Cuddelink general Q&A recommendations

[john volkman]

I’m using my phone but if the bogged down remote is running thru the repeater with a 14 level that is the issue. If multiple cameras are running thru the repeater at 14 cl level this would slow the entire system down.

 

[BWHunter]

I only have one remote running through that 14 repeater. sometimes it will be level 24; it is not consistent; so the only thing we can do is have another link in the network correct? And the remote 8 point use to have only 2 links going through this 14 repeater; but last weekend this repeater showed 64 so wondering if it was linking with another remote on that side of road and not my home unit; any thoughts

 

[BWHunter]

I only have one remote running through that 14 repeater. sometimes it will be level 24; it is not consistent; so the only thing we can do is have another link in the network correct? And the remote 8 point use to have only 2 links going through this 14 repeater; but last weekend this repeater showed 64 so wondering if it was linking with another remote on that side of road and not my home unit; any thoughts

also th

I only have one remote running through that 14 repeater. sometimes it will be level 24; it is not consistent; so the only thing we can do is have another link in the network correct? And the remote 8 point use to have only 2 links going through this 14 repeater; but last weekend this repeater showed 64 so wondering if it was linking with another remote on that side of road and not my home unit; any thoughts

also the other repeater is cl level 46 and it has the warning sign as well;

 

[john volkman]

I only have one remote running through that 14 repeater. sometimes it will be level 24; it is not consistent; so the only thing we can do is have another link in the network correct? And the remote 8 point use to have only 2 links going through this 14 repeater; but last weekend this repeater showed 64 so wondering if it was linking with another remote on that side of road and not my home unit; any thoughts

the mesh network will constantly readjust to try and be the most efficient it can be. That said, having a high pic volume remote at a reading under 20 and then running all its pictures thru a repeater is not efficient from a battery or picture transmission standpoint. Will it send ? yes- but slower than it can with a higher signal and it will use more battery than normal. I would definitely go to the D battery booster and if you can't get placement with a higher Cl signal , if its possible, move your remote to a more central spot. If you want it in the spot it is now for access reasons then another camera or repeater may help.

 

[Pazdag]

Hmmm. I have been disappointed in detection and upon reading your recommendations it seems we made a poor choice early on in remounting cameras. Trying to make it a little more troublesome to steal cameras and mounted most of them about 15 feet off the ground. Angled down, but now thinking about the detection angle, even though the area I want to monitor is all included in field of view, the center of that area is probably where the greatest detection sensitivity is.


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[BWHunter]

the mesh network will constantly readjust to try and be the most efficient it can be. That said, having a high pic volume remote at a reading under 20 and then running all its pictures thru a repeater is not efficient from a battery or picture transmission standpoint. Will it send ? yes- but slower than it can with a higher signal and it will use more battery than normal. I would definitely go to the D battery booster and if you can't get placement with a higher Cl signal , if its possible, move your remote to a more central spot. If you want it in the spot it is now for access reasons then another camera or repeater may help.

ok..whats weird is when I check the repeater manually it says 24; but at home on the home system it says 50;just last night I looked at the cl level on the repeater that is in my brothers house; it said 55; then I took batteries out put back in and it said 24; I am sending a picture of the D booster that I am using; let me know if there is something better or different I can use; in addition is the firmware up to date on the screen shot I sent you. thanks

 

[john volkman]

CL(RF) level is never constant, it fluctuates constantly. Moving a camera even a couple feet can change as well. With the D battery adapter you posted one would expect 90 days of life but this depends on many factors. it could be longer or shorter. You can add even more battery life by adding an additional #3358 6 d booster and plugging it into the back. You could also add or use the Dual power bank with all alkaline or one rechargeable bank with solar and another with alkaline. I would run what you have and see if it works for you first. I recommend rayovac high energy at this time. Stay away from energizer as we have seen issues with the d cells being oversized and causing issues. Unfortunately Rayovac was supposedly purchased by energizer so im hoping quality doesnt suffer with rayovac in the future.

 

[john volkman]

Hmmm. I have been disappointed in detection and upon reading your recommendations it seems we made a poor choice early on in remounting cameras. Trying to make it a little more troublesome to steal cameras and mounted most of them about 15 feet off the ground. Angled down, but now thinking about the detection angle, even though the area I want to monitor is all included in field of view, the center of that area is probably where the greatest detection sensitivity is.


