# CuddeLink by Cuddeback



## Kirkevan08 (Jul 7, 2017)

I have not tried one yet, but my Badlands Rep. Is a Cuddeback dealer as well. He told me a couple months back that this was coming. I need to get ahold of him and get one from him and test it out for myself to see how it works. If I get one I will post review.


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## primal-bow (Jun 5, 2008)

i don't under stand this? are all of the cuddelink cameras the same? where is the home camera? how do you set one camera to be the home camera?

i do like the ideal thou.


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

I've been running this system and would highly recommend it. My family decided to give this a try in hopes to keep people out of the woods every 3-5 days when people would go in to check their trail cameras. Now we have the home camera set up next to the hunting shack that way if we want to check our cameras we only need to pull this one card. We are running a network of 10 cameras and haven't had any issues yet, (running for almost 2 months already). This concept is great and I can't see us changing back to the old way, it took us hours to check all our cameras on the property now we only need to check one. Any questions I had about this product I got answered by Cuddeback support team or their videos they have available on these cameras.


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## jrod1222 (Jul 10, 2011)

BigBuckWI said:


> I've been running this system and would highly recommend it. My family decided to give this a try in hopes to keep people out of the woods every 3-5 days when people would go in to check their trail cameras. Now we have the home camera set up next to the hunting shack that way if we want to check our cameras we only need to pull this one card. We are running a network of 10 cameras and haven't had any issues yet, (running for almost 2 months already). This concept is great and I can't see us changing back to the old way, it took us hours to check all our cameras on the property now we only need to check one. Any questions I had about this product I got answered by Cuddeback support team or their videos they have available on these cameras.


How far of distance are you getting? How do you know each camera is connected?? Does it tell you which image came from which camera? Also you mention 1 card... do you need a card for every camera??


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

I have seen 1/3 mile to 1/4 mile per camera depending on what terrain is between. There is a signal when setting up the cameras that show they are connected and you also get a daily report that gives information on the network as well. When setting up the cameras I set each camera to have a location number that way when the images come to the HOME camera the images from that location number are saved in that specific folder. Every camera needs a card, the cameras send a compressed image to the home camera but also save the original image to that cameras SD card.


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## brokenlittleman (Oct 18, 2006)

I have been running this for about a month. Biggest issues I see are not all pics are sent even though I have plenty of signal and the sensors on the cameras suck. Put them on a close trail and you will be fine but they are worthless on any type of field location. Going to keep using as I like to be able to check just one camera but I have been very disappointed when I do check the remotes and there is pictures there that are not on the home camera. That defeats the purpose in my opinion.


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

if your not getting all your images home then the camera is not setup correctly. When I discussed all this with the Cuddeback Staff they told me 2 important things to keep in mind. 1. the camera queue, if the images that are in queue exceed the limit you have set the old images will be deleted. I changed my camera queue to all so I make sure no images are deleted. 2. They told me if I want all images to get home I have to set the camera delay and CuddeLink delay to the same setting. For instance If i had the camera delay set to 5 seconds but CuddeLink delay set to 15 seconds I would not get all images to the HOME camera. If the camera takes a picture that picture then gets sent to the network but after 5 seconds the camera rearms for another picture and can take that picture but with CuddeLink delay set to 15 seconds it would only send every 15 seconds. So that scenario the camera could take 3 images but only have 1 sent to the network. 

As far as sensor issues I have not seen any. I have been able to get 30-40 feet on field edges no problem and I like how the images show deer in the frame. I have run different brands in the past and would deal with so many images of nothing it was annoying.


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## brokenlittleman (Oct 18, 2006)

BigBuckWI said:


> if your not getting all your images home then the camera is not setup correctly. When I discussed all this with the Cuddeback Staff they told me 2 important things to keep in mind. 1. the camera queue, if the images that are in queue exceed the limit you have set the old images will be deleted. I changed my camera queue to all so I make sure no images are deleted. 2. They told me if I want all images to get home I have to set the camera delay and CuddeLink delay to the same setting. For instance If i had the camera delay set to 5 seconds but CuddeLink delay set to 15 seconds I would not get all images to the HOME camera. If the camera takes a picture that picture then gets sent to the network but after 5 seconds the camera rearms for another picture and can take that picture but with CuddeLink delay set to 15 seconds it would only send every 15 seconds. So that scenario the camera could take 3 images but only have 1 sent to the network.
> 
> As far as sensor issues I have not seen any. I have been able to get 30-40 feet on field edges no problem and I like how the images show deer in the frame. I have run different brands in the past and would deal with so many images of nothing it was annoying.


Thanks for the tip on the setup. I will try that and see how it works. As far as the sensor 30-40 ft is pretty bad which is exactly what I have seen with mine.


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

My opinion I think that's good for distance... but maybe that's because my small bucks are hard to see when they get out past 50 feet in an image


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## Neokane (Sep 6, 2014)

How many batteries do you go through, or how do you keep them juiced up?


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## PutnamCountyHunter (Aug 22, 2011)

I love this concept and hope to try it out. I have had a great experience running Cuddebacks over the years. Mark Cuddeback is a great guy...


