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So annoying

BluesBlues Posts: 49
in Wildlife gardening
We are lucky to get Blue Tits visiting our nest box every year, so this year I installed a "Green Feathers" wireless camera and used an old TV as a monitor. It worked okay, even at night the pictures were very good. We watched a couple of Blue Tits go through the breading cycle right up until a couple of days ago when the female seemed distracted by the camera, something she's not shown interest in before. I thought the camera may have developed a noise as its been running non stop since they first started building. I decided to turn the camera off at night and after the second night the TV showed "no signal" so I thought I'd renew the fuse in the plug feeding the camera. The plug turned out to have a built in transistor  (I think that's what its called) anyway I checked there was 8volts supply to the camera so it looks like the camera has packed up unless you know of a quick fix there's no way I can replace the camera without taking the box down. Its so annoying because in another day or two the chicks will be ready to fledge and this is the one part we didn't want to miss.   

Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I can't imagine a plug with a built-in transistor.
    Might it be a transformer? which takes the mains voltage down from 240v to 8v for the camera. If you're getting 8v at the output, that sounds about right.
    There are no moving parts in the camera so a noise is unlikely, unless some part has burnt out - which is unlikely too.
    I don't think there's much you can do at this stage other than wait until they've fledged then take it out and see what you can find.

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • Winston_The_Gravity_ManWinston_The_Gravity_Man Posts: 263
    I'm guessing, @Blues, you checked there was 8V at the output of the plug end, not at the camera end ?  What I mean is you didn't shin-up to the nest box, unplug the power leaf from the camera, and check for 8V at that end ?  Rather you unplugged the lead from the transformer plug and measured it at that 'house-end'. If that's what you did then it's just worth checking that the power lead hasn't been chopped somewhere along it's length.  

    If it looks okay and you're really desperate to try to find the fault then do this : 
    Cut the supply wire half-way along it's length and test for 8V at the cut.  If there's 8V there then you know the wire was okay to that point so if there's a break it's towards the nest box, if no 8V you know it's closer to the house.  So, remake the cut wires with insulating tape and depending on which direction you've established the break to be, again cut and test the wire half way between the first cut and either the house end or the bird box end.  Keep going like this until you either find the break or you get too close for comfort to the nest box.

    This is, by the way, a very well known technique called 'split-half testing'.  Only for use on low-voltage equipment and wiring, obviously 🙂
    When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
  • Winston_The_Gravity_ManWinston_The_Gravity_Man Posts: 263
    You didn't turn off the camera's receiver box at the tv end and forget to turn it on again, did you ?  I'm not trying to teach my granny to suck lemons, honestly, it's just that many years of electronics fault finding has taught me that 90% of the time, problems with electronics come down to 'finger trouble' i.e. human interference.
    When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
  • BluesBlues Posts: 49
    Pete.8 said:
    I can't imagine a plug with a built-in transistor.
    Might it be a transformer? 
    Gotcha, I knew it was a trans something or other, there's so many of them about these days never sure which is which. :
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340

    🤣


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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