Motion Activated Camera Trap Trigger

Capture wildlife or unsuspecting visitors on your DSLR with this PIR-based camera trigger.

https://diyodemag.com/projects/camera_trap

We designed the enclosure in Fusion360 and will make the working files available so you can modify the design and make changes as you see fit.

We opted to use the GoPro mounting system as there are numerous official mounting options for these cameras, as well as many custom styles available on Thingiverse to suit different needs. If you want a custom mount, you can easily search Thingiverse for GoPro mount and you will find a huge amount of custom mounting options, saving you the time to design and model your own.

We wanted to have the device mount onto the camera itself, so before designing the hotshoe mount, we first did a search on Thingiverse and found that user Shantmeg had already designed and uploaded the exact part we wanted (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:98700). Therefore, we didn’t need to model our own iteration and rather simply printed their design.

The front part of the enclosure was printed at 300-microns on our Flashforge Creator Pro using Flashforge branded translucent red PLA. The design needs support under the mounting bracket and the switch housing. In this configuration, the design takes around 1 hour to print.

Note: The hole for the lead to exit the enclosure has been made at 3mm. You may want to increase this diameter depending on the wire you use. You can do this using the working files we have made available or you can just import the STL file into Tinkercad and make the modification there.

The rear of the case was printed at the same 300-micron layer height on our Flashforge Creator Pro and using the same Flashforge red PLA. In this configuration, it takes around 30 minutes to print and does not need any support material. The enclosure simply press fits together after all of the components have been installed.

The GoPro type hot shoe mount (Credit to Shantmeg on Thingiverse) has been designed with a small raft and supports included. Our print was made at 100-micron layer height on our Flashforge Creator Pro in the same translucent red Flashforge PLA. It took about 45 minutes to print in this orientation.