the camera. The next step would be to move the camera to a different angle so it will not trigger off the moving cedar branches. Try not to aim the camera east or west, you'll catch more of the sun and some of your pics will be wiped out by the bright sunlight. Try pointing the camera, north, northwest or northeast. Also, if mounting your camera to a tree, make sure you mount the camera to a tree that is at least 7 to 8 inches in diameter so that the wind will not sway the tree trunk and set off the camera.

If you don't have a lot of big thick trees like here in southern California to mount your cam to, you can improvise and use wooden stakes, barbed wire fence posts or rebar (reinforcing rod) to make a mount for your cam. (see pic on right). Drive the stakes or rebar down a couple of feet, leaving about 3 or 4 feet above ground, and then tie the rods or stakes together with some heavy solid electrical wire. These cams will take a bit of jostling so the flex of the rebar in a stiff wind shouldn't be a problem. Check your setup by turning on the cam and standing out of range of the sensor and jiggle the mount to see if the cam will false. You can shore up the stakes or rebar with rocks and dirt to help out.

You will get an occasional pic with nothing in it that you can see. My best guess is a zooming bird in close to the camera beat the camera shutter and you now have a real nice pic of the landscape for posterity. One last note about PIR falsing, PIRs lose sensitivity as the ambient temperature nears human body temperature. In other words, if you have daytime temps of near human body temps of 98.6 degrees you may not get any pics because of the loss of PIR sensitivity.

Condensation - If you have your cam out in subfreezing weather, put a small bag of moisture absorbing desiccant in the unit to absorb all moisture in the air inside. This will prevent moisture in subfreezing temperatures from forming frost on the moving mechanisms of the camera inside, and preventing it from taking pictures. You can rejuvenate the desiccant every year by putting it in the oven at 245 degrees for 18 hours. Make sure you housing is waterproof, you can use silicone RTV to seal up any holes.

Overexposed Night Pics - Sometimes the camera flash will reflect off the housing lens and get into the camera shutter, overexposing the pic. This makes the pics look milky or causes a white glare from the corner of the pic where the flash is located. It looks like this and this. To stop the problem, take some home window insulation strips that have the sticky tape on one side and seal off the flash to keep it from doing this. You can put the insulation on the lens of the housing where the flash goes out of, not on the camera itself. Muffler tape works too.

Dog Days of Summer - When the temperature rises in the summer to above 90 degrees the range of the infrared sensor on your game camera will drop dramatically from near 60 feet to about 15 feet. Also, as the air temperature nears the temperature of warm blooded animals the game camera sensor will have trouble detecting the difference to take a pic. As a result of these two problems many game camera owners get less pics in the hot summer than the cooler months. To help get more pics you can move your camera closer to the trail or area you film to get around the range difference. You can also move your camera to cooler shaded areas like creek bottoms to get away from the hot temps. As the temperature cools at night you should have normal range and better sensor sensitivity. Some users have installed thermostats to turn their cameras on in the cooler hours of the late evening and night. Please check our game camera forum here for the latest on thermostat upgrades to your game camera.

Keep it in Range - Try to keep the animal close to the camera, under 25 feet works good. If you get pics of animals way out past 30 feet, it is hard to pick out any detail like nubbin bucks or antlers, especially in the night pics. 800 zoom speed film is recommended by the makers of CamTrakker but may be too grainy. If your film is too grainy try 400 speed film. The Canon Owl camera flash has a distance up to 22 feet, the Canon Owl PF camera 33 feet with ISO 400 speed film, so the camera should be close for night time photography. Higher speed ASA rated film (400 or 800) is recommended for night time photos. A lot of people recommend using Pro Kodak or Fuji film over the regular Kodak or Fuji film you find at the local Wal-Mart or drug store. Yotee uses Fuji Reala 100/400 film and has his pics only developed at a lab with a C41 film processor. Make sure you keep your film in the fridge to keep it from breaking down. Don't use 36 exposure film in cold weather, it's really hard on the camera to advance and rewind the longer film.

Bear Food - If you live in bear territory you need to put your game camera in a sturdy metal enclosure. The bears like the smell of film and will destroy you camera if you don't. Use rubber gloves and no-scent spray to help keep the bears away. 7.62 mm ammo cans from military surplus stores work great for bear country. They're metal, have a handle and a rubber gasket to keep water out.

