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All Things Habitat - Lets talk.....
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Cuddelink general Q&A recommendations
- Thread starter john volkman
- Start date
I think I may have found a temporary workaround for using the 3501 solar panel with the DPB using the adapter that comes with the PW 3600 and also with the 12V battery adapter cable. If you cut the small “lock nipple“ (circled in red) off of one end of the green cord that comes with the 3501, it will fit in the adapter. I tested it to make sure it works, I put rechargeables in the DPB and placed the 3501 in the sun and after one hour the voltage of battery bank one went from 7.78 to 7.8. Now, if I can just get Cuddeback to sell me a few more of those adapters, I won’t have to wait until the new ones come out in June! :-)
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Kb_303
A good 3 year old buck
Ive had this happen multiple times now, and its not that big of deal, but curious as to why it happens. On my daily report, on occasion, it will show ext 1 low on a camera or 2. The cams are equipped with solar, so it is expected from time to time. Usually within a day or two it goes back to ext 1 ok. The issue is that once it goes back to ok on the report, it shows ok on the previous days as well, even though it showed low on them in previous reports
Hoytvectrix
5 year old buck +
I've had the same issue, but with external 12 V batteries. It's a little annoying, but I've just accepted that it is a quirk that hasn't been worked out yet.
FredG
5 year old buck +
It simply means that your battery voltage (internal or external) is hovering around the point at which it switches from ok to low. Cold weather or a period of high usage can draw the voltage down below the threshold and then a subsequent warming or low usage period can allow them to recover and switch back to reporting ok. Either way, its a warning that your in for a battery swap soon.
Kb_303
A good 3 year old buck
I sure hope not. After dropping the money i did on 10000 mah rechargeable D cells with damn near full sun. I shouldnt be having issues 30 days in.
My issue is with the report history changing in subsequent days...
john volkman
5 year old buck +
report history can change based on when the home unit connected to the remote, this can happen multiple times per day. Also, when using rechargebables, they run at a lower voltage than alkaline , rechargeables are often right on the edge of "ok" or "low". if you had an extended cloudy or rainy period, the batteries could drop below the threshold that equals "ok" , if the sun came back out the batteries could have regained charge enough to get them back to "ok" status.
Its also important when using rechargeables to make sure they are fully charged when deploying them.
I recently purchased 1 of the ATT duel flash cameras and 4 of the J model IR cameras. I have all of them talking to each other and setup on the web. I still have a few questions.
1. when set to 1hr for sending pictures, i think i read where max batch size was 30. will it send when it has 30 ready or will it start to send after one hour then batch's of 30 after that?
2. I have ordered the pw-3600 solar charger for each camera. is this enough to keep them powered up for a long time (6 months would be great) or should i also add a battery pack to them all or just the home cell camera?
3. The home cell camera will be our security camera by the camp. is there an easy way to shut it off from taking pictures but still sending pictures from remotes? or am i better off putting a board in front of it when i arrive and pull it when i leave?
4. can surveillance mode be used with black flash on the cell home? if not can advanced settings be made to duplicate surveillance mode with only the flash being different?
5. when sending pictures is it first in first out or does it prioritize camera 1 or does it send an equal number from all cameras?
Thank you for the help, the 200+ page thread helped a lot, i think i wasted a couple days of work reading through it.
1. when set to 1hr for sending pictures, i think i read where max batch size was 30. will it send when it has 30 ready or will it start to send after one hour then batch's of 30 after that?
2. I have ordered the pw-3600 solar charger for each camera. is this enough to keep them powered up for a long time (6 months would be great) or should i also add a battery pack to them all or just the home cell camera?
3. The home cell camera will be our security camera by the camp. is there an easy way to shut it off from taking pictures but still sending pictures from remotes? or am i better off putting a board in front of it when i arrive and pull it when i leave?
4. can surveillance mode be used with black flash on the cell home? if not can advanced settings be made to duplicate surveillance mode with only the flash being different?
5. when sending pictures is it first in first out or does it prioritize camera 1 or does it send an equal number from all cameras?
