1. Hi Bob

   Great work! I am loving the new features in your software provides.
   I sometimes cover a location with two trail cameras and set the second camera to Capture Timer for daylight only videos. With the new feature to turn off the flash as needed, will the camera continue to be triggered and also record ? For some animals, especially deer, two cameras flashing might be too much of an ask. Also I find the light coming from two sources looks somehow too artificial.

   Reply ↓

   • Thanks!

     I think the new IR flash power setting (“Off”) will do what you want. Instead of setting capture timer for daylight only photos, you can set them both to operate all the time, but turn the IR flash off in one. Each camera will take an image from its own perspective, but the flash will only be active in one. This can be useful, as you say, to avoid the “look” and animal perception of two flashes, but it will also prevent red-eye in the non-flash camera (assuming enough angular separation between the cameras and the target).

     Of course, the PIR sensors are not perfect, so you may get cases where one camera triggers earlier, or later, or not at all relative to the other camera. In addition to the shots you want, you may thus miss the “no-red-eye” photo (non-flash camera doesn’t trigger), or you may get a black image (flash camera doesn’t trigger).

     Ideally, for these multi-camera sets, the triggers would be synchronized. If any camera in the ensemble triggered, they all would at the same time. I know how I would do this, but unfortunately, it’s not a firmware fix 🙁

     If you post pictures/videos from a “half-flash” set, send us a pointer!

     Reply ↓

2. I just set up the dual camera set, and I will post a few clips when I get them.

   “I know how I would do this, but unfortunately, it’s not a firmware fix 🙁”

   Could you elaborate on this? That, i think would be ideal.

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   • I would be to start with a camera hardware platform with built-in wireless. Probably BlueTooth. Then I would build a user interface which would allow me to group a number of cameras into an “ensemble.” If any camera in the ensemble triggered, it would send a wireless trigger to all the other cameras in the ensemble, causing them all to trigger. To the best of my knowledge, the Spec Ops and Recon Force cameras I’ve been working on don’t have hardware support for wireless comms. Cellular cameras are closer, but Cellular wireless is not quite what you want due to it’s high latency and lack of peer-to-peer support.

     The ideal hardware platform for this type of trail camera would be a smart phone. This is more the direction of my next project.

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3. Pingback:New Optional Features for Browning HP5 Trail Cameras - Winterberry Wildlife

4. Bob,
   I have a Browning Recon Force Edge camera BTC-7E. I downloaded brubtc71.BRN which I copied to SD card and attempted FM upgrade as per your instructions. In the camera menu for firmware upgrade, “yes” will not highlight. Only “no” remains highlighted. Can you suggest a solution?
   Thanks for your efforts to improve trail camera technology. Removal of the 20 second limit on night time video will surely be valuable as I have male mountain lion regularly marking territory on my property.
   Bob Brewer

   Reply ↓

   • Hmm – I will take a look at this. When did you buy your Edge? And what’s the version of Browning firmware? (It may take me a few days, even a week to to get this — I literally just started unpacking the lab into our new house yesterday. And then there’s the rest of the house 🙂 — but I’ll get to it)

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   • Sorry to be so long getting to this reply. We moved across country, and then it took me a while to work through a bug list. The BTC-7E (Recon Force Edge) should take an image named, “brnbtc70.BRN” (the “brnbtc71.BRN” image is for the Elite HP4). Current, tested to the best of my ability, firmware can be found at: https://github.com/robertzak133/unified-btc-reverse

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     • Hello Bob,

       Thanks for these firmware updates. Colin Croft from NE pointed me your way. I seem to have the same issue Bob Brewer mentioned. I have a Browning Recon Force Edge camera, the BTC-7E. I was able to download a firmware file from Browning with the same name: brnbtc71.BRN and install it successfully. But for some reason I can’t install your firmware update with the same name. Like Bob Brewer, I’m not able to toggle from NO to Yes on the menu screen. Any ideas?

       Reply ↓

     • Correction: The firmware file is brnbtc70.BRN not brnbtc71.BRN. That was a typing error.

