Cuddeback's Cuddelink

[yoderjac]

I'd love to hear from someone that has actually tried this system. In theory it seems perfect for our farm as it is very sensitive to pressure and we have terrible cell reception eliminating cellular cams as an option.

If you have line of sight and relatively short distances, it may be a fit. RF transmission at these frequencies can be challenging. BEC has been doing this for years at a much higher cost. Not much has changed in radio technology that would improve things recently. You may want to check out some of the BEC threads and expect performance to be somewhat less and cost to be significantly less with the accompanying lower reliability and lifespan.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Peplin Creek]

Alright, I couldn't take it anymore, I just ordered 2 cameras with the caps, one for being the home unit and the other connected to it. I want to test out ranges and battery life. I would have liked 3 units so I could test out the daisy chaining... if all goes well I might still go that route in a month or two.

 

[Peplin Creek]

I ordered 2 of them. One as the home unit and the other as a remote. I will report back distances. I have a plot that is exactly 1/4 mile away where I park the truck through heavy timber. First section being oaks, then into pine trees, I have my doubts..... but from what I have been reading online, people do seem to be getting advertised distances so maybe there is hope..

 

[yoderjac]

Sounds great! I'm interested in your report!

 

[john volkman]

I have been using it for quite a while(since last fall) , i was actually one of the first people to test the system out, it works as advertised and in many cases range is beyond 1/4 mile. Very steep terrain or a large metal building can limit it some but in most cases 1/4 mile or more in wooded areas can be expected. I live on one of the properties i hunt and i keep the home camera on my desk and can check images multiple times per day. Its a very slick system and will change the way trail cams are used. There is a lot of extensions to this system in the works that will be released in the future. I sold all my other cameras and just use the cuddelink now. if anyone has questions fire away i should be able to help.

 

[john volkman]

I've been using this system for a while , if anyone has questions fire away, it works as advertised and it will be a game changer in cam usage. There are a lot of extensions to this system in the works. Here are some images that were sent via the link system. I live on one of the properties i hunt and my home camera sits on my desk and i can check the images multiple times per day. The advertised range and the ability to daisy chain them together is also real. I have experience with the BEC system since a good friend owns and uses a pile of them. I can say without a doubt this system is easier to use ,more mobile and discreet , more convenient and the transmitted images are as good if not better.

 

[Peplin Creek]

How is battery life? Both with daisy chained cameras and without going back to the home unit?

 

[john volkman]

How is battery life? Both with daisy chained cameras and without going back to the home unit?

with the standard 4 d cells and a good amount of images being sent "home" i am getting min 75 days and up to 100 days on a set of 4 batteries before a low notice on the report .I used these in december of last year and had similar results on a food plot. I actually killed a buck in my bean plot last december by watching the plot daily with the cams and then picking the tree to sit in the night i killed him without hunting it until that night. I have a couple running with the optional battery booster plugged in that holds another 6 d cells, this unit has went over 5 months already. If you want to place a camera in a location that you dont want to enter for over 4 months i would recommend adding the battery booster and using a 16 gb card. I haven't used the cameras without the link set up but i would assume you would get almost a year on a set. Each camera builds a report image every two hours (only saves the most recent image) each time you check the home camera you can see the status of that camera , battery days used, level, images taken , images on card,avail space on card, name of location, number of location etc.

 

[john volkman]

also i found that when the leaves were off the trees and colder temps that the signal was even stronger than midsummer with heavy foliage etc, so during fall and early winter i would expect even better range in many situations.

 

[bueller]

The threads from the general discussion and trailcam pictures have been merged...

 

[Peplin Creek]

So I feel like you have an inside scoop with cuddeback, what can we expect? what cell provider are they going to use?

 

[john volkman]

at this time plans are for both Verizon and AT&T but that isnt confirmed

 

[browndog]

John, are you a rep with Cuddeback?

 

[john volkman]

John, are you a rep with Cuddeback?

yes in wi

 

[yoderjac]

with the standard 4 d cells and a good amount of images being sent "home" i am getting min 75 days and up to 100 days on a set of 4 batteries before a low notice on the report .I used these in december of last year and had similar results on a food plot. I actually killed a buck in my bean plot last december by watching the plot daily with the cams and then picking the tree to sit in the night i killed him without hunting it until that night. I have a couple running with the optional battery booster plugged in that holds another 6 d cells, this unit has went over 5 months already. If you want to place a camera in a location that you dont want to enter for over 4 months i would recommend adding the battery booster and using a 16 gb card. I haven't used the cameras without the link set up but i would assume you would get almost a year on a set. Each camera builds a report image every two hours (only saves the most recent image) each time you check the home camera you can see the status of that camera , battery days used, level, images taken , images on card,avail space on card, name of location, number of location etc.
View attachment 14271

What resolution is of the pictures you are having transmitted back? Does it automatically transmit back all pictures at the set resolution or does it save them to an SD card and only transmit back pictures you select?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[john volkman]

it saves the image on the card on the remote camera at whatever resolution you set it up at which can be as high as 20 mp. The image that is sent to the home camera is a lower resolution VGA image, the images i posted above are all images sent at the lower vga resolution. I have found the transmitted image quality more than adequate from a scouting perspective, if you desire a full rez image there will be one on the card on the remote camera waiting for you.