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## NC Kansas (Nov 28, 2009)

Wildgame came out with a similar system years ago. Don't think sold many.


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## brokenlittleman (Oct 18, 2006)

Neokane said:


> How many batteries do you go through, or how do you keep them juiced up?


I run the extra battery pack on mine and the have been out for over a month with no issues so far.


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

I run the standard 4 D batteries in the camera and have been running over a month with no issues. To date I have taken and transmitted over 1k images in the last month.


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## brokenlittleman (Oct 18, 2006)

BigBuckWI said:


> I run the standard 4 D batteries in the camera and have been running over a month with no issues. To date I have taken and transmitted over 1k images in the last month.


Are you taking a single pic with trigger or multiple? I want to set up mine just like yours to test transmission.


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

I have my camera delay and CuddeLink delay both set at 5 seconds and I only take 1 picture. I had camera set up on acorn ridge and was able to take over 300 images in less then a week and all images transmitted to the home without any issues.


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## primal-bow (Jun 5, 2008)

any one care to share so pics?


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## BP1992 (Dec 24, 2010)

What happens when one of the cards gets full? Does it delete the old pictures on it's own or how does that work? It's nothing for me to have a card fill up in just a few weeks.


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## Bigeclipse (Jul 7, 2013)

nice concept but at $200+ ,the expense for a "cap", a piece forget that! Once my current cams start to die out maybe I will start switching to a system like this but WAY to expensive for me to suddenly jump in.


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## BGagner (Oct 21, 2014)

Tagged for later. Seems like a good concept so I'm curious to see how it plays out


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

I will try to add a image in, for some reason it will not let me load the image. What size card are you using that gets filled up in a few weeks? An 8GB card would hold around 8000 images that seems like a lot of images in just a few weeks. I believe with this system once the card is full that camera stops taking pictures, sounds like you should run a bigger SD card.


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## BP1992 (Dec 24, 2010)

BigBuckWI said:


> I will try to add a image in, for some reason it will not let me load the image. What size card are you using that gets filled up in a few weeks? An 8GB card would hold around 8000 images that seems like a lot of images in just a few weeks. I believe with this system once the card is full that camera stops taking pictures, sounds like you should run a bigger SD card.


I'm running 8GB cards and they only hold around 3400 pictures. I have my camera set on the highest resolution though so maybe that takes up more space.


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

Yes a higher resolution will take up more space. Do you even see a difference in the higher resolution images? When I changed to the higher resolution i didn't see a difference unless I exploded the images so I felt it was a waste to run the higher MP images. Also, the link system sends a compressed image to the home camera and at this time I don't see a need in going back to re-look at the image again even if it's better quality.


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

Yes a higher resolution will take up more space. Do you even see a difference in the higher resolution images? When I changed to the higher resolution i didn't see a difference unless I exploded the images so I felt it was a waste to run the higher MP images. Also, the link system sends a compressed image to the home camera and at this time I don't see a need in going back to re-look at the image again even if it's better quality.


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## E.J. (Aug 7, 2008)

Soo, what's the answer? Does it have the option to overwrite new images to the memory card if the card gets full, or a way to remotely delete images from the cams that aren't the home cam? My browning has that feature and it would probably be useful if leaving cam for a long time.

I don't see how this new system would be really really beneficial if you filled up a card in a month and had to go in anyway to replace.?


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## brokenlittleman (Oct 18, 2006)

From the manual. 

All images & videos are saved to the SD card. If
the SD card is full the oldest images and video are
erased to make room for new images & video.


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## E.J. (Aug 7, 2008)

brokenlittleman said:


> From the manual.
> 
> All images & videos are saved to the SD card. If
> the SD card is full the oldest images and video are
> erased to make room for new images & video.


Awesome, thanks. Maybe I'll give it a shot one of these days. Definitely a cool concept.


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## Rutbuster (Feb 3, 2010)

The D batteries are a deal breaker for me. I only buy AA lithium battery cameras now.


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## BP1992 (Dec 24, 2010)

E.J. said:


> Soo, what's the answer? Does it have the option to overwrite new images to the memory card if the card gets full, or a way to remotely delete images from the cams that aren't the home cam? My browning has that feature and it would probably be useful if leaving cam for a long time.
> 
> I don't see how this new system would be really really beneficial if you filled up a card in a month and had to go in anyway to replace.?


Exactly


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

I still think your missing the point here, if you run a bigger card and run the smaller MP images you would be fine. Run a 32GB card in the camera, I just looked on Amazon you can buy one for $12 and if you run the 5MP images you would hold 32,000 images. The only way I would ever get 32,000 images in a season was if I was running a bait pile and then you are traveling to the camera every week anyways to refill the food store. 

I'm actually happy they went back to the D batteries. I can buy 4 D batteries wayyyy cheaper then 8 AA Lithium batteries and the D batteries will give better battery life. Also, going back to the images being overwrite I don't think it will do this. I know they have a Surveillance mode on the camera they allows this feature but when running CuddeLink I did not put on this mode. Also, video mode is disabled when running CuddeLink as well.


