walexa

I am always amazed at the wealth of knowledge floating around here at the DTR, and hope someone can help me:

I have racked my brains trying to figure this out:

I recently purchased a moultrie game camera that uses the common 6v lantern battery. Problem is, the rayovac heavy duty sold at wal-mart only gives about 8 days runtime under my conditions.

What I am interested in is using a 6v golf cart battery, 225 a/h rating, but I can't find comparison data to determine how long this battery would last until say it was down to 40% capacity. The problem with comparing is that the 6v lantern batteries Mah rating is until the battery is down to .8 volts. On a lead acid battery, the amp hour rating is down to say 5.95 volts for 40%.

Can anybody figure out how long the golf cart battery will last? Or have a better solution than the golf cart battery? I can get a blem golf cart battery for $30. Big and heavy, but I've got my atv for that. Thanks in advance.

edwinsmith

What's the drain for the camera? Roughly you divide the current draw into the Amp/hr rating of the battery. For example, if you draw 1 amp then a 225 amp/hr battery should run for 225 hours.

However you have to also account for the self discharge rate which varies according to temperature and the age of the battery. if your current draw is far less than the self-discharge rate then the battery will probably go down at the self discharge rate. but then you wouldn't have that size battery on it to begin with.

If the Rayovac battery lasts 8 days then you're probably down to a few milliamps aof draw in which case I'd say the golf-cart battery would probably run pretty close to it's self-discharge rate.

Find out what the self-discharge rate is for that size battery and you'll have your answer.

Edwin

Jim Lane

Install a small solar panel on the battery and it will keep itself recharged.
Jim

Chrisreyn

wouldnt one of the low voltage solar packs from Tractor Supply do the job?
They sell them for use with gate openers and such....

Jim Lane

Most solar panels are 12 volt output so you need to find a 6 volt unit or else get a 12 volt unit and connect 4 1 amp diodes in series in line and that will drop the voltage by 4.8 volts.
The small panels like they sell to keep your truck battery charged would work fine, you only want to trickle charge the battery.
You dont want something to heavy or bulky to have to carry.

BTW do you have the 35 mm or the digital camera? I belive the digital one has an optional solar panel you can buy.
Jim

walexa

Thanks for the responses!

The camera I have is the digital one, and they sell a rechargeable battery to go with it, as well as a solar panel. Problem is that most of the time you I have my game camera in the woods, so sunlight would only be a couple hours mid day. Even the woman at Moultrie told me that the solar panel would only extend the rechargeable battery's life a couple days. I really want to be able to leave it out there as long as the corn in my feeder lasts.....which is almost a month.

Jim, something I had thought about but given up on is using a 12v battery to do the job. I have 3 spare deep cycle batteries that I keep charged to use for night fishing that would be perfect, but in my google searches, I couldn't figure out how to reduce the voltage. The 1 amp diodes........would I get them from radio shack? I have soldering stuff, so that wouldn't be a problem. 12.6 volts minus 4.8 volts would be 7.8 volts........is that still too many volts for something designed to run on 6 volts? I found some schematics on how to build a "voltage converter" for lack of better terms, but they were over my head. I never knew diodes reduced the voltage. Do they just convert or consume power as well?

Again, thanks for the responses.

Waylan

edwinsmith

A better solution would be to use a 3 terminal adjustable regulator. It's like a 7805 but you add a variable resistor to adjust the output voltage to whatever you want. They should also be available at Radio Shaft. The diodes you would need are 1N4001 types and drop about .7 volts in the forward direction each. Get 6 or 8 of them and then you can add remove diodes in series until you get about the voltage you want.

Edwin

Jim Lane

You could use a LM317 adjustable regulator and build your own adapter but if you do not have all of the parts lying around like I have and really know how to build them then it would be alot simpler and safer to just buy a 12 volt to 6 volt car adapter and connect it to your deep cycle batteries with a lighter socket adapter.

This adapter has a 1 amp output and should be more than enough to power the camera.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

If you set the voltage or polarity wrong you could destroy your camera instantly.
Then have a small photovoltiac panel about 10 amps to maintain the pack. Most of the smaller ones do not need a controller because they are self limiting.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...91&R=200305091



I make portable packs for many of the data loggers and recorders I use in the field, I find a 12 volt 17 Ah. gell cell fits nicely into a .30 cal. ammo can with enough room for the circuits,
37 Ah. fit into rocket cans and make a sturdy pack, I made one with a small 400 watt inverter so I can plug in a CF light and soldering iron or fan to work where there is no electricity, then recharge it from my truck.
I have almost an unlimited supply of gell cells ranging from 7 amp to 2000 amps.
Jim

walexa

Edwin and Jim,

Thanks for the replies.

