Cuddeback CuddeLink Cameras

I have 4 Cuddelink J series and 1 G series as well as the Home unit. Battery life with alkaline was pretty bad. I was only getting a little over a month. When the solar panels came out I bought 3 of them for the J series, nothing available yet for the G. One camera went dead in 17 days, the next in 52 days and the last in 62 with the solar panels and rechargeable batteries that come with them. This is ridiculous considering I have a camera with lithium and it's still running 88 days as of today. I tested the panels out in the woods and got just over 9 volts, the Cuddelink cameras all run on 9 volts so this shouldn't be a problem. The problem is the batteries they send with them are cheap and junk. Every camera that went dead had at least 2 batteries that wouldn't take a charge. This has happened to others on Cuddetalk. I tossed the batteries and put Rayovac rechargeables in 2 of them and haven't had an issue yet but it's only been about 20 days. The other 2 I hooked up to HME solar chargers with 12 volt batteries I've modified with 9 volt regulators. I'm seeing the same thing everyone else has otherwise. about 350-450 yards through thick coverage and great trigger speed. Some of the pictures sent back to the Home aren't the greatest but the full size is still on the cameras SD card.
 

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I got about 250 yards and the signal got bad. 50 yards of open hardwood, 200 of thick swamp. The distance is over marketed. Had the camera up since Saturday, that battery situation doesn’t sound good. I purchased 200 lithium’s. I won’t be getting a lot of pictures in this location so hopefully that gets me into November when I will try hunting near cameras and swapping batteries.
These cams take 12 aa/ camera for those who don’t know.
 
1aff15c9941785c47d825e97febcf68f.jpg
i have these on all but one camera. So I’ll be able to compare with/without.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Joseph Lemon said:
I have 4 Cuddelink J series and 1 G series as well as the Home unit. Battery life with alkaline was pretty bad. I was only getting a little over a month. When the solar panels came out I bought 3 of them for the J series, nothing available yet for the G. One camera went dead in 17 days, the next in 52 days and the last in 62 with the solar panels and rechargeable batteries that come with them. This is ridiculous considering I have a camera with lithium and it's still running 88 days as of today. I tested the panels out in the woods and got just over 9 volts, the Cuddelink cameras all run on 9 volts so this shouldn't be a problem. The problem is the batteries they send with them are cheap and junk. Every camera that went dead had at least 2 batteries that wouldn't take a charge. This has happened to others on Cuddetalk. I tossed the batteries and put Rayovac rechargeables in 2 of them and haven't had an issue yet but it's only been about 20 days. The other 2 I hooked up to HME solar chargers with 12 volt batteries I've modified with 9 volt regulators. I'm seeing the same thing everyone else has otherwise. about 350-450 yards through thick coverage and great trigger speed. Some of the pictures sent back to the Home aren't the greatest but the full size is still on the cameras SD card.
Click to expand...

I would be very interested in your set up for providing external power. Specifically, the plug size, and voltage regulator. I was planning on figuring out something similar, or buying the Cudde solar kit. I've heard said that the J series will run indefinitely on their solar setup, but have no experience what the best way to go is.
 
You can modify the HME chargers if you can solder by pulling out the 12v 3 prong regulator from the circuit board and soldering in a new 9v. Or make your own. All you need is a Plano Ammo box, a small 12v battery, 9v regulators, a plug and solar panels.
The plug is a 4.0x1.7mm. I couldn't find one prewired but I found plenty of 5.5x2.1 and just use a 5.5x2.1 female to 4.0x1.7 male adaptor plug. There's a guy on youtube called The Handy Hunter that has some great videos for this.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A71E52G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GPL8MVG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EGB6DK4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
Another way is to remove the circuit board from the HME solar boxes, they already have a 12v battery in them and do some wiring.
In the picture the black wires are from the solar panel. The + wire goes through a diode (this is to keep the battery from draining through the solar panel at night), from there to the battery then out to the 9v reg and from there to the wires out to the trial cam. The neg side of the solar panel runs the same route except it doesn't go through the diode.
 

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swat1018 said:
Well, I would consider that a miracle! I have had no less than a dozen of the code blacks since about 2011. I haven't bought them, most of them have been sent to me by their customer service in an attempt to get a few that work. These 3 "work" but I get a million pics all day long if it's over 85 degrees which is rough on batteries, just to name one problem. The flash sucks, etc. They are about useless.
Click to expand...

Not trying to change this to a Covert thread but I just wanted to throw this out there...

