In the past couple years we’ve seen a lot of people using our solar products on GoPro cameras in virtually unattended and/or extreme weather situations. We figured a New York winter would be be a great time to experiment with this.  We set three goals:

• Explore how our our products could be used for stuff like solar powered trail cams, semi-unattended time lapse applications, and situations where it’s impractical or impossible to access the battery or camera for a month at a time or more.
• Get a better idea of how this type of setup behaves in cold and freezing conditions.
• Not have the enclosure fall seven stories on someone or something below (granted, this probably should’ve been goal number one).

It was a clear Fall day in Brooklyn when we made our way up to the roof to install the system. The setup consisted of a Voltaic 3.4 watt center hole solar panel, pole mount clamp, a V15 battery, GoPro Hero2 camera (32gb SD card) with a Cam-Do intervalometer and a Cam-Do outdoor enclosure… and a piece of wood we got from the weird hardware store down the block.

If our job was to create the ugliest installation, yet keep the panel locked toward the sun while keeping the enclosure from falling from a seven story building… then we succeeded.

We ran the system for 68 days, interacting with it only four times to check the charge level of the camera, battery, and to download the time-lapse videos to get a feel of the progress. We set the intervelometer to take a photo every 20 (1/20/14 – corrected) 10 minutes, 24 hours a day. We agree that this is a little bit excessive but figured we should try to tax the system.

The weather was generally cloudy or hazy with only 14 clear days out of 68. The average high was around 45°F / 7.5°C with an average low of about 33°F / 0°C. The temperature bottomed out at 4°F / -15.6°C on the night of 1/7/14 and about 46 days had freezing temperatures at some point during the day. If you want further details you can grab our weather log in .pdf format here.

After we took the setup down we analyzed the photo times and dates which showed all were accounted for, meaning that between the camera and battery there was always enough reserve power for our intended operation. NOTE: We did not top up the battery with an external source at any point during those 68 days. However, the camera was plugged into a USB port on our computer just long enough to extract the data each time, probably 30 minutes total over 68 days.

The only downside of our experiment was the wholly unexciting final video. We likened it to watching paint dry or grass grow because the contractor didn’t make much visible progress–probably because of the crummy weather. We plan on setting up the same solar GoPro system once the project starts ramping up so we can follow it through completion.

Until then we hope that our data can help you if you’re designing a similar project, in similar conditions. It should give you a pretty good idea of how our equipment functions and what you can expect out of it. As always, if you have any questions feel free to drop us a line.

Here’s what’s in the Kit and its purpose:
– Waterproof Enclosure (made by Cam-Do) keeps the GoPro and Voltaic battery Dry
– Scheduler (made by Cam-Do) turns the GoPro on and off based on a programmable schedule
– 3.4 Watt Solar Panel (made by Voltaic) charges the Voltaic battery
– V15 USB Battery (made by Voltaic) stores power from the panel and charges the GoPro

We’re pretty pleased with how it turns out, but give yourself a week or two to setup and test the system so that you’re happy with the way everything fits together. Three important tips to making sure it works well.

1. Match your GoPro Model with what you’re trying to do
– Hero 2 and Hero 3 White work with the USB charger and solar.
– Hero 3 Silver and Black work with solar if you’re using WiFi for control and downloading.
– Hero 3 Black needs a battery eliminator for the Cam-Do Scheduler – if you don’t know what this is, go with Hero 2 or Hero 3 White

This is no longer necessary. GoPro revised the firmware on July 29th, 2013 so that all versions can be powered by the USB Connector.

2. Be sure to put the Voltaic V15 Battery into “Always On” mode

3. Print out and read Cam-Do’s manual about how to program the scheduler

Here’s some photos showing the proper setup.

Solar Panel Mounted to Case

Battery Connected to GoPro (2 Options, the Cam-Do photo on right is more elegant)

Overhead view of the Case with Camera

Panel input into Case

Get your GoPro Timelapse & Solar Setup here. Read more on our guide to solar chargers for GoPro cameras.