Connecting cuddylink to wifi or internet to receive pics?

Rlsbowhunt

5 year old buck +
I was wondering if anyone has or knows how to connect a cuddy link home camera to your home internet or wifi to have pics sent to your email at a app instead of using a cell cam.
The reason being is my home cam is set 20' from our home and most of the year I just pull the card daily and check the pics. I would like to be able to have the pics sent to my phone when we are gone for vacation or out of town, mainly for property surveillance while we're gone.
So long story short, does anyone know how to connect a cuddling to internet and get pics sent to phone? Thanks!
 
I was wondering if anyone has or knows how to connect a cuddy link home camera to your home internet or wifi to have pics sent to your email at a app instead of using a cell cam.
The reason being is my home cam is set 20' from our home and most of the year I just pull the card daily and check the pics. I would like to be able to have the pics sent to my phone when we are gone for vacation or out of town, mainly for property surveillance while we're gone.
So long story short, does anyone know how to connect a cuddling to internet and get pics sent to phone? Thanks!
this has been accomplished by others using a wi fi enabled SD card but cuddeback doesn't offer nay factory option for this. you would need ot either figure it out yourself or find someone versed in it to help you set it up.
 
I was wondering if anyone has or knows how to connect a cuddy link home camera to your home internet or wifi to have pics sent to your email at a app instead of using a cell cam.
The reason being is my home cam is set 20' from our home and most of the year I just pull the card daily and check the pics. I would like to be able to have the pics sent to my phone when we are gone for vacation or out of town, mainly for property surveillance while we're gone.
So long story short, does anyone know how to connect a cuddling to internet and get pics sent to phone? Thanks!

That is the way the BEC systems work. Instead of a cell base, you can use your PC as a base. There is a USB connection between the PC and the radio. They provide software for the PC to receive pictures from the cell phone. From there, you can do whatever you want with the pics. You can send them via email and such.

So, what you are looking to figure out how to do is to connect your cuddielink base to your PC in such a way that you can upload the pictures when they come in. It is a pretty big hole in the system for folks who want to use pictures on their PC. While you can get the thumbnails automatically, in order to get full resolution pictures, you need to deal with SD cards. So, even if you can get an eyefi type card to work in your cuddie, you be dealing with thumbnails.

That said, the Cuddelink is a much less expensive system that may be a fit for some applications. In your case, with a camera close to the house, SD cards may be easy enough to deal with.
 
There is a thread on this forum that details how to do this. The last time I checked it seemed like the person who was able to make it work said that it wasn't long-term viable.

I think that the weakness is in the Wi-Fi enabled SD card. If there was a way of doing it without that I think it would be much better.
 
cell_link_cable_420_400x.jpg

I've been messing around with this cable and have been able to get it to pull new pics to my pc but Im having an issue with maintaining the connection. The upload folder isn't staying open and I have to manually click on it every time an image is received. Might be something for the more tech savy to look into.
 
If I had to guess, I'd presume that the camera is only applying power to the SD card when it needs to write a picture to it in order to save power. So, unlike when inserted into a computer's SD slot and the card is always "on" and you can keep a folder open, I'm guessing that when the camera stops using the SD card, it looks to the computer like the card has been ejected and then when the camera uses it again, it appears to be reinserted. Just a guess.

Once might have to write their own driver to make that practical.
 
View attachment 41871

I've been messing around with this cable and have been able to get it to pull new pics to my pc but Im having an issue with maintaining the connection. The upload folder isn't staying open and I have to manually click on it every time an image is received. Might be something for the more tech savy to look into.
Hmm. I'm enough of an electronic technician to be dangerous, and your cable gave me an idea. I wonder if one could take this $12.50 SD Sniffer from Sparkfun, and apply external power to the SD card, so the folder stays open all the time? Might have to cut the trace that (intermittently) provides power from the camera so it does not adversely interact with the external power supply.
Then determine which solder pads can provide data to a usb plug for the computer. Is there a link to the cable you have imaged above? I'd try to look up it's pin-out between the SD and USB ends. Or, you could find those path with an ohm meter. Might work?????
Edited to add: John V. will definitely view this as "homebrew"!

11468-01a.jpg
 
Hmm. I'm enough of an electronic technician to be dangerous, and your cable gave me an idea. I wonder if one could take this $12.50 SD Sniffer from Sparkfun, and apply external power to the SD card, so the folder stays open all the time? Might have to cut the trace that (intermittently) provides power from the camera so it does not adversely interact with the external power supply.
Then determine which solder pads can provide data to a usb plug for the computer. Is there a link to the cable you have imaged above? I'd try to look up it's pin-out between the SD and USB ends. Or, you could find those path with an ohm meter. Might work?????
Edited to add: John V. will definitely view this as "homebrew"!

11468-01a.jpg
A little google search found that what I suggested above will not work without an interface......

The electrical interface of a USB port(cable) and an SDcard are NOT directly COMPATIBLE.

But, if the cable you are currently using is working while the camera powers the SD card, you should be able to use it as an interface between the SD sniffer and computer.

Edited to add: and if you are doing that, just use the computer to supply power to the SD card. Still probably have to cut the trace between the sniffer and camera. Good luck!
 
Hmm. I'm enough of an electronic technician to be dangerous, and your cable gave me an idea. I wonder if one could take this $12.50 SD Sniffer from Sparkfun, and apply external power to the SD card, so the folder stays open all the time? Might have to cut the trace that (intermittently) provides power from the camera so it does not adversely interact with the external power supply.
Then determine which solder pads can provide data to a usb plug for the computer. Is there a link to the cable you have imaged above? I'd try to look up it's pin-out between the SD and USB ends. Or, you could find those path with an ohm meter. Might work?????
Edited to add: John V. will definitely view this as "homebrew"!

