Cuddeback's Cuddelink

[JLemon]

I have the cams set on a 3 shot burst every 10 seconds. When a pile of does decide to camp on the feed for a couple of hours....the number of pics adds up....FAST!!!

If there’s a way to go solar at that spot I’d seriously consider it. Otherwise buy stock in your favorite battery lol.

 

[RLittle]

Short answer to all your questions- YES

5000 picture a week! What kind of power source do you have for this set-up? For this many pics you gonna have to go big on batteries!

IMO, these Cuddelinks, or any similar cameras use more power. Go big on batteries and you’ll be fine. A little bit of a learning curve, but there’s some great knowledge on this site to steer you.

Cuddelink is a great system. I have no problems or regrets!!

All my cameras are just regular Brownings. They run off of 6 AA batteries. I typically get about 90-100 days out of regular energizers or duracells.

 

[RRAB58]

All my cameras are just regular Brownings. They run off of 6 AA batteries. I typically get about 90-100 days out of regular energizers or duracells.

If you go with Cuddelink, I’ll save you a lot aggravation- “Go with D cell cameras & get the Cudde Power external battery pack!” I do not think Solar or rechargeable’s will keep up with that number of pictures unless you have bigger panels, bigger batteries, and a lot of sunshine!

 

[john volkman]

I have the cams set on a 3 shot burst every 10 seconds. When a pile of does decide to camp on the feed for a couple of hours....the number of pics adds up....FAST!!!

burst mode is not ideal with cuddelink, set your delay at 5 seconds, 1 image per trigger and you should get all images sent home, on burst mode you will only get the first image sent and the other two will be on the card in the camera.

 

[john volkman]

Ok guys,
Im a newbie here and was actually sent to this site for this very conversation. Ive spent most of my day (should be working) reading through this thread.
Im currently running 10 regular cameras. Not cell cameras. Just regular cams that I have to pull the cards on. My buddy suggested that I look into the Cuddelink cell system. So here I am.

As I read through the thread. I noticed that quite a bit of this conversation deals with battery life and how to improve it. Im curious, without any type of secondary back up, how many pics (ball park figure) can I expect to get out of a set of batteries? Also approximately how long can I expect a set of batteries to last? its more about days than pics although a high number of pics can drain the battery. depending on what battery booster you use you can expect 90-150 days , the new dual power bank may stretch that to 180-360 days.
I understand that there are a lot of variables to consider so I guess Ill just throw this out there. Typically on most of our cameras we get between 70-300 pics/ week. But,
on the cameras at the feed stations, that number jumps to 2700-5500/ week. the max a cuddelink system can handle is a total of 30K images a month, a camera that is getting 5500 per week is going to slow your system down dramatically i would lengthen your delay significantly on a feeder.

Another question i have that i didnt see addressed is.....*hypothetical situation*...camera 1 is 300yds from the home camera and can send a signal directly to home. If i place another camera between camera 1 and home. Will it send to the added camera then home? Or will it still continue to send directly to home? if a remote camera can reach him on its own it will always do so. the system figures this out on its own.

What I have in mind at this time to get started is this.....

4 cameras
1 home that can send pics via cell (i dont want this one to be a camera. Just a recieving and sending unit. Does Cuddeback even make this?
I would also buy battery adapters for all units. There are still a few of the cell home units out there, pm me for a dealer that you can get this from. There are some great prices out there on this unit.

I really dont (cant?) go the solar route as most of my cameras are placed in the timber. I guess that could be an option after all the foliage falls.
Also, the cell service in this area is rather good and I plan on placing the "home" unit about 40' up in a tree. You only want to use solar in FULL SUN with panel facing south

Im not sure if im on the right track. Any info or input will be helpful.
Thanks,
Rob

Answers above in red

 

[john volkman]

When you turn off the k cam, do you have to retest the cell mode? Ever since I switched cards and turned off the camera, no pics sent. Also does Cabelas sell the g cams?

you should not have to re test but its a good idea to do so. Is it possible you turned the cell function off instead of the camera ? yes cabelas sells G's but not all stores stock them so call ahead before you drive to a particular store.

 

[RLittle]

Answers above in red

Thank you, I sent you a friend request on FB.....at least i think its you...:-)

 

[Squadron]

I setup the home camera two weeks ago and added the remote cameras Saturday. The home camera is taking pictures but not sending them this week but I am getting the pictures from the remote camera. What have I done wrong?

