Cuddeback's Cuddelink

[john volkman]

So if I set my batch to 30 and my 5 cameras only take 22 pictures it will still send those 22 or will it wait until there are 30?

Yes it will send the 22 early am

 

[12pointer]

it switches to internals when the external is lower than the internal 4 d's.

Let's say it has 4 brand new internal batteries (6 volts), it will switch over to internals at 5.9 volts! It seems that 7.3 volts is a little early to warn that externals are low, but that's ok! What happens when the internals drop below the externals....does it go back to the externals and back and forth until both are drained? Or once it has switch it stays on internals until the externals are replaced?

Just trying to find away to get more than 33% out of the 6 external batteries!

 

[FredG]

I think it’s a little more complicated than that. The 9v externals will be dead way before 5.9v. That would equate to .98v for ea 1.5v battery.
For validity, on some dead batteries, I just measured 1.2v on voltmeter and then put them in cheap Amprobe tester and they were seriously in the red. If it was 6 batteries in series @ 1.2v that would be 7.2 volts.

There is most likely a relay that switches when there’s not enough voltage to keep it in the closed state. I’m pretty sure it will not re-open without required sustained voltage like changing batteries.

Clear as mud huh? Hope it helps

I agree... count on about 1.2 volts per for batteries to crap out. Somewhere around 7.2 for 9 volt externals and 4.8 for 6 volt internals. Several miles back up-thread Mark Cuddeback stated that he felt that the PowerHouse flash modules with the super capacitors would be able to draw the batteries down to a lower voltage but I've never checked to verify that in the data.

 

[JLemon]

I agree... count on about 1.2 volts per for batteries to crap out. Somewhere around 7.2 for 9 volt externals and 4.8 for 6 volt internals. Several miles back up-thread Mark Cuddeback stated that he felt that the PowerHouse flash modules with the super capacitors would be able to draw the batteries down to a lower voltage but I've never checked to verify that in the data.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m no electrical genius but wouldn’t using a 6v rechargeable battery on a G series make the camera automatically switch to internals since the voltage is already below 7.2?

 

[spaniel]

Haven't changed the 2 black flash cameras to "far" yet, but now have enough data to conclude that their pics on "close" are useless unless the deer are completely stationary. I am also curious exactly how invisible these cameras are. The IR cameras it is clear that occasionally a deer sees the flash and in subsequent images they are looking at the camera. The black flash are as bad or worse. I haven't touched those cameras in 3 weeks but quite often after an initial pic the deer approaches the camera and I end up with eyeball pics from 4 inches as they investigate the camera. I'm still trending towards preferring the IR where I can at least evaluate the antlers consistently.

 

[JLemon]

Lol I am definitely not an engineer either. I’m am ASSuming.
There’s may be a relay on each circuit. It may not be necessarily a difference in packs as much as it is on the relay on an individual battery source. It is operating on that voltage. When that relay drops out, the next relay in series operates on its voltage.

I put a lot of maybes in there to cover my ignorance. Ha

I was just curious as a few on here have said they were getting better life from an external 6v vs a 12v with a 9v regulator. Personally I’ve tried both and didn’t notice a difference and I’m actually getting longer life from the 6 D cell pack.

 

[RRAB58]

Haven't changed the 2 black flash cameras to "far" yet, but now have enough data to conclude that their pics on "close" are useless unless the deer are completely stationary. I am also curious exactly how invisible these cameras are. The IR cameras it is clear that occasionally a deer sees the flash and in subsequent images they are looking at the camera. The black flash are as bad or worse. I haven't touched those cameras in 3 weeks but quite often after an initial pic the deer approaches the camera and I end up with eyeball pics from 4 inches as they investigate the camera. I'm still trending towards preferring the IR where I can at least evaluate the antlers consistently.

LMAO. You have syrup on that camera?
Here’s an interesting story that may relate!

