Make almost any camera a cell camera

[john volkman]

So I hooked mine up with a cuddeback j series cam. Because I had one close by to test out. It does seem like it works. What I noticed... I have mine set to send 6 times a day. I had 15 second delay set on cam and the images seem to have come over. Although the first image was sent right away. I think by default. My settings then were set to transmit at 2:00am. I sent an update to change that to 4:00. That sent over all remaining images. I’d guess that would have happened at 4:00. I think having it set to send x times a day might be better than each detection. Given the time taken to send the images. I’m assuming that though. Maybe it just sends everything available at each detection too.

it’s a neat concept I’ll have uses for. I don’t care for the cable sticking out of the cameras though. And it’s a little more bulky than one would think. I almost couldn’t latch the j series cam. If you could, I would run the cable out the bottom. Otherwise it’ll catch water and an entry point for bugs. I would also consider using electrical tap to try an reseal the camera.

water and insects will be a major issue with the spy point link - we arent to concerned about people using it on cuddelink because it would eliminate the ability to control the rest of the network remotely which is a key feature of cuddelink.

 

[Peplin Creek]

water and insects will be a major issue with the spy point link - we arent to concerned about people using it on cuddelink because it would eliminate the ability to control the rest of the network remotely which is a key feature of cuddelink.

Yeah. I’m not gonna use it on the cuddelink cams either. This was mostly a test to see how it works and the j cam was just hanging around. I do have an older cuddeback long range IR cam noncell that could be perfect for this though.

 

[Rit]

My experiment is over. I wasn’t getting any additional photos yesterday so I checked the cam. The display on the camera said card reader error 109. I went back and reviewed the photos and they weren’t burst photos they were 3 individual photos. I reset the camera and tried again. 3 more times that night I checked the camera due to no pictures. All 3 times I had the 109 card reader error. It has been packed back up and ready to be shipped today or tomorrow. It’s back to full time Reconyx for me everything else is just such a disappointment.

 

[Peplin Creek]

My experiment is over. I wasn’t getting any additional photos yesterday so I checked the cam. The display on the camera said card reader error 109. I went back and reviewed the photos and they weren’t burst photos they were 3 individual photos. I reset the camera and tried again. 3 more times that night I checked the camera due to no pictures. All 3 times I had the 109 card reader error. It has been packed back up and ready to be shipped today or tomorrow. It’s back to full time Reconyx for me everything else is just such a disappointment.

that’s a real bummer man.

 

[SwampCat]

I must be lucky. I have one of the spypoint links that has been working fine since last September. Probably jinxed it now. I run mostly Browning Trail Cams and have had one quit out of about twenty total in the last five or six years due to mechanical malfunction. I have three or four flooded that quit on me and four stolen - in one night. No way am I strapping a $500 camera to a tree in the woods.

I would be willing to give the new spypoint a try. Does it text a full resolution picture of does it reduce the size of the picture before it sends it?

 

[Peplin Creek]

I must be lucky. I have one of the spypoint links that has been working fine since last September. Probably jinxed it now. I run mostly Browning Trail Cams and have had one quit out of about twenty total in the last five or six years due to mechanical malfunction. I have three or four flooded that quit on me and four stolen - in one night. No way am I strapping a $500 camera to a tree in the woods.

I would be willing to give the new spypoint a try. Does it text a full resolution picture of does it reduce the size of the picture before it sends it?

It’s a compressed image. But looks like to can buy a 50 pack of full Rez image requests for $5. Does look like you can request them.

 

[SwampCat]

It’s a compressed image. But looks like to can buy a 50 pack of full Rez image requests for $5. Does look like you can request them.

just curious if it did. I dont really care, I can go pull the card and look at it if need be. I have done that a few times with the one spypoint I have now. I live on my place so not a big deal.

 

[Peplin Creek]

I am testing right now with 4 year old browning dark ops. Works great and that seals pretty well by running the cable out the bottom.

 

[yoderjac]

I am testing right now with 4 year old browning dark ops. Works great and that seals pretty well by running the cable out the bottom.

We tend to think of "sealing" as preventing water and insects from entering the camera. The real problem is air. The high end cams like my BECs have the electronics and boards coated. This is not the case with most of the low and mid-range Chinese cams. So, on high humidity days, air often enters the camera, often through the battery compartment or SD access. At night it gets cool, and the moisture from the damp air condenses on the electronics. With uncoated electronics, this means corrosion over time. This is one of the main reasons for the average short life-span of the Chinese cams relative to the high end stuff.