Hold that Pose - Put some vanilla or deer scent in the trail to get the deer to stop and investigate. If you want better pics of the racks on bucks, put the scent up on a limb to get the buck to show off his rack better. If you're after varmints like bobcats or foxes, tie a feather onto a limb with some string so it will flutter in the breeze. Curiosity will get the better of the cats.

Spic and Span - When you change the film and batteries, take along a camera lens cleaner spray bottle and satin cloth to clean the view window. No more funny spots on your pics that you'll have to edit out of your pics. Use a pencil eraser to shine up the battery contacts so they will keep flowing the juice.

Jump Starting a Dead Battery - Lithium batteries work the best in the cold and last the longest. Lithium batteries will last 3 times longer than alkaline and have an operating range of – 40? F to 140? F. I have more info on batteries on my battery webpage.

Touching up Your Pics - Have your pics developed with the grainy finish and not the glossy finish, the grainy finish works better when you scan them. Scan the pics in 72 d.p.i. (dots per inch), anything more is overkill for the Internet and makes your pic files huge. Go here for more tips on scanning. Try to keep the pic files under 100k in size, preferably under 50k, this makes it faster to email them and they will load faster if you put them on a webpage. If you don't get any image editing software with your scanner to resize, crop or compress your pics, you can get free software here to crunch your huge pic files.

Be Prepared - When you go to check your camera, make sure to take a complete set of new batteries, a fresh roll of film and a bungee cord or strap in case the old one broke. You'll save a bunch of time, disturb the area less and take more pics if you don't have to hike back out just to get some new batteries or film. If you have a lock on the camera, don't forget the key.

Get the Whole Story - Make sure you tell your film developer to develop all the pics on the roll of film. Sometimes the developer will think the pic is underexposed and will not develop the pic, costing you the shot of a nice buck. Check your negatives and make sure you're seeing all the animals you have on film. To see all the small details in your pics, buy a good magnifying glass or even better, buy a jeweler's loupe in about 5X or 10X power. Some jeweler's loupes come with an multiple power lenses that are real handy. Omni-Optical has these loupes.

Wal-Mart has one of the cheapest 1 hour photo labs, $6.30 for 24 pics. To save money, you only have to pay for the pics you keep, so when they hand you your pics, look them over and just pay for the ones you want to keep. You'll usually only have a few good pics on a roll of film and the savings you'll get on developing will add up real quick.

If you have a roll of film which is possibly a bunch of does or unintentional misfires, have the film processor only run the negatives instead of doing all the prints as well. They do them for me for less than half price and I look the negatives over and see if there's any keepers in the lot. Like today's roll had a red fox, 16 does and one buck the rest where of me. Then I print the ones I like and get another roll of film with the savings. I have 4 cameras out and believe me it will add up, you get the picture. Thanks to yoteee' for this tip.

Keep a Log - To make sure you get the most out of your batteries, keep a log of when you changed camera and main unit batteries. This will prevent your from missing out on a great pic because you couldn't remember when you last changed batteries and you didn't want to waste more batteries. If in doubt, put a test meter on the batteries to measure the voltage, toss any low reading batteries. You can leave the log in the camera unit on a piece of paper or use a pocket notebook.

Uninvited Guests - If you discover new tenants in your game camera like ants or mud dobber wasps, you can spray the inside with Permethrin to keep them from ruining your pics. You can get Permethrin at any garden or farm supply store.

Milky Pics and Ground Fog. - If you get your pics back and they are have milky white look to them, don't panic, ground fog or frost on the lens is probably the culprit. It looks like when you drive with your high beams on in your car in the fog, the flash just washes out the whole pic because of the fog. Fog is usually a problem in the evening or early morning hours but can be present anytime. Keeping a log of the weather will help you determine if the fog caused the problem by looking at the date on the pics. Here is an example of a pic that ground fog messed up. Ground Fog Pic. Frost will show up on the pic as big milky white sections like this. Yotee said he tried using a hand warmer inside his cam up in cold Alberta Canada but it didn't help much when the temp dropped to -30F.

