Cuddelink 2020 GEN 2 version

[NC_AL]

there isnt , reason being that when using rechargeable you need at least 6 ds or 12 aa batteries in the camera for it to operate, rechargeable voltage is lower than alkaline so 4 rechargeable d's dont have enough voltage to run the camera. . If you run 6 D or 12AA rechargeable in a camera with the 3600 , the camera will always use the internal batteries first since they are higher voltage than the panels internal battery(7.4). It will charge the internal batteries though but you are not using the internal panel battery at all in that case.
The ideal way to use a 3600 panel is with a 4 d camera with 4 alkaline d internals as back up , this way the camera runs on the solar panel unless it drops below 6 volts , then it switches to the internal alkaline while the panel recharges.
The yellow ended cable is only to be used with the Dual power bank when 6 d rechargeables are installed in bank 1.

What happens if I install the second 7.4 battery pack in the panel? Will it see the panel now as 14.8v and run off it until it falls below the internals? And yes I am running 12AA and 6D rechargeables.

 

[john volkman]

It’s important to note that the 3600 panel was designed with the understanding that all cuddelink cameras will come standard in the near future with a 4 d cell internal battery pack this includes future cell units .

 

[NC_AL]

It’s important to note that the 3600 panel was designed with the understanding that all cuddelink cameras will come standard in the near future with a 4 d cell internal battery pack this includes future cell units .

Understood. Just looking to understand how to best utilize the 3600 with the 12AA and 6D battery packs as we deployed 13 of them early this year.

What happens if I install the second 7.4 battery pack in the panel? Will it see the panel now as 14.8v and run off it until it falls below the internals?

 

[john volkman]

Understood. Just looking to understand how to best utilize the 3600 with the 12AA and 6D battery packs as we deployed 13 of them early this year.

What happens if I install the second 7.4 battery pack in the panel? Will it see the panel now as 14.8v and run off it until it falls below the internals?

No it will stay around 7.4 volts , it will still run on the internals , if you want it to use the panel batteries first it needs to be plugged into a 4 d cell camera

 

[Trophy Acres]

It’s important to note that the 3600 panel was designed with the understanding that all cuddelink cameras will come standard in the near future with a 4 d cell internal battery pack this includes future cell units .

So does that mean they're doing away with the k camera (6 batteries)

 

[Tdbduckhunter]

Just curious if anyone had experimented with any other type of antenna? Like the one below.

 

[tn4hunting]

Just curious if anyone had experimented with any other type of antenna? Like the one below.

I have not used that one with the cuddelink but i had a spypoint 4G and they have virtually the same thing but maybe with spypoint antenna connector. For what it's worth, it did make a big difference for my spypoint evo camera. It outlasted the camera.. lol the camera only lasted one season.

 

[12point]

Just curious if anyone had experimented with any other type of antenna? Like the one below.

I'd like to find one that would help boast the signal for sure.

 

[NC_AL]

Understood. Just looking to understand how to best utilize the 3600 with the 12AA and 6D battery packs as we deployed 13 of them early this year.

What happens if I install the second 7.4 battery pack in the panel? Will it see the panel now as 14.8v and run off it until it falls below the internals?

No it will stay around 7.4 volts , it will still run on the internals , if you want it to use the panel batteries first it needs to be plugged into a 4 d cell camera

John,

Is there a document that describes how the system evaluates the voltage between the panel or banks and decides which one to use? I'm still confused if it was running on 6d recharables why it wouldn't run the internals down until it was below the panel at which time it would switch over to the panel.

Thanks again for the help.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[NC_AL]

The cuddelink system has been around for a few years now, and it seems some of the bugs have been worked out. I am within an inch of diving in. I don't need to complicate anything else in my life. What are the chances I purchase one of the starter sets - (1) CuddeLink Dual Cell Trail Camera and (3) CuddeLink J-Series Trail Cameras - and go put them out and they work from the get go?

