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BRADISH
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# Posted: 2 Dec 2021 07:06pm
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Well technically not my first visitor, but the first one since I've installed my Tactacam cell camera.
Anyway this little lady seems to stroll by about once a week or so. She was around quite a bit while I was building this summer as well - scared me half to death once when I had earplugs in 
Stay warm!
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travellerw
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# Posted: 2 Dec 2021 08:42pm
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Nice.. Where abouts is your cabin..
Here is a pic of a really nice buck that just sat in my yard. Sorry for the crappy pic.
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NorthRick
Member
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# Posted: 3 Dec 2021 04:42pm
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How's that camera doing in the cold?
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BRADISH
Member
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# Posted: 3 Dec 2021 04:54pm
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Quoting: NorthRick How's that camera doing in the cold?
It's doing quite well actually.
It takes 12 AA Batteries and suggests using lithium, which I did due to the cold weather climate. It has been in place for a month today. I have it send me a "daily check in photo" which also updates it's stats (battery %, Cell coverage, etc), but somehow it interpreted this as sending a check in photo every 12 hours. A little overkill but sometimes it is actually easier to see the changes in snow depth at night so it works out.
It indicates its in 'moderate' cell coverage, but typically only takes a minute to send me a photo.
When I first installed it the battery % dropped to 80% almost right away which was concerning, but it has hovered between 70-80% for the month, so I suspect it is just temperature related. If the weather were to warm up to 60F (not going to happen) I suspect the batteries would show 90%.
So far it has snapped 72 photos for me. Mostly the daily check in photos, but also 2 or 3 of snow falling from the tree it is mounted on.
Pleasantly there are not too many false triggers. Besides snow falling off branches there has only been one false trigger of what appears to be some brutal wind/snow. I'll post it in a minute for perspective.
At $115 for camera cost and $5/month for the data plan I would definitely recommend it. I will likely get another when I finish my cabin, as I will have a lot more valuables around.
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BRADISH
Member
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# Posted: 3 Dec 2021 05:01pm
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Photo of storm
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Fanman
Member
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# Posted: 3 Dec 2021 05:41pm
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What does the camera do if it can't get a cell signal? Does it queue it to send when it gets a signal later?
I like the idea, but we have very intermittent cell service at the cabin.
How long do the batteries last?
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BRADISH
Member
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# Posted: 3 Dec 2021 06:02pm
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Quoting: Fanman What does the camera do if it can't get a cell signal? Does it queue it to send when it gets a signal later? I like the idea, but we have very intermittent cell service at the cabin. How long do the batteries last?
I'm not quite sure what would happen. For whatever reason, it sends my daily photos at 4:19PM and AM. I suspect this is because I initially set the camera up around this time (something to keep in mind potentially!). The longest longest deviation from this 4:19 capture I have received is 4:26PM. So I would suspect that it indeed queues the photos.
Alternatively you can disable the daily check in photo option if cell service was a real problem, although I suppose it may be nice to have the confidence of knowing it can actually transmit you photos.
For prespective I get about 2 bars of 4G LTE service on my phone in this area. The Tactacam app icon indicates this as 'Moderate' coverage, showing 3 out of 4 bars in yellow. Your mileage may vary.
I am pretty please with the battery life given the circumstances. It operates off 12 AA batteries and recommends lithium. This is no small investment at about $2 per battery for me. However, after a month of operation, sending 72 photos and some playing around with initial setup the camera says its at 70% battery life. It is useful to note it only rounds the battery life to the nearest 10%.
The biggest influence on the battery life seems to be the temperature which is fairly logical for small batteries. We have been unseasonable cold here for the last month with temps between 20F and -15F. In that time the indication has bounced between 70-90% typically saying 70-80%. Once it said 60% but that has been the outlier so far. It updates this info whenever it sends a photo.
At the current rate I will be prepared to replace the batteries in January if needed, as we usually hit a cold snap in Jan-Feb that can push us to -40F. However I plan on saving the batteries for summer use as I suspect they will have ~50% of their usable life left in warmer weather (50F-70F).
Long story short, cold weather will shorten the useful life of the batteries, so plan accordingly. I suspect I will get ~3 months of battery life in the winter, and 6 months of battery life in the spring/summer. This is good enough for my uses, especially considering I am just operating the single camera now.
Best of luck!
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 4 Dec 2021 08:13am - Edited by: paulz
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Interesting it takes more voltage than the 12v Spypoint or Moultrie cell cameras. I run mine off external batteries via the jack, either off my cabin bank or a car battery out in the bush.
Mine will store photos when the cell signal is weak and send them n a batch when it improves.
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