Covert Camera Question

Has anyone successfully set them up to upload to a photobucket account rather than texting them? photobucket has a email address that you can email photos to that email address and they upload to your photobucket account.

Never done that, I just take any pic I want from my phone and upload it via app. There would be an awful lot of pics uploaded if I set it up the way you are asking about.

it's the same number that would get sent to your phone. I'm trying to find a way other than texting pics to a phone to receive all the pictures in a manageable format. I have five of them, so texting pics from five camera's is out! Opening individual emails and clicking on each attachment is out too!

Download the gmail app. Create one new email address and have all 5 cams send it to that email. Set up the gmail app with that address instead of adding the email to the regular mail app for your phone. . That way you keep all your personal/work emails separate from your game cam. You can set alerts/badges to notify you of emails recieved by the gmail app.

i did and it worked well. my intent was to use that for viewing/archival but i also wanted notification so i set two email addresses. i inquired to covert if this was one mms message sent and they said it was however i found that not to be the case. each email address created a separate mms message eating into my plan and burning batteries sooner, etc. so i dropped the idea. i should have checked to see if photobucket could notify me of new incoming photo so i could just point to it. glad i saw this topic, i am going to revisit it. i always knew i had a genius idea when i came up with it!

so i ended up just setting the photobucket management email address as a unique one and monitor that on the phone. then i know when i get email there i have a pic. this way i can better archive photos. it is a pain in the a$$ in my email. i can only imagine with 5 of those things. of course for you it would be nice if each camera could email to a specific folder on photobucket to keep them organized.

don't recall if you can set a default title for outgoing picture but if you can here you go if you so desire.


An album of your choice. *Please note that this is only available if you upload via email.* To upload to a specific album, put your chosen album’s title in the subject line of the email and then attach your photo or video mobile upload.

I've got 4 coverts in the field and what to do with the pics can been a major management issue. I've backed all of my times to pic to 4 min. That has helped...but still getting 200 pics a day. Finally rationalized the time to mess with them beats the heck out of driving out and back to the lease.

anyone here have the solar panel charger for the battery? if so did you get the one made by covert or did you "build" your own?

I've got both. Just make sure you use a 6 volt solar cell

can you tell me what you did for the adapter connecting to the camera?

I built my own. Used a 5" x 8' treated post and mounted the 40 watt solar panel up top, facing South. Mounted my Covert 3G below it facing West to the feeder, then mounted a fat 50 ammo box lower down to hold 4 12v 9AH UPS batteries. Wired it all up and tested it. It is now deployed and works perfectly. BTW, this is v2.0, as v1.0 failed miserably.

The cam is 6v, the solar system makes 12v, so I bought a 12 to 6 volt converter cable from Covert for 15 bucks. I also mounted the camera in a bear box to facilitate secure mounting.

You may not need this much power at your site. I plan to power my feeder, hog light and power winch for my winch up feeder all from this solar panel installation.

where/what did you get to tie into the camera with? it is a female barrel type plug no?

Yeah, I think it's a 3.5mm power plug with positive on the inside. The 6 to 12 volt adapter fits most cams I bet, it fits both of mine, the other is not a Covert. The cams are 6volt, so you gotta pay attention. My v1.0 setup was a 6v solar panel and one 6v feeder battery, it failed after about 6 weeks.

The solar panel comes with a controller module, so you tie the panel to it's place, the wire the batteries to their connection, and finally wire the camera cable to the 'load' connections, and the controller does the rest. Indicators will confirm that all is well. My covert sends pics every two minutes and the battery level is always 9.

Here's the link to the cable -

click

If you're going to make your own get a 6 volt solar cell. A 12 volt will burn your camera up and I wouldn't trust any adapters. If you're handy....pick up some 2 conductor cable about #20 and a radio shack power plug (Catalog #: 2741567 or 2741568) don't remember which one. Solder or crimp it onto the cable. Make sure you check the polarity. You will then be able to connect to the camera. If you don't want to tackle the DYI stuff buy your cable online. Here's a good source http://www.custom1enterprises.com/custom1enterprises_017.htm

thanks. for the info Cast. i did not know Covert sold the cable only. i thought i had looked and only found the whole setup. i will order two of those. i bought what i thought would work - the HCO panel/battery but it had a male cable. do you know why your 6v setup failed?

appreciate the info!

It stayed at 9 for a few weeks, then started backing off and at 5, it finally died. It sulfated the battery on close examination. That means the cam used more power than the system could make and it drew the battery down beyond it's ability to recharge. I built my new solar panel to be big enough to power the whole site, at least my hog light and my power winch. The feeder has it's own 12v solar panel which seems to be holding up fine, but if it dies, I will have a permanent low maintenance power supply there for it.

Here it is in test mode - [img:center][/img]

and now deployed - [img:center][/img]

you made sure that thing wasn't going anywhere! nice!

That white duct tape is 24" up. We almost made it 2' down, but it's the Throck, nobody really knows what's down there...

Check out the Hog Light - [img:center][/img]

It's currently running on C batteries, since this pic, it has gone dead, hence the desire to add it to the system. I gotta rent a trencher...