Holy smoke, I admire your work on the Brownings. Unfortunately, I don't understand anything about these technical circuits, but I'm glad that there are colleagues who not only know about them, but also repair or improve the technology. Unfortunately, I have the feeling that Browning no longer implements many innovations. The manufacturers from Shenzhen are much more innovative. Thank you for your work. best wishes from Germany
I would tend to agree that there has been a lack of focus on major new innovations in most trail camera lines. Features have become commonly available; trigger speeds are approaching a minimum under the current trail camera architecture; and image/video/audio quality are pretty good. Trail camera manufacturers seem to be shifting engineering investment over to cellular cameras, a move which promises a recurring revenue model for them, but is largely irrelevant to us due to lack of cell coverage where we typically deploy cameras. If there were one innovation I’d like to see @BrowningTrailCameras pursue, it would improving video and image quality. A relatively easy step would be to upgrade to the newer 1/2.7” format Sony StarVIS sensor. Per the spec, this sensor is about twice as sensitive to light as the version in their current Advantage/SpecOps line. A more radical step would be to go to a larger format sensor and lens. This would, of course, cost more to manufacture, and therefore might command a premium price. I’d market it as the “Premium Image Quality” line. Appreciate the comment!
Awesome work!! Way to figure it out and fix it! I just sent a RF Advantage back to Browning with what I thought was a simple fix, the live view in the view screen would not turn off after the 30 second activation countdown. A few days later I got a package back from them with a note saying the camera could not be repaired. Instead of the RF Advantage inside, there was a new RF HP4.
Thanks! I did not mention in this video, but this repair was by no means cost effective :) I compressed (and heavily) edited about 20 hours of head scratching and a few (more) dead ends before I finally figured out what was wrong. And, as I did note, I was lucky that the fix was relatively easy/possible. This explains why trail camera repair (and electronics repair in general) is not a viable standalone business model. Browning, of course, has other resource, and incentive to keep their customers happy. Still, even for them, it makes far more economic sense to replace a broken camera than to attempt repair. It's a hard problem, but I do think it would be worth their while for @BrowningTrailCameras to improve the resistance of their cameras to water incursion. This seems to be at the root of many failures (like this one). We have found that we can reduce the likelihood of camera failure by keeping liquid water off our cameras by always deploying them in security boxes. You probably do the same thing...
That's amazing! I admire your knowledge. Thank you very much for sharing this. A request that seems easier that this for your: do you believe it's possible to detach the PIR sensor for the camera and connect it with cables? That would allow to set the sensor in a different orientation than the lens and would open interesting new photographic possibilities.
Good to hear from you! You’re the second person in the last month to ask for something similar - a way to trigger a standard trail camera remotely. He was looking to include a break beam sensor, but the problem is largely the same. My thought on such a system would be to use a pair of low voltage incandescent bulbs, placed next to each other in front of the PIR sensor of a regular trail camera. On a trigger event from a wireless receiver, a small microprocessor would set the two bulbs blinking alternately, left and right. This would create the “moving heat” necessary to trigger the camera (I’m pretty sure, though I haven’t tried). A separate wireless transmitter, either connected to on a PIR sensor, or a breakbeam sensor (or whatever) would serve as a trigger (or triggers). I’m swamped right now, but if you, or anyone else would like to pursue this type of solution, I’m happy to consult via email. Let me know. [I would not recommend trying to connect a wire to the PIR sensor in the camera. Too much variation in the PIR sensors between cameras. Also, I don’t like the idea of managing a cable in the field]
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Holy smoke, I admire your work on the Brownings. Unfortunately, I don't understand anything about these technical circuits, but I'm glad that there are colleagues who not only know about them, but also repair or improve the technology.
Unfortunately, I have the feeling that Browning no longer implements many innovations. The manufacturers from Shenzhen are much more innovative.
Thank you for your work.
best wishes from Germany
I would tend to agree that there has been a lack of focus on major new innovations in most trail camera lines. Features have become commonly available; trigger speeds are approaching a minimum under the current trail camera architecture; and image/video/audio quality are pretty good. Trail camera manufacturers seem to be shifting engineering investment over to cellular cameras, a move which promises a recurring revenue model for them, but is largely irrelevant to us due to lack of cell coverage where we typically deploy cameras.
If there were one innovation I’d like to see @BrowningTrailCameras pursue, it would improving video and image quality. A relatively easy step would be to upgrade to the newer 1/2.7” format Sony StarVIS sensor. Per the spec, this sensor is about twice as sensitive to light as the version in their current Advantage/SpecOps line. A more radical step would be to go to a larger format sensor and lens. This would, of course, cost more to manufacture, and therefore might command a premium price. I’d market it as the “Premium Image Quality” line.
Appreciate the comment!
Awesome work!! Way to figure it out and fix it!
I just sent a RF Advantage back to Browning with what I thought was a simple fix, the live view in the view screen would not turn off after the 30 second activation countdown. A few days later I got a package back from them with a note saying the camera could not be repaired. Instead of the RF Advantage inside, there was a new RF HP4.
Thanks! I did not mention in this video, but this repair was by no means cost effective :) I compressed (and heavily) edited about 20 hours of head scratching and a few (more) dead ends before I finally figured out what was wrong. And, as I did note, I was lucky that the fix was relatively easy/possible. This explains why trail camera repair (and electronics repair in general) is not a viable standalone business model. Browning, of course, has other resource, and incentive to keep their customers happy. Still, even for them, it makes far more economic sense to replace a broken camera than to attempt repair.
It's a hard problem, but I do think it would be worth their while for @BrowningTrailCameras to improve the resistance of their cameras to water incursion. This seems to be at the root of many failures (like this one). We have found that we can reduce the likelihood of camera failure by keeping liquid water off our cameras by always deploying them in security boxes. You probably do the same thing...
That's amazing! I admire your knowledge. Thank you very much for sharing this. A request that seems easier that this for your: do you believe it's possible to detach the PIR sensor for the camera and connect it with cables? That would allow to set the sensor in a different orientation than the lens and would open interesting new photographic possibilities.
Good to hear from you! You’re the second person in the last month to ask for something similar - a way to trigger a standard trail camera remotely. He was looking to include a break beam sensor, but the problem is largely the same.
My thought on such a system would be to use a pair of low voltage incandescent bulbs, placed next to each other in front of the PIR sensor of a regular trail camera. On a trigger event from a wireless receiver, a small microprocessor would set the two bulbs blinking alternately, left and right. This would create the “moving heat” necessary to trigger the camera (I’m pretty sure, though I haven’t tried).
A separate wireless transmitter, either connected to on a PIR sensor, or a breakbeam sensor (or whatever) would serve as a trigger (or triggers).
I’m swamped right now, but if you, or anyone else would like to pursue this type of solution, I’m happy to consult via email. Let me know.
[I would not recommend trying to connect a wire to the PIR sensor in the camera. Too much variation in the PIR sensors between cameras. Also, I don’t like the idea of managing a cable in the field]