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...ht-may-be-much-more-common-thought-180961850/

 

[john volkman]

Let's say it has 4 brand new internal batteries (6 volts), it will switch over to internals at 5.9 volts! It seems that 7.3 volts is a little early to warn that externals are low, but that's ok! What happens when the internals drop below the externals....does it go back to the externals and back and forth until both are drained? Or once it has switch it stays on internals until the externals are replaced?

Just trying to find away to get more than 33% out of the 6 external batteries!

heres the short easy answer-
use an external battery pack on the G series or the new soon to arrive dual power bank on your K , G cameras and you will be happy - When your report shows your cam has switched to internals "BAT OK" or with the Dual power bank when it switches to bank #2 plan to swap out the externals at your next earliest convenience ideally within 30 days if possible.

Heres the long answer -
A brand new battery is about 1.6 volts. Thus internals start at about 6.4 volts and external about 9.6 volts. We have learned “good” batteries (Rayovac) are good to about 1.1 volts. We set B LOW at 1.2 volts.

INTERNAL LOW is about 4.8 volts and dead is 4.4 volts. Between LOW and DEAD picture quality (night IR) can suffer some as batteries do not have enough power to drive the capacitor /LED's.

EXTERNAL LOW is about 7.2 volts. However, the external will continue to be used until the external are EQUAL to the internal, about 6.6 volts IF the internal are perfect (which they probably are not). Because the internal will loose power on their own they will typically be 6 to 6.4 volts, and thus the external may be powering the camera down to 6 volts. This is ideal as this means every drop of power is sucked from the external batteries. This also means battery LOW goes from 7.2 volts to 6 volts (1 volt per battery). This is why BATTERY LOW on externals can be many weeks long. But this is not a problem as the user should not change the external batteries until the display or report switches to BAT OK, which means the external are completely dead and the internal have taken over.

Im not sure how you determined your batteries only used 33% but something went wrong in your test , if you pulled them after your report Switched to BAT OK the external 6 should have been dead. If you pulled them the day you saw EXT LOW on your report you could have used them longer but not 66% longer. In rare cases that happen in certain weather conditions ive seen the external go from ok, to low, to ok again. This is rare and typical happens on very cold nights followed by warm days where the unit is in full sun and the batteries warm up.

 

[RRAB58]

I was just curious as a few on here have said they were getting better life from an external 6v vs a 12v with a 9v regulator. Personally I’ve tried both and didn’t notice a difference and I’m actually getting longer life from the 6 D cell pack.

It takes more than that data to even come close to trying to figure it out. What is the ahr? What type regulator? What type of batteries? etc. There is a some things that would take an electronic engineer and bench full of equipment to calculate. There's internal resistance of different batteries, different discharge profiles, different efficiency for different regulators etc. But in a simplistic approach (this is not exact in any means) go by ahr of batteries(D-cell=~13ahr). External pack has ~13ahr, internal pack has ~13ahr=26ahr. If SLA battery has 4.5ahr, camera pack wins. If SLA has 45ahr, SlA wins. Higher voltage increases watts, but you lose a % of the watts at the regulator. But I assume it still adds some amount of watts and ahr's. Probably not best way, but I just compare ahr vs ahr. Also, the battery's advertised ahr, is about accurate as a car's advertised mpg. Just go big or as many major brand batteries as feasible and you will be fine.

Solar is probably best, but not for me. I'm using CuddePower packs and I am purchasing the Cudde Dual Packs as soon as they are released. If batteries are dead on one camera, you can rob a pack from another camera until you can get more batteries.

If you trust someone that says his method or type works good, go with it and see how it goes. I haven't had the cell units long enough to fairly evaluate. But I have bought enough cameras (and built a couple) and batteries to know it is a crap shoot. Sooner or later they will all let you down. If it was on a life support system, I would be more worried about it.