I have three Covert Code Blacks and all have performed without issue. They just work. Granted they are a trail camera so if you set them up facing the sun or where something in front of it is blowing in the wind it will false detect just like 99% of the game cameras out there. External SLA batteries and a solar panel solves battery issue as well. I keep my cameras on real time and never have to replace batteries unless one of the external packs fail.

And no, I'm not an employee or on their pro staff. Okay, I now return this thread back over to Cuddeback....

Matt
 
mattpatt said:
Not trying to change this to a Covert thread but I just wanted to throw this out there...

I have three Covert Code Blacks and all have performed without issue. They just work. Granted they are a trail camera so if you set them up facing the sun or where something in front of it is blowing in the wind it will false detect just like 99% of the game cameras out there. External SLA batteries and a solar panel solves battery issue as well. I keep my cameras on real time and never have to replace batteries unless one of the external packs fail.

And no, I'm not an employee or on their pro staff. Okay, I now return this thread back over to Cuddeback....

Matt
Click to expand...

I've got 3 I'll sell you...
 
Pulled my first card on the home unit. Had pictures from all 3 remote cams, including a 150 class shooter at 730am. Wish the range was better but I’m still satisfied. So far, at least
 
I just ordered 2 sets of 4 Cuddelink IR cams off ebay for 569.99 per 4 and free shipping.
Getting tired of checking cams on the farm. This way with the home cam in my back yard it will be simple to check the pictures daily.
Will advise how it works out.
 
A little update on my cameras. Been running 16 G s with one cell unit. We are actually running 32 of them. since we got the settings dialed in better we have been pleased with the night time pictures. had to turn all settings to close so flash would not to too bright. Played with wide and center settings a little bit. We have battery booster on all cameras and Iam at 92 day battery use and my battery booster just went dead. Report was showing low for 3 weeks but I didnt want to change them due to hunting season. The bossters just now went dead so i believe they are running off of the 4 batteries in the camera now. If this is the case I am pleased with battery life in these units. I should be good for 4-5 months on 10 batteries. So far I give them a thumbs up
 
Any other feedback on these? I am trying to finish up my Christmas list :).

I love the idea of not having to check cameras, but worry about the distance. I have about a mile and a half to cover in rolling/steep terrain. I would love to hear some feedback in similar areas.
 
HB_Hunter said:
Any other feedback on these? I am trying to finish up my Christmas list :).

I love the idea of not having to check cameras, but worry about the distance. I have about a mile and a half to cover in rolling/steep terrain. I would love to hear some feedback in similar areas.
Click to expand...
I have very hilly terrain at my place. After moving cameras around and learning better ways to get them to link up I got my areas covered. top of ridge to top of ridge was easy but try to get into some of the hollows was a learning curve. I was first just trying to daisy chain them in order. After failed attempts I was able to get them to link but they linked kind of backwards in order. I have 300-400 yards in very thick cover. open area line of site closer to 700. I started with 6 thinking that would be all I needed/wanted but the coinvence of them I quickly added 10 more. They spoil you very quickly.
 
Double L said:
A little update on my cameras. Been running 16 G s with one cell unit. We are actually running 32 of them. since we got the settings dialed in better we have been pleased with the night time pictures. had to turn all settings to close so flash would not to too bright. Played with wide and center settings a little bit. We have battery booster on all cameras and Iam at 92 day battery use and my battery booster just went dead. Report was showing low for 3 weeks but I didnt want to change them due to hunting season. The bossters just now went dead so i believe they are running off of the 4 batteries in the camera now. If this is the case I am pleased with battery life in these units. I should be good for 4-5 months on 10 batteries. So far I give them a thumbs up
Click to expand...

What are you using for battery boosters? I'm using 12v 7 amp hour batteries with a 6 volt regulator with my G series and get about 3 months.
 
swat1018 said:
I love mine, still figuring them out.
Click to expand...
All of mine I have set at close for black flash and I change centered to wide depending on location from plots to woods, and I keeped moving mine around to get them to link up together. My first attempts at some locations they didnt work till I got all the cameras out then I was able to gain better coverage by the way the linked up. I originally used a wagon wheel theroy with cell camera being the hub but then figured out how they could link going away from cell unit then back track to home base worked well. My daily reports shows the difference on how many links they are to get back to cell unit. some days I have 3 links on a camera other days it may be 2 or 1. weather heavy fog seems to lower the CL level sometimes
 
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