Hello,

I'd like to put a camcorder in our woods and let it record the various goings on overnight. In a recent program on Discovery/Science Channel, I saw a small Pelican case strapped to a tree that caught a Jaguar on its night-time prowl (obviously not in *my* woods!)

A bit of research led me to this:

http://www.pixcontroller.com/Products/LANC_PixController.pdf

I want to do exactly what the last page of the document does (including controller an external IR LED array). Unfortunately, this product has been discontinued and the manufacturer doesn't seem to have a replacement.

Can anyone make any recommendations?

Thanks,

John.

i found a little cheap circuit that is a LANc controller, with a trigger.
the ciruit when triggered by any closed contact (could be a PIR motion detector or a laser barrier or any contact activated system) do the following sequence.
switch on cam, set to record mode for a programmed duration, switch off cam.
http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/keene-electronics/keene-pir-lanc-controller-(pcb-only)/KLRP1PCB.html

but they got the ready made kit also
http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/keene-electronics/keene-lanc-remote-with-pir-detector/KLRP1.html

Thanks, Giroud.

I was thinking about buying one of these. So I'd be interested in hearing of any experiences, especially with badgers and foxes.

Hmm, I sense a project coming on.

I really want to be able to do the following:

1) Use PIR to trigger recording
2) Turn on/off an LED array
3) Record video to tape for defined amount of time
4) Record true timelapse to Memory Stick (not interval recording to tape)

LANC can be used to control the camcorder(s) but implementing a LANC interface is a pain due to its rather complex timings.

Thankfully, an inexpensive chip exists to do the grunt work of communicating via LANC. You send/receive commands from the chip and it takes care of the LANC stuff:

http://www.elmelectronics.com/DSheets/ELM624DS.pdf (approx. $15)

You communicate with it via an RS232 interface using a simple protocol. This could be from a laptop but that's rather undesirable out in a forest.

Instead, you can use a PIC microcontroller that would send the commands to the LANC chip. The PIC can be hooked up to a myriad of sensors - e.g., PIR and can also turn on/off external hardware (such as the LED array).

As it happens, I have a PIC kit in a drawer patiently awaiting its reason for existing:

http://www.parallax.com/Store/Microcontrollers/BASICStampModules/tabid/134/txtSearch/90005/List/1/ProductID/313/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName%2cProductName

which you can buy (as I did) from your local RadioShack who just happen to sell a bare-bones PIR module:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2906724

I already have an LED array:

http://www.supercircuits.com/IR-Illuminators/IR25

and I hope to squeeze everything into a Pelican 1400 case (to fit an HDR-HC1 + my smaller camcorders):

http://www.pelican.com/cases_detail.php?Case=1400

Programming will be done on a PC and then downloaded to the PIC. I envisage a small number of buttons/switches to choose a mode (e.g., timelapse to Memory Stick, PIR-activated etc).

I'm not sure when I'll start on this but I'll provide updates...

John.

The biggest problem, from my inquiries, was likely to be the time taken to wake the camera up when the motion is detected. Leaving the camera awake means using up battery power, so external power pack, or solar panel, is needed if you are away from an electricity supply.

Agreed. For me, the biggest current draw would be the IR LED array - hence the need to turn in on and off as required.

I had in mind a seal lead-acid battery to power the whole lot, such as:

http://www.thebatterystop.com/catalog/i1311.html

though I haven't calculated the capacity needed yet. The above example has a decently small volume and is cheap.

this battery seems to be only 1.2A/h . that is very small (it gives you 12X.1.2=14.4watt).
any big li-ion camcorder camera (like the sony NP-970) is 7.2V at 6.6A.h (about 47Watts).
you better have to find a battery that can power your device without conversion, since converting voltage is very lossy (at best 80% efficiency).
So if you camera is 7.2V, go for a 7.2 V battery, the led array will be ok with such voltage since led device are usually current driven , not voltage driven.
www.batteryspace.com has a lot of battery pack of any voltage between 3.6 to 48V and with big current available reasonably priced.
for my regular video use (powering LCD monitor of my stabilizer, or my WEVI wireless transmitter, i choosed a nimh 24V-5A (about 100W of power) that almost fit in your hand. I use a DC-DC converter to get 12V out of it.
if you are ready to bring heavy things with you , thare are some battery pack for electric bike that can deliver up to 500W of power, should be enough to power your system for several days.

