Cuddeback's Cuddelink

Today I put up my CuddeLink J system...sadly it has sat for unused for two years since purchase it while I was doing some property improvements and the setup got pushed to the back burner. I updated to the latest firmware based on this forums recommendations and will likely be adding a cell link unit in the coming days. I am looking forward to assess the benefits of the system and comparing it to the SpyPoint system I am using on the same property and an older Moultrie Mobile camera I have set up on our remote 40 acre property.
UPDATE: So far I am really enjoying the CuddleLink J system. The cameras are working well, battery life is OK (using Ads) and I appreciate the ease of access. I may add the cell unit later, but for now I am happy with the system and will am planning to add some additional cameras. Appreciate the tips from this forum that helped get the system up and running right the first time.
 
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UPDATE: So far I am really enjoying the CuddleLink J system. The cameras are working well, battery life is OK (using Ads) and I appreciate the ease of access. I may add the cell unit later, but for now I am happy with the system and will am planning to add some additional cameras. Appreciate the tips from this forum that helped get the system up and running right the first time.
I ordered the Verizon camera and Solar panel to covert my system to a CuddleLink cell system. I figured this way I can get the home camera and the cell camera into the field. I am sure this will be another adventure of camera set up :-)
 
A Memorial Weekend Shoutout to John Volkman, who over the weekend helped me get a new CuddeLink Cell system up and running. The secrete solution on getting the camera to work was as simple as "remove batteries, wait, retry" and it worked (after hours of trying to figure things out on my own). So far I've gotten pictures of the first antlers in velvet and evidence of at least one fawn predation. All helpful information in the quest of habitat management.
 
Last August I bought six Cuddebacks in a system. Got some solar and hooked all to Verison. I was able to get everything started well as a result of my dealer helping to establish the initial setting and via some trial and error. I did have some issues with camera placements.....and lowered the height a few of them which helped considerably. Ran out of time to tweak much on them last year.

I left two cameras out over winter......one on my building site and another on a decent food plot. The food plot is my Link transmitter via version.....to I had a battery pack and a solar charger on that camera. It's lasted from August 2021 and its still going strong. I spend my winters in OZ.....so it's nice to keep tabs on my deer land.

The building site camera quit sometime in January....and I have not yet had time to look into the issue. It has a solar panel and battery pack too.....but I suspect a squirrel ate a wire or some such thing.

Gonna work harder on camera placements as I dont think I got the quantity of pics last season. I now know lower is better. Not sure how to increase sensitivity.....but I don't think mine are sensitive enough.
 
Last August I bought six Cuddebacks in a system. Got some solar and hooked all to Verison. I was able to get everything started well as a result of my dealer helping to establish the initial setting and via some trial and error. I did have some issues with camera placements.....and lowered the height a few of them which helped considerably. Ran out of time to tweak much on them last year.

I left two cameras out over winter......one on my building site and another on a decent food plot. The food plot is my Link transmitter via version.....to I had a battery pack and a solar charger on that camera. It's lasted from August 2021 and its still going strong. I spend my winters in OZ.....so it's nice to keep tabs on my deer land.

The building site camera quit sometime in January....and I have not yet had time to look into the issue. It has a solar panel and battery pack too.....but I suspect a squirrel ate a wire or some such thing.

Gonna work harder on camera placements as I dont think I got the quantity of pics last season. I now know lower is better. Not sure how to increase sensitivity.....but I don't think mine are sensitive enough.

The problem is that you never know what you're missing. There are significant differences in PIR design between cameras. In the old days, when I was testing cameras for my game cam class, we did an interesting test. We hooked up multiple cameras side by side. The results were quite interesting. With the same settings, the number of pictures for each camera was quite different. Some had high numbers of game pics and low false alarms. Others had low numbers of both. Some had high false alarms with low numbers of game pics. Unless you have a way to determine ground truth, you don't know what you are missing. :emoji_smile:
 
The problem is that you never know what you're missing. There are significant differences in PIR design between cameras. In the old days, when I was testing cameras for my game cam class, we did an interesting test. We hooked up multiple cameras side by side. The results were quite interesting. With the same settings, the number of pictures for each camera was quite different. Some had high numbers of game pics and low false alarms. Others had low numbers of both. Some had high false alarms with low numbers of game pics. Unless you have a way to determine ground truth, you don't know what you are missing. :emoji_smile:
Back in 2012, I picked up two identical Wildgame Innovation cameras. One took pictures of the wind (or it seemed like it) and the other needed a deer to be staring at the lens to trigger. Neither camera made it past one year (both failed after the six month warrenty). In May 2013 I purchased six Moultrie A-5 cameras. I did something similar, and the six cameras took almost identical pictures when set up in the garage, which included cars in and out and various lighting before being deployed. I still use three of those cameras, as their C batteries provide nearly a year of operation which is perfect for the cabin. These were some of the easiest cameras to use, and the video quality was not bad at all. Only one of the A-5s failed. I gave two away when I upgraded to my first cell system in 2014.

I am learning that spending time setting the camera up pays dividends on the field. Being able to check the pictures in the field is priceless. I use a lightening adapter on my iPhone that makes this job fairly simple. So far I am pleased with the CB system, but I am also happy with the SpyPoint solar cell system as well.
 
