Moultrie Trail Cam Cold Issue
Equipment
Just pulled my Moultrie Trail Cam card. It has been COLD. I had over 7500 pictures in just a few days. The camera appears to be taking pictures almost constantly due to the cold? It has been working fine under normal temps but these zero temps seem to be triggering it. Has anybody had this issue before? I have the sensitivity set high which may be the issue? Hopefully it isn't toast. It is in the field right now otherwise I'd be fooling with it.
Thanks for any input,
Lee
I have several moultrie models and none do that. I have one that takes constant pictures if batteries are at 100% in normal weather. I started using 80% batteries in it and it works really well.
I have some that do something similar when it's cold and the alkaline batteries are under 50%.......I think it has something to do with poor battery level causing the camera sensors to do weird stuff. I'd swap the batteries for new ones and see what happens....... lithium batteries help a bunch too
All of my cams are Moultries.....M-990i's and S-50i's. Had Gen II's and M-999i's also. You didn't say what model you have and old it is.
My 2 cents....
1. Go to the Moultrie website and verify your firmware is up to date. Open the "Customer Service" tab, then scroll down to "Firmware FAQ's". If it is out of date, you download the latest firmware update to your SD card from the website and then put the SD card in the cam. Go to the "Firmware Update" section in the cam's menu and select "Yes" when it asks you yes or no. It should update automatically. There are instructions on the Moultrie website on how to do it.
2. Unless you're in a wide open area like an ag field, turn your PIR sensitivity down to low.
3. Confirm nothing is in front of the PIR sensor, out to 115 degrees I think it is.....such as grass, limbs, leaves, bushes, etc. If it gets windy they will move and set off the cam...especially with the PIR set to high.
4. Confirm there are not flying insects, spiders, etc hanging around the front of the cam. I've had spiders and ant's set off my cam.
5. Do not have the cam facing the sun.
6. It's possible big snow flakes are setting off the cam if they land on the front of it and set to high PIR sensitivity.
7. You have the cam in the wrong setting. I only take vids with mine. You may have one of the multi-pic settings set??
8. Moultrie may have you do a cold reboot of the cam. Customer service will tell you how to do it. If none of this fixes the problem, call their customer service. If you had the cam less than two years it's still under warranty. Call them up and see what they say.
The camera is one of the older HD blackouts. I've had it out all fall with lithium ion batteries. Still shows good battery level. It is on the shortest delay with 3 shot bursts and is not on the timelapse setting. Only difference is the zero temps. My other moultrie - same model and settings - is not doing it. I'll check the firmware updates. Thx
I set mine to 1 minute delay and 30 second vids. I get more info from a vid than a pic.
JL - just curious about the video vs. the pics - I have never tried the video - what more are you getting out of it?
Thx Lee
Appreciate the reaponses
I had a camera do this when the sensor cover was cut out. Might just be a malfunctioning trigger sensor. How old is the camera?
I have this issue with some cams in the 100 degree heat. Always seem to work good when really cold.
Does it stop the constant taking of pictures once night falls? If so, then you definitely want to reduce the sensitivity setting. If not, and it still takes too many pictures even at night, then something else is wrong.
Could also be just a limb or grass blowing in the wind. It’s been fairly windy this fall and winter.
At night as well - been in the same spot for awhile with no issues til it got really cold - it is prob 4 years old
I just had my GM-80xt gen2 out in -20 degree weather and it didn't have the photo dump like described above. But it did cause some of the picture to be green tinted, which I assume are due to the extreme cold reducing the battery output (I only had alkaline batteries installed).
Green or pink tinted in daytime.....the filter arm is getting stuck.
Lee, This is my perspective. The reasons I do vids is it will confirm to me the time and direction the subject is entering and departing, identifiable features, number of points, the behavior (dom or sub), is a buck(s) staying with a particular doe, other critters walking in the background a pic might not pick up, sounds, etc. The negative is you will go thru batteries if you have the cam over a bait pile or bait plot. You can mitigate that some by how you set the cam and still get informative vids. The new S-50i takes 12 batteries and will go thru them. However you can get a Moultrie 12v solar panel and save your batteries. Any Moultrie cam 2007 and newer will accept the solar panel. I keep and file most of my vids to track what is out there. I put many on Youtube to share with buddies.
Thanks - went out and set it to video, put it on auto sensitivity as well. Will see if that helps!
Thanks,
Lee
I have quite a few moultrees the all go crazy when it gets cold u get to look at a whole lot of nothing.
In my experience, if a cam has a weak link, the cold weather will bring it out. If it makes it thru a cold winter, that is a good thing.
I have several moultries, first thing I always do if I notice an issue is a hard reset. Pull the batteries for a couple of days. That has solved a few problems. And yes, check to see if they have any firmwear updates.