11468-01a.jpg
The cable I have is from a Spypoint Cell-Link. I may have some free time this weekend to mess with it again and play with an ohm meter.
 
The Cuddeback Home was originally pitched as a product that would have a home USB connection feature added in the future. The port is there. I guess they saw the recurring revenue from cell phone fees and decided to ditch the idea. Kind of a shame.
 
This was the feature I was excited about the most, but it never came about.
 
This was the feature I was excited about the most, but it never came about.
Same here. Pretty disappointed this feature was never released.
 
The Cuddeback Home was originally pitched as a product that would have a home USB connection feature added in the future. The port is there. I guess they saw the recurring revenue from cell phone fees and decided to ditch the idea. Kind of a shame.
I doubt if the recurring mobile plans is that much of a profit generator for Cuddeback. I am sure they saw the writing on the wall with 5G and reduced mobile charges that there would be more of a shift towards cell cams. I was extremely excited about this possibility too. I actually thought about contracting someone out to build a network and program a rasberry pi two make it happen for me.
 
The cable I have is from a Spypoint Cell-Link. I may have some free time this weekend to mess with it again and play with an ohm meter.
After learning a SD card is not directly pin compatible with a usb port, the ohm meter readings are moot.

However, if your spypoint cable has made a connection (even temporary) between the home camera and your computers usb port, then it has an interface built into it. So it seems you need a trick to keep the connection permanent.

If - the reason it is is losing connection with your computer, is that the camera only provides power to the SD card, until it times out after reading or writing to the card (and I suspect that is the case) - the answer might be to power the SD card externally.

You could prove the power theory with the SparkFun SD Sniffer I mentioned earlier. Plug it between the camera and your cable, and take a readings across the GND & VCC solder pads on the sniffer. I expect you will detect a voltage (2.7 to 3.6 volts) when the folder is open, and the voltage will disappear when the folder goes away.

Once that is proven, you could probably provide a full time replacement voltage on the GND & VCC solder pads to keep the folder open permanently. But as mentioned earlier, I'd be worried about the interaction between two power supplies. So before I provided the external voltage, I'd cut the VCC trace between the camera and solder pad.

SD SnifferTop.jpgSD SnifferX.jpg

An experiment/hobby/homebrew project for sure, but I think it might work.

Cheers, Steve.
 
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After learning a SD card is not directly pin compatible with a usb port, the ohm meter readings are moot.

However, if your spypoint cable has made a connection (even temporary) between the home camera and your computers usb port, then it has an interface built into it. So it seems you need a trick to keep the connection permanent.

If - the reason it is is losing connection with your computer, is that the camera only provides power to the SD card, until it times out after reading or writing to the card (and I suspect that is the case) - the answer might be to power the SD card externally.

You could prove the power theory with the SparkFun SD Sniffer I mentioned earlier. Plug it between the camera and your cable, and take a readings across the GND & VCC solder pads on the sniffer. I expect you will detect a voltage (2.7 to 3.6 volts) when the folder is open, and the voltage will disappear when the folder goes away.

Once that is proven, you could probably provide a full time replacement voltage on the GND & VCC solder pads to keep the folder open permanently. But as mentioned earlier, I'd be worried about the interaction between two power supplies. So before I provided the external voltage, I'd cut the VCC trace between the camera and solder pad.

View attachment 41892View attachment 41891

An experiment/hobby/homebrew project for sure, but I think it might work.

Cheers, Steve.
These are cheap enough to play around with and see what comes from it. Good thinking about the two power supplies, it's definitely something I would have overlooked.
 
The Cuddeback Home was originally pitched as a product that would have a home USB connection feature added in the future. The port is there. I guess they saw the recurring revenue from cell phone fees and decided to ditch the idea. Kind of a shame.
Yep. The promise of this almost made me pull the trigger early on, glad I didn't.
 
This was the feature I was excited about the most, but it never came about.

That and the ability to transmit full resolution pictures would have made this a much more effective and flexible system. These are probably a greater limiting factor than the short transmission distance.
 
That and the ability to transmit full resolution pictures would have made this a much more effective and flexible system. These are probably a greater limiting factor than the short transmission distance.
Are the pictures sent to the home camera from a remote on the link network at full resolution? I thought they were the same lower resolution images that are sent over cellular. If so, only the images on the home camera itself would be full resolution. Not a real benefit (resolution wise) for a home camera plugged into a home computer.

Or did you mean you wish it transmitted full resolution over cellular?
 
Are the pictures sent to the home camera from a remote on the link network at full resolution? I thought they were the same lower resolution images that are sent over cellular. If so, only the images on the home camera itself would be full resolution. Not a real benefit (resolution wise) for a home camera plugged into a home computer.

Or did you mean you wish it transmitted full resolution over cellular?
when running a cuddelink network regardless if its cellular or not all transmitted images are low rez.His res images are on each cameras card when needed. Jac has never even used cuddelink but he loves to comment on its limitations. He has his own reasons for needing high res images. With his vast knowledge of all things, its interesting that somehow he cant figure out how to place his cameras to get quality images that can identify the animals with a low res pic. I guess we all have our struggles, even Jac.
 
Are the pictures sent to the home camera from a remote on the link network at full resolution? I thought they were the same lower resolution images that are sent over cellular. If so, only the images on the home camera itself would be full resolution. Not a real benefit (resolution wise) for a home camera plugged into a home computer.

Or did you mean you wish it transmitted full resolution over cellular?
They are not. I meant those two things are the greatest deficiencies of the system for some applications. If they transmitted full resolution pictures back to the base, and had full control PC interface to a base, it would satisfy users that don't need the cellular aspect and especially those who have internet service at the base. For folks without that, transmitting full resolution pictures across cellular would be needed, but it would result in a lot more recurring cost.
 
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