Every camera maker wants to protect their market first. Not only does the power consumed by a 3rd party device upset the balance the manufacturer chose, it becomes a pain in the butt dealing with support once someone plugs something 3rd party in to the cam.

It is interesting to see companies trying innovative things like this though.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[SwampCat]

There is a place for everything. I would like another cell camera to set up on a feeder so I know when to go shoot a hog or put one on a hog trap so I know if it caught hogs and I need to get rid of them. Not everyone needs $400 cameras to do the job. I had a spartan for four or five years before it quit working - and it was a great camera. However, I don't need a $400 camera to show hogs in a trap. IF this would work, it would be just what the Dr ordered - I already have a regular game cam on the hog trap so I know what is going and coming - would just need to add this.

 

[yoderjac]

There is a place for everything. I would like another cell camera to set up on a feeder so I know when to go shoot a hog or put one on a hog trap so I know if it caught hogs and I need to get rid of them. Not everyone needs $400 cameras to do the job. I had a spartan for four or five years before it quit working - and it was a great camera. However, I don't need a $400 camera to show hogs in a trap. IF this would work, it would be just what the Dr ordered - I already have a regular game cam on the hog trap so I know what is going and coming - would just need to add this.

I wasn't suggest there was not a place for this. I was simply pointing out some of the issues 3rd party additions can cause. Everything depends on fitting the equipment to application. Folks should simply consider the issues and see if they apply to their situation.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[SwampCat]

I wasn't suggest there was not a place for this. I was simply pointing out some of the issues 3rd party additions can cause. Everything depends on fitting the equipment to application. Folks should simply consider the issues and see if they apply to their situation.

Thanks,

Jack

I wasn't replying to your comment - just making a general statement that it would be ideal for one of my uses. That being said, above all else, it has to work. Even at $60, it has to work. I would not consider buying a $400 texting camera to set over a hog trap. And, I don't want to spend $60 on something that doesn't work, either.

 

[Peplin Creek]

I wasn't replying to your comment - just making a general statement that it would be ideal for one of my uses. That being said, above all else, it has to work. Even at $60, it has to work. I would not consider buying a $400 texting camera to set over a hog trap. And, I don't want to spend $60 on something that doesn't work, either.

Look at getting a wireless stealth cam. They can be had for about $100. I’ve got two that I ran last year without issues. I liked them so much, I added 4 more looking forward to that this fall.

 

[Peplin Creek]

I wasn't suggest there was not a place for this. I was simply pointing out some of the issues 3rd party additions can cause. Everything depends on fitting the equipment to application. Folks should simply consider the issues and see if they apply to their situation.

Thanks,

Jack

yeah no doubt. At the end of the day, we are trying to make something work that it wasn’t designed for. We need to remember that. It’s also spypoints first generation so there will be hiccups. It’s all about perspective I guess. If I didn’t have old cameras laying around that I could turn into cell cams I probably wouldn’t get the product. Every new cam I buy now has an antenna on it. I don’t think I would spend the $60 bucks and then buy a new camera to pair it with knowing there could be seal issues down the road. But for old cams collecting dust... the $60 price point plus a free 100 images a month seems to provide a little life back into them.

 

[bowhunternw]

I hooked up to a old moultrie m80 last friday and has been working flawless since. Setup to deliver twice a day.

 

[Peplin Creek]

Both mine work. One with browning and the other with an exodus lift camera. Love the system as it is. I did have an issue with one connecting after activation. The activation was successful but it wouldn’t communicate with their server. I called support, provided them with a log file. They have released a new firmware version and that took care of the issue I had. Support was so, so. Took a couple of days to fix and updates about what was being done were spotty at best. I’m excited to deploy these out in the field this weekend. I’m able to run both cables out the bottom of each camera with very little seal issues from the looks of it.

 

[35-acre]

I re-positioned mine to in the hope that the reason it wasn't working was based on cellular connectivity. RESULTS - STILL NO LUCK! But that's the problem when you don't read the manual and do enough research before you go into the field. This thing worked great in my backyard at home on another camera so I thought it would be that simple in the field. Going into this weekend, my working theory was that it wasn't connecting to the cell network.

Now, after returning home and still having no pics I've done more research... I've watched a video on YouTube regarding the setup (keep in mind when I set this up at home it worked without issue). There is a quick sentence near the end of the video that talks about routing the connection cable out the bottom of the host camera and leaving some slack inside the camera to prevent it from tugging the SD card connector out when you close up the host camera. They specifically want the cable to route out the bottom of the host camera. I wonder if mine is tugging out ever so slightly when I close up the camera(??). That could be one explanation of why there were no pics on the micro SD card in the Cell-Link. Of course, it's in the field 90 minutes away so I will have to try to set it up again in a couple of weeks.