Zip the Lip - Finally, don't tell anyone where your cams are, not even your mother, you'll regret it. Just remember the old saying, "Loose lips, sink ships".

Stolen Game Camera Alerts

If you would like to add your info about a stolen game camera or you have info to offer, please e-mail us at . You can add your game camera to your homeowner's insurance for about $4.00 per year with no deductible. Also, take a pic of your game camera along with serial numbers for your records.

1/4/02 - It happened!! Some s.o.b found and stole my camera right before Christmas. I had it on a creek crossing in the middle of my ground. It was cabled and locked to a tree and hidden with some additional twigs and brush. I found one set of Lacrosse boot tracks coming up and going back down the bank of the creek and then I found a set of 4-wheeler tracks coming in and out under my NW fence corner. My guess is that someone was running 'coon hounds and got their picture taken. I guess they got a bit nervous about being developed on my role of film, so they came back and solved their problem. I called the police and CamTrakker. They are both flagging the serial numbers on the unit and are waiting. Is there anybody around I can pound? Worst Christmas I can remember. The unit number is 12958 and the serial number in the bottom of the camera is 374566. Thanks guys. CamTrak South has put a flag on the numbers and will report to me if they have any inquiries about the unit. - Hag.

2/5/02 - I had a NCX-10 and loved it until somebody stole it. Serial number 05485994. Detector number 2005160. Purchased on 1-04-01. Great while it lasted. Mike S.

2/14/02 - Yep, add me to the list. Right in the middle of a 3000 acre lease with no reason for anyone to be in that area. My best guess is it was someone looking for sheds. Unless we've got a poacher so good that he's scouting in the off season. DC 100. If anyone in Tidewater Virginia suddenly hears of one for sale or gets someone bragging about his new pics. - Shufigo.

1/7/02 - They got my deer cam dc-100 some time last week! Camera serial # 06420514 Unit serial # A09716. Stolen from Rush county, Kansas approximately 10 miles south of Larned. Called the cops and the company. Had a idea of who might of took it(from a witness) and i just talked to the cop who took the report. He CALLED one of the guys and asked if they knew anything about it. OF course they are not going to tell you the truth over the phone. Bad thing is i was going to try to get insurance this week. I will check my homeowners but i doubt they will pay it. -The hairless one.

11/7/01 - The first week of November, 2001 I put out my homemade video trail camera at a feeder and left it until the next Saturday. When I went back to get it, it was gone! This feeder is at least 1/2 mile from the nearest road that can be driven with a vehicle you don't want scratched and to have several flats. There are lots of mesquite trees you would have to drive over, along with cactus. There were no vehicle tracks to be found. Whoever got it walk in and out. I was using a Sony camcorder with the night-shot feature. The way I was using it, the night-shot infrared light was always on. I had Sony’s extra night-shot light on the camera and it really ran the batteries down, so I had added a 12Volt, 7.2AH battery and a 12-volt Sony adaptor that was designed to run the camera off a cigarette adaptor in your car. I could get a little over 3 hours of tape before the battery would get too weak to run the camera. I lost the camera, battery, and cigarette adaptor, extra night-shot light and of course the GI ammo can with the circuit board, motion detector and adjustable timers. The camera was a Sony Hi-8 model TRV-95. I have never seen another TRV-95. The circuit board had variable timers for both the prevent and the record times. It was mounted to the lid of the ammo can. The camera, battery, solenoid, etc. was mounted to a 1/4" steel plate that could be lifted out of the ammo can to gain easy access to the system. I am sure the thief will just remove the camera and throw the rest of it away, but keep an eye out for it anyway. Keith.

Trail Event Counter

If you want to add a trail even counter to your game camera, EagleEye has been kind enough to share his design of the event counter he made cheaply with parts from Radio Shack. It lets you know at a glance how many shots have been taken and also how many you missed when the film ran out. The counter is self powered by its own watch battery with a four year life expectancy before changing out. The counter is special order from Radio Shack. All total will add about $15 to the cost of a system.