I just bought my 13th Cuddeback camera - all have been purchased in less than a year. I bought into it last November when you could buy the two J's and get a free cell camera, and have been slowly adding as I could get them on sale/save up the money for them. I absolutely love the idea of Cuddelink and can't believe people are messing around with multiple cell cameras on the same property. I have 11 of them deployed right now. I only had 1 camera have any sort of malfunction straight out of the box or any issues at all. I sent it into Cuddeback and am getting back a new one next week. I have had a few minor issues with the cell service, but that is looking like it is my fault. Overall, my biggest complaints with the system is the fact that it is not as intuitive to set up as other cameras, but that is to be expected with the sophistication in technology. My other big complaint is that you cannot program the cameras to take videos and photos at the same time (when having the cameras armed on the cuddelink network). To me, this is only not possible because of a power issue. Having each of my cameras hooked up to a 12V battery eliminates the power issues. I haven't quite figured out how long the batteries can last on a single charge, but the few that I have checked seem like I will get at least 6 months out of them. Not entering an area to pull cards or replace batteries for several months is the single greatest reason for investing in Cuddeback cameras and the Cuddelink system in general. I had to learn the whole setup from reading this forum but mostly figured it out on my own. There are some great videos on how to set it up online, but if you do buy into it, PM me and I can walk you through it over the phone if needed.

@Hoytvectrix - how are you connecting your cameras to a 12v battery? I need to find a better solution for our K base unit and a few heavily wooded areas to keep them powered. Any help on the battery being used, cabled,etc would be greatly appreciated.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[Hoytvectrix]

@Hoytvectrix - how are you connecting your cameras to a 12v battery? I need to find a better solution for our K base unit and a few heavily wooded areas to keep them powered. Any help on the battery being used, cabled,etc would be greatly appreciated.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

I use the 12 V battery cable from Cuddeback's website. The cable is metal wrapped and has a 9V voltage regulator. It connects to a 12 V 9aH battery I have in a plastic ammo box that sits beside the tree. The ammo box I bought for 5 bucks from Menards and the batteries are Expert Power from Amazon. The only battery I have had die on me so far was after about 45 days and 6500 photos. The greatest thing about this setup is the fact that you can charge your batteries and they should be able to pay for themselves on a long enough timeline. I really haven't implemented this system yet in the winter months, so I'm curious to see how these batteries will hold up. Let me know if you have any further questions.

 

[Bpressley]

I have a question about the J cams. I have the 6 D internal booster pack installed on all of my J cams. I also run the 3358 6 D external pack with them. I noticed after firmware 8.1 I can manually set the cam to 4 D or 6 D internal. If I run the cam on 6 D my external pack doesn't show up on the report. If I run the cam on 4 D the external does show up on the report. Is there any downside to setting all my J cams to 4 D? Am I going to get the same battery life with either option? I'd like to know the specifics about that option and the effects it has on the battery life of the J's.

 

[john volkman]

John,

Is there a document that describes how the system evaluates the voltage between the panel or banks and decides which one to use? I'm still confused if it was running on 6d recharables why it wouldn't run the internals down until it was below the panel at which time it would switch over to the panel.

Thanks again for the help.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

it simply will use the higher voltage first so if you have 6 rechargeable D's in the camera and that voltage is higher than the internal batteries that are in the 3600 panel it will use the camera batteries first.
Ideally what you want is the panel batteries to power the camera and the camera batteries to be back up. This is why i said the 3600 panel was designed to work best with any unit that can take 4 alkaline D's.
you can run a J with 6 rechargeable D's or 12 aa Rechargeables , but know the batteries in the panel may never get used. the panel in that case would also be charging the rechargeable in the camera.

