Covert Lora System- link up to 9 cams

[4wanderingeyes]

I have no info on these new cams, but try calling them, I have never not been satisfied after a phone call with them. Call them yourself Jack, during business hours, and find out. I am sure they would be more then happy to share any info they know.

 

[yoderjac]

I have no info on these new cams, but try calling them, I have never not been satisfied after a phone call with them. Call them yourself Jack, during business hours, and find out. I am sure they would be more then happy to share any info they know.

Did you see post #13.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

No, that’s the frustrating thing, I messaged their support and the just said look at the description... i found out that it doesn’t daisy chain through a YouTube video of their rep talking at the ata show..

Jack, Messaging them and calling them are different. You were asking for details, if you go to the horse, you can get it straight from the horses mouth. I have found a phone call to them and they will do anything to help you. Emails are seldom answered, so if you want the facts, there is one forsure way to get them.

 

[yoderjac]

Jack, Messaging them and calling them are different. You were asking for details, if you go to the horse, you can get it straight from the horses mouth. I have found a phone call to them and they will do anything to help you. Emails are seldom answered, so if you want the facts, there is one forsure way to get them.

I don't think the communication medium is the issue as Pep got a response. Had they not responds, I might agree with you. I'm pretty sure LORA is at 915 in the US. That makes them a new player in well established market in this band. The Cuddelink and BuckeyeCam threads well describe the challenges and limitations in this frequency range. No one yet has overcome the physics. Some do better at compensating than others with features like daisy chaining and such. If you get this system, be sure to report back here on how it performs for you.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Greg Gross]

I think it’s cool other are getting this technology in the trail cameras, I just wish they had the ability to hook the primary base up to a computer I could easily white a script to send all photos to multiple users phones or email accounts


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

I think it’s cool other are getting this technology in the trail cameras, I just wish they had the ability to hook the primary base up to a computer I could easily white a script to send all photos to multiple users phones or email accounts


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My cameras have been using this technology for the last 10 years. Nothing new here.

 

[Greg Gross]

Yoderjac what system you have


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tamarack]

This is from a Covert but not the system being discussed here. Pleased with the quality of the cam and pics. Need to try video next. Daytime only since I have the white flash model.

 

[scott44]

This is from a Covert but not the system being discussed here. Pleased with the quality of the cam and pics. Need to try video next. Daytime only since I have the white flash model.
View attachment 33057

What camera is that? I picked up a couple NBR 30-B's one never got put out and I haven't pulled the cardout of the other. Looks like pretty good pics, I want to try the video on these.

 

[Tamarack]

What camera is that? I picked up a couple NBR 30-B's one never got put out and I haven't pulled the cardout of the other. Looks like pretty good pics, I want to try the video on these.

It's the Hollywood from last year. I also have their 2020 model which is NWF18 but I forget what if anything is different about it. Bought both used. First pic below is a night sample from the newer model..other is the Hollywood again. Both aren't the greatest if they're moving fast at night unless coming right at the cam. A bit blurry.

​

 

[yoderjac]

Yoderjac what system you have


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm using the old BuckeyCam Orion series. They are not longer for sale. They use 5 mile frequency hopping at 900 mhz. Their newer X-series is less expensive then the Orions were but the radio is a bit shorter distance. They wore the first to use the 900mhz band I believe. They first produced the Orion series for the military so they are rock solid reliable but expensive. Some of the lower cost makers are now entering the market. The Cuddelink system uses this band. I believe my Orion system handles up to 32 cams on one base and the newer X-series handles more.

While the lower cost systems don't have the same reliability as BEC, I do like to see new entrants into the market. Keep in mind that in all cases, the theoretical ranges advertised and practical range in the real-world are quite different. There is not much bending up at 900 Mhz and vegetation and environmental conditions attenuate the signal. Some of my antennas are pretty large and mounted pretty high to get the range I need.

In order for one of these systems to be practical, you need to make sure the cameras have a "repeater" mode of some kind where once camera can transmit to another which forwards the packets to the base. This makes the distance cameras can be from the base much larger. The other big issue is power. Transmitting at 900 mhz consumes a lot of power. The beauty of a wireless private network is the fact that if if the cameras are reliable, they can run unattended for long periods which means no human intrusion. This means you need to match solar panels with the camera programming. Otherwise you are constantly changing batteries which defeats the major benefit.

There is a thread on here for Cuddelink where you can see actual forum users. Ignore the company rep hype on the thread, but they do provide users with some good advice for dealing with the issues their cameras have. Actual users there can give you their hands-on take on distances, battery life, and any issues they have had.

I only have one of the latest BEC X-series cams I'm testing with. Bill (a moderator here) just mentioned he bought a bunch of the X-series recently. He is probably a good source for practical info on them. The one camera I have has been operating great. I had one issue where I snapped off the lead when I removed the rubber ducky antenna to add an 9db antenna. Other than that, it has done well for me, but there is a difference between operating a single camera and a network of them. I've got over a dozen Orions on the network.
Thanks,

Jack

 

[Greg Gross]

Jack I have 2 of the cuddelink cameras and am not impressed with them, was disappointed when they wont fix the home camera to connect via usb like they advertised in the beginning when they came out with these cameras


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

Jack I have 2 of the cuddelink cameras and am not impressed with them, was disappointed when they wont fix the home camera to connect via usb like they advertised in the beginning when they came out with these cameras


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is the trouble with the lower cost stuff. It becomes pretty difficult to achieve a price point like cuddeback has and still have performance. Often hype gets well ahead of what is achievable at that price point. I wouldn't expect significantly different results with Covert.