 

[john volkman]

I setup the home camera two weeks ago and added the remote cameras Saturday. The home camera is taking pictures but not sending them this week but I am getting the pictures from the remote camera. What have I done wrong?
View attachment 25583

Sd images on the home unit includes images from the remotes and the home unit. the home unit sends All pics in que each time it hits 30 images or whatever batch or time period you set it at, Im assuming you have a setting wrong on your home camera if you feel its not sending pics. if settings are correct and you still feel it is taking but not sending images you need to send it back. You can call CS when you have you home unit in hand and they can walk thru the settings with you. I would also suggest you update your remote cams to the latest firmware which is 7.6 at your next convenience.

 

[Squadron]

Sd images on the home unit includes images from the remotes and the home unit. the home unit sends All pics in que each time it hits 30 images or whatever batch or time period you set it at, Im assuming you have a setting wrong on your home camera if you feel its not sending pics. if settings are correct and you still feel it is taking but not sending images you need to send it back. You can call CS when you have you home unit in hand and they can walk thru the settings with you. I would also suggest you update your remote cams to the latest firmware which is 7.6 at your next convenience.

That makes sense and I knew that from what I have read. I'll check on the home unit this weekend and get the firmware updated on the remote units. Thanks for you help.

 

[RRAB58]

When you turn off the k cam, do you have to retest the cell mode? Ever since I switched cards and turned off the camera, no pics sent. Also does Cabelas sell the g cams?

As simple as it is, I re-test every time.

Are you getting the report?

 

[spaniel]

First battery life check. I have 4 cameras at 83 days and 2 at 68, plus a home transmitter at 83 with the 6 D-cell external. Got my first "Low!" warning today on the very last camera set out. At 74 pics in 68 days. Really surprised that was the one to go first, must attribute it to a bad battery or something. Even the transmitter is on "Ext OK" still. Guess I find time to get down there in the next couple weeks and do a full battery replacement on the whole network... These are J cameras, once the new gear to enable the big battery backups to hook up to them is out I'll invest in that for next season.

 

[JLemon]

First battery life check. I have 4 cameras at 83 days and 2 at 68, plus a home transmitter at 83 with the 6 D-cell external. Got my first "Low!" warning today on the very last camera set out. At 74 pics in 68 days. Really surprised that was the one to go first, must attribute it to a bad battery or something. Even the transmitter is on "Ext OK" still. Guess I find time to get down there in the next couple weeks and do a full battery replacement on the whole network... These are J cameras, once the new gear to enable the big battery backups to hook up to them is out I'll invest in that for next season.

Interesting. I have 4 of the G cameras well over 100 days and just bought a J with the D cell battery pack plus I hooked it to a 3358 D cell battery pack so all my cameras are on 12 batteries. I would have thought you would get at least a 100 days with your set up.

 

[spaniel]

Interesting. I have 4 of the G cameras well over 100 days and just bought a J with the D cell battery pack plus I hooked it to a 3358 D cell battery pack so all my cameras are on 12 batteries. I would have thought you would get at least a 100 days with your set up.

For clarity my J cameras all have the D battery attached pack. I thought there was not currently a cord to hook the Js to the 3358 so I don't have that on any of the cameras. The transmitter, based on the G camera, is hooked to a 3358.

 

[JLemon]

For clarity my J cameras all have the D battery attached pack. I thought there was not currently a cord to hook the Js to the 3358 so I don't have that on any of the cameras. The transmitter, based on the G camera, is hooked to a 3358.

Currently there isn’t. I took the end from the ac chargers that comes with the Cuddeback solar panels and spliced it in to one of the cables that comes with the 3358 battery packs.

 

[john volkman]

3358 boosters just arrived that have both cords in them, so they are available now. The new version will work with any cuddelink camera including the K series.

 

[JLemon]

3358 boosters just arrived that have both cords in them, so they are available now. The new version will work with any cuddelink camera including the K series.

Is just the cord available?

 

[john volkman]

Is just the cord available?

not yet, extra cords are set to arrive any day now.

 

[RRAB58]

First battery life check. I have 4 cameras at 83 days and 2 at 68, plus a home transmitter at 83 with the 6 D-cell external. Got my first "Low!" warning today on the very last camera set out. At 74 pics in 68 days. Really surprised that was the one to go first, must attribute it to a bad battery or something. Even the transmitter is on "Ext OK" still. Guess I find time to get down there in the next couple weeks and do a full battery replacement on the whole network... These are J cameras, once the new gear to enable the big battery backups to hook up to them is out I'll invest in that for next season.

On the camera that you have the "Low", do you happen to have one of the first pictures that was taken on it?
If so, look at the meta-data from pictures and see what your BL was. Or post the pic and I will get the data for you.

 

[JLemon]

Ok I now have 2 of these pictures. What is it? Hummingbird? Dragonfly?