If you have any questions on how certain parts work in this project or electronics in general, please post them in our game camera forum at Forum

Using IR (Infrared) Film

IR film is about $8.00 a roll. B & H has Konica Infrared B&W (750) 135-24 film for $7.95. GunDocc says he saw IR film at Wal-Mart which is probably a good price too. When the film arrives if you order it, it should have come in a box packed in dry ice to keep it cool. This is essential! Infrared film is sensitive to heat and must be kept refrigerated before it is used. If you buy the film (already in stock) at the camera shop, make sure that it was kept cool. If it wasn't, don't buy it there! You should store the film inside of your refrigerator and not take it out until about one hour before you are going to load it into your camera. This way, it warms to room temperature and you avoid any chance of fogging the film.

Most automatic cameras use an IR sensor window to make sure the film advances okay. If you have a camera with this window, cover it up with some duct tape so it won't fog/expose the IR film. The film advance sensor window is usually a small rectangular opening where the film lays across the back of the camera near the top edge of the film. The Canon Sure Shot Owl PF camera does NOT have this sensor window.

You'll need to put an IR filter in front of the camera lens to take IR pic. A Hoya #RM72 49mm IR filter was $25.00 at my local camera shop, online at B & H the Hoya 49mm #RM72 infrared glass filter was $37.50 and out of stock. IR range is easily 35 feet. You also have to load the IR film in the dark so you don't ruin it. You also need to put an IR filter over the flash. Cheap IR filter Plexiglas is available at the link.

How would IR film help? If you didn't want to have a camera flash give up your camera at night and just had it on during the day, you could run IR film 24 hours a day with no flash.

So far I have no pics to show what this looks like, I'm rigging up a camera now to test it out. If anybody else has money to burn on IR testing, let us know how it works out. Our email is

Homebrew IR Camera Housing

Homebrew IR Camera

More on IR photography

If you have any questions on how certain parts work in this project or electronics in general, please post them in our game camera forum at Forum

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

I Keep Getting a Bunch of Pics at My Feeder of the Same Deer, Can I Wire in a Timer? - Timer kits are available and the links are posted with each section. There are also several topics in the game camera forum covering timers very well.

Will My X Brand Camera Work? - Don't know. Most cameras go into a sleep mode and need a half press of the shutter or a refresh pulse to wake them back up. The cameras we use here don't need the refresh pulse or half press of the shutter. The only way to find out if your camera will work is to turn it on and see if it will trigger the shutter several hours later. You're on your own if you decide to rip it apart to see about wiring it. Whenever we get some brave soul to do this we will post the results in the "Other Cameras" section. We have mods for at least many cameras that are readily available. Please don't email asking me about the camera you have, if it's not listed I simply don't know.

Will My X Brand Sensor Work? - Don't know. All the info we have on sensors is listed on our PIR webpage here and several other people's webpages and in the posts on the game camera forum. We have figured out hacks for several good outdoor sensors that are readily available. We have found from testing that indoor sensors and burglar alarm PIR sensors do not work well below freezing (32 F degrees), and most of the outdoor PIR sensors work down to almost 0 F degrees. If you want to try to hack another sensor let us know how it turns out. Please don't email asking me about the sensor you have, if it's not listed here I simply don't know.

Will You Sell or Trade Me a Camera Unit? - Sorry, but we just don't have the time to make these units for sale or trade. Search in your local area for someone who is handy enough to help you out. High school shop classes might want to do this as a project or try the local Boy Scout troop. HAM radio operators love to tinker and you can barter something for their work maybe. There is help out there, you just have to look to find it.

If you have any other questions on how certain parts work in this project or electronics in general, please post them in our game camera forum at Forum

A Quickie Course in Electronics

Thanks to Tinhorn for the explanations below. If you have any questions on how certain parts work in this project or electronics in general, please post them in our game camera forum at Forum

DIODES - Are one way electric valves. We use a general purpose 1N4001 diode (Radio Shack #276-1101) in this project. There are silicone and germanium diodes for many different purposes. The silver band on a diode is the cathode end and the other lead is the anode or arrow part on the schematic. To remember which is which, anode = arrow.

