alwayslookin
Senior Member
Wire from camera to batteries came off, is this just a single wire that goes across the battery box poles? It almost looks like 2 wires in one sheath.
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Trail cam repair
- Thread starter alwayslookin
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Gadestroyer74
Banned
If you got a soldering iron real easy to repair that .. just put them back where they where. If you can splice on the wires you may can use a heat shrink marine grade but connector if there is enough room. I doubt that will work though . Best bet is to re solder it
alwayslookin
Senior Member
I'll borrow one and solder it back but it looks like just one wire, that's where I got confused, figured there'd be a positive and negative
Gadestroyer74
Banned
It looks to me like there is a red and a black wire ? Connecting to a battery tray it should be a power and a ground wire that is coming from the camera going to that battery tray.unless I am seeing things here I see two wires a red one and a black one coming from the camera
alwayslookin
Senior Member
It's only one wire but inside the sheath, when I stripped it, it looks like two - a bare wire and a black looking wire but maybe the sheath melted or something and the wire just looks black in that section. I stripped it back a littler further and it still looks black tho.
Tight Lines
Senior Member
Batteries are DC and will be wired in some combination of series and parallel depending on the voltage requirements of the camera. There has to be an "in" and an "out" on the camera so those two wires are probably it. Can you tell if there is another wire soldered to the battery cage?
Tight Lines
Senior Member
@alwayslookin If this Bushnell does not have a battery pack (it appears to not), then it will have a positive and a negative running to the battery cage. The metal stringers that are on the top and the bottom of the cage tie all of the batteries together and then it should have a (+) and a (-) to the controls of the camera from those stringers or metal extensions somewhere. So my guess is that those two wires were soldered onto the stringers on the cage in two places. There has to be a closed loop with a +/-.
alwayslookin
Senior Member
The wires were broke off the battery cage but they looked to have been soldered on to the poles (circled) at the top of the cage but I couldn't tell what went where. There is only one wire coming from the camera but inside the sheath looks like 2. If there were 2 wires coming from the camera I would figure + and - on poles just like a typical electrical connection.
Gadestroyer74
Banned
If you have a multimeter you can put battery’s in the tray and determine which is power and ground that way for the tray. As far as the can I would guess here that black is ground
Tight Lines
Senior Member
I was going to reply and draw circles around those two solder connections. That's likely your in and out and as @Gadestroyer74 said if you can put batteries in and a multi meter you can tell which post should be positive and negative. Actually, you don't even need to do that likely...the battery nearest each solder connection is probably the current direction based on which end of the battery is closest. So if the battery near the lower one is negative facing and the other one is positive facing, then you have your answer...that's your current flow. And then you put the red on the positive and the negative is black.
Tight Lines
Senior Member
It's very common to have a positive and a negative inside the sheath by the way on a trail camera...keeps the internal wires from moving around and being damaged as much...cheaper too...
alwayslookin
Senior Member
10-4, makes sense. Didn't realize the 2 wires could be together like that in the same sheath.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Tight Lines
Senior Member
What model Bushnell is that?
alwayslookin
Senior Member
Pretty sure it's this one - Bushnell 16MP Trophy Cam HD Essential E3 Trail Camera
Tight Lines
Senior Member
If that's it, then the lower left is positive and the bottom right is negative...it's a serpentine from lower right to lower left...see how the batteries are inserted?
https://www.bushnell.com/on/demandware.static/Sites-HuntShootAccessories-Site/Library-Sites-HuntShootAccessoriesSharedLibrary/-/productPdfFiles/bushnellPdf/Product Manuals/Trail-Cameras/PDF/119676C_119677C_119678C_TrophyCamHD_1LIM_US-only_052014_web.pdf
https://www.bushnell.com/on/demandware.static/Sites-HuntShootAccessories-Site/Library-Sites-HuntShootAccessoriesSharedLibrary/-/productPdfFiles/bushnellPdf/Product Manuals/Trail-Cameras/PDF/119676C_119677C_119678C_TrophyCamHD_1LIM_US-only_052014_web.pdf
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Tight Lines
Senior Member
By the way get two alligator clips and load the batteries in, then clip it on the two solder joints the way you think it goes...if it will power on you got it, it won't swap them and try again. There are only 2 ways with a DC circuit. The wrong way won't hurt the camera like it can on AC.
alwayslookin
Senior Member
I might have some time tonight to mess with it. Thanks again for the help.
Gadestroyer74
Banned
Good idea and advice