 

[john volkman]

I have a question about the J cams. I have the 6 D internal booster pack installed on all of my J cams. I also run the 3358 6 D external pack with them. I noticed after firmware 8.1 I can manually set the cam to 4 D or 6 D internal. If I run the cam on 6 D my external pack doesn't show up on the report. If I run the cam on 4 D the external does show up on the report. Is there any downside to setting all my J cams to 4 D? Am I going to get the same battery life with either option? I'd like to know the specifics about that option and the effects it has on the battery life of the J's.

you want to set the camera to match what is in the camera. its simply reading voltage so when you set it at 4 d and the camera has 9 volts coming into it thinks there is an external pack hooked up to it. you wont increase battery life by setting them at 4d when they dont have 4ds installed. This feature is purely so the report reflects what battery source the camera is using. On your set up, the camera is pulling from both internal and external at the same time using the power concurrently, you are still getting extended life but your report doesnt show an external source.

 

[DXman]

Hi John, I’m having issues with updating to the 8.0 on my k camera, it worked on the j camera, put it into the k and the unit flashes red off light. This will continue until I rest the camera and install the 7.9 firmware back into it. I’ve gotten good at rebooting the camera to 7.9. Any ideas? And I have already sent the camera back to cuddeback and they said nothing was wrong. But it came back with 7.9 installed. I was not able to use the camera for the first month of cell coverage and I was told that return shipping would be paid for as this was a one day old camera. When I got it back I called to ask about the refund and was given a run around about it was working fine so no refund on either. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[john volkman]

8

Hi John, I’m having issues with updating to the 8.0 on my k camera, it worked on the j camera, put it into the k and the unit flashes red off light. This will continue until I rest the camera and install the 7.9 firmware back into it. I’ve gotten good at rebooting the camera to 7.9. Any ideas? And I have already sent the camera back to cuddeback and they said nothing was wrong. But it came back with 7.9 installed. I was not able to use the camera for the first month of cell coverage and I was told that return shipping would be paid for as this was a one day old camera. When I got it back I called to ask about the refund and was given a run around about it was working fine so no refund on either. Thanks in advance for your help.

8.1 is the current firmware, take your sd card and make sure its empty, no files on it at all, also make sure you computer isnt renaming the file( like adding a number to the end) unzip the 8.1 file and copy it to your sd card and try to load it with brand new batteries in the camera. if this doesnt work PM me your number and ill have someone contact you .

 

[DXman]

8

8.1 is the current firmware, take your sd card and make sure its empty, no files on it at all, also make sure you computer isnt renaming the file( like adding a number to the end) unzip the 8.1 file and copy it to your sd card and try to load it with brand new batteries in the camera. if this doesnt work PM me your number and ill have someone contact you .

Thanks for the reply, I did try the new batteries, and uploading the 1200 file only like you mentioned in another post, I was able to load the firmware 8.1 into a j camera first and with the same card tried it into the k and it “locks up”. I have to reset and reload the 7.9 to get it back on. Thanks

 

[john volkman]

Thanks for the reply, I did try the new batteries, and uploading the 1200 file only like you mentioned in another post, I was able to load the firmware 8.1 into a j camera first and with the same card tried it into the k and it “locks up”. I have to reset and reload the 7.9 to get it back on. Thanks

try a different SD card as well, this still sounds like a battery issue or connection issue to me but if that doesnt work Pm me with your name and number so i can have someone call you.

 

[Jrozzi16]

I have a K and a J set up on a farm, link level has been "good" since set up. Today its showing 0 on the report. In the past if i lost a link they have fallen off the report. This one just shows 0. I note K is 8.1 and J is 8.0.

What does 0 mean exactly?

 

[john volkman]

I have a K and a J set up on a farm, link level has been "good" since set up. Today its showing 0 on the report. In the past if i lost a link they have fallen off the report. This one just shows 0. I note K is 8.1 and J is 8.0.

What does 0 mean exactly?

you dont want to mix firmwares in a system especially if its 8.0 or above. i would give it a day and see if the level changes and i would update both to 8.1 asap.