First attempt at infrared illumination.

I hooked up the infrared illuminator today for a trial run. I suspected that it would be too much light for the distance I have between the camera and the feeders, but I thought I’d go ahead and try it. I purchased this 130 LED illuminator because it’s rated to to an operating temperature of -22F. Most of the less expensive illuminators didn’t rate below zero or only to -4F. Also this one has a weatherproof rating of IP66 which means it should be fine in any weather.

Infrared illuminator on top of feeder cam.

All I did was bungee it to the top of the camera housing. The good news is that it works – the camera switched over to I/R, and there is plenty of illumination. However, the image is extremely blurry. I’m assuming right now that’s because it’s too close, so I’ll try and relocate it in the next day or two and see if that improves things. Hopefully I can find something else to bungee it to (at least for temporary testing!) When I have it working correctly, I’ll start uploading images 24/7.