I also read about firmware update and formatting the SD card (both of which I had not done on the camera in my backyard at home).

After reading this thread and doing more digging I've learned a few other things:

1. There were no pics on the micro SD in the Cell-Link. That indicates an issue with the host camera or the connection to the Cell-Link.
2. My host camera (Wild Game Innovations) was taking 3 pics at High Res in bursts. I now know that is a "no-no" for the Cell-Link. They actually recommend low resolution. I changed this to 1 High Res and a 1 minute delay. I was hoping that this change might help resolve the issue. Nope.
3. I had a 64GB card in the Cell-Link (RTM - it says "up to 32GB card) but it had worked in my backyard... So my attempt to fix this was to swap the card with another working trail camera (I hope that camera can use a 64GB card - I never checked that camera after). I was hoping this might help too. Nope.

Most important part of the video says that the camera should connect to the servers after it goes through it's startup sequence. If it doesn't, you have a problem. Well... I thought it wouldn't connect until an interval defined in the setup (learned this last night). Looking back, I wish I would have read up on the intricacies of the setup more before I went to the field.

 

[Rit]

I received my refund yesterday. Now awaiting the delivery of the reconyx cell cams. Should have just bought them to start.

 

[Peplin Creek]

I re-positioned mine to in the hope that the reason it wasn't working was based on cellular connectivity. RESULTS - STILL NO LUCK! But that's the problem when you don't read the manual and do enough research before you go into the field. This thing worked great in my backyard at home on another camera so I thought it would be that simple in the field. Going into this weekend, my working theory was that it wasn't connecting to the cell network.

Now, after returning home and still having no pics I've done more research... I've watched a video on YouTube regarding the setup (keep in mind when I set this up at home it worked without issue). There is a quick sentence near the end of the video that talks about routing the connection cable out the bottom of the host camera and leaving some slack inside the camera to prevent it from tugging the SD card connector out when you close up the host camera. They specifically want the cable to route out the bottom of the host camera. I wonder if mine is tugging out ever so slightly when I close up the camera(??). That could be one explanation of why there were no pics on the micro SD card in the Cell-Link. Of course, it's in the field 90 minutes away so I will have to try to set it up again in a couple of weeks.

I also read about firmware update and formatting the SD card (both of which I had not done on the camera in my backyard at home).

After reading this thread and doing more digging I've learned a few other things:

1. There were no pics on the micro SD in the Cell-Link. That indicates an issue with the host camera or the connection to the Cell-Link.
2. My host camera (Wild Game Innovations) was taking 3 pics at High Res in bursts. I now know that is a "no-no" for the Cell-Link. They actually recommend low resolution. I changed this to 1 High Res and a 1 minute delay. I was hoping that this change might help resolve the issue. Nope.
3. I had a 64GB card in the Cell-Link (RTM - it says "up to 32GB card) but it had worked in my backyard... So my attempt to fix this was to swap the card with another working trail camera (I hope that camera can use a 64GB card - I never checked that camera after). I was hoping this might help too. Nope.

Most important part of the video says that the camera should connect to the servers after it goes through it's startup sequence. If it doesn't, you have a problem. Well... I thought it wouldn't connect until an interval defined in the setup (learned this last night). Looking back, I wish I would have read up on the intricacies of the setup more before I went to the field.

The sd card pop out issue happened to me yesterday. Definitely need some slack in the cable.

for others watching the forum, it might not be a bad idea to have send the picture after every detect. When setting up the cams so the user can test in the field. Then change the settings on the app. Thankfully that saved me the headache yesterday.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

We tend to think of "sealing" as preventing water and insects from entering the camera. The real problem is air. The high end cams like my BECs have the electronics and boards coated. This is not the case with most of the low and mid-range Chinese cams. So, on high humidity days, air often enters the camera, often through the battery compartment or SD access. At night it gets cool, and the moisture from the damp air condenses on the electronics. With uncoated electronics, this means corrosion over time. This is one of the main reasons for the average short life-span of the Chinese cams relative to the high end stuff.

Every camera maker wants to protect their market first. Not only does the power consumed by a 3rd party device upset the balance the manufacturer chose, it becomes a pain in the butt dealing with support once someone plugs something 3rd party in to the cam.

It is interesting to see companies trying innovative things like this though.

Thanks,

Jack

Jack or anyone else, are there products on market that someone could use to coat the circuits of the cheaper cameras?