Moultrie external battery thingy
 

i just recently got a 1 gig card for my moultrie 2.1 mp camera, and it can hold somewhere near 6500 pics on standard res, or 1400 videos, but im still using the rechargable 6 volt batteries. i was wondering if there was a way to hook the camera up to a car battery or something bigger than a 6V just so it wouldnt drain the camera leaving a ton of memory unused. This camera doesnt have an external battery hookup, but has the internal alligator clips. would it damage the camera to just hook wires from the car battery to the alligator clips? the reason im wondering is i would most likely be leaving the camera out up north this winter, and sometimes we dont get up there for 4-5 weeks, and id hate to miss somethin because the battery dies after 2. thanks for any help.

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

I see no problem on hooking up and external battery as long as it's 6 volt.
I would drill a hole amd run the wires up through the bottom to keep rain/water from entering.

I am running Cabela's 4.1's with rechargable 4.5ah batteries and solar chargers. I just checked 2 of them and in 10 days one took 1100 pics and the other 1800. The camera that took the 1100 pictures had a charge of 99% according to the camera and the camera that took 1800 pics had a battery charge of 66%, this was due to the solar chargerwires coming off . They do take alot of flash pictures also. They have been working great for me. A note though, these are in the warm climates of South Texas

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

so what you're sayin is that hookin it up to a 12V battery is a big no no? the batteries i have now are 6V 4.5a, and was hopin i could just hook it up to a bigger battery rather than buy a solar charger. do they make 6V batteries w/ bigger capacities? does any1 from the northern climates know of anything i could do to prevent the battery from freezing or not working as desired in really cold temperatures? maybe a snowmobile battery? thanks for the help doubleA

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

id say a solar charger wold work best because putting to much energy into it i think would kill the camera but im talkin for sw texas so im sorry that im no help

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

doubleA...could you post all the hardware you use / have and approximate costs? I am wanting to get a camera that uses solar power to recharge batteries in the field and would like to know a little more about your setup! Thanks!

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

I am using 6 volt kids power wheels rechargable batterys with mine works great and cheap 32 bucksfor 2 on e-bay

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

I drilled a hole in the bottom of my Moultrie's case to bring the solar panel clips in. You do have to watch out for ants getting in after you do that.

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

I may have to check into a solar charger. i just checked my camera after it was out for a total of 3 nights,with temperatures below freezing,and the display said "battery low". it had taken 0 pictures and was pretty disappointing. where did you get your solar charger?

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

You can get them at Cabela's, Bass Pro, Academy, and I have also seen them at Wal-mart in the past.

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

Let me understand this. If I were too get a solar powered battery charger and hook it up to a 6volt batter it would keep that battery charged. Will it work with any battery or does it need to be a rechargeable battery. If so I will defnitly be trying to set this up. Well after I get a new camera since i found out yesterday that mine was stolen. Great topic... thanks for any info in advance.

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

I am going to try that hot wheels 6v battery trick! what kind of wire do you recommend I use from the aligator clips to the battery?

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

Schobs, is that normal battery life for that camera? I have the 3.1 mp Moultrie and I can get MONTHS out of a freshly charged battery. I had it out once for 2 months and it was still at 80%. Maybe it's the battery or charger that you're using, or the camera is defective??

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

The only batteries you can use with the moultrie cameras are 6 volt. But there are different 6 volt batteries. The batteries for the barbie cars vary from about 9.5 amp / hr to 12 amp / hr. But there are larger amp / hr batteries.I own three cameras and had solar chargers on them all. That worked pretty well, but my cameras take a lot of pics ( from about 300 -600 per week each ) , and that will drain the batteries even with the solar chargers. One thing about the moultries, if the battery ever gets too low, even with the solar chargers, it will go to "battery low" and stop taking pictures. When the battery is charged back up from the solar chargers, it will not start taking pics again until the power switch is turned off and them back on, thus resetting the camera's internal battery meter.

One thing I did, I ordered some 6 volt, 36 amp / hourbatteries, and placed them in hard plastic water proof storage containers from walmart in the hunting / fishing section for about 9.00 each. I got somealligator clip leads from the automotive section at walmart that are about 30 inches long and cliped them to the clips inside the cameraand then to the tabs on the batteries. ( be sure to keep the clips away from each other inside the camera, I used small diameter pipe wrap, or they will sparkand can damage the camera. )

The batteries are 36 amp/hr compaired to regular 4.5 amp/hr batteries.Devide 36 by 4.5 and that number will be the multiple of how many times these batteries will last you over your regular 4.5 amp/hr batteries. Mine have gone from about 4 days with 4.5 amp/hr to about 3 weeks with 36 amp /hr batteries.

I bought my batteries on ebay, and paid 22.00 each and about 10.00 shipping each. But they have saved me a bunch of money already in gas just going out to my lease to change out the batteries. You canalso do a search for them on the net. I got the PM 6360 rechargable lead acid batteries. There is also a PS 6360 that is the same.

I also use 1 gigSD cards that I got at office depot on sale. Thay put them on sale fairly often for about 20.00 - 25.00 each.

Good luck guys.

Merry CHRISTmas and God Bless.

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

SuperRedHawk, yea i usually only go about 3 weeks max before i check my camera, and in warmer weather ive yet to have a dead battery when i checked, except for the cheapo batteries i used because i forgot my rechargable one weekend. My camera has had some problems with the SD cards, when i put a couple of them in it says SD LOCKED and it wont take any pictures, and i know its the camera cuz my buddy has the exact same cam and the cards work fine in his camera, but i got a 1 gig card for $15 from a buddy of mine that seems to work fine. If im still havin problems with the SD cards i'll send it back to moultrie to get it fixed after the bucks lose their antlers, until then i'll manage.

RE: Moultrie external battery thingy
 

you guys have any prolbems with the camera spitting the sd cards out?? i got one that won`t take any brand of card consistanly one brand will work one day and another will work the next and the first one won`t..