GhostCam power question
I recently purchased a Ghost Cam model GC-G4gb all set up ready to go, but before I put it in the field, I have a few questions in regards to powering the unit. From what I've been able to research they can handle 12 volts now...Yippee! To that end, my questions are:
1. I currently have 12 Energizer Lithiums inside the unit and they read 10.5v is that normal?
2. If I read correctly, the internal is a 4v battery, and its suggested to charge it prior to placing in the field. It currently reads 3.83v...is that normal?
3. Can I hook up a 12v external battery box with a solar panel from another manufacturer to run the unit? Can I run that set up with 12 Lithiums in the camera at the same time or is that overkill/ill-advised?
Thanks for any and all help! Just trying to make sure I don't turn a $400 masterpiece of surveillance technology into a paperweight and get the most pics I can with the fewest field runs to change batteries.
-
10.5 is ok for the lithium voltage, the batteries are two banks of six. There is no need to charge the internal battery, whatever other power sources that you have connected to the camera will charge it. You should be able to connect any 12v power source to the camera, if you are going with a solar panel connected to a battery you may want a solar controller so you don't damage the battery.
-
Thanks for the response John,
I have an HME Solar Battery Pack that uses a 12 volt 6Ah battery with a 12 volt 40mA solar panel attached. I've run my 12V Stealthcams off of it without any issues.
Should I remove the Lithiums if I want to use the HME unit to power the camera?
Appreciate it!
-
I think you should be OK to leave the lithium in the camera, they are a lower voltage so they should work as a backup if something happens to the external. How close will you be to the camera and are you setting up over bait or a trail? My concern is that the panel won't be large enough to keep up with the demands of a cellular camera. Normally you want at least a 10 watt panel and 20 is better, I think that 40mA panel is only going to produce 4 tenths of a watt of power.
-
Interesting! I am planning on swapping it with one of my GoCams that I currently have over bait thinking I'll get a little bit more time out of a set of batteries. I'm relatively close and usually have to put new bait out every 2-3 weeks depending on the weather (if the critters are hungry and eating a lot).
-
I use 10 watt panels on all my camera setups, Spartan battery boxes. Those are not Ghost. One Ghost is running on either a 32 Ah motorcycle battery or another large 12V battery (swap them every few weeks), the other has rechargeable AA and a direct connect solar panel.
That sounds like a small panel and battery, but it may give you that little extra you are looking for.
-
Hi Elizabeth
yeah it's a relatively small solar panel and battery. They do power my stealth cam wireless cams pretty well (3-4 weeks over a feeder getting roughly 200 pics a night and 30-40 during the day) and I think they might use a little more juice than the Ghost does.
John- that particular site is averaging roughly 100 pics a night set at 2 images every 20 seconds and maybe 15-20 images during daylight. If we end up getting cold and snow it will probably be more, though I will probably also cut the burst to 1 image when that happens and activity increases.
-
I've had some similar questions and noticed a few different issues that I've been trying to resolve with the same camera in the same manner.
Last week I bought a GoCam Ghost GC-G4GB. I put lithium batteries in first but for some reason, the app gave me a reading that the battery was empty and although taking photos, nothing was sending. I swapped the lithiums for regular alkaline batteries and the camera was great all weekend long. All 5 bars signal, would send requested videos upon the next image being taken. I ended up setting up 6am and 6pm test photo sends as well as another check point at noon (the camera came with midnight "Status Check" pre-programmed).
The kit I purchased is an awesome solar kit (from Herd360 designed for the Ghost) and yesterday morning I finally installed the solar panel. All is plugged-in and no settings were switched. My noon Status told me that the batteries were dead (despite having over 20 volts of External voltage.) Nothing sent all day. I tried to change the settings to turn "Power Save" off in case that would help switch from the internal batteries, AA batteries and the Solar Panel in a better fashion... Nadda. My 6pm test photo did not send. I did receive a Status Report at Midnight saying the batteries were full, 5 bars of signal and once again the camera did not update my settings to turn Power Save off - and once again, no images. My 6am programmed photo did not send either.
Has anyone else experienced these issues? Have I done something wrong with my process?
Thank you in advance.
-
Try defaulting the camera in it's menu. With lithium batteries in the camera, they are so high in voltage that the camera thinks they are an SLA battery that's low/dead. If you leave those lithium in there and give it a few days after the voltage drops a little the camera will realize that they are lithium and show full charge. In this instance you want to look at the voltage rather than the battery indicator. You want to leave power save turned on. Is the kit just a solar panel or is it a panel and battery?
-
I'll swap cards with another 16gb when I get a chance. The battery was actually saying it was dead during the day but fully charged at night. I'll have a few minutes to check-through everything before leaving.
With the internal battery, 12 AA's and solar panel - what is the "power save" difference on vs off?
Thank you
-
Power save is going to stay connected to the cell service all of the time so it's a big battery drain. There really is no advantage to it for normal use and actually have seen it cause connection issues in the past when it's turned off. Makes sure that you format the SD card in the camera when you install it.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
14 comments