DIY Wireless Target Cam - How To!

[gauchoand]

Thought Id share a project I’ve been working on:

Started trying to get into longer range shooting and load development was always a hassle so decided I wanted a target cam. After exploring a couple options and not wanting to spend a fortune. After finding someone else who did I decided I could build my own at slightly less than a fortune after figuring it all out. I purchased the basic setup he did but found it wasn’t good enough to see bullet holes in paper but would work to see if you hit steel. This one will see the holes and preliminary testing has it out to roughly 600 YARDS. I made some upgrades here. So, here it is for anyone else wanting the same thing.

 

This setup requires an android phone you would have to change the receiver to an iphone one.

 

Links to all parts: ( Mandatory I don’t make money off these if they cant be here let me know)

Fans: $13.50

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072L3WC22/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 

Lens: 13.00

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CK5X2X2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Camera and transmitter: $26.99

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N48QUIP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Power connector: $9.09

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C7VSRBG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Battery: $26.0

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MHNQIR2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Antennas: $10.0

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LGM2U0E/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Android receiver: $25

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081C2T7X9/ref=dp_cerb_2

Hard drive case had laying around house and misc small machine scres maybe another $10

Total cost figured for what end product is roughly $130

Again I over built mine with fans and upgraded antennas that might not be necessary so theres room to shave costs.

[gauchoand]

After the time put into figuring it out it really just wanted it to be simple; now just requires connecting some wires then figuring out a way to house it all. The wiring is basically connecting the red and black together.

ALL the Parts:

 

The layout after trying the parts out and making sure they were all compatible, I felt that the transmitter ran hot so added fans to the case to help cool it all. 

 

At this point it was just drilling holes and screwing stuff to the case. Battery is actually held in place by two screws so it doesnt slide around, it can be removed for charging. All these are 12v so it was easy to just solder them together at one point and then heat shrink the connection to insulate it. If the connections touch it shorts the battery and has to be turned on again.

Final

 

Still trying to decide if I should add piano hinge or something to bottom at this point using rubber bands.

I additionally found a small tripod to mount it to which is why I went with a rigid case. Ive modified the tripod where it will screw to hole in bottom of case.

Antenna is removeable and the whole thing tripod, camera, and charger fits into an ammo can.

Preliminary results:

Ill be taking it out to do some more testing hopefully this weekend.

Hopefully more pics to come.

[gauchoand]

So the whole set up connects wirelessly to my phone, This is all drone tech so actually has a huge support base all we have done is convert it for our purpose.

 

The software that this runs off is a free app called GO FPV, The moment you plug in the receiver it opens it for me. (caution you have to kinda ensure that the receiver is the one for your phone) Samsung phones note 5 and 9 here. The app is really intuitive and you can film on the phone with it.

 

UPDATE from first time in field.

I see no major hickups with the setup and is functional as it sits. But, Im a perpetual tinkerer so I will play with it more... forever. Also, ran out of line of site places to test it in town.It may well go farther and I believe it’ll be good to over 1K yards.

 

Tested it only as line of site. As thats what we shoot anyways. Pics show the distance through rangefinder to the stop sign looking at the pics you see the power pole to left. The camera is sitting across the street at the base of that pole. So maybe an additional 15 to 20 yards stop sign was only thing reflective enough. Last is screen shot of pic. So at this point no power settings on the transmitter or channel have been changed just wanted to see how far itd go and was running out of time to test.

 

 

 

 

Note on camera picture quality this is because of the way I mounted it the lens is whats holding it on so it is not fully screwed into camera, This is next thing I’ll be changing and the color and clarity will clean up a lot. It was so easy to mount this way but it wont be hard to change. 

Then once I get to ill work in frequencies and power settings on the camera. That should get me over 1k easy.

Last thing I want to do is slim down the size to make it less likely to be hit. Ill likely go to external battery and should be able to fit the whole thing into a package not much bigger than my wallet.

 

[Couzer]

Following 😊

[CouesPursuit]

50 minutes ago, Vowell said:

Following 😊

+1

Thanks for the thread!

[bigorange]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.