Cuddelink 101?

[SD51555]

I'm curious about Cuddelink. Cell cams so far have been a fail in my area, but my brothers have only tried Tactacams. I've been doing some reading on CL and see they have an option to just transmit to the home unit with no plan at all. I've got a few basic questions, and I just don't have it in me to try to read the 54 page CL thread that already exists. So if anyone is willing, I've got just a few questions:

1. Are the cameras themselves good? Pic quality, trigger speed, night pics, spooking flash, etc
2. How far can they realistically daisy chain in a thick forest. Mine isn't 3 year old clear cut thick, but it's not far off that.
3. Can the antenna be screwed out and a longer antenna be installed, if I go up a tree 20 feet with it? Is the base a universal connector that can have a passive antenna installed instead?
4. Does the solar panel setup work?
5. Is it a giant pain in the ass to setup and learn? I don't want to spend an entire weekend reading manuals to figure out how to get this to work.

 

[MadMadHoosier]

Quick response is....
1 - Cameras are descent. Transmitted and home camera pics are ok to not good enough sometimes. But if you pull native SD card from individual remote cameras you can see higher resolution when necessary. I hardly ever do that. Edited to add: I do NOT like the black flash, and do not feel the IR flash spook the deer.
2 - Our property is +/-670 acres and is about a mile wide by 1.4 miles long. The image below shows the camera placement across the property. Blue are north cameras and magenta are south cameras. White camera is the home for each set. The hardwood bottoms to the north is quite thick, as is the ridgy hardwoods to the south.
3 - The remote cameras us LoRa to communicate and while external antenna "could" improve things, probably not worth the effort vs just adding another cam in the chain. The home cameras also have Cellular, and they might be easier to add external antenna, but picking the carrier (ATT/Verizon) with the best signal is probably more productive.
4 - YES! The newer PW-003 solar panels work awesome!!! All my cameras have been moved to them.
5 - It is a small pain in the ass, with a little learning curve. A 10-minute youtube videos on setting up cameras and you should be good to go.

Cuddelink has been a game changer for me. Allowing me to monitor and scout my distant property till hunting season.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

John has teased that there might be an update to request a higher resolution photo from a linked camera. I think this will tip the scales back to Cuddeback and similar type networked cameras over running multiple cell cams. Cuddeback has been continuously improving the cameras and the networking abilities. I think that alone has reinforced the investments I have made into our networks.

I have two Cuddelink systems on two properties with a total of 17 cameras. I think they are amazing and worth the investment. I do think they miss more photos compared to other cameras, but that comes with the territory of a linked network camera. You don't want your system bogged down with a bunch of false triggers, which I essentially never get.

There are some great youtube videos on how to set up a network. I started small and gradually built up to what I have on our properties. I feel like it is intimidating at first but is easy to pick up, especially on this forum and other resources.

 

[T-Max]

I think Hoosier and Hoyt have pretty much summed up my experience. I love them. I have tried to angle the cameras up or down a trail a little. I think a deer walking perfectly perpendicular to a camera may only provide a picture of their butt. If their pace is slow it will work, but changing the camera angle has helped a lot.


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[SD51555]

There seem to be some pretty good kits on amazon for this. At first I'd thought I should put cams everywhere, but I already know what my old cam locations have shown me. I'd like to put a couple of these deep in my sanctuary, and one on my new plot that's getting installed this summer. All three cams would be within 100 yards of each other, and the home base would be about 200 yards away from the closest camera.

 

[MadMadHoosier]

There seem to be some pretty good kits on amazon for this. At first I'd thought I should put cams everywhere, but I already know what my old cam locations have shown me. I'd like to put a couple of these deep in my sanctuary, and one on my new plot that's getting installed this summer. All three cams would be within 100 yards of each other, and the home base would be about 200 yards away from the closest camera.

You should be good with those distances. Granted some of these will ping off the southern camera, but those northeast cameras are 300 yards from the closest other cam.

 

[SD51555]

Quick response is....
1 - Cameras are descent. Transmitted and home camera pics are ok to not good enough sometimes. But if you pull native SD card from individual remote cameras you can see higher resolution when necessary. I hardly ever do that. Edited to add: I do NOT like the black flash, and do not feel the IR flash spook the deer.

Can you expand on your feelings about IR vs black flash? I was under the impression the black flash was the best on the market and invisible to any eye?

 

[Turkey Creek]

After a year of running them I agree with the above. I am pretty sure I am missing animals sometimes with the camera, but I have had zero issue with something blowing in the wind and giving me 100s of worthless pictures. I have gotten what I feel is excellent battery life from batteries, enough that I can't justify buying solar panels for them. If I was hours away from them I would reconsider. They are literally in my "backyard". I figure on changing batteries about every 90 to 100 days. I suppose if you had them over a feeder or some other very high traffic area the batteries would not last as long. I will probably pull cards in the coming weeks and replace with new cards at that time I will see how much better the picture quality on the card is vs the transmitted photos.