Thank you for the help, the 200+ page thread helped a lot, i think i wasted a couple days of work reading through it.
john volkman
5 year old buck +
i put answers after your questions.
well i got my cameras set out yesterday. this is a picture of my layout. red line was the intended layout with camera 5 being further to the east. i ended up having to use the yellow line for camera 3,4,5. I did replace the link antenna on the home unit with the spy point long range antenna I already had on the tree. it seemed to bump the link signal between 10-15 points on the next cameras. I found the same antenna's for roughly $20 so I will probably add a few of them to see if it helps the range. I had to mount some of cameras higher in the tree than i would prefer so get a good signal. using the external antenna with cord I think I will be able to mount the camera low and then run the antenna up and to the back side of the tree for better reception. I received the first report this morning and camera 4 was not listed. however it did send a picture today at 11:00 that was taken at 5:00 am.
john volkman
5 year old buck +
if there is good cell service where camera 5 is located i would swap locations of camera 5 and camera 1(home unit) , this will make your system more efficient and you can still use camera 5 as security or turn off the camera function if you prefer.
cheech53
5 year old buck +
can you list the spy point antenna long range you are using and were i can get one
john volkman
5 year old buck +
it appears for your report that everything is linking thru camera 2 , hard to tell from your images but if you have higher elevation in between some of these cams that may be the issue. Camera 3 needing 4 links to get home is a red flag.
I got my antenna from Trail cam pro when i bought my spypoint about 2 years ago. it is an expensive antenna at about $80 each. I saw two different antenna's on Amazon so I have ordered both and will give them a try this next weekend. they are supposed to arrive Monday.
https://www.trailcampro.com/collections/trailcam-accessories/products/spypoint-link-booster-antenna
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PFLXV2L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZYVHZYS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
i believe the last one is going to take this adapter, the reviews don't seem to tell if it is included or not.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CVQ3XLY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
this is pretty flat ground, camera one is on a little bit of a hill, may 10-15' higher than the others. the other 4 cameras are within 5' elevation. also with the camera 3 having 4 links, I put the cameras out in the following order 1-2-5-3-4 and they all had greater than 20 link level. so i'm not sure why camera 3 is not sending pictures via 3-5-1.
The location of camera 1 is about the end of our reliable cell signal but i only get 1-2 bars where it is located. the other 4 cameras locations bounce between 0-1 bars of cell service on my phone.
I have received a few pictures so far but they are taking a little while to send. I don't know if this is taking time to get to the home camera or the home camera is having a hard time sending the email. I'm not too concerned about this though. the main purpose of these cameras is for camera 1 to be a security camera.
here are the picture taken times and the time i received the email. the camera is set to send every hour.
camera 004 taken 5:06 AM received 11:02 AM
camera 004 taken 8:57 PM received 4:02 AM
camera 005 taken 1:53 Am received 6:17 AM
camera 003 taken 4:40 AM received 12:03 PM
This is all of the pictures it has sent so far so i don't think it is a congested network issue
Also thank you for taking the time to respond to all of mine and everyone else's questions and issues, that solved a lot of potential issues before they popped up. I will tweak the camera locations and try the antenna's next weekend and see how it helps.
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john volkman
5 year old buck +
you are better off experimenting with the cell cam location and/or Cell antennas than RF antennas, It will cost you much less and possibly fix your issues. Using another RF antenna is very risky and just because you saw an increase in cl level doesnt mean it was the antenna. Levels can change constantly and can change dramatically over just a few feet of placement . I would put the stock RF antennas back on and try these cell antennas and try different placement with your cell unit. You could almost buy another camera or a repeater for the cost you paid for the spy point antennas. These cell antennas are inexpensive and may help but its still not a guarantee.
https://www.amazon.com/Bingfu-Magne...WYD64PW78PH&psc=1&refRID=6EZXMAH47WYD64PW78PH
https://www.amazon.com/Bingfu-Magne...WYD64PW78PH&psc=1&refRID=6EZXMAH47WYD64PW78PH
I will give it a try this weekend. The SPYPOINT antenna I bought two years when I bought my SPYPOINT link dark. I bought it through TCP and and while they have been great the cameras have been horrible. My fourth camera just quit in less than two years. I will send it back for another Replacement but when my cell plan is up in august I will not renew. This is the reason I bought cuddylink, I will give a try for two years and then see how it performs.
Peplin Creek
5 year old buck +
John, do you know if you set the mp level to its highest setting if the compressed images come back any clearer?
john volkman
5 year old buck +
it makes no difference on the cuddelink side the image is always low rez.. I always run mine at 5mp, 20 mp doesnt really do any good even when pulling the card since itss interpolated.