LEDs - Are light emitting diodes. When electrical current flows through them (forward biased), they emit light. LEDs are very rugged, last a long time and come in many different sizes, colors and brightness. The shorter lead on a LED is the cathode and the longer lead is the anode. There is also a flat spot on the LED itself, on the cathode side, see pic. If you hook a LED up backwards, it won't blow up, it just won't light. A series resistor is needed with the LED to match it to the voltage and allow the safe amount of current to flow through it. Some LEDS come with the resistor already wire inside the LED and the others you have to solder the resistor to the LED anode.

RELAYS - All relays should have a general purpose 1N4001 diode across the coil of the relay. In the case of the MS20, it's D1 so the new relay coil pins would be soldered there, one coil pin on one end of the diode and the other coil pin on the other end (don't matter which coil pin goes where). A coil of wires becomes a magnet when DC volts are applied to it. When the power is disconnected from a coil of wires, the magnetic field collapses and creates a voltage in the coil of wires who's polarity is reversed from what was applied by the battery (+ & - reversed) (moving magnets and coils of wires are how generators work). Electronic things are easily damaged by reversing the current (hooking up batteries backwards is another way to damage things). The diode grounds out this reversed current.

The coil and contact pin ID's are usually marked on the relay but if not, and you don't have an OHM's meter, take a 9 volt battery (if it's a nine volt coil) and start touching 2 pins at a time to it till you hear the relay click, now you know where the coil pins are. "N/O" contacts mean the contacts are normally open when the coil has no power applied. "N/C" contacts means the contacts are closed when no volts are applied to the coil (if you see a small spark when disconnecting the battery but no relay click, this is probably the N/C contacts, not all relays have both sets of contacts). We want N/O contacts for our project.

555 AND 556 TIMERS - are very popular and versatile integrated circuits (ICs). They come in a standard and low power (TLC 555 and TLC 556 ) versions. The 555 and 556 have 2 modes of operation. Monostable mode (mono) is a "one shot" setup. When the input is triggered, usually to ground, the timer output goes high for the set time and then resets, until the next trigger. Astable mode is basically an oscillator where it triggers a flasher or tone generator etc. The timer mode we use for this project is the one shot mode. The PIR sensor trips the timer and the timer closes our camera relay and then resets after a set time.

ICs - ICs are integrated circuits, aka "chip". These are the little black rectangular components that have 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or more legs or pin contacts. To tell which pin is #1, all chips have a index dot or notch at one end. The #1 pin will be to the immediate left of this dot or notch. See pic.

Remember, all electronic things run on SMOKE and if the smoke gets out, they won't work!

