Do I detect yet another use for a microconroller
Yes.
What rate are you taking the pictures?
For the woodlands, last year was every five minutes, one day played as 3 seconds.
I may make it every 15 minutes so that one day plays as one second.
What problems have you had in the past?
In the field, none really except on one occasion the window seemed to have condensation for a short time and maybe something crawled over it.
Memory card filling up some days before I visited.
The rain shield had slots that fitted over the raised lugs on the food container and this made fitting the lid difficult and with the danger of moving the camera.
The bird boxes on Ebay that I ordered had incorrect published dimensions so I got a 50% refund.
That means I will have to make my own boxes ............ very soon.