Cuddeback's Cuddelink

[BC18]

what

what brand and type batteries are you running in the camera and running in the booster? im assuming mega means Dual power bank ? what camera are you running these on and do you have batteries in the camera ?

thanks for replying Jon!
Im running RayoVac High Energy per your instructions on this thread. I started using them in February. Prior to that I was using Duracell....Procells and Coppertops all last spring/summer/fall/winter since inception. Never had an issue with those outside of quick consumption but once I incorporated the battery packs I got 3 months. I have never mixed different batteries and/or new/old. I think it may be the 3358's are trash after a winter(hence the explosions). They are made of cheap plastic and once I saw a few with parts everywhere on the ground that confirmed it. They didn't have any warranty that i entered on cudde's website and they were only $20 so I was F-it, but after 20 of these malfunctioning and wasting batteries(!!!!)
I'm kind p'od. Now that these new Super-duper-mega 20lb packs of batteries that I spent a day setting up are not functioning properly I'm really upset.
So... how do I get my battery packs working correctly?

 

[john volkman]

thanks for replying Jon!
Im running RayoVac High Energy per your instructions on this thread. I started using them in February. Prior to that I was using Duracell....Procells and Coppertops all last spring/summer/fall/winter since inception. Never had an issue with those outside of quick consumption but once I incorporated the battery packs I got 3 months. I have never mixed different batteries and/or new/old. I think it may be the 3358's are trash after a winter(hence the explosions). They are made of cheap plastic and once I saw a few with parts everywhere on the ground that confirmed it. They didn't have any warranty that i entered on cudde's website and they were only $20 so I was F-it, but after 20 of these malfunctioning and wasting batteries(!!!!)
I'm kind p'od. Now that these new Super-duper-mega 20lb packs of batteries that I spent a day setting up are not functioning properly I'm really upset.
So... how do I get my battery packs working correctly?

to have multiple 3358s work fine for months and them all EXPLODE would be very odd, i guess the batteries could have frozewm but that wouldn't explain exploding. We have sold 10's of thousands of the 3358 and have had a handful come back with issues. To have them work great and then all of a sudden all go on you makes me think something else went wrong. What camera model are you using these on? G's or J's? if you are using Js and had lithiums in the camera that could be the cause, you cant mix lithiums with alkaline in any way even if its just thru a common power cable.
on the Dual power banks to get them to recognize you need them on 7.9 or later, you said you have 8.0. If running them on J's keep the cameras empty and only run batteries in the DPB. If G's you can run internal D's and they should recognize. Again many are running these and they are recognizing unless they have old firmware.

 

[BC18]

to have multiple 3358s work fine for months and them all EXPLODE would be very odd, i guess the batteries could have frozewm but that wouldn't explain exploding. We have sold 10's of thousands of the 3358 and have had a handful come back with issues. To have them work great and then all of a sudden all go on you makes me think something else went wrong. What camera model are you using these on? G's or J's? if you are using Js and had lithiums in the camera that could be the cause, you cant mix lithiums with alkaline in any way even if its just thru a common power cable.
on the Dual power banks to get them to recognize you need them on 7.9 or later, you said you have 8.0. If running them on J's keep the cameras empty and only run batteries in the DPB. If G's you can run internal D's and they should recognize. Again many are running these and they are recognizing unless they have old firmware.

 

[BC18]

to have multiple 3358s work fine for months and them all EXPLODE would be very odd, i guess the batteries could have frozewm but that wouldn't explain exploding. We have sold 10's of thousands of the 3358 and have had a handful come back with issues. To have them work great and then all of a sudden all go on you makes me think something else went wrong. What camera model are you using these on? G's or J's? if you are using Js and had lithiums in the camera that could be the cause, you cant mix lithiums with alkaline in any way even if its just thru a common power cable.
on the Dual power banks to get them to recognize you need them on 7.9 or later, you said you have 8.0. If running them on J's keep the cameras empty and only run batteries in the DPB. If G's you can run internal D's and they should recognize. Again many are running these and they are recognizing unless they have old firmware.

8.0 on all
Sorry for the double post, I have 15 G's and 5 J's and yes all 5 J's had lithium's where battery packs exploded. HAHA? Seriously?....I can't use the best batteries available with these cheap chinese components? is that what Cudde is selling? If so, there should be bold letters on the instructions stating so.
That still doesn't explain the other 15 not recognizing battery packs anymore. Let alone the 5 new mega packs I just installed and spent 20min a camera waiting to drain capacitors etc(20 a cam).

