At a 10-second interval a trail camera never really sleeps. That changes what it needs from its card and its batteries.
The card
Use a 256GB, Class 10 / U3 card. At a 10-second interval and low resolution that holds roughly two weeks or more.
Format it in the camera once before first use. Never format mid-run, and do not format it on a computer — some cameras will not write reliably to a card formatted elsewhere.
A card that fills up simply stops recording. The camera will not tell you, and you will discover it when the last photo on the card is from four days ago.
Power
External power is strongly recommended. Most trail cameras have a 12V DC jack, and solar panels work well.
At a 10-second interval the camera is awake constantly, and AA batteries may not last the full run. If you have no choice but batteries:
- Use lithium AAs — not alkaline, and not rechargeable NiMH. Lithium holds voltage far better in the cold, which is exactly when barn cameras die.
- Consider dropping to a 30-second interval to stretch the run. You will lose some short events, but a complete 30-second record beats four days of 10-second photos and then nothing.
How long to record
One to two weeks.
Shorter than a week and you are looking at a snapshot — one late delivery or one unusually busy day skews the whole report. A week or two shows your actual routine, including weekends, and lets the report say something meaningful about how consistent your feeding times are.
Longer than two weeks is fine but has diminishing returns, and you risk filling the card.
After the run
Pull the card and put it in your computer. You do not need to copy the photos off first — the FeedBunk AI Compressor can read straight from the card.
One thing to watch: when you use the Compressor, make sure the output folder it writes to is on your computer’s own drive, not back onto the SD card. The card does not have room, and the app will run out of space partway through. The folder the app suggests is based on your source folder, so check it before you start. See Choosing an output folder and free disk space.
Then format the card in the camera again and start the next run.
Doing repeat runs
Once the camera is mounted and aimed, leave it. Swap or empty the card, confirm the clock is still right, press Start, and walk away. Your bunk outline and feeding schedule are already saved in FeedBunk AI, so repeat uploads skip the setup steps entirely.