Homebrew Links

555 Timer Tutorial .... Great place to learn about electronic timers.
Aervoe-Pacific Co. .... Camouflage paint in all the military colors. Best supplier I've found for painting your big equipment. P.O. Box 483, Gardnerville, NV., 89410, ph# 800-227-0196.
All Electronics .... Electronic supplies and batteries at real cheap prices.
Amazon Electronics .... They have a 555 timer kit for $11.00 that has 8 second to 2.3 hour settings and PIR sensor fresnal lenses
Amazon Sports .... has the H. S. Camoshield for $10.99. Don't use the shiny camo duct tape, when the sun hits it just right anyone can see your camera.
Batteries .... How to wire them in series and parallel.
Bell's Halloween Tricks .... Mods and schematics for BC8000 series PIRs, Regent MS401 PIR. Heath-Zenith SL-5408, Regent MS35 PIR.
Blackwater's Home-Made Camtrkr Website .... Great pics on how to make the homebrew camera and of animals too.
Cabela's .... Sell gel-cell batteries and 120 VAC and solar battery chargers. Also they have the little packs of water absorbing desiccant.
Camoclad Camouflage System .... consists of rugged, waterproof, camouflaged vinyl with a self adhesive back and is available in a wide range of popular patterns.
Cases4Less .... Pelican, Aquapac, Cell Safe, Seal Tight and Kryptonite cases. Check out the Pelican 1120 model for a game camera housing.
Desiccant .... The little packs for absorbing condensation. Cabela's has them for $3.99 each, item # XM-22-3834.
Digi-Key .... Electronic parts.
Doskocil .... They make handgun, rifle, bow and other cases.
Ebay .... Auction website to look for cameras or other stuff.
Electronic Workbench .... Cool program called Multisim V6, includes schematic capture, simulation & programmable logic. Free demo.
Field Pix Game Camera Systems .... PIR sensor boards, timer boards and kits.
Fresnal Technologies Inc. .... Info and sales of fresnal lenses.
Fuerte Cases .... Waterproof cases for game cameras, optics, camera and other gear.
Glolab .... Electronic kits and components. PIRs.
Hoffman .... They make a NEMA type 3R electrical box that makes a good housing. Look under the type 3R enclosure link and then the small enclosure section. ETA Engineering has the Hoffman boxes for $15.95.
Hunting Footage.com .... Upload your videos for free. Forum to discuss video too.
Hunter's Specialties .... Sell camo paint, paint kits and camo tape.
Infrared Motion Detectors and How They Work .... Good info if you're curious how PIRs work.
Jameco .... 12 vdc solenoid supplier.
JHO Online Store .... Cases, batteries, desiccant, game cameras and more.
Makita .... Makers of cordless tools and batteries. They just released a NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) battery.
MJPA Online .... Electronic supplies.
Mouser Electronics .... Electronic parts.
Newark Electronics .... Electronic parts.
Nuts and Volts Magazine .... Great place to learn about electronics and repairing stuff.
Otter Box has a slick waterproof case.
Paragon Electric Co. .... They make waterproof electrical boxes that are hinged and have a hasp for a lock.
PixController.com .... Game camera timer and interface boards. JHO sponsor.
Poptronix .... The magazine for the electronics activist.
Powersonic Batteries .... Gel-cel batteries.
Pro Remote Beam Controller .... The Pro-Remote Beam Controller is a multi-use portable camera trap that is capable of using many different sensors. Beam, motion, sound or mechanical trips, to trigger the shutter of still cameras, video cameras, flash units, and/or any combination of the three.
Quality Kits .... Your source for electronic kits and projects Audio Amplifier Kits - Valve Amplifier Kits - MOSFET Amplifier Kits - Bench and Test Equipment. We use the #8015 dual timer kit.
Radio Shack .... All kinds of electronic parts.
Raven Workz .... has Camoclad in (6) 6 inch x 15 1/2 inch strips for $25.00.
Ramsey Electronics .... They have a 555 timer kit for $8.95.
Regent Lighting .... Makers of the Regent MS20 PIR sensor and other lighting products.
Schumacher Electric Corp. .... They make battery chargers for cars and motorcycles, and they have a charger (model MC-1), that can charge 6 vdc and 12 vdc gel-cell batteries for under $19.00.
Seahorse Cases .... Waterproof cases for game cameras, optics, camera and other gear.
Silicon Solar .... Solar panels, battery chargers and a bunch more solar stuff.
Soldering 101 .... Learn how to solder website.
Sunn Battery Co. .... They have Makita batteries at good prices. 1313 West Adams Street, Jacksonville FL. 32204. Tel: 904-354-4508. Fax: 904-358-7753
Tempest Power Security Batteries .... offers a full line of maintenance free rechargeable batteries developed for a variety of applications ranging from 1.2Ah to 215Ah, in both 6 and 12 volt packages. Tempest batteries are warranted for two years, double the industry standard. Address: 1435 Koll Cir #102, San Jose, California USA 95112 Telephone: 408-441-9614 . You can order Tempest batteries from All Electronics.
Velleman Electronic Kits .... They have timer and other electronic kits. You can get the
Visual Media Software .... Software for game cameras. JHO sponsor.
Weller .... makes a good soldering pencils and stations starting at about $40.00.
Windraft .... Windows software program to make and edit electronic schematics. They have a free trial version.
Yuasa .... They make gel-cell rechargeable batteries.

Usenet newsgroups - where you can find current discussions on electronics. : news:sci.electronics.basics , news:sci.electronics.design , news:sci.electronics.components , news:sci.electronics.equipment , news:sci.electronics.repair

If you don't have a newsgroup reader set up on your computer you can get to the newsgroup by using deja.com

Books On Electronics and Electricity

Electronic Circuit Guidebook, Volume 2: IC Timers - by Joseph J. Carr. Good book about IC timers.

Timer, Op Amps, and Optoelectronic Circuits and Projects - by Forrest M. Mims III. Great book at Radio Shack for learning about circuits.$6.95

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