It was bulky, and even when camouflaged in the woods it still stood out like a sore thumb.
The solenoid was touchy, and fine tuning it could waste half a roll of film.
But it was cheap to make.
I already had the camera, a point and shoot Yashica E-Zoom 70, and neighbor Richard generously donated a photoelectric sensor -- a Maxi-Beam Power Block which required a 6 volt battery.
It worked beautifully.
I pulled the requisite 6 volt battery from a spot light. No added expense there, as long as I was willing to switch the battery back and forth.The only thing I had to buy was the housing -- an army surplus ammunition case.
The resulting contraption was my own creation, and I was pretty happy with it.
Then I web-surfed my way to a new discovery -- that one can also hack digital point and shoot cameras.
Digital cams were a lot more expensive than film cams, but have many advantages.
The scariest thing was taking a brand new camera apart, drilling holes in the case, and soldering wires to tiny internal contacts.
Now I am a hopelessly hooked hacker and have lost count of my hack-jobs -- at least 50.
Today I dusted off my first home brew and studied the photoelectric sensor.
It has much to commend it as an alternative to the passive infrared (PIR) and active infra-red (AIR) sensors most remote cameras rely upon to trigger pictures.
If I can adapt it to another camera, you'll hear about it here.
5 comments:
That's beautiful. What was the best photo you captured with it?
You are a highly evolved camera trapper codger.
I got tons of squirrel pictures, and some fairly decent ones, but all of the "cutesy" variety. And what a pain getting film developed, when you can download the pics for free. Nowadays, the Camera Axe and Arduino micro-controller are sounding very tempting, especially for action shots of air-born squirrels or bats.
Too cool
Great to see one of the early builds CTC. Those were fun times making cheap game cams when the factory ones were going for $400 a pop. And film to boot, I pestered the 1 hour photo dept every week with a new roll of film.
Keep up the good work, I enjoy your pics and commentary.
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