 

[john volkman]

8.0 on all
Sorry for the double post, I have 15 G's and 5 J's and yes all 5 J's had lithium's where battery packs exploded. HAHA? Seriously?....I can't use the best batteries available with these cheap chinese components? is that what Cudde is selling? If so, there should be bold letters on the instructions stating so.
That still doesn't explain the other 15 not recognizing battery packs anymore. Let alone the 5 new mega packs I just installed and spent 20min a camera waiting to drain capacitors etc(20 a cam).

This is most certainly your problem. . To my knowledge battery manufacturers tell you never to mix them. This is also why i continually asked you what cameras you were using starting way back in your first post.. You cannot mix lithium in any way with alkaline. The lithium batteries run power back into the alkaline causing issues. It has nothing to do with chinese or cheap components. You cant do that with any american made components either ( good luck finding USA made electrical components in any trail camera).Not only shouldnt you do this, its a waste of money to use lithiums and to use them in this way with a booster. you can run the booster without any batteries in your J's and still get 90-150 days of life depending on factors. or you can buy a 4 d battery pack for them to replace the aa pack that will cost you less than 12 lithiums and save you money in the long run. IF you have 15 G's all not recognizing the 3358 battery pack i'm guessing you are either using the wrong cable or something else is wrong. To have 15 out of 15 not recognizing means something else is going on.
you should call Cuddeback and explain what happened on your Js' with the lithiums and they may work with you on a warranty.

 

[md19]

A bunch of us had some service issues yesterday and today. On the gen2 thread. No idea if it’s a Verizon thing or a cudde thing.

***As of 9pm last night I'm back up & running. Must have been a cell issue. Everything came back online & working perfectly.

 

[md19]

I'm running 8.0 on all of mine. I have been dealing with the battery pack issue since early spring when I had to change all the batteries out completely after winter. I had 3358's on all of them at the time. When I arrived in late February...5 of them looked like they exploded (batteries on the ground and the 2 plastic holding pieces + springs strewn about). All the cams are 1-1.5 yrs old and have had battery packs on since they were available.
Maybe the packs are fried? I'm upset because I've probably burned through a lot of good batteries over bad connections. I check the cords every time at the cams and have had squirrels chew through many. They sent 2 cords with the 3358's(long & short). I use both on different cameras. That still doesn't explain why the 5 new mega packs are not registering with new cords? I did the whole "remove baterries/wait/plug in cord/install batteries deal to no avail...maybe I need to ....Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start?

Grab a roll of rodent resistant sleeving for the cables (you can slide it over the antannae as well). Just deployed this weekend, so will have to go through the season to see if it works, but it was easy to install and way cheaper than buying all new power cords.

https://www.electriduct.com/Rodent-Resistant-Braided-Sleeving.html

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Has anyone had any issues using the Power Cord Model PW-3617 with the G-series (G-5062) cameras? I haven't been able to get any of my G's to work with that power cord. The J's and my K all work without any issues. The power cord that comes with the 3358 battery pack works well with all of my cameras, including the G's I mentioned above.

I think I know what the problem is. Left is the 3358 battery pack plugin and the PW-3617 12-V charging cable is on the right. The 12-V charging cable has a larger lip that is preventing a solid connection. You can see in the other photos and how this affects how well the cable plugs into the G cameras. I carefully shaved the lip down with a sharp knife and was able to get the G camera to power up. Just a heads up in case anyone else has this issue in the future.

 

[ormsbybrian]

Has anyone had any issues using the Power Cord Model PW-3617 with the G-series cameras? I haven't been able to get any of my G's to work with that power cord. The J's and my K all work without any issues. The power cord that comes with the 3358 battery pack works well with all of my cameras, including the G's I mentioned above.

I think I know what the problem is. Left is the 3358 battery pack plugin and the PW-3617 12-V charging cable is on the right. The 12-V charging cable has a larger lip that is preventing a solid connection. You can see in the other photos and how this affects how well the cable plugs into the G cameras. I carefully shaved the lip down with a sharp knife and was able to get the G camera to power up. Just a heads up in case anyone else has this issue in the future.