One of the problems I saw off the bat with the Cuddelink design was the self-direct topology. That is each camera tries to find the best path to the base. Buckeyecam was considering this approach with the X-series and one of the engineers had a conversation with me. I advised against it unless you can accurately measure power. The way these self-directed network topologies work is that the choose the path based on signal strength. In a network where the user determines the path back to the base, you can determine how much power you want to supply at each camera. For example, with my Orion network, I have a couple cameras that are routing cameras. I have very large solar panels on them with larger external batteries. The panels are large enough that they can quickly recharge the batteries because these cameras need power to re-transmit packets from other cameras as well as its own pictures. Terminal cameras need less power available and can use some of the stock panels depending on programming.

My cams run 24/7/365 and the primary use is for QDM decision making. They let me track trends in my deer populations year on year helping us decided how many does to harvest. Every picture gets analyzed and the data logged into a database. Because of this and how much data I can deal with, I program my cams with a 5 minute delay between pictures. If I put some of my terminal cameras in burst mode, I would need to put larger solar panels on them.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Greg Gross]

Jack Did you create your own database, I wrote one in c++ and also in html


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

Jack Did you create your own database, I wrote one in c++ and also in html


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm just using MS access as the engine and created my own. I have an excel spreadsheet with a VBA macro that reads the EXIF data from each picture and extracts the location, date, and time stamp and a link to the jpeg picture. This list is imported into my MS Access database. This DB is also used by ARCGIS. It has all of the data associated with the property. Once the dataset has been imported into the DB, I have an Access form that presents each picture along with the data. I then add the specific animals in each picture to each record.

Since I have partners at the farm, I then run a macro that FTPs all of the pictures to a web server and copies the Access records to an MSSQL database. We have a private web site that I and my partners can access. They can look at all of the pictures as well as maps of the farm with food plot, tree stand locations, and such. The web site does some database queries to create charts. We do survival surveys Jan through Apr and then a recruitment in Sep. Those picture counts are compared from year to year along with our harvest statics and such on the web site.

So, I actually have a duplicate of the database. Having the second copy is also assurance that if my web server would die or something, I would still have the MS access database with all the data.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Greg Gross]

Jack sounds like you got a awesome database


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[yoderjac]

It is pretty straight forward. I started by making it a personal DB for Arcgis. I've downloaded georectified imagery of the area around our farm. I then used Arcgis to overlay food plot boundaries and such. I use it for anything that has a geographic characteristic like treestand locations, camera locations, fruit trees, and anything else I want to mark on the map. When we first bought the property, I drove an atv around all the logging roads and trails with a GPS and imported those tracks into Arcgis. I then created tables for our harvest data, hunter logs (we log observations for every hunt), and photographs.

I find a relational database is the best way to story our data as I can go back and ask questions that I had never thought of when I collected the data. A lot of folks don't have the computer skills necessary for this, but there are canned programs you can buy that do similar things.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Tamarack]

One negative about Covert non-cellular models I just noticed is that you have to email your serial # and camera model to them to see if there are any firmware updates for your cam. Although the way Stealth has theirs on their website I wish they did it that way Maybe Covert alerts you if/when there's a new one after your first request?
They also require you to have the cellular cam in hand to do an update. Cuddeback does too of course. And Tactacam.(only ones I use)

Covert Firmware page

Update: Got a response...they do not require a firmware update. They didn't answer my question- if they will send me them if there are any or do I have to keep asking in the future. Guess I'll just ask again early Fall.

 

[Booner21]

I used to have a large stock of covert cams probably close to 6 years old now. and could count on about 2/3 of the pics being squirrels or leaves blowing not a big issue with cards but data presents a problem have the sensor issues gotten any better?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I'm just using MS access as the engine and created my own. I have an excel spreadsheet with a VBA macro that reads the EXIF data from each picture and extracts the location, date, and time stamp and a link to the jpeg picture. This list is imported into my MS Access database. This DB is also used by ARCGIS. It has all of the data associated with the property. Once the dataset has been imported into the DB, I have an Access form that presents each picture along with the data. I then add the specific animals in each picture to each record.

Since I have partners at the farm, I then run a macro that FTPs all of the pictures to a web server and copies the Access records to an MSSQL database. We have a private web site that I and my partners can access. They can look at all of the pictures as well as maps of the farm with food plot, tree stand locations, and such. The web site does some database queries to create charts. We do survival surveys Jan through Apr and then a recruitment in Sep. Those picture counts are compared from year to year along with our harvest statics and such on the web site.

So, I actually have a duplicate of the database. Having the second copy is also assurance that if my web server would die or something, I would still have the MS access database with all the data.

Thanks,

Jack

What you are doing is essentially what I'd like to get to someday. That sounds seriously impressive. One thing I wanted to do if and when I get something like that up and going is running some regression with buck and/or deer sightings against something like barometric pressure, wind direction, temperature, etc (within and across stand locations). That type of setup has tremendous potential for surveying a big enough area.

Have you thought about monetizing your work? I'm sure some camera companies or companies like OnX currently have teams working on it.