 

[JLemon]

It takes more than that data to even come close to trying to figure it out. What is the ahr? What type regulator? What type of batteries? etc. There is a some things that would take an electronic engineer and bench full of equipment to calculate. There's internal resistance of different batteries, different discharge profiles, different efficiency for different regulators etc. But in a simplistic approach (this is not exact in any means) go by ahr of batteries(D-cell=~13ahr). External pack has ~13ahr, internal pack has ~13ahr=26ahr. If SLA battery has 4.5ahr, camera pack wins. If SLA has 45ahr, SlA wins. Higher voltage increases watts, but you lose a % of the watts at the regulator. But I assume it still adds some amount of watts and ahr's. Probably not best way, but I just compare ahr vs ahr. Also, the battery's advertised ahr, is about accurate as a car's advertised mpg. Just go big or as many major brand batteries as feasible and you will be fine.

Solar is probably best, but not for me. I'm using CuddePower packs and I am purchasing the Cudde Dual Packs as soon as they are released. If batteries are dead on one camera, you can rob a pack from another camera until you can get more batteries.

If you trust someone that says his method or type works good, go with it and see how it goes. I haven't had the cell units long enough to fairly evaluate. But I have bought enough cameras (and built a couple) and batteries to know it is a crap shoot. Sooner or later they will all let you down. If it was on a life support system, I would be more worried about it.

I did solar, both the Cuddeback panels and home brew. They worked great on field edges where they got plenty of light but in the woods under cover they didn’t do much to improve battery life. For now I’m happy with the D cell battery pack. My cameras only take about 15-20 pics a day each this time of the year but the cheap ($9.99/dozen) batteries from Menards are at 75 days on external and still going.

 

[R C]

I apologize if this has already been discussed but did not want to read the entire discussion to find the answer. I have been running the J -black flash cameras since last September. I recently purchased one of the long range IR cameras to see if they provided better resolution. I initially set this up about 10 yards from my feeder. It could be a coincidence but it seems that since I switched from black flash to IR most of the bucks that were visiting the feeder have changed their feeding pattern. Today I had the great idea of moving the camera further away so it would not spook the deer if that is what’s actually going on. My problem, after relocating to a tree that is about 15 yards or so away from the feeder, the IR camera will not pick up my movement when I walk in front of the feeder in walk mode. I tried adjusting it to a higher and lower angle and several different elevations on the tree but never could get the red beam to light up indicating that the camera was picking up my movement. I then armed the camera and walked back and forth in front of the feeder and never got a photo. Is this common, is anyone watching a trail or feeder 15 or more yards away using the J - IR cameras or have I reached the distance limit with these camera? Thanks, Rick.

 

[john volkman]

I apologize if this has already been discussed but did not want to read the entire discussion to find the answer. I have been running the J -black flash cameras since last September. I recently purchased one of the long range IR cameras to see if they provided better resolution. I initially set this up about 10 yards from my feeder. It could be a coincidence but it seems that since I switched from black flash to IR most of the bucks that were visiting the feeder have changed their feeding pattern. Today I had the great idea of moving the camera further away so it would not spook the deer if that is what’s actually going on. My problem, after relocating to a tree that is about 15 yards or so away from the feeder, the IR camera will not pick up my movement when I walk in front of the feeder in walk mode. I tried adjusting it to a higher and lower angle and several different elevations on the tree but never could get the red beam to light up indicating that the camera was picking up my movement. I then armed the camera and walked back and forth in front of the feeder and never got a photo. Is this common, is anyone watching a trail or feeder 15 or more yards away using the J - IR cameras or have I reached the distance limit with these camera? Thanks, Rick.

high temps can restrict the detection range so depending on what they were when you were testing this may have had an effect. That said, my personal preference is to place my camera closer to get good pics , 15 yards or 45 feet form the target is not ideal especially when dealing with lower resolution transmitted pics. Even with high resolution pics i feel the image of the target animal is too far to help ID or see good detail at 15 yards. Even a modern day point and shoot camera without a significant zoom function or large lens would have trouble at that range.
Regarding IR avoidance, this argument will never end but my personal experience is that other than video mode IR, avoidance is a non issue., especially over a feeder or mineral type of situation. IMO the physical presence of the camera is more bothersome to the deer than the actual flash.
If one is convinced they need Black flash, i always recommend The G series with powerhouse Black flash module installed, this approaches the performance of standard IR and most that use it are very happy with the results. I personally use a mix of White strobe, powerhouse black and IR in several situations. I personally run about 40 Cuddelinks and i only have 2 Black flash, mostly so i have images to use at consumer shows and in retail appointments.

