Cuddelink L series Q & A
- Thread starter john volkman
- Start date
I'm not super clear on what you're asking about. What requires 1.7? As far as I remember, 1.7 only fixed an issue with some solar panels.
john volkman
5 year old buck +
L will work right out of the box with J G or K on 8.3, 1.9 for L will be released soon, if you're going to load new firmware on the L i can send you that now, just message me your email address.
What is 1.9 going to add/fix?
john volkman
5 year old buck +
nothing drastic, a few small bugs ,continuing to improve color and power management. it will be released in the nxt few weeks or sooner likely
Hi all, hope everyone is having a great season. Just had a question for anyone about the cuddelink reports. Sorry if I missed this somewhere but does the app or camp allow you to view the status report that appears to be sent every six hours? Had a bear chew the antenna off on Nov 11. Loc#12. As you can see the status report that I pulled from the card did send it's last report on the 11th . I didn't know this camera was off line till days later. The camp report and the app reports still show this camera online? Am I missing something? See attached thanks
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john volkman
5 year old buck +
yes you can view the report in camp , the camera will fall off after a few days if not sooner once its disconnected from the network, keep in mind the report is s snap shot in time its not built in real time, so it shows the status the last time the remotes were connected to the home.
So this status report attached is sent every six hours to the home base. But I can't view this unless I pull the card from the home base correct? Its nice to know each camera is still there and communicating. At least for that day. I understand the app and camp reports are just a snap shot. But if I have a camera go offline for some reason and only rely on the app or camp then I may be loosing picture info for multiple days not knowing camera was missing or offline.
Thanks
Thanks
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john volkman
5 year old buck +
if you are running CL by just pulling the home card i think it will only build the report once a day , and its still a snap shot in time not in real time. Also the L series wont show on the report when using that method. if you are running it by pulling the SD card , set each camera to take a day time lapse image, every 24 hours, this will tell you if its still operating and taking pics, if you are running it via pulling the SD method, it doest cost you any data to do this so its a good way to know that cameras are still working. You can do the same thing if using a cell home but those time lapse images will use some of your data up each day.
Ok sounds good I will try the day time lapse image every 24hr. I am running the cell home base. Just would prefer not pulling the card just to see if cameras are communicating that day especially when I'm having my morning coffee. Thanks John
I have a setup with a L series Cell Home and 11 remote cameras on my property. The home unit was purchased earlier in 2024 and has been working fine until recently. On November 15th, I got my last pictures from the home unit. Since then, the reports it sends are empty and there have been no new pictures. The home unit is running firmware version 1.8 (from the factory). I tried replacing the batteries, resetting the unit via the menu and rebooting the unit via the menu. None of these efforts have fixed the problem. When I view the device report, I only see the home unit and one remote camera. I think the other remote units are up and working because they all have external battery packs and were loaded up with fresh batteries the first week of October. Again, everything was working fine until 11/15. John - any suggestions?
john volkman
5 year old buck +
pm me your log in email and ill take a look , have you visited the home unit and run a cell test recently ? are you using email or the app ? have you looked in photos in camp to see if the images are there?
john volkman
5 year old buck +
likely the first update will be manual and then updates will be done remotely, at least thats the goal at this time, its a big project to load firmware remotely via RF, much easier to do it to the cell unit via cellular (which is already in place)
Yes, the date is wrong. My cameras eat batteries. I know I could get the solar chargers or extra battery packs, but that kind of negates any cost savings the cuddelink system provides. I know if I could reduce links, battery life would be extended on some of the middle cameras. This area has very poor cell reception.
Has anyone used their phone to check for service as far as if the home cell unit will have enough service to work? Best I am going to find is one bar of service on my phone. In those areas, tactacams will show two bars of service. I would really like to increase battery life without spending hundreds of dollars
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MadMadHoosier
5 year old buck +
If you’ll pay shipping, I’ll send you some used external battery packs that should more than double your time between battery swaps. I’ve converted all mine to the new shade solar panels to avoid cameras going offline, minimize visits in the woods, and stop buying batteries. So far glad I did, but still have a bunch of the external 6-packs sitting around.
I used my phone, and expect the home unit gets better service. Then service changed, verizon faded out and att became the stronger signal. They key for me was placing the home unit on high terrain and high in a tree. Its about 25' up.
I would suggest start buying panels as you can. I have cameras I have not had to revisit since installing them 18 months ago. The time and fuel savings more than makes up for the cost.
I an not really worried about the time it takes to change batteries or entering the woods - mainly the cost of batteries every 20 days - it adds up fast. I hate it, but maybe should start investing in the solar panels
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Hoytvectrix
5 year old buck +
Panels help ensure you are visiting the cameras less. I think they more than pay for themselves. Your panels would pay for themselves even faster with all of your links.
As far as cell signal is concerned, we have almost zero cell service on two of the farms I run Cuddelink systems. I just placed the cell camera in an area that I periodically get 1 bar of reception through LTE. That is enough for the K-series cell cams I have running as my home units. About twice a year the camera loses connection to the network and it needs to be re-established at the camera. Coincidentally, these seems to happen in the late spring or summer more than any other time of the year, so it hasn't been a big deal.
