We recently installed two monochrome weatherproof cameras with IR illuminators in the bat house which is near the Trailfinders Lodge.
The bathouse was built of salvaged materials from an old shed that needed to be torn down for health and safety precautions. The old shed was inhabited by bats at one time. We recreated a similar habitat by using the same siding as on the original shed. The bat house is also situated near the original site of the shed.
The installation process was combined with installing the nest box #31 camera. We used the same 2 inch PVC to put the bat cams and the nest box cam wires into since the bat house was on the same route as the nest box tree.
We trenched about 100 feet and laid 2 inch PVC in the ground. We pulled 18 gauge speaker wire for power and shielded coaxial cable for the video transmission. All the wire was pulled to the base of the bat house from the laboratory.
We used a 2 inch sweep to connect the PVC in the trench with the 2 inch PVC which was mounted on the bat house pole. We joined the 2 inch PVC to a junction box where all of the excess wires and the power and video connections are made. Then we drilled four 1 inch holes in the top of the junction box; 2 extra for future cameras. 1 inch flex conduit (Liquid Tight Non-metallic Conduit) was put into two of the holes in the junction box with the appropriate connectors to make a weather tight seal. Then we ran the flex conduit into the bat house.
After we pulled the wires through all of the flex conduit, we installed the cameras and spliced the power wires from the camera to the wires we pulled through the conduit. We did the same for the video coaxial cable. The cameras were attached to the bat house by screwing in three drywall screws to the camera stand. As you can see by the picture to the right there are pre-drilled holes in the camera base which makes it easy to install. The camera has a tripod to provide multi-directional capabilities for the camera.
Both bat cameras are identical, although you will see an obvious light difference between the two cameras when you look at the quad view. This light difference appears to be a malfunction in one the cameras. The light can be corrected through our quad splitter gain control or by the Site Cam digitizer configuration controls. Site Cam is the video digitizing software which we are currently using with our webcams.
You may have noticed that the bat house is not currently being used by bats. We will be making adjustments to the width of the house to see if that provides a better habitat for the bats.