 

[R C]

I appreciate your quick response. It was “warm” yesterday as I do live in Texas. Probably at least upper 80s in the shade. What would you say is the average distance that you set your cameras? We have also been receiving a lot of rain in my area and what typically happens is the deer will hit the feeder only when needed. I checked my clover field camera and they are hitting that right now. I also planted my beans late this spring because of the rain but they have yet to hit them. I would expect they will move over to them in the next couple of weeks, thanks.

 

[Peplin Creek]

Can the new dual cell trail camera be setup as a remote camera in an existing network or does it have to be the home unit?

 

[john volkman]

Can the new dual cell trail camera be setup as a remote camera in an existing network or does it have to be the home unit?

Dual cell can only be a stand alone cell camera or a home cell in a cuddelink network. It also needs an active plan to operate.

 

[john volkman]

I appreciate your quick response. It was “warm” yesterday as I do live in Texas. Probably at least upper 80s in the shade. What would you say is the average distance that you set your cameras? We have also been receiving a lot of rain in my area and what typically happens is the deer will hit the feeder only when needed. I checked my clover field camera and they are hitting that right now. I also planted my beans late this spring because of the rain but they have yet to hit them. I would expect they will move over to them in the next couple of weeks, thanks.

my goal is to have my camera within 25 ft of where the deer will trigger it, obviously in a food plot that is not the reality in many cases but on scrapes, bait, trails etc i shoot for 25 ft or less. Many times i will set them within 15 feet.

 

[RRAB58]

high temps can restrict the detection range so depending on what they were when you were testing this may have had an effect. That said, my personal preference is to place my camera closer to get good pics , 15 yards or 45 feet form the target is not ideal especially when dealing with lower resolution transmitted pics. Even with high resolution pics i feel the image of the target animal is too far to help ID or see good detail at 15 yards. Even a modern day point and shoot camera without a significant zoom function or large lens would have trouble at that range.
Regarding IR avoidance, this argument will never end but my personal experience is that other than video mode IR, avoidance is a non issue., especially over a feeder or mineral type of situation. IMO the physical presence of the camera is more bothersome to the deer than the actual flash.
If one is convinced they need Black flash, i always recommend The G series with powerhouse Black flash module installed, this approaches the performance of standard IR and most that use it are very happy with the results. I personally use a mix of White strobe, powerhouse black and IR in several situations. I personally run about 40 Cuddelinks and i only have 2 Black flash, mostly so i have images to use at consumer shows and in retail appointments.

Let's say it has 4 brand new internal batteries (6 volts), it will switch over to internals at 5.9 volts! It seems that 7.3 volts is a little early to warn that externals are low, but that's ok! What happens when the internals drop below the externals....does it go back to the externals and back and forth until both are drained? Or once it has switch it stays on internals until the externals are replaced?

Just trying to find away to get more than 33% out of the 6 external batteries!

heres the short easy answer-
use an external battery pack on the G series or the new soon to arrive dual power bank on your K , G cameras and you will be happy - When your report shows your cam has switched to internals "BAT OK" or with the Dual power bank when it switches to bank #2 plan to swap out the externals at your next earliest convenience ideally within 30 days if possible.

Heres the long answer -
A brand new battery is about 1.6 volts. Thus internals start at about 6.4 volts and external about 9.6 volts. We have learned “good” batteries (Rayovac) are good to about 1.1 volts. We set B LOW at 1.2 volts.

INTERNAL LOW is about 4.8 volts and dead is 4.4 volts. Between LOW and DEAD picture quality (night IR) can suffer some as batteries do not have enough power to drive the capacitor /LED's.

