JLemon
5 year old buck +
I’m over 100 days on cheap D cells from Menards.
Cuddeback's Cuddelink
- Thread starter Peplin Creek
- Start date
Bpressley
5 year old buck +
I've had J cameras work down to around 6.6 volts. So you have some time but you're getting there.
john volkman
5 year old buck +
like Fred stated, you need an sd card in each camera for it to work, this is almost certainly your issue.
I thought that might have been my problem so I took one with me when I went to check
Just goes to show % is useless. It shows BP 50%. Definitely not 50% remaining. It’s also according to exactly when voltage is recorded. I ran tests and the voltage instantaneously drops up to ~1/2volt (per black flash) temporarily when flashing. So if it’s recording volts during dip that’s not representative either. If you’re close to camera voltage shutoff value, that temporarily dip in voltage will switch camera off or to internal pack.
FredG
5 year old buck +
Those heavy drops of 0.4 volts or so only happen with the Powerhouse flash modules while the super-capacitors are hitting the batteries hard to recharge. The standard flash modules (all J cams and dual flash on G and K) are much more orderly in their decline. Your point is a good one and well made though... If you are monitoring the battery level on a G cam with a powerhouse flash module you want to only analyze it by the highs in between the heavy recharging dips.
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Yes that’s correct Fred, mine are PH BF.
I get Ext Low @ 7.77v. Not exactly sure where cut-off voltage is. IMO, it may not be a finite cut-off value. If last pic before dying is a night flash, it may take that picture and continue to drain batteries on cap recharge, taking voltage below the normal shut-off value. They seem to dive fast after 50%.
FredG
5 year old buck +
Funny you should mention those numbers. The last external pack of 6 D's I had go down checked out when I got home at 4 batteries with 1.4 volts and 2 with 1.1 volts (7.8 volts). I put the 4 with 1.4 volts in the internal bay of another Powerhouse G cam starting at 4 x 1.4 = 5.6 volts and so far after 1257 pics over 9 days those 4 internals are at 5.49 volts this morning and going strong. I'm assuming that there were two weak batteries in that group that caused the external pack to go down?? Have you checked the voltage on those "dead" batteries? You might find some of them have life left.
I did. Same as you. The internals are 6v and they ran I believe to ~4.8v.
IMO, the specific voltage may be a little different in difference cases. But, in majority of cases an individual “battery- cell” is considered dead or relatively close
to dead at 1.0 to 1.2v. It is not the overall voltage of the batteries in series. It is simply that there is not sufficient enough chemical reaction to make electrons flow in a single battery.
On a meter, it may show 1.3+ volts, but under a load(ex. 50ma) the voltage falls like a rock. Remove the load and it may well again read 1.3v to 1.4v.
Each battery has its own chemical reaction taking place. If for some unknown reason the reaction is weak, the electrons will cease to flow, possibly at even a higher voltage. When electrons cease to flow you have no current (amperage).
A battery pack in series is only as good as it’s weakest cell. You may can group used batteries as you did and gain some appreciable amount of power, but there no way to know how long they will work by testing voltage. I’ve started changing them all out. I’m using the BP 50% as a rule of thumb to change mine.
Also, be aware that in most cases it is the dead batteries that leak.
FredG
5 year old buck +
Yes! This is why you don't want to rely on a standard multi-meter to test batteries unless it has a dedicated battery load test circuit such as the Innova 3320 (what I use). But a good quality small cell battery tester is a reliable and much more convenient tool... no fumbling with probes and rolling batteries.
If my cameras were closer to home I would do exactly as you Fred. But you have to strategize money vs convenience. If you’re 2+ hrs away and getting 1000’s of pics a month, you have to sacrifice in one way or the other.
My brother says I’m just wasting brain cells worrying about all of it. He may have a valid point!
Post some pictures.
That report has 4 different days on it. Maybe annoying but no game changer. I get last 19 different reports every day.
It looks like deer eyes on middle picture.
You have a lot of thin brush that a small animal could be in that does not stand out to the eye, but does to IR sensor.
When you pull SD card you can go back and forth on subsequent pics and look for anomaly from pic to pic. See a spot of sunlight on one pic that is not on previous pic? If a spot of light happened fast enough it will trigger. I’ve got coons that deal me misery only at night. I cannot see them without flipping thru pics. If you had a FLIR or thermographic camera you could readily see it. My brother (not Cudde) has pictures of just one quail.
Also, not much SD space remaining. Do you have an SD card in camera?
Yes I do. I checked the cam a few days ago and put in a new card. I went to settings and hit clear assuming it would clear old pics off the card. I'm thinking it cleared all settings? Also how do you determine what pics get sent via text/ email? I have the batch at 15.
FredG
5 year old buck +
You were correct to use the "Clear" command to delete old pics... actually it formats the SD card which is what you always want to do when you put in a new card. But it's pretty easy to forget to comfirm the "Clear" command by pushing the up or down arrow to finish off the job before moving on. The "Clear" command will not clear your settings, it just formats the SD card.
From the report it looks like the only cam you have running is the K camera as a stand-alone cell cam. Is this correct? If so, did you turn off the Cuddelink radio or do you have it on and the K camera set to "Home"? Either way, the only restriction of the number of pics emailed by the camera is controlled by the "Delay" setting chosen in the camera settings... there is no CL Delay option when in stand alone-mode. Even though it makes no difference whether you leave the CL radio activated or not, it seems to me that all you will do by leaving it on is waste battery power with the CL radio running with no other camera to talk to, but I could be wrong here. A second advantage to turning off the CL radio while in stand-alone mode is that you will then get the option to email thumbnails, 1meg pics or full rez pics.
Edit.... Just looked at a picture of the K cameras and realized it doesn't have a selection slider on the PIR like the G models... It's permanently set at narrow by design, so please disregard this last paragraph! It doesn't apply!
But none of this addresses your real issue of empty pics. Most likely it is a issue in the camera, but if you have left your PIR selector down (wide sensing area) it is quite common when critters are about 10 or less from the camera to get triggers before the animal enters the frame, and depending on your delay setting, followed by a more centered pic or no second pic at all if the delay is high and the critter moves on through. The wide setting on the PIR generally won't hurt you if have a fast delay set (FAP) but can kill you if you have a long delay.
Edit.... Just looked at a picture of the K cameras and realized it doesn't have a selection slider on the PIR like the G models... It's permanently set at narrow by design, so please disregard this last paragraph! It doesn't apply!
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I have the cell mode on and cl off. The last 3 weeks have all been animals, now this past week false pics. Not sure but maybe the sensitivity of the sensor changed? I also dont believe I confirmed the clear command. Overall I like the cell cam, hopefully It doesn't have a issue with taking empty pics though.