       Reply ↓

5. Hi Bob. Thanks for the firmware updates. I downloaded your 07.07.23 update for the BTC-8E-HP4 model. I was most interested in the night time video. The night time video duration can now be increased, but all of my night time videos are solid black. I also noticed photo delay had two 20 second options. Please help.

   Reply ↓

   • Bummer. Can you verify the the “IR Flash power” is not set to “Off”? This is a new setting that allows the camera to be used with auxiliary lighting. This would cause the behavior you’re seeing. Also check that “Daytime Threshold” is set to “standard” or “low” light” (and not “No Light”). If neither of these is the problem, it sounds like a bug 🙁 . Per earlier comment, we’re in the process of moving to a new house, so so it will be a few days at least before I’ll be able to get to this. If you need to use your camera before then, your best bet is to reload the factory firmware image (also on the GitHub site).

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     • Hey Bob. I verified that the IR Flash power is set to economy and that the Daytime Threshold was set to standard. It’s still showing black videos. I did switch it back to the factory firmware and it seems to be working.

       Enjoy your new house, the factory firmware should work in the meantime.

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       • Thanks for gathering this information. Definitely a bug 🙁 I’ll get to it ASAP. Appreciate your patience.

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         • I believe this is fixed in the firmware I just released. Let me know if it isn’t. https://github.com/robertzak133/unified-btc-reverse

   • I believe I have fixed this bug in the current firmware released 9-22-23. Let me know if I’m wrong. https://github.com/robertzak133/unified-btc-reverse

     Reply ↓

6. Hi Bob,

   Thank you for your custom firmware. I’ve just installed 9-22-23 on a BTC-7E-HP4 and it all appears to work well. I particularly appreciate the new Night Video Limit and Night Threshold options that you have been able to add. Very useful.

   Regards,

   Adrian

   Reply ↓

   • Glad it’s working for you. Make sure to tag me on any posts you make using the Night Threshold (I think I called it “Day Threshold” — but I confess I can’t keep it straight — in any case, the setting that allows color images at lower light levels). I’m interested to see what sorts of images you get.

     Reply ↓

7. Pingback:GardePro T5WF (White Flash) Trail Camera - Winterberry Wildlife

8. Hello Bob,

   Per my comment on your Youtube video “Adding New Features for Browning HP5 Trail Cameras HD 720p”, I wanted to start a conversation with you regarding a special trail camera project I am working on. I am working on private land in the Ouachita Mountains in Oklahoma and Arkansas. We (friends and myself) believe there may be red wolves (and other furtive species) within the region as we’ve seen the red wolves on occasion with the naked eye. We’ve set out camera traps in the past with no luck with our target species. We’ve used “no glow” cameras and have even took out the flash altogether on some of the cameras and went to day-time photos only so as not to have flashes at night. Still no luck of the target species. We’ve done this for several years now, still no luck. It is starting to be my belief that the target species is possibly detecting/noticing the cameras in their environment even though we’ve gone to great lengths to hide/camo them and blend them into the natural environment as much as possible/practicable. I would like to try something totally different and unorthodox. Since you have a great understanding how these cameras actually work, are wired and even programmed, I want to “pick” your brain. Here’s my idea…

   Since I believe the cameras are being detected by our target species in the natural environment, I would like to minimize the profile of these cameras by actually dismantling them and only have the PIR detector (and fresnel lens) and also the camera lens mounted on the tree. The wires and ribbons connecting the PIR and lens to the trail camera’s circuit board will need to be 4 to 6 feet in length. The circuit board and camera housing will be hidden and covered up near the ground or actually buired in the ground, the only thing above ground and visible on to the tree will be a small camera lens (about 1.5 inch square), a small PIR detector (again about 1.5 inch square), and the wires/ribbon, all of which can be camoflouged. The wires and ribbon cables can possibly be painted and camo’d to appear as green briar vines and the camea lens and PIR can also be painted and also camo’d to blend in. This will minimize the entire visual profile and only show the *necessary* components to detect an animal and take a picture, all while hiding the brain of the entire trail cam (its entire housing) near or under the ground. I don’t even need flash, I will sacrifice potential night time pictures so that only day-time pictures are available to be taken with this setup.

