Spent a while repairing this gadget for a friend of a colleague from work. It's a camera of sorts. There's a movement detector that's used to trigger the camera. It will either take photos, or record a short length of video. The array of LED's emit infrared light, so that it can also work at night.

The fault was caused by the batteries overheating, and that heat melted various bits of plastic. The wiring was damaged too. The cause of the overheating? I can only speculate that the lead from the rechargeable batteries was caught in the lid when someone closed it, resulting in a short circuit. Then again, someone may have tried to recharge non-rechargeable batteries. There weren't any batteries supplied...

The owner had left a memory card inside. So after taking some test photos, I checked they were okay on my PC. There were hundreds of ten second video clips from when it had been working earlier. Some of them were comical.

It had been used to record mammals coming to a feeder that looked a bit like a bird box, with a clear plastic front. To get at the contents, the creature had to climb the tree the feeder was mounted on, and lift the hinged lid. All the daytime clips were of Red Squirrels... and once they'd lifted the lid, you were usually just left looking at their backsides, with their tails sticky up in the air... not their best angle! Overnight ones included Pine Martins and various mice... the mice failed to lift the lid, and just sniffed around the outside.

The clips that made me laugh most, were when two squirrels approached the feeder. There would be a mini bust-up, followed by one being chased off. Best clip was when one squirrel was feeding, and another came down the tree and sat on the lid - pinning the first one in briefly, as its legs, hands and tail flailed about. Once free, an extra big chase ensued...