The drawback with this kind of battery is that they are not designed to be run down to nothing - effectively you need something that will run for at least twice the time you intend running the equipment for. I have three 12V 3.2Ah batteries that were used for monitoring equipment, they lasted three nights if I was lucky, and became less reliable as the season progressed. They were not powerful enough to run the infra-red lamps for the video camera - I needed to use a 7.2Ah version for that.

i purchased 12V 12A lead gel battery (the cheap one for electric scooter, less than $80 ea.)
lead support better discharge than li-ion or nimh, but any battery getting a deep discharge is damaged during the process. The 2nd problem is the discharge curve.
some technology (like lead) is going slowly down the hill from 13V to 8 , while others (like li-ion) are providing rock steady voltage and suddenly drop.
for sure , if you are ready to lift heavy, use a car battery (12V @ 120A/h over 1000W of power !) and you will hardly discharge the battery under 60%
for very long use, try a solar panel.

Thanks for the info.

Actually, my original thought was a full-size deep discharge marine 12V battery since I have one just lying around. Of course, it is large and heavy but I only have to carry it into our woods (for now!)

But before I worry about the power requirements out in the field, I have to get all the electronics and programming worked out!

John,

Here are is a site that has homebrew video kits and info.

http://www.whitetailsupply.com/index.html

You might check out Pixcontroller's forum. There is a member there named PaPaBob that knows a lot about what you are after.

for such project, i usually use eletronic kits (google for "electronic kit" ).
they always got some cheap kit (usually around 10$) for timer, delay, detector, power regulation.

http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/hk/default.asp?page=mk&pagenum=2&order=pr%5Fsku
http://store.qkits.com/category.cfm/TIMER
http://www.bgmicro.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=116
http://www.hobbytron.com/electronickits.html

you just need solder iron and careffully assemble them.

I've been searching around the internet for the last hour or so, having come up with the following equipment:

http://www.trailmaster.com/tm700v.php

It's not cheap - and is pretty much twice the price here in the UK (and only available from www.alanaecology.co.uk), but I can't find anything else of similar quality.

I asked Keene about their unit mentioned in an earlier post, and they said it really needed something quite close (and large) to trigger it, but the trailmaster unit is designed for wildlife - so works at a greater distance from the subject.

Judging from a post found elsewhere on the forum (sorry, I came across it by googling TM700V, and don't know exactly whereabouts it was) the trailmaster units will work with Sony camcorders, but not Canon or others - something to do with the Lanc protocols.

So, I have a Sony A1, I have infra-red lights, If I buy a TM700V, I've just got to sort out the thorny problem of a suitable battery/power supply!

Since my last post, I have designed and built the electronics to control a camcorder with the following features:

1. Single 12V source (e.g., small lead-acid battery) to power all the electronics, camcorder and IR LED array (two on-board regulators - 5V and 8.4V)
2. Video interval recording and/or memory stick timelapse recording (i.e., can do both at the same time)
3. Automatic use of IR illumination and night shot mode (servo controlled) - i.e., sense the ambient light level and turn the IR LED array and night shot mode on or off
4. PIR motion detection to trigger video and/or memory stick recording
5. User selectable settings (via small rotary dials and DIP switches) for things like timelapse interval, whether to record to memory stick in VTR mode or not etc etc.

It's all based around a Parallax BASIC Stamp 2px and an ELM624 RS232/LANC interpreter plus a real time clock (for timing) and some shift registers for user settings.

I'm developing the software at the moment. In principle, a number of programs could be devised and you download the one you need in the field via an RS232 interface.

To be continued....(!)

Wow, that's out of my league. I like things to come ready made, so I just have to understand how they work and then use them!

We bought a moth trap a few years ago. If I'd known it came as a kit, I wouldn't have suggested it. We have never managed to fit the bits together, the electrics don't match that shown in the assembly diagram, and a couple of colleagues who know about these things can't work it out either. So we're still using a low power actinic light trap while the more powerful mercury vapour one sits in the garden shed.

