Hello my fellow members,
I have several Reconyx trail cameras that are broken and I am hoping someone can help me with. They cost around $600,- per camera and I am not able to send them out for warranty. These cameras are used to capture photos of wildlife (jaguars, tapir, etc.) and are subjected to the outside tropical climate in Suriname all year round (they are of course built for this). They use an infrared sensor to detect movement and warmth and make several photos upon triggering. During day they capture color photos and during night/low light they capture black/white photos with the help of an infrared flash. Some cameras (of varying age and time-in-field) have developed problems. I will try to describe them as clear as possible below. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am not an electronics guy. I have never soldered before but I have been doing some research and wouldn't mind trying it out if the fix is something doable and I also have some old circuit boards I could practice on. At the moment I have a multimeter and the more common tools such as screwdrivers. If you could point me in the right direction as to what I should be looking for as possible defective component or try to replace that would be awesome. There are two models of camera, they are pictured below.
Model 1:
Model 2:
Now on to the problems:
1. The particular two cameras pictured above are not powering on. More specifically, it seems that the boards are not drawing any power. The boards are powered by 12 NiMH AA batteries. The power cable is able to power other boards, so the problem must lie with some component on the boards themselves. Which components could be causing the problem and do you think it is fixable? Can I visually inspect for defects are test anything with my multimeter?
2. Normally when the camera powers on, the display shows reading card and then the percent full (of SD card) and percent battery left. Several cameras show reading card and the "ERROR no light meter". The display doesn't go past this point. One of the cameras first showed SD card write lock or insert card error (while the card was inserted and was not locked) and when that was resolved (I have always been able to resolve write lock errors by reinserting the card or blowing air into the slot) showed the "ERROR no light meter". Because of this I was thinking maybe the "ERROR no light meter" could have something to do with the SD card slot although light meter doesn't sound like anything card related... Does anyone have any idea what this error is about and possibly how to fix it?
3. One camera when powering on shows reading camera and then flashes Reconyx on the display, goes back to reading camera and flashes Reconyx again. Keeps doing this over and over. Any ideas on this?
4. On one of the cameras, the functions of the > button and the OK button seem to have fused. If I press the > button, the input that is received is "go right and thereafter press OK". Likewise, if I press the OK button, the input that is received is "go right and thereafter press OK". Any ideas what is wrong and how to fix it? As you may have noticed by now there are more cameras so if I need to do any replacements I could also salvage from another broken camera.
5. One camera only displays numbers that keep adding up no matter which button I press. I think the numbers are also not displayed fully e.g. just some lines or pixels of the display are shown. Another camera only displays lines on the display. I thought about a display replacement for these but have no idea if it would work and if it is possible or easy to do.
6. One of the cameras has a weak flash resulting in badly lit or completely black night photos. I have tried replacing the led board but that did not fix the problem. I thought one of the capacitors may be weak/bad so I tried to get a voltage measurement with my multimeter on the two capacitor leads (where it makes contact with the board) but am not getting a reading. I probably am doing this wrong and maybe not even measuring the right capacitors?? Any help how to do this and other ideas I would appreciate very much. Oh I am posting part of this particular board down below as I can see some white stuff on some of the components (R92, R85, R93, C74 between them, etc.). What is this stuff and could it be causing problems?
Thanks for reading through my lengthy post and if you could help me even repair one of these cameras I would be soooo grateful!
I have several Reconyx trail cameras that are broken and I am hoping someone can help me with. They cost around $600,- per camera and I am not able to send them out for warranty. These cameras are used to capture photos of wildlife (jaguars, tapir, etc.) and are subjected to the outside tropical climate in Suriname all year round (they are of course built for this). They use an infrared sensor to detect movement and warmth and make several photos upon triggering. During day they capture color photos and during night/low light they capture black/white photos with the help of an infrared flash. Some cameras (of varying age and time-in-field) have developed problems. I will try to describe them as clear as possible below. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am not an electronics guy. I have never soldered before but I have been doing some research and wouldn't mind trying it out if the fix is something doable and I also have some old circuit boards I could practice on. At the moment I have a multimeter and the more common tools such as screwdrivers. If you could point me in the right direction as to what I should be looking for as possible defective component or try to replace that would be awesome. There are two models of camera, they are pictured below.
Model 1:
Model 2:
Now on to the problems:
1. The particular two cameras pictured above are not powering on. More specifically, it seems that the boards are not drawing any power. The boards are powered by 12 NiMH AA batteries. The power cable is able to power other boards, so the problem must lie with some component on the boards themselves. Which components could be causing the problem and do you think it is fixable? Can I visually inspect for defects are test anything with my multimeter?
2. Normally when the camera powers on, the display shows reading card and then the percent full (of SD card) and percent battery left. Several cameras show reading card and the "ERROR no light meter". The display doesn't go past this point. One of the cameras first showed SD card write lock or insert card error (while the card was inserted and was not locked) and when that was resolved (I have always been able to resolve write lock errors by reinserting the card or blowing air into the slot) showed the "ERROR no light meter". Because of this I was thinking maybe the "ERROR no light meter" could have something to do with the SD card slot although light meter doesn't sound like anything card related... Does anyone have any idea what this error is about and possibly how to fix it?
3. One camera when powering on shows reading camera and then flashes Reconyx on the display, goes back to reading camera and flashes Reconyx again. Keeps doing this over and over. Any ideas on this?
4. On one of the cameras, the functions of the > button and the OK button seem to have fused. If I press the > button, the input that is received is "go right and thereafter press OK". Likewise, if I press the OK button, the input that is received is "go right and thereafter press OK". Any ideas what is wrong and how to fix it? As you may have noticed by now there are more cameras so if I need to do any replacements I could also salvage from another broken camera.
5. One camera only displays numbers that keep adding up no matter which button I press. I think the numbers are also not displayed fully e.g. just some lines or pixels of the display are shown. Another camera only displays lines on the display. I thought about a display replacement for these but have no idea if it would work and if it is possible or easy to do.
6. One of the cameras has a weak flash resulting in badly lit or completely black night photos. I have tried replacing the led board but that did not fix the problem. I thought one of the capacitors may be weak/bad so I tried to get a voltage measurement with my multimeter on the two capacitor leads (where it makes contact with the board) but am not getting a reading. I probably am doing this wrong and maybe not even measuring the right capacitors?? Any help how to do this and other ideas I would appreciate very much. Oh I am posting part of this particular board down below as I can see some white stuff on some of the components (R92, R85, R93, C74 between them, etc.). What is this stuff and could it be causing problems?
Thanks for reading through my lengthy post and if you could help me even repair one of these cameras I would be soooo grateful!
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