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Ohio State University's New Laser "Trip Wire" Cams

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FIREMANJIM

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I was contacted by the Ohio State University about building their Biology Department some camera units. They are doing a study that is funded by the Ohio Department of Transportation and needed these units to monitor the large culberts that run under major highways and interstates in the state. They wanted to do this by using a "Laser Trip Wire" camera instead of a PIR detection system. Their reasoning for not using the PIR system is they wanted the ability to pick up cold blooded critters like turtles and frogs as well as warm blooded critters as well. I told them I could give them the best of both. Last year I built 6 units identical to these for Boston College University. Chris (212) was a huge part in the success of these projects. He found a Laser Trip Wire unit sold on the market and showed me how I could modify the BigFoot board where it would trigger the camera on the trip wire's inputs as well as the standard PIR inputs trigger. Units area basis IR Sony P32 camera. No Glass IR mod and external power. 5 wire servos. Camera is housed in a Camo 1040 case with a HPWA fresnel. Big Foot Boards and security pipe thrus. The Laser Trip Wire is Housed in a Pelican Camo 1020 case. The units have water proof connectors from Mouser. The external 12v SLA battery is housed in a custom built 4" PVC pipe unit. Just thought some of you guys might find all this neat stuff. Here is 2 videos telling and showing you all about the units. The camera's IR flash is going off but you can not see it because I filmed the videos on a Non IR Modified DXG125 video camera.

http://youtu.be/jwSaaOBtqqA
http://youtu.be/c8Z4NJVcZ7k
 
The very first commercial trail-camera was a light-beam trip-wire system. The TrailMaster TM1500. I still have one.
 
Mike Belt said:
BSK---I still have one of those sitting in the top of my closet as well.
Click to expand...

I'm trying to remember when I bought mine, but it was probably right around 1990.

Interestingly, my ex-boss helped develop that system. He worked with the manufacturer and did field testing of the developing product while he was conducting his doctorial research on signpost rubbing behavior by bucks.
 
Wes Parrish said:
Other than wind being able to create false triggering
Click to expand...

That was the big problem. Unless you attached both the sending and receiving unit to very big, thick trees, any wind would cause the trees to sway enough to knock the beam out of alignment and trigger the camera. In fact, I eventually went to driving small metal fence-posts in the ground for hanging both the sending and receiving unit on to prevent this problem. Of course that meant of lot of set-up required and lots of human scent left in the area.

Plus the downside to having to carry and set-up two pieces of equipment, and the difficulty of alinging the two units. Just turned out that a single unit was more practical, once the PIR sensor was perfected.

The earliest versions of the PIR sensor (and TrailMaster built such a unit [I have one of those too]) only required a change of heat sensing to trigger, instead of requiring heat and motion. With only a change in heat sensing required to trigger the camera, every time the sun came out from behind the clouds, the flush of sunlight on the ground in front of the unit triggered the camera. And that was back in the film camera days, so a partly cloudy day would use up a roll of film "on nothing" pretty darn quick!
 
This camera is not for everyone guys. I just thought it was something neat and thought I would share it with you. These are going to be mounted at each end of large concrete culverts that go under interstates and 4 lane roadways. They needed something that would detect cold blooded as well as warm blooded critters. Considering most guys won't spend $235 for a good camera I know only universities and study groups would ever buy these.
 

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