 

[Red Picqua]

so here is the scenario.

you have the system set up. you have 4 cameras.

cam 1 has 20 pics
cam 2 has 100 pics
cam 3 has 100 pics
cam 4 is the home cam has 200 pics.

can you clear out cameras 1, 2, 3 from number 4? meaning reset the count to zero after you look at the pics?

What if cam 4 only has the memory for 200 pics what happens to the other pics from 1, 2, 3?

What if cam 4 becomes junk then do all the others become just standard ones where you need to pull the cards?

seems like a neat set up.

 

[yoderjac]

What resolution is of the pictures you are having transmitted back? Does it automatically transmit back all pictures at the set resolution or does it save them to an SD card and only transmit back pictures you select?

Thanks,

Jack

That makes your battery usage numbers make much more sense. The real consumer of power is the combination of black flash illumination with reasonable flash range and high resolution picture transmission. You are probably right that the low resolution images are probably adequate for the casual scouter who uses cameras in temporary locations with a short range PIR camera.

Looks like it is not a fit for those of us trying to collect long-term trending data. You need true black flash to resolve camera avoidance and the full resolution images when using a long range PIR. You need that zoom capability to be able to evaluate antlers to identify individual bucks. Collecting them from the SD cards defeats the main benefit of wireless and that is very infrequent visits to the camera. Without the ability to transmit full resolution images, it doesn't look like a fit for folks like me. Once a system can transmit full resolution images, the next technical challenge becomes sufficient battery life to support it.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Peplin Creek]

it saves the image on the card on the remote camera at whatever resolution you set it up at which can be as high as 20 mp. The image that is sent to the home camera is a lower resolution VGA image, the images i posted above are all images sent at the lower vga resolution. I have found the transmitted image quality more than adequate from a scouting perspective, if you desire a full rez image there will be one on the card on the remote camera waiting for you.

For us cellular guys that's a pretty standard resolution. 640 x 480 is pretty standard. Those thumbnails are about what I expect. Jack is right, that's big difference if your serious about a particular buck and if you can afford the cost of a buckeye cam system, it might make more sense to go that route. However I am not overly thrilled with buckeyes picture quality for the price paid.

With all of that said, I think if you look at what cuddeback is offering vs the cost. It really seems like this is good system for serious hunters who want to limit human scent checking cameras. I think for 80% of the hunting population maybe more, this is more practicle. Cost is considerably less and if people can deploy them for a hunting season and not have to swap out batteries every month, why not......

 

[john volkman]

That makes your battery usage numbers make much more sense. The real consumer of power is the combination of black flash illumination with reasonable flash range and high resolution picture transmission. You are probably right that the low resolution images are probably adequate for the casual scouter who uses cameras in temporary locations with a short range PIR camera.

Looks like it is not a fit for those of us trying to collect long-term trending data. You need true black flash to resolve camera avoidance and the full resolution images when using a long range PIR. You need that zoom capability to be able to evaluate antlers to identify individual bucks. Collecting them from the SD cards defeats the main benefit of wireless and that is very infrequent visits to the camera. Without the ability to transmit full resolution images, it doesn't look like a fit for folks like me. Once a system can transmit full resolution images, the next technical challenge becomes sufficient battery life to support it.

Thanks,

Jack

Jack, to clarify.... the dual flash camera can be set to either true back flash or standard IR , whatever is desired.The camera has both modules. You can even set it to capture images in one and video in the other. The images that are transmitted are not in full resolution but personally i cant see that making it difficult to ID individual bucks.All the images i posted are images that were transmitted in the low rez.
I personally set my camera to take Image in IR and video in black flash, the IR flash is so quick on this camera that i cannot imagine camera avoidance occuring as a result. In fact, i think camera avoidance is more about the actual physical camera hanging there coupled with human scent than it is the flash. I do feel that video mode in IR can spook individual deer. I guess that is a debate for another thread.
The real eye opener for me was after using this system last fall/winter and this summer is how much human intrusion negatively impacted my hunting area even in the summer. I live on the property and assumed the deer were somewhat used to my intrusions even though i restricted them to midday hours. There has been a world of difference in deer usage during daylight and nighttime hours in both fall winter and this summer. I even found it to help with turkey hunting this spring.