Jim, where do you get your gel cells from?

Is there anything that can go wrong with soldering the diodes in series? I was thinking of doing this and putting shrink wrap over them to protect from weather..........and wouldn't the diodes be cheaper than 2 of the 12-6 convertors? I have 2 cameras I need to supply power to. I am not really interested in the solar recharger.......the life expectancy of the big battery should be plenty enough for my needs........just weighing costs.

For soldering, I use the Portasol......it's butane powered and I love mine, but I don't do it except every once in a while. Have you ever used one?

Waylan

Jim Lane

Only problem with the diodes would be not very good voltage regulation and some of the cameras might not like it, I would be afraid of burning it up.
If it was designed right it would work fine but you would have to figure in the current drain of the camera and other variables.
If I were to build one I would use a LM317 and set the voltage rock solid at 6.0 volts then lock the shaft with a locknut or hot glue.
Also give the LM317 a good heatsink and it will sink 2 amps with no problem.
There are lots of schematics on the Internet, use google and lookup LM317 regulator circuits
http://www.cpemma.co.uk/reg.html
they are all pretty basic, but if you don't feel comfortable building one it would be much safer to buy the adapter.
All of the components if you got them from Radio Shack should be about $10.00.
I built a 30 amp power supply using 16 LM317 industrial grade regulators in parallel on a finned heatsink and a forced fan cooling and it has worked fine.

I have a friend that owns a company that sells and services computer UPS systems, industrial single and 3 phase units 120, 240, 480 volt Liebert, APC, Fortress and I get the takeouts after they are 1 year old because they have to change them.
That is where I got my 4Kv backup system on my home computer and server.
The 2000 amp ones are only 2 volt cells and weigh about 1500 pounds each so you need to connect 6 of them for 12 volts.

I have a battery-powered soldering iron I carry in my briefcase tool kit but they do not last too long but ok for repairing PC boards.
Never tried the propane ones though.
Jim

John Faughn

Look at the ratings of the solar pannels that are out there , starting at single cell and up to large pannels that produce up to 48v & about 15amps , they even had some from trace that had an inverter mounted on the back and put out 110 v synwave ac.
you should be able to find a small pannel that would keep the origanal battery going till it just wore out ,

bama

you all are putting alot of thought into this....go buy you two of the 6v rechargeables they sell..the ones i use are 7.5ah ...take some plumbers strap and hang them under the box with it ,straping them to the bottem of the box.take your connectors and hook them to the first battery,then jump two wires over to the second battery(putting them in parallel)....done....i use this on my feeders.i fill them up in september,and they run till the end of season,the end of january.i set mine up to throw once every 24 hours.usually about 13 seconds.i use a smooth spin plate so as to not make hardly any noise.i let them throw usually at about 3:30 in the morning...you dont want anyone hearing them go off,as someone will steal them........and you are correct with the reg. old wal-mart disposable batteries,,they wont last anytime at all.moultrie recommends using the rechargeables with the timer board feeders.......................bama

bama

dang! after all that typing,,i see you were referring to the cameras!,not the feeders......well,,,i use one of the above mentioned 7.5ah rechargeables for my cameras also.....they hold up fine,ive never had a battery go dead yet.i usually will run the cameras about every two weeks.i always just stick a fresh one in when i swap the film out .....hope this helps,,,bama

walexa

I sound like a broken record, but I really appreciate all the replies.

Bama, I have no problem with my feeders......normally a good set of disposable batteries will last me a few months........nothing to complain about. But the moultrie digital game cameras are battery hogs. I have a cuddeback and my testing so far seems that they are super easy on batteries. It just stinks that the moultrie can sit out there for a few days, snap just a couple photos, and the battery is wasted. Some of these locations that I want to monitor with my cameras are a decent drive from the house, and I would like to extend the camera battery life to last at least as long as the corn in my feeders lasts. Since I have 3 deep cycle batteries already that see zero usage 95% of the time, it would be great to be able to use them. I could use one battery for each of my 2 moultries, and have the 3rd as a spare to swap out when I go refill the corn, and swap out the memory cards with a spare as well so I can process the pics at home.

That being said..........I wouldn't mind tinkering and building a voltage regulator. Lane, looking at the first adjustable linear regulator on the link you pasted, are all the values for R1, R2, C1, C2, and VR1 correct? The max current draw of the camera I would guess to be half an amp.......when it takes a flash photo and has to recharge the flash, but this is just a guess.