   My question to you is, is this feasible? it might be that the long wires and ribbon cables for the camera lens and PIR might have too much resistance to send the necessary signal to the circuit board. Also, I will probably have to make these components that are out of their housing and now in the elements, waterproof – possibly waterproof them by using clear silicone caulk on the circuit board of the camera lens and PIR, or some other type of waterproofing system. Also, there is the issue of detection zone and camera lens alignment; they must aligned to properly work and not get false hits and to properly take pictures of what’s being sensed by the PIR – maybe I need to design and custom 3d printed housing (very small of course, otherwise we’re defeating the whole purpose) to mount the PIR detector and lens so that they work in concert as they are supposed to. So, instead of having an obtrusive trail cam protruding from a tree that is visible to all wildlife when they see it, it is now a small and almost hidden system. I’m willing to try a couple trail cams, if it is feasible.

   Anyway, what are your thoughts on feasibility?

   Thank you in advance. 🙂

   Reply ↓

   • Sounds like an interesting, if often frustrating project! I will say this: we have always been able to capture *some* footage of even the most skittish coyotes — especially when operating without a flash — by using a lot of unmodified trail cameras in a camo-painted security boxes. Your problem may be *just* a very low density of your target critters. But you know this. Here are four ideas for hiding cameras, i believe in order of difficulty.

     1. Package an existing trail camera in a highly camouflaged custom enclosure. I’ve often thought, for example, of hollowing out a small diameter log. Google image “camoflauged trail camera” for some ideas. Leave just enough exposure for the camera and PIR sensor, since you won’t be using the flash.

     2. Use a GoPro camera with a custom firmware load (from GoPro) that allows it to work as a motion activated trail camera. I think it will be hard to come up with anything much smaller than this highly engineered and optimized form factor. I’m not sure exactly how well, or how (exactly) the “motion detection” in these cams work, but I do know that many people have used them as trail cams. You may want/need an external battery, but there are a lot of off-the-shelf options for these micro-USB battery packs that could be mounted remotely. You may have to develop a waterproof fitting for the external power connector.

     3. If you really want a software/integration project, get a Raspberry Pi, the appropriate waterproof USB web-camera, and google “Raspberry Pi Motion Detector Camera” for some software. You can probably find a waterproof enclosure for the Pi, and the USB cable to the web camera will allow you to remotely mount the camera. As this solution uses the camera to detect motion, you will also need a big battery.

     4. If you really want a hardware project, I would take apart a trail camera, like the Browning Elite HP5, freeing up the components that you need (the main PCB , and the small camera PCB), and ditching the IR flash. I would then build a custom enclosure just for these parts. I would mount the batteries externally, using the existing external power connector and the cable you’re envisioning. In the HP5, the connection between the camera PCB and the main PCB is via short flex cable (about an inch long). You can probably find a longer version of this flex cable that would let you “fold” the camera in half to reduce the front facing area. I don’t think you’re going to get a much smaller footprint than this. Getting the PIR sensor, and especially the (high speed) camera interface to work over a long cable is non-trivial (read: would require circuitry about the size of the main PCB anyway). I think mounting the batteries separately saves you most of the potential volume. Having said this, and having done some custom 3D printed design for waterproof enclosures, I will note that getting a working, waterproof enclosure like this will be a lot of work. I would test the water resistance without the electronics in it first 🙂 !

     Hope this helps.

     Reply ↓

9. ‘Just wanted to share that I upgraded the FW in 2 BTC-7Es and 2 BTC-7E-HP4s earlier today with no issues. I’m thrilled to have these new features (really adds value to these cams), and again grateful for Bob’s work on this and other Browning camera fixes and features. I’d love to have a way to “buy you a coffee” Bob if you ever set something like that up on your website!