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i have found angling down from above is fine when you know exactly where a deer will be standing (like a scrape or bait) and you can point the camera exactly at that spot. MANY people mount their Cuddeback cameras way to high with expectations of them capturing every deer that walks anywhere near the camera within 180 degrees.
Many camera users are accustomed to mounting other brands of cameras high and still getting pictures. I have found that many other brands have extremely large detection areas to compensate for slow trigger speeds and or poor sensors. An extremely large detection area can be an advantage if you dont mind getting numerous blank images or partial images of deer. It becomes a disadvantage if you are paying for data via cell and a large percentage of your images dont have deer in them or arent quality images.
Cuddeback's detection area can be very defined as a result of extremely fast trigger speed. This helps insure a high number of quality images when mounted and aimed correctly. I always recommend mounting cuddebacks thigh to waist high at the highest unless steep terrain dicates otherwise or if you are concerned with deer or people noticing the camera. In that case, the PTL mount allows you to mount the camera and not only level it but point it directly at a spot from above and not miss a deer when it steps into the target area.
Additionally there is 2 fresnel lens options a "Wide" that is included with most cameras and a "centered " that increases overall detection distance but further defines or narrows the width at which it will sense a deer, especially close in. The centered can be bought form cuddeback or a retailer.
I hope all this makes sense. The moral of the story - if you want to mount high- use a mount that will allow you to point the camera exactly where you want it . If mounting at a normal height aimed horizontally - start at thigh high to waist high at the highest unless terrain dictates otherwise.

 

[john volkman]

Important note to anyone who purchased the promo J 2 pack, be sure you update the firmware to 7.9 on the J's, if you dont- night images will suffer when battery life falls past a certain level. If not using the New J in the very near future you can wait for firmware 8.0 which will have the remote control option update and this will also fix the issue on the J with 4 d battery pack.

 

[Pazdag]

Hmmm. I have been disappointed in detection and upon reading your recommendations it seems we made a poor choice early on in remounting cameras. Trying to make it a little more troublesome to steal cameras and mounted most of them about 15 feet off the ground. Angled down, but now thinking about the detection angle, even though the area I want to monitor is all included in field of view, the center of that area is probably where the greatest detection sensitivity is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

i have found angling down from above is fine when you know exactly where a deer will be standing (like a scrape or bait) and you can point the camera exactly at that spot. MANY people mount their Cuddeback cameras way to high with expectations of them capturing every deer that walks anywhere near the camera within 180 degrees.
Many camera users are accustomed to mounting other brands of cameras high and still getting pictures. I have found that many other brands have extremely large detection areas to compensate for slow trigger speeds and or poor sensors. An extremely large detection area can be an advantage if you dont mind getting numerous blank images or partial images of deer. It becomes a disadvantage if you are paying for data via cell and a large percentage of your images dont have deer in them or arent quality images.
Cuddeback's detection area can be very defined as a result of extremely fast trigger speed. This helps insure a high number of quality images when mounted and aimed correctly. I always recommend mounting cuddebacks thigh to waist high at the highest unless steep terrain dicates otherwise or if you are concerned with deer or people noticing the camera. In that case, the PTL mount allows you to mount the camera and not only level it but point it directly at a spot from above and not miss a deer when it steps into the target area.
Additionally there is 2 fresnel lens options a "Wide" that is included with most cameras and a "centered " that increases overall detection distance but further defines or narrows the width at which it will sense a deer, especially close in. The centered can be bought form cuddeback or a retailer.
I hope all this makes sense. The moral of the story - if you want to mount high- use a mount that will allow you to point the camera exactly where you want it . If mounting at a normal height aimed horizontally - start at thigh high to waist high at the highest unless terrain dictates otherwise.

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[Pazdag]

Hmmm. I have been disappointed in detection and upon reading your recommendations it seems we made a poor choice early on in remounting cameras. Trying to make it a little more troublesome to steal cameras and mounted most of them about 15 feet off the ground. Angled down, but now thinking about the detection angle, even though the area I want to monitor is all included in field of view, the center of that area is probably where the greatest detection sensitivity is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

i have found angling down from above is fine when you know exactly where a deer will be standing (like a scrape or bait) and you can point the camera exactly at that spot. MANY people mount their Cuddeback cameras way to high with expectations of them capturing every deer that walks anywhere near the camera within 180 degrees.
Many camera users are accustomed to mounting other brands of cameras high and still getting pictures. I have found that many other brands have extremely large detection areas to compensate for slow trigger speeds and or poor sensors. An extremely large detection area can be an advantage if you dont mind getting numerous blank images or partial images of deer. It becomes a disadvantage if you are paying for data via cell and a large percentage of your images dont have deer in them or arent quality images.
Cuddeback's detection area can be very defined as a result of extremely fast trigger speed. This helps insure a high number of quality images when mounted and aimed correctly. I always recommend mounting cuddebacks thigh to waist high at the highest unless steep terrain dicates otherwise or if you are concerned with deer or people noticing the camera. In that case, the PTL mount allows you to mount the camera and not only level it but point it directly at a spot from above and not miss a deer when it steps into the target area.
Additionally there is 2 fresnel lens options a "Wide" that is included with most cameras and a "centered " that increases overall detection distance but further defines or narrows the width at which it will sense a deer, especially close in. The centered can be bought form cuddeback or a retailer.
I hope all this makes sense. The moral of the story - if you want to mount high- use a mount that will allow you to point the camera exactly where you want it . If mounting at a normal height aimed horizontally - start at thigh high to waist high at the highest unless terrain dictates otherwise.