As for the camera, in the short term, I'll probably get a bigger battery in the exectation of being able to leave it running for most of the night - or at least long enough to get the main period of activity when badgers are leaving their setts, for example. I can run the infra-red lights off the 12V 7.2Ah battery I mentioned previously.

Hi every body

My questions are simple:

I'have a Canon XL2, when i use it with the Lanc remote ZR-1000 i noted that in "pause mode" the recording heads "seems to run" but not in "standby mode". true or false ?

When i drive the cam in stand by mode i can restart it after 3 or 4 seconds delay in pushing the standby button, but if i let the cam turn "auto power off" i can not restart it with the Lanc remote (the cam seems power off like the name of the mode).

Now if i use a PIR remote from Keene or others (an example) did this system switch the camera in standby mode or in pause mode (with all the problems evocated) ?

If in standby, the recordings heads are not turning and if the Lanc remote can restart the system from standby position, with good a battery we have found a solution, a delay exist few seconds but not very important, with a good Li-Po power pack we have many hours off survey.

What are yours answers.

Gilles

I don't know about the XL2, but I seem to remember that on my old Canon XM2 I had to switch it so that it didn't power right down to standby, but so you could still see the picture on the viewfinder. Then there would be only a 2 second delay before it responded to being told to record by the LANC.

However, the trailmaster TM700V that I mentioned previously does not work with the XL1, so there may be the same problem with the Keene unit. Perhaps you should ask Keene if it will work with Canon cameras? I don't think it is sensitive enough for my purposes, so I'm not following it up.

Hi

here is a link to PIR sensors, coupled with a Keene Pcb, i think that could be OK


Electronic Modules, Kits and Components (http://www.glolab.com/index.html)

There are two ways to power up a sleeping camcorder via LANC.

One is to issue a LANC command expressly to turn the power on. However, this requires that the camcorder is still listening to LANC commands while asleep.

The other is to send a simple 150msec pulse that forces the camcorder to wake up - it doesn't require the camcorder to be actively listening to the LANC for commands.

The Sonys I have tested require the second option. If a remote LANC controller only sends standard LANC commands, these camcorders cannot be awakened.

Ideally, any controller should try both.

Hi John

Thank's for the information, but have you an idea to do that:

The PIR motion detector detect the animal the videocamera (XL2) turn on (no problems for that) but the Videocam is in pause, to start the record i have to "expaid" a second pulse "Rec button 2 or 3 seconds after" ?

I cannot record directly since the standby position !!!.

How to do the second pulse 3 seconds later (software, hardware) ? Basic stamp and soft programing are like a foreign language for me.

Best regards

Gilles

Here's what I've found with my Sony HDR-HC1:

When first powered on into camera mode, it is in standby mode ("STBY" on display) and issuing a simple LANC command (1030 for STOP) returns LANC data beginning with 14 - i.e., Record-Standby mode (as you would expect).

After 5 mins (the default auto power off time), instead of the camcorder switching off, it remains on but the "STBY" indicator disappears. Note, I am using the AC adapter for power which may influence whether the unit powers off or not. Once the "STBY" disappears, issuing the 1030 STOP command returns 02xxxxxx which means Stop mode. By trial and error, I have found these two ways to get the camcorder back into Record-Standby:

1. Power off (105E) and then send the 150msec pulse to re-awaken it into Record-Standby

or

2. Issue the "Start/Stop" command - 1033. This actually starts recording. Issuing it again stops recording. i.e., this command functions like the start/stop button.

My occasional short meanderings in pursuit of remote filming have taken me to this website:
Use of remote camera systems to investigate efficiency of DNA-based sampling methods | Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NoRock) (http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/research/KendallRemoteCamera.htm) where you can see the short video clips of some of their research.

They say more details of remote equipment used will be posted at some time in the future, but I did see that "Trailmaster" were acknowledged somewhere. Last week I emailed them a couple of specific questions about the TM700V but not received any reply yet.

