• Help Support TNDeer:

SD cards and battery life - ?

ferg

ferg

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2004
Messages
16,486
Reaction score
13
Location
At the TNDeer shirt factory %^)
I 'used' to get about a years worth of pictures from my scout guard on one set of 8 AA batteries -

I 'think' something might be crashing on the SD card, because recently - i get some screwy looking stuff on last pictures and a bout a week out of a set of batteries -

DO SD cards have a usable 'life' ?????

ferg....
 
There have only been 2 cameras I have had go over 6 months. One is my current Bushnell that has and still goes 6-8 months on one set of 8 AA's. The other is one of my Reconyx's. I got that thing for Christmas last year and to this day still says 99%. It has taken probably 7,000 - 9,000 pictures, though these are lithium batteries we are talking about. I will probably go all-lithium next year on all 6 cameras I have.


ferg said:
I 'used' to get about a years worth of pictures from my scout guard on one set of 8 AA batteries -

I 'think' something might be crashing on the SD card, because recently - i get some screwy looking stuff on last pictures and a bout a week out of a set of batteries -

DO SD cards have a usable 'life' ?????

ferg....
Click to expand...

Ferg, I have experienced the same thing dealing with the memory card. My first problems with my Scoutguard were the batteries only lasting 3-8 weeks (It is still like this). This last "pull" of my cameras, my SD card out of my Scoutguard will not read through any 3 of our card readers. We stuck in a digital camera and it worked once, but not the second time. I dont know whats up with it, but I am going to try to get a new memory card and hope thats the "fix-all". I am worried it will fry that memory card as well sometime in the future.
 
The voltage regulator.on the camera is going bad. When it needs power to take a pic and flash it.pulls the power from the batteries thru the voltage regulator. Instead of a smooth flow of current it is getting it in burps. This causes the cmos sensor to write the pic info to the card in burps as well. There fore there is not a constant flow of info to the card so the file is written with incomplete data. Sometimes it is enough to.get a distorted pic and sometime the file is corrupted to the point the computer can not read any of it. The part costs about 39 cents if you know how to solder it is a easy fix.
 
FIREMANJIM said:
The voltage regulator.on the camera is going bad. When it needs power to take a pic and flash it.pulls the power from the batteries thru the voltage regulator. Instead of a smooth flow of current it is getting it in burps. This causes the cmos sensor to write the pic info to the card in burps as well. There fore there is not a constant flow of info to the card so the file is written with incomplete data. Sometimes it is enough to.get a distorted pic and sometime the file is corrupted to the point the computer can not read any of it. The part costs about 39 cents if you know how to solder it is a easy fix.
Click to expand...

I get good pictures - until the battery life gets short - would the regulator be causing the short battery life ??

Seems - if it was going bad it would create bad pictures right out of the gate (new batteries) and all - but do tell - about the part - it's a SG550

ferg....
 
I am thinking the voltage regulator is causing the short battery life. Especially if you used to get good battery life before. I do not know the part it requires without seeing the control board. I would send it back to the manafacturer probably. I can fix it I am sure but I can give you no guarantees. And once I crack open the case they will not fix it either. Yes I have done this before on a few Cudde Junks. Never did a ScoutGuard. I am just trying to help.
 
FIREMANJIM said:
I am thinking the voltage regulator is causing the short battery life. Especially if you used to get good battery life before. I do not know the part it requires without seeing the control board. I would send it back to the manafacturer probably. I can fix it I am sure but I can give you no guarantees. And once I crack open the case they will not fix it either. Yes I have done this before on a few Cudde Junks. Never did a ScoutGuard. I am just trying to help.
Click to expand...

And I appreciate it - it didn't cost me enough to worry about sending it back - if I was gonna fix it - I'd send it to ya no problem - I just wondered if I should try a new SD card first and see that 'fixes' 'something' :)
 
BuckNrut said:
I would guess that moisture has worked its way in over time and caused some problem somewhere.
Click to expand...

I assumed thats what happened with mine as well. After using over 15 different trail cams, only one has had water leak in, and it was my scoutguard. Coincidently, the only memory card I have ever had go bad was from the one in that scoutguard....and it always has moisture in it.
 
I've heard of a couple people putting a little rice in there to grab some of the moisture. With the Scoutguard, you probably cant do much, but it might be worth a try. I think I'm gonna try as soon as I put them out this spring scouting them turks
 
Just let it dry out good and put it back out,
The worst thing you can do in cold weather is bring your camera in the warm house a lot,...condensation is a cameras worst enemy.
Leave the cam out and bring the card in.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top