Cycle Time & Battery Life

One of the first questions asked is: "How long does the battery last?"

Sentinel’s battery life depends on how frequently you wake up (i.e. cycle) the Sentinel to process images. Battery life can be estimated based on cycles.

Sentinel does not wake up and proceses data at every camera trap trigger, instead Sentinel is programmed to wake up and process data every X minutes (i.e. the cycle time) or every X camera trap triggers (i.e. trigger number), whichever comes first. Cycle time and trigger number is set to a default on your device (e.g. 240min and 30) but can be changed via a device update. Device Updates

Cycle Time & Battery Usage

• A cycle time is determined by

• The longer the Cycle Time (time between Sentinel wakeups), the longer the battery lasts.

• Sentinel can handle ~800 cycles per charge with 7 batteries (max capacity).

  • Default Cycle Time = 6 hours → Approx. 200 days of battery life.

  • Shorter Cycle Time (e.g., wakeup every 1 hour) → Sends data faster but drains battery quicker.

  • Longer Cycle Time (e.g., wakeup every 12 hours) → Extends battery life but delays insights.

Best Practice

Choose a Cycle Time based on your monitoring needs. For remote locations with rare animal activity, a longer cycle (6-12 hours) is ideal. If you need to respond to events in the wild much faster, a shorter cycle (1-3 hours) is recommended.

🔋 Checking Battery Status: View the devices page on the dashboard for a status on the battery and battery voltage (Note, battery status and voltage on the dashboard is currently only available for cell devices).

View on the Sentinel dashboard of battery status and voltage

Note, whenever the camera trap triggers, data processing on the Sentinel will be interrupted. Data processing and transmission can take several minutes. Sentinel is therefore not designed to serve real-time use cases (<5mins from camera trap trigger to alert notification on dashboard).

Please consult with the Sentinel team if your unsure about Sentinel cycle times, trigger numbers and how to best setup your camera trap triggering schedule: [e-mail]

Avoid using the timelapse setting on your camera trap. Contact the Sentinel team if you need to use timelapse.