Back in 2012, I picked up two identical Wildgame Innovation cameras. One took pictures of the wind (or it seemed like it) and the other needed a deer to be staring at the lens to trigger. Neither camera made it past one year (both failed after the six month warrenty). In May 2013 I purchased six Moultrie A-5 cameras. I did something similar, and the six cameras took almost identical pictures when set up in the garage, which included cars in and out and various lighting before being deployed. I still use three of those cameras, as their C batteries provide nearly a year of operation which is perfect for the cabin. These were some of the easiest cameras to use, and the video quality was not bad at all. Only one of the A-5s failed. I gave two away when I upgraded to my first cell system in 2014.

I am learning that spending time setting the camera up pays dividends on the field. Being able to check the pictures in the field is priceless. I use a lightening adapter on my iPhone that makes this job fairly simple. So far I am pleased with the CB system, but I am also happy with the SpyPoint solar cell system as well.

Historically, that has been the norm for the Chinese cams. Very good pic quality for the money but very poor Quality Control. Short life spans were common. One camera off the line might work very well and last a number of years and the next may be a dud with a short life-span. This is a typical business practice from China. They target a market and enter with very low quality merchandise but at an amazingly low price. People consider them "disposable". Over time, this drives many others out of the market because they can't compete on price. As the market consolidates, they begin to raise both quality and price. We are currently seeing this transition beginning with Harbor Freight in the tool market.
 
John is 8.3 the latest Firmware update still? Is there a plan to have another update before Sept - Oct?
 
John is 8.3 the latest Firmware update still? Is there a plan to have another update before Sept - Oct?
8.3 is the latest, if there is an update it will likely involve the new series when it arrives but i cant guarantee that wont happen before october. Unless you plan on adding any L series to yoru network you likely wont need ot update beyond 8.3 this year.
 
Thanks John! I was wanting to add one of the New cameras to my system to see if they are any better then the J I am using now. Is there anyplace to purchase one of them yet? If not now any idea when?
 
nobody has them yet- they arent available yet, my best guess of now is late august early september, and the amount that we are getting will likely sell out at the dealers in a couple weeks or less, most dealers will only get 20 or less on the first shipment.
 
Anyway to reserve one. Would love to try one out.
 
im not sure where you are located but i would ask any dealer to hold one for you, they will all get shipped to dealers when they arrive, some may hold others may not.
 
Is anyone else having problems lately? Wasn't getting pics for a day..then under "device settings" there was a red ! circled next to each cam(2) and it says "Remote access is currently unavailable at this time." etc. Now that page or "Report" is no longer available- via the app either. Nothing under settings either.

I'm hoping it's a problem on Cuddeback's end and will be fixed soon. I have no desire to drive to and deal with the cams in this heat.
 
Is anyone else having problems lately? Wasn't getting pics for a day..then under "device settings" there was a red ! circled next to each cam(2) and it says "Remote access is currently unavailable at this time." etc. Now that page or "Report" is no longer available- via the app either. Nothing under settings either.

I'm hoping it's a problem on Cuddeback's end and will be fixed soon. I have no desire to drive to and deal with the cams in this heat.
its not an issue on cuddebacks website , from what you describe, its likely your cell unit is off line for some reason, if it doesn't come on within 48 hours of dropping off you will need to go to it to determine the issue.
 
its not an issue on cuddebacks website , from what you describe, its likely your cell unit is off line for some reason, if it doesn't come on within 48 hours of dropping off you will need to go to it to determine the issue.

But why would there be no info under "devices" and "report" etc? I've had the batteries die on the Home and the info was still on the website, it just never updated/showed any new info since the day it died. Maybe they changed things though...?

The last I saw 2 days ago was the Home said "Ok" for the batteries..and it's hooked up to a solar panel. The other cam said- ext battery low, or something like that. Has one of those big packs connected along with the batts in the cam.
 
Under "Settings" in the app it says "Selected Camera does not have remotes attached to it".
Under "Report": "No Report has been found"
 
But why would there be no info under "devices" and "report" etc? I've had the batteries die on the Home and the info was still on the website, it just never updated/showed any new info since the day it died. Maybe they changed things though...?

The last I saw 2 days ago was the Home said "Ok" for the batteries..and it's hooked up to a solar panel. The other cam said- ext battery low, or something like that. Has one of those big packs connected along with the batts in the cam.
if your device is no longer shown on the website thats different - if the cell camera is shown under devices , shows activated but but the settings, remotes and report are not there then the home camera is offline and has been for 48 hours. You will need to go to it to determine the issue. If you you had a solar panel hooked up to it and its a G series home, it should read EXT OK if the panel is running the camera, if it went to OK then the internals were running it , if they died before the solar panel charged back up it woudl drop off line . You can PM me your email log in and password and ill take a look. There is not an issue with the cudde website at this time.nothjing has changed in how it works.
 
Thanks to @john volkman for helping me get mine up and running again. Now we just need the ability to do HD pic requests 😎 Attach58006_20220730_084737.jpg
 
I set up all my cameras at home yesterday to test that everything was working properly before deploying them at our hunting land. I've been running these cameras for a few years now, and am trying to avoid connection and/or battery issues as our property is a few hours away. All cameras were updated with the newest firmware and setup within 30 yards of each other. The CL level on the cameras themselves showed 99 signal strength, but the report is showing much lower numbers. Why would this be? Screen Shot 2022-07-31 at 10.04.53 AM.png
 
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