 

[T-Max]

After a year of running them I agree with the above. I am pretty sure I am missing animals sometimes with the camera, but I have had zero issue with something blowing in the wind and giving me 100s of worthless pictures. I have gotten what I feel is excellent battery life from batteries, enough that I can't justify buying solar panels for them. If I was hours away from them I would reconsider. They are literally in my "backyard". I figure on changing batteries about every 90 to 100 days. I suppose if you had them over a feeder or some other very high traffic area the batteries would not last as long. I will probably pull cards in the coming weeks and replace with new cards at that time I will see how much better the picture quality on the card is vs the transmitted photos.

The difference is very noticeable IMO. I’m excited for you to see and let us know what you think.


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[MadMadHoosier]

Can you expand on your feelings about IR vs black flash? I was under the impression the black flash was the best on the market and invisible to any eye?

Sure. Yes the black flash are invisible, but the IR are only visible if you are looking directly at them. And then only a medium red blink. The black flash work fine up close, but lose their ability to penetrate the darkness and images fade rather quickly. I have too many pictures from black flash that I’m not even sure if the deer has antlers or not. The IR gives usable images MUCH further away. I also have two strobes and they look the best. But I do feel like the mature bucks avoid those, except during the rut. I don’t feel deer avoid the black flash or IR at all.

 

[SD51555]

Sure. Yes the black flash are invisible, but the IR are only visible if you are looking directly at them. And then only a medium red blink. The black flash work fine up close, but lose their ability to penetrate the darkness and images fade rather quickly. I have too many pictures from black flash that I’m not even sure if the deer has antlers or not. The IR gives usable images MUCH further away. I also have two strobes and they look the best. But I do feel like the mature bucks avoid those, except during the rut. I don’t feel deer avoid the black flash or IR at all.

That is interesting. Now that you mention it, I can't see as far in my night pics on black flash either. If the deer are 15-20 feet away, sure, but beyond that, it's pretty sketchy. I'm not buying this tonight, but it's on my mind now.

Anyone else want to weigh in on black flash vs IR?

 

[Hoytvectrix]

MadMadHoosier nailed it. I have tried all versions of the flash available. I have a few cameras with white flash, but these are typically on a scrape or in a food plot where I think deer won't avoid the area even if the white flash did bother them. The standard IR is the best and I don't think it scares deer at all. Black flash is a complete waste of of a camera.

I run every camera except two with solar. The only reason I don't run solar on those is because they are on vehicle trails and I have them with a 6-D battery expansion pack. If and when I need to replace these cameras I will go with some that can take a solar panel.

 

[SD51555]

Well you guys have me sold. I've got enough bad night pics to switch back to IR. It's looking like this is gonna cost a thousand bucks for two cameras and a home. Doesn't seem like you can get the latest stuff on amazon. Those amazon packages look like a lot of dumping of older models and parts. I priced out the two cam / one home system with solar panels and bear boxes (I have have bear boxes) and mounts. Cudde alone will be $850, then I've got to get batteries, cards, and make some posts and a few bags of concrete.

 

[T-Max]

I have black flash and IR. Hands down IR will be what I buy moving forward. When I download the full file it helps, but the black flash thumbnails are pretty grainy.

The sun and shade solar panels are worth every penny too. I have some in pretty shady spots too with no issues.


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[SD51555]

I have black flash and IR. Hands down IR will be what I buy moving forward. When I download the full file it helps, but the black flash thumbnails are pretty grainy.

The sun and shade solar panels are worth every penny too. I have some in pretty shady spots too with no issues.


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That's where I'm at. I could half ass this for $850, or get it done right for $1000. I don't want to see the bears run off with my cams, or risk having dead batteries in the center of my property two weeks before go time.

 

[RGrizzzz]

If you think you're missing animals, play with the sensitivity. We knew we were missing turkeys in some our of plots. Going more sensitive by 1 or 2 with the settings started getting turkey pics. Could probably get more pics if we went up more.

 

[Mtyhunter]

Been running cuddelink system for 5+ years now. have 10 cams, 1 cell home unit, 1 repeater, 3 solar panels.
have 2 black flash cuddelinks, and won't buy anymore of them, night pics too grainy.
They cover 800 acres pretty good. yeah, it's some money up front, but, i'm pleased enough i'd do it all over again for sure.

 

[Catscratch]

I liked the idea of them. Bought one several years ago but was waiting for the home unit to come out before hooking it to a cell plan. The home unit didn't come out and the camera died within a year. I wasn't impressed with the camera or the company at all. Imagine some of that has changed since then. Sounds like they are getting good reviews.

 

[RGrizzzz]

I liked the idea of them. Bought one several years ago but was waiting for the home unit to come out before hooking it to a cell plan. The home unit didn't come out and the camera died within a year. I wasn't impressed with the camera or the company at all. Imagine some of that has changed since then. Sounds like they are getting good reviews.

They have a pretty solid warranty program. If it hasn't been horribly long, I'd reach out to them.

 

[Catscratch]

They have a pretty solid warranty program. If it hasn't been horribly long, I'd reach out to them.

It's been a few years. I lost interest when I called them and they told me tough luck. Plus they had been promising a base unit for home that wasn't also a camera. I waited over a year for them to release it but it didn't happen. I walked away and didn't look back. Like I said, it's probably all been worked out by now but I felt burned at the time and it's stuck with me.