I have all older Gen1 G-Series (w/ flapper plug) so I need to use the adapter that comes with the cable....I have had NO issues with that setup. Speaking of adapters, if anyone wants to get rid of the adapter that comes with the PW-3617, I could use some more to adapt more of my older G-cameras to the power options I home brewed for my J cams that I am getting rid of (these use that same plug)...any takers?...Cuddeback won't sell separately, the Customer Service person didn't even believe me it came with an adapter so I can't order them.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I have all older Gen1 G-Series (w/ flapper plug) so I need to use the adapter that comes with the cable....I have had NO issues with that setup. Speaking of adapters, if anyone wants to get rid of the adapter that comes with the PW-3617, I could use some more to adapt more of my older G-cameras to the power options I home brewed for my J cams that I am getting rid of (these use that same plug)...any takers?...Cuddeback won't sell separately, the Customer Service person didn't even believe me it came with an adapter so I can't order them.

I should have mentioned in my post that it was a newer G-series camera (5062). I have a bunch (8+) of the adapters that you can have. Shoot me a PM with your address and I'll mail them off to you.

 

[ormsbybrian]

I should have mentioned in my post that it was a newer G-series camera (5062). I have a bunch (8+) of the adapters that you can have. Shoot me a PM with your address and I'll mail them off to you.

Thanks!...PM sent.

 

[tn4hunting]

Fresnel lens only changes detection, it has nothing to do with the actual image

John, I take to change the lens just take the front cover off to get to the fresnel lens area? I ordered two to change my J cameras on my food plots.

 

[john volkman]

John, I take to change the lens just take the front cover off to get to the fresnel lens area? I ordered two to change my J cameras on my food plots.

yes very easy process

 

[tn4hunting]

a couple of questions on the below report


Cuddelink links - before i had a repeater i had a camera linked to this J due to location at bottom of ridge. Now i added a repeater and linked this camera to the repeater and thought my bottom of ridge camera was linked to my repeater also. Does the "2" mean the camera at the bottom of ridge is still linked through this camera?

Batter days - Does the "8" mean how many days left on the batteries or how long the camera has recognized the batteries being installed? I reset this camera to connect to the repeater and took the batteries out about a week ago but just want to understand this.

thanks

Also, installed the Fresnal so we will see on range this week!

 

[md19]

Can anyone offer some advice on how to clear a backlog of pics through the system more quickly? Quick backstory, deployed Cell home, 2 repeaters & 4 cams. Cell home modem failed and have 1k + pics slowly dribbling in every hour (300 attachments per email)

Trying to figure out if settings can be manipulated via the app to push these through quicker.

I had a similar issue with another separate system that had a cell service outage and it fired back up and sent pics every 15mins until the backlog was cleared. I think I had the same settings on both...

 

[john volkman]

a couple of questions on the below report
View attachment 31162

Cuddelink links - before i had a repeater i had a camera linked to this J due to location at bottom of ridge. Now i added a repeater and linked this camera to the repeater and thought my bottom of ridge camera was linked to my repeater also. Does the "2" mean the camera at the bottom of ridge is still linked through this camera?

Batter days - Does the "8" mean how many days left on the batteries or how long the camera has recognized the batteries being installed? I reset this camera to connect to the repeater and took the batteries out about a week ago but just want to understand this.

thanks

Also, installed the Fresnal so we will see on range this week!

2 means its linking thru another unit to get home, there isnt a way to tell for sure what unit that is.
battery days are how many days the batteries have been in the camera.

 

[john volkman]

Can anyone offer some advice on how to clear a backlog of pics through the system more quickly? Quick backstory, deployed Cell home, 2 repeaters & 4 cams. Cell home modem failed and have 1k + pics slowly dribbling in every hour (300 attachments per email)

Trying to figure out if settings can be manipulated via the app to push these through quicker.

I had a similar issue with another separate system that had a cell service outage and it fired back up and sent pics every 15mins until the backlog was cleared. I think I had the same settings on both...

you can clear your cell que, remote que and also sd card remotely if you are set up on 8.0 or 8.1 firmware. this will let you start fresh

 

[tn4hunting]

2 means its linking thru another unit to get home, there isnt a way to tell for sure what unit that is.
battery days are how many days the batteries have been in the camera.

thanks!

so any camera going thru the repeater should technically show 2(if i think it's using the repeater)? 1st link to repeater and 2nd link to home from the repeater?

 

[md19]

you can clear your cell que, remote que and also sd card remotely if you are set up on 8.0 or 8.1 firmware. this will let you start fresh

I understand being able to clear the queue remotely. I don't want to do that as I'd lose 3 weeks of pics. Was just wondering if there was a settings tweak somewhere that would push the backlogged pics through the system quicker than hourly.

 

[john volkman]

thanks!

so any camera going thru the repeater should technically show 2(if i think it's using the repeater)? 1st link to repeater and 2nd link to home from the repeater?

correct