   Reply ↓

   • Thanks for the update! Glad this new firmware is working for you. No donations on this web site, but if you’d like, please make a donation of the value you attach to this work to your favorite land conservation charity.

     Reply ↓

     • Great recommendation on the charity, I will do that. I’m also doing this in lieu of physical gifts to many family members for the holidays… Thanks again.

       Reply ↓

10. I read your comment about a motion activated GoPro firmware update. I have a few places where a GoPro would be ideal to capture a wider angle. Where can I learn more about this firmware update? Thanks for your help.

    I’m testing the Elite HP5 with the IR lights turned off along with an Edge camera offset about three feet. I have a place where mountain lions show up often and I’d like to capture footage without the eye shine. Here’s an example.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQkoXADLZ7I

    Reply ↓

    • The test worked perfectly. Thanks Bob for this firmware update. No more eye shine!

      https://wildnaturemedia.com/research-images

      Reply ↓

      • Wow! That is one terrific mountain lion photo. What a great way to start the new year!

        Reply ↓

11. Curious if you are able to change the default action for Browning Timelapse+ where it combines all photos (timelapse and triggered) into a TLS movie? This kills the ability to use AI platforms for image recognition tools (e.g. Wildlife Insights). It’s one of the main reasons we are seeking new camera models to use for our research. Currently own about 130 Brownings becuase they are so durable from rainforests to deserts. But this one feature has crippled our ability to continue using them. Thanks!

    Reply ↓

    • We don’t really use the timelapse+ option very much (at all), so I hadn’t really considered the impact of storing timelapse images individually vs. in an aggregated file.

      It turns out that these cameras use a so called “AVI-JPG” format for the Timelapse file. This is why changing the file extension from “TLS” to “AVI” will allow the file to be read (as movie) by a standard viewer. The “AVI-JPG” file is simply the concatenation of a whole bunch of individual JPG files. I.e. unlike MP4, compression is not done between images (only within images).

      Inside the firmware, the camera actually stores the image from a timelapse trigger as a JPG file on an internal ram-disk, before immediately appending it to the TLS file on the SD card.

      So it’s plausible that I could hack this function so that it stores the JPG files to the SD card, instead.

      Before I consider this project, though, would a tool something like:

      https://saul.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/timelapse/pmwiki.php?n=Main.ExtractingTLSFiles#:~:text=Some%20Browning%20trail%20cameras%2C%20when,just%20frames%20in%20that%20video.

      Which unpacks TLS (AVI) files into individual JPG files as a post processing step meet your needs (already)?

      -bob

      Reply ↓

12. Hi Bob,

    We’ve tried that process and it adds a good bit of time to the processing and the time stamps can get out of sync when dealing with 1000’s of images. Multiply that across 45 cameras for example and it takes an army. I often employ students in my Conservation biology course to review files in VLC for extra credit. But I have no real way of quality control besides having grad students working on the projects review a few random files. I have a phd student currently using COCO transfer learning to build deep neural network models to automate the ID process for her species of interest (tortoises) in these video files. But that works (hopefully) for just one species and there are a whole bunch in these videos. I’ve had several students email Browning support asking for an option to have images saved instead of the TLS file but no luck in over 2 years of asking with that.
    I don’t know that timelapse is absolutely necessary but we are interested in amphibians and reptiles and as ectotherms we can’t trust that the PIR will always detect them. This is why we like to employ the hybrid format of time lapse and PIR trigger. Although there is a very recent paper that shows they found no difference in # of species detected using time lapse vs. PIR for snakes. But we’ve found time lapse does add to number of detections for tortoises when using the timelapse+ option with timelapse frequency set to 5 minutes. They we’re using AHDriFT configuration but we put cameras on t-posts in a grid for tortoise work. I think the timelapse plus PIR trigger option is very useful when dealing with rare species of herpetofauna.
    Anyhow, it would be great to discuss with you more about possibly making these cameras not create the TLS file!
    The possibility of this has me incredibly excited!
    Thanks, Shawn

    Reply ↓

    • Darn! That’s a good argument. Expect an email.

      -bob

      Reply ↓

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