> I need a digital camara that can be triggered electrically,
> enclosed in a weather-proof housing, and save images
> to a SD-card or over wifi.                                            

Hi Matthew, first thing would be to see what power-consumption
can be eliminated

The trigger could be a tilt switch (mercury, rolling ball or
pendulum). This will need no quiescent power, and would
make a connection between B+ and the trigger input of the
camera. If you want to add an IR flash, use the tilt switch to
turn a FET on. What you'd need to do is use a simple timer
made from a small amount of logic (555, 4000, 7400, PIC
etc) to turn the IR just before the camera clicks and turn off
just after. You might need to add a few bits like Zeners to
keep voltages correct and a reservoir caps to dump into
the IR LEDs. You'll be able to use cheap wiring like bell
or phone wire to get the camera back aways

The circuit is going to react very quickly and should catch the
action. But you may get a picture of the side of a pick-up. Do
you expect the attack to come from a particular direction so
you can position the camera in the best place ?

I was looking at mailboxes in the hardware store the other
day, as the prices really caught my eye. As a wood/metal
worker I was astounded at the expensivity. Given your sheer
annoyance for having to repair / replace a mailbox I'm not
surprised you want to see whodunnit

Relatedly, I had to do something similar a few years ago to
find out which neighbourhood cat was coming in the cat flap
and pissing on our stove, steadily rotting it and making a
godawful stench when the element was turned on. Eventually
got the little bugger on tape. I had the advantage of power
available though and used an IR beam

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