Thanks for the feedback. I moved all of mine down to thigh high level today. Will see how that fares. I also added a 3358 battery booster to one
of my J cameras today. Am I missing something? It says the battery pack is compatible with C, G, J, and K cameras. I was planning on putting on my K cell base camera, but cables do not work for it. I received two cables with the battery pack. One about four inches long with a push and twist end that fit all three cameras and the battery pack output, but the other end was just a push in and did not fit any of them. The second cable had a 90 degree, push and twist end that fit the J cameras and another push and twist end that fit the battery pack. The 90 degree end that fit the J camera would not work on the G or K cameras.


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[john volkman]

Thanks for the feedback. I moved all of mine down to thigh high level today. Will see how that fares. I also added a 3358 battery booster to one
of my J cameras today. Am I missing something? It says the battery pack is compatible with C, G, J, and K cameras. I was planning on putting on my K cell base camera, but cables do not work for it. I received two cables with the battery pack. One about four inches long with a push and twist end that fit all three cameras and the battery pack output, but the other end was just a push in and did not fit any of them. The second cable had a 90 degree, push and twist end that fit the J cameras and another push and twist end that fit the battery pack. The 90 degree end that fit the J camera would not work on the G or K cameras.


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The 90 degree end cable fits in the back of the k , and the new g , if you have an old g then the straight black end is used . The 3358 includes both style cables -if the box has a picture of a cuddelink camera on it and shows 6x it should be in there . If not contact cuddeback cs and they will take care of you

 

[Pazdag]

I changed batteries in all of these units over the weekend and camera SE Dam had an external battery pack added. I had seen the battery days automatically update when changing the batteries out previously. Two of them still show as if I did not change batteries. I was also under the impression from posts on here that with the external battery pack that it would be noted on this report. Is that correct? Thanks.


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[john volkman]

I changed batteries in all of these units over the weekend and camera SE Dam had an external battery pack added. I had seen the battery days automatically update when changing the batteries out previously. Two of them still show as if I did not change batteries. I was also under the impression from posts on here that with the external battery pack that it would be noted on this report. Is that correct? Thanks.


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depending on what battery pack you added , if its the 3358 and the J has a 12 Aa battery pack on it or a 6 d cell pack on it, it wont show up because the voltage is the same. it will increase your battery life though. Also the days wont reset unless when you change out the batteries that you make sure the screen goes blank on the camera. it can take a bit for this to happen after you pull the batteries.

 

[Boone]

I changed batteries in my k cell and set the timing of pics sent to 6 hrs. It now sends pics immediately. Do I have to hit the clear button?

 

[john volkman]

I changed batteries in my k cell and set the timing of pics sent to 6 hrs. It now sends pics immediately. Do I have to hit the clear button?

It’s always a good idea to clear your sd card and also to a cl clear when making adjustments but this shouldn’t be what is going on. I would check your settings again. When 8.0 is released you will be able to do that remotely . I realize that doesn’t help you now but if it’s set at 6 hours it shouldn’t be sending at batch 1 .

 

[Kb_303]

Ive got a dual flash G cam that routinely comes and goes on my reports. Like today, as seen below, its gone, but then tomorrow, or some day later it shows back up. Then it appears in the history of that new report as well, even though it wasnt on there the day before. Id like to say it battery related, but it has been doing this for months, and just lately started showing low in the reports. Ive attached the latest pic from that cam as well, for those that do the meta data thing, i havent figured that one out yet.

 

[RRAB58]

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Ive got a dual flash G cam that routinely comes and goes on my reports. Like today, as seen below, its gone, but then tomorrow, or some day later it shows back up. Then it appears in the history of that new report as well, even though it wasnt on there the day before. Id like to say it battery related, but it has been doing this for months, and just lately started showing low in the reports. Ive attached the latest pic from that cam as well, for those that do the meta data thing, i havent figured that one out yet.View attachment 27552View attachment 27553

Here’s the metadata. BL 5.09=1.27v per cell. Voltage probably not the issue. But voltage is responsible for a lot of issues. Also you are way behind on firmware version. If you’ve got 200 days on those batteries you doing great!
In this order, I would pull card, update firmware, change batteries, clear/format card (retrieve pics first). See if it helps. BTW, what is the temperature there?

 

[Kb_303]

The battery days are correct, except it has a 3358 pack as well. Its in central Iowa, so temps have been all over the place last few weeks, 20 to 60 degrees. I'll be pulling everything in a few weeks when I get down there, updating firmware, and swapping batteries. Hoping 8.0 is out by then.

 

[Boone]

Can I use my k cell as a non cellular camera? I'm not worried about going into the area to check it as hunting season is over.