Annie
I have two of the TM700V's with the IR light controller that I use for some wildlife work. I might be able to answer some of your questions.

Gordon Hoffman

Hi Gordon

I thought with so many thousand members, there ought to be someone on these forums using the TM700V, so thanks for replying.

The kind of questions I was asking were along the lines of:

1) The sample videos I've seen using the system have all be based around large animals. How does it work with smaller ones - eg small rodents visiting a feeding station? All the equipment is in a smaller spaces, and closer to the animals than when working with larger creatures so there may be issues of practicality in there somewhere.

2) Can the sensitivity be altered so that, for example, moths don't set it off?

3) Can the angle of the horizontal field of sensitivity be altered?

4) If Sony cameras will work with it, presumably my A1e will be ok, but does anyone know yet if it will work with the Canon XH-A1?

5) Any other information about the practicalities of using it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Annie
1) I have to admit I’ve never used it on creatures this small but I see no reason why it wouldn’t work on them providing you have the space. The monitor is about 120mm high 75mm wide by 100mm deep. The light controller is a separate unit. The camera and light controller are connected to the monitor by separate cables and can be set up a ways from the monitor.
2) The sensitivity can be adjusted. It is suppose to work on both body heat and motion
3) The monitor covers about a 150 degree arc. You can cover a portion of the sensor with tape to reduce the amount of area it covers which I have done.
4) If your Sony has a lanc port it should work. I know the Canon XL1 does not work as I’ve tried it. Canon must use a different type of lanc protocol so I would be surprised if their newer models are any different but I do not know this for certain. All I’ve used have been Sony camcorders that have the nightshot mode so I can use them with the IR spotlight if I want.
5) For what I mainly use it for it works fairly well. The one main problem as the monitor has to powers up the camera when it first detects an animal, I find it takes up to 6 to 7 seconds to get into record mode so action can be missed at first.
There is a number of setting you can make such as the length of time the camera will record for each triggering which can be set from 6 seconds to 98 minutes. It can also be set so that if the animal is still tripping the monitor it will continue recording even if it is longer than the time you had it set to record providing you still have tape left of course. Once it has done recording an event you can also have it set so the camera will stay in pause mode from 6 seconds on up to 10 minutes so if it detects movement again it will start to record fairly quickly. If no movement is detected it will power off again after the set time is up.
The monitor will record the time and day when it is triggered also which can be handy at times.

Hopes this helps some and if you have any more questions fire away.

Gordon Hoffman

Hi Gordon

Thanks for all this. It's a good start. I will definitely be trying one of these units. The supplier here in the UK has to order them from the US, so it's likely to be a few weeks before I actually get my hands on one - and I'm very busy with other work for another six weeks, so that's ok.

I can disable the auto-power-off on my camera, so it doesn't take quite so long to get into record mode. However, this does mean it drains the battery faster, but it should last for several hours, if not overnight.

What kind of animals were you using the units on? I have hedgehogs, badgers and foxes amongst my potential subject list, as well as the rodents mentioned earlier.

It probably won't work with bats as they are generally in and out of the frame too fast - although there are some situations at a roost where I may be able to use it. At present, I just switch the camera on at the roost exit, and leave it running til the tape runs out, by which time and bats will have flown out. But that is to do with counting bats rather than for usable video footage.

[QUOTE=Annie Haycock;926677]
I can disable the auto-power-off on my camera, so it doesn't take quite so long to get into record mode.
QUOTE]
I'm not sure if this will help as the monitor will power the camera down.

I have use the cameras on mainly on cougars and bears. Have done some monitoring of deer, coyotes, wolves and bobcats. Have had smaller animals and birds trip it also.

Gordon Hoffman

Hi

Have a look here Dgital video motion detector.

Radiant (http://www.dvmd.com/)

Here's a link to my Sony camcorder using a IR array , PIR motion sensor, Homemade LanC
controller. I'm running wireless to my house. I built a controller that detects Video and turns
on a VCR to record in my house. But now I'm using a video capture card and security software
that records to my hard drive. I programmed my LanC controller to Zoom in on every other video clip

Sony wireless video pictures from outdoors photos on webshots (http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/565040207ledNcZ)