Solar Powered WIreless Camera

I would like to mount a wireless camera in my backyard (we live in a rural area) to watch the typical wildlife that wonders by. I see tracks for deer, coyotes, raccoons, and others. I plan to get a camera that can see in the dark (infred Camera). Mount it in or near a tree where I've seen the track and have the recevier in my home attached to the TV and a VCR. I've found the camera I want to use. It's small, it works outdoors and it runs on a 9 volt battery. The problem I have is that I don't want to keep changing batteries. I would like to attach a small lawn tractor, ATV, or motorcycle battery (12 volt) to a voltage regulator (dropped to 9 volts) and have a solar panel battery charger attached to the battery. What I hope to accomplish is a self-contained power source for the camera mount on a pole or tri-pod that can be moved is a different spot each week.

Has anyone done something like this and can you give me some advice as to how I can made this all happen? One of my concerns is that the camera will drain the battery completely during the night and the solar panel will not charge the battery completely during the day. I plan to use a Solar Charge Controller to help control the charging of the battery. The camera is spec'ed to use 150ma.

150ma * 24hrs = 3600mAH or 3.6A per day. A typical U1 scooter/marine deep cycle battery provides 33AH. Powered thusly your setup should run for over a week without any charging at all. I'd skip the solar stuff and use the $ to buy a second battery as well and when you went to move the camera rig, swap batteries and put the exhausted one on a plug-in trickle charger.

You realize, of course, that most IR cameras operate only in black and white at night (even if they transmit color during the daytime) and the dual mode (color day/B&W night) cameras are optimized for daytime. The IR image is often much fuzzier. IOW, it's probably going to look a lot crappier than you're imagining. I know my IR cameras were a disappointment to me for that reason and because they attract insects, spider webs and (apparently) bats and the image is terribly grainy. Still, if you're in Tasmania looking for the last Tasmanian tiger, it's a lot better than no picture at all.

I just picked up two new U1's (with handles - very important for your application!) from Ebay for $80 with UPS shipping and insurance. You'd have to use sealed lead acid deep cycle batteries if you're going to use my method because a regular car battery will die after several deep discharges.

-- Bobby G.