EXTERNAL LOW is about 7.2 volts. However, the external will continue to be used until the external are EQUAL to the internal, about 6.6 volts IF the internal are perfect (which they probably are not). Because the internal will loose power on their own they will typically be 6 to 6.4 volts, and thus the external may be powering the camera down to 6 volts. This is ideal as this means every drop of power is sucked from the external batteries. This also means battery LOW goes from 7.2 volts to 6 volts (1 volt per battery). This is why BATTERY LOW on externals can be many weeks long. But this is not a problem as the user should not change the external batteries until the display or report switches to BAT OK, which means the external are completely dead and the internal have taken over.

Im not sure how you determined your batteries only used 33% but something went wrong in your test , if you pulled them after your report Switched to BAT OK the external 6 should have been dead. If you pulled them the day you saw EXT LOW on your report you could have used them longer but not 66% longer. In rare cases that happen in certain weather conditions ive seen the external go from ok, to low, to ok again. This is rare and typical happens on very cold nights followed by warm days where the unit is in full sun and the batteries warm up.

I think he may be referring to the consumed capacity as batteries only consume a portion of capacity (amps). I think I remember that ~60% of the amps remain is about right. I would suggest buying a couple flashlights or devices and run used batteries until they're zero.

 

[RRAB58]

heres the short easy answer-
use an external battery pack on the G series or the new soon to arrive dual power bank on your K , G cameras and you will be happy - When your report shows your cam has switched to internals "BAT OK" or with the Dual power bank when it switches to bank #2 plan to swap out the externals at your next earliest convenience ideally within 30 days if possible.

Heres the long answer -
A brand new battery is about 1.6 volts. Thus internals start at about 6.4 volts and external about 9.6 volts. We have learned “good” batteries (Rayovac) are good to about 1.1 volts. We set B LOW at 1.2 volts.

INTERNAL LOW is about 4.8 volts and dead is 4.4 volts. Between LOW and DEAD picture quality (night IR) can suffer some as batteries do not have enough power to drive the capacitor /LED's.

EXTERNAL LOW is about 7.2 volts. However, the external will continue to be used until the external are EQUAL to the internal, about 6.6 volts IF the internal are perfect (which they probably are not). Because the internal will loose power on their own they will typically be 6 to 6.4 volts, and thus the external may be powering the camera down to 6 volts. This is ideal as this means every drop of power is sucked from the external batteries. This also means battery LOW goes from 7.2 volts to 6 volts (1 volt per battery). This is why BATTERY LOW on externals can be many weeks long. But this is not a problem as the user should not change the external batteries until the display or report switches to BAT OK, which means the external are completely dead and the internal have taken over.

Im not sure how you determined your batteries only used 33% but something went wrong in your test , if you pulled them after your report Switched to BAT OK the external 6 should have been dead. If you pulled them the day you saw EXT LOW on your report you could have used them longer but not 66% longer. In rare cases that happen in certain weather conditions ive seen the external go from ok, to low, to ok again. This is rare and typical happens on very cold nights followed by warm days where the unit is in full sun and the batteries warm up.

Here's to the enquiring minds that want to know. Readings are not absolute as the voltages are just what I had on spare batteries.
If you are taking enough pictures that drain Ext and Int packs, you probably need to increase your delay or decrease your herd. lol

 

[Jason6517]

Quick question.
Just deployed my first cuddelink system this afternoon and everything is working great so far.

We have the cameras set to take 3 images each sequence but only one of those images are transmitted when it sends the email? Is this correct or do I have something set incorrectly. I would like to get all images if possible.

 

[john volkman]

Quick question.
Just deployed my first cuddelink system this afternoon and everything is working great so far.

We have the cameras set to take 3 images each sequence but only one of those images are transmitted when it sends the email? Is this correct or do I have something set incorrectly. I would like to get all images if possible.

burst or multiple image per trigger is not ideal for cuddelink mode. You will get the first image but not the others, it will save them on the sd card in the remote camera. I recommend camera delay of 5 seconds or longer, 1 image per trigger , Cuddelink delay of 5 seconds or longer. Batch 10,20 or 30 for cell image transmission. 30 is most efficient and uses the least battery.