Electronics wizards (not puters)

[Minrott]

My father has had MS for the last 30 years and is now to the point where he's barely able to be on his own feet with a cane more than an hour a day. This is devestating him because one of his favorite things to do was walk around in the woods and mount a game camera, then come back every few days to see what showed up.

He can't do this any more, at least not where any real game traffic occurs because the last time he went down to the farm and walked around by himself he succumbed to heat exhaustion and nearly died. So my Ma has put the clamp down on what he can do and how long he can do it. What he is still able to do is ride his uATV around our trails and fields to a lot of different grounds.

My question is this: Can I build or modify a digital trail camera with a "dump point" on a 50 or 100 foot cable/cord? This "dump point" would be some kind of output device which would contain a flash card of some kind. Basically I want to be able to remotely position the camera inside the woods for him, then run this cord with the memory/storage device to a fence line or trail so that he could ride his uATV up and not have to spend time on his feet.

This way I could move the camera for him every couple days or whatever, but not have to go with him every day or other day to check for pictures, and give him some independance back.

[Gidan]

Does your father have a laptop? It may sound like an expensive alternative but if its for his well being it might be worth the $$. As long as the camera has a USB interface, you could have him ride out there and connect it to the laptop, get the data from the camera and ride home. Technically you could do the same with a PDA, but it might take a bit mor effort.

[Minrott]

No, that's not quite what I mean. This needs to be a permanent assembly/modification to the camera. I cannot ride out there with him to check the camera as often as he would like because I simply do not have time. I live an hour away, I work 12 hour days and spend 3 hours a day in transit to work. I need something that can be mounted on open terrain so that he can ride there and remove the flash card, then take it home and check pictures etc.

The camera may have USB interface, I would purchase one that would fit the necessary requirements.

[10sun]

Look into solar powered shit that can broadcast a RF signal?

[Gidan]

10sun has a good point, a solar powered transmiter would probably work well. Maybe I missunderstood what you are looking for. Are you trying to setup a camera in such a way that your dad can drive out, swap the flash card for a new one and bring it home and look through it?

[10sun]

I'm not sure the size of the property etc... but that is most likely your best bet.

[Minrott]

Power isn't an issue. The property is 540 acres. That's not an issue either. Maybe I can illustrate this better.

Animals move in the woods. The camera needs to be set up on trails in the woods, or food sources, water sources, etc. My dad cannot navigate on foot through the woods anymore because of his health. Half of the land is field/farm land however, and there are some ATV trails through the woods as well. I want to be able to set up a camera 100 feet or further inside the woods where he cannot go, but have the data from the camera going to an ATV accessible area. Wireless would work if reliable. I was thinking more along the lines of something wired however for expense and generally low tech being more reliable.

Here's an example. You can take a digital camera, and a length of USB cable, and hook it up to the computer. Imagine if you had a 200 foot USB cable, the camera was in the other end of the house and when it took pictures it saved them on the computer.

That's what I'm getting at doing. Except rather than a computer, simply having a flash card port that he could get to on his ATV.

[10sun]

I'm not sure what sort of length USB cables are reliable to. Thats why I would suggest something wireless in the first place.

[Minrott]

Me either, and I'm sure data degrades with length. I'm just using USB as an example.

[kaharthemad]

Min I see what you are getting at and yes there are some possibilities. One would be a wirless rig with a Xmit dump rig. some of the xmitters out ther will read up to a foot ball field away. nice thing is you could actually hopscotch the signal from one booster to the next all the way back to the house if you wanted to. If you do a wired rig you could run it with lan cable up about 200 yards away. The wireless rig would prolly be your best option though.

[Minrott]

The other problem with wireless is line of sight will be almost nonexistant. I guess the whole reason I'm so against wireless is that I've had absolute zero luck with anything to do with wireless networking lasting longer than a week. Now add the harsh weather conditions of leaving it outside, and I'll be doing so much maintenance that I may as well just check the pictures for him.

[Tossica]

Setup a color security/ATM style video camera and run coax back to the house.

[Minrott]

You know it crossed my mind, at least using something like that to build off of. Problem is we don't want video (hours of scanning to find animals), the game cameras have infrared and heat sensors and snap digital stills on movement. I just want those stills saved a distance from the camera.