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

I just got off the phone with Cuddeback Support as I wanted to see if they knew the answer. They said when running CuddeLink if you put the camera into Surveillance mode, if the card gets full the camera will delete the old images and replace with new. So this would solve your issue if you are worried your card would get full and the camera would stop taking pictures. Now thinking of that I still think you would not want your HOME camera deleting images so I would recommend not letting that SD card get full or just run a 32GB card.


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## jrod1222 (Jul 10, 2011)

Do you have any photos you could share? Still haven't pulled the trigger yet on any..


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## brokenlittleman (Oct 18, 2006)

jrod1222 said:


> Do you have any photos you could share? Still haven't pulled the trigger yet on any..


Here are a couple retrieved from the home camera. I think they are pretty good and definitely meet my need to not have go to the camera.


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## BigBuckWI (Jul 26, 2017)

Attached are some of my images as well. The quality definitely meets my needs especially since I can leave them sit and not travel to get images. Also, important to know these are the compressed images and the higher quality images are on the camera if you ever want the original image.


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## jrod1222 (Jul 10, 2011)

I now see that there was a new model for the CuddeLink that was released... anybody try it out or have any info? Is it better? Cheaper? Etc.


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## jeff25 (Dec 8, 2011)

Bigeclipse said:


> nice concept but at $200+ ,the expense for a "cap", a piece forget that! Once my current cams start to die out maybe I will start switching to a system like this but WAY to expensive for me to suddenly jump in.


You will spend just as much or more for a wireless camera plus you have to pay a monthly data plan


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## Jerred44 (Jul 31, 2008)

any updates


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## fireman127 (Mar 22, 2008)

I have 6 cameras I bought from scheels when they had a great sale. They were $160 ea at the time for the Long range IR camera that takes AA batteries. I put 2 out just to try before this cold weather hit and they have been working great. If the rest of the system works like these 2 next year I will be happy. Pictures at the home camera are reduced resolution but you can see if you have something nice. I was told if need be I could pull the card on the remote camera and the image will be better like BigBuckWI said. I havent done that yet but will soon to see. I am liking this idea of daisy linking to one camera. Now I will just wait for another sale and buy a few more.


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## tctucker (Dec 31, 2017)

I’ve got 7 deployed and they work great. I have 5 of the first ones they released (D batteries $270) and 2 of the new ones (AA $200) this system has changed the game.


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## LarryM (Feb 4, 2005)

Do the cameras have a field scan mode? I like that for some food plot situations.


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## Deereman8370 (Sep 26, 2017)

How is the quality of the cameras? Better than previous models? I swore I would never own another cuddeback, but this system has me curious


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## l8_apexer (Dec 14, 2008)

Scared of poor reliability

Got burned on three other cuddebacks that suddenly died. Calls to cuddeback were in a word frustrating. Swore I would never buy their junk again. 

Noticed a few lists where people claim to know/email the company’s owner

Wonder if he knows how terribly his customers have been treated

Applaud the innovation of cuddelink but tired of being burned


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## Talonted (Jan 15, 2009)

Deereman8370 said:


> How is the quality of the cameras? Better than previous models? I swore I would never own another cuddeback, but this system has me curious


Same boat here, really like the innovation and this system would serve my needs very well. But after having 4 cuddebacks over the years, poor quality and terrible customer service has me watching from afar. Please keep updating with any good or bad results!!


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## fireman127 (Mar 22, 2008)

cuddelink


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## Whitetail88Arch (Sep 4, 2012)

Anybody else running these or have any more updates on how they are working?


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## brokenlittleman (Oct 18, 2006)

Still going strong. Newer camera with the AA batteries doesn't last as long as the version with the D batteries but still adequate for me. They seem to get about 3 months use in my set ups. Eagerly awaiting the cell cap which will turn them all into a cell camera.


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## baz77 (Jan 21, 2003)

I just set this system up here at my place…works exactly as described and was crazy easy to setup.


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## KS Bow Hunter (Nov 22, 2013)

What would be awesome if they had a home camera that was cellular and sent the images to me...


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## brokenlittleman (Oct 18, 2006)

KS Bow Hunter said:


> What would be awesome if they had a home camera that was cellular and sent the images to me...


Coming in June. Will send the pics from 15 cameras through the cell making them essentially all cell cameras.


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## KS Bow Hunter (Nov 22, 2013)

That would rock!


brokenlittleman said:


> Coming in June. Will send the pics from 15 cameras through the cell making them essentially all cell cameras.


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## gjs4 (Jan 10, 2006)

So how much is the cheapest model that works with the CL, where can you get from, what else is needed?


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## dtrkyman (Jul 27, 2004)

Are you guys running lithium that claim the d batteries last longer?


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## brokenlittleman (Oct 18, 2006)

dtrkyman said:


> Are you guys running lithium that claim the d batteries last longer?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Yes but to be fair I forgot I also had the Cuddepower on the D cameras as well so they probably are comparable without the extra battery pack.


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## brokenlittleman (Oct 18, 2006)

gjs4 said:


> So how much is the cheapest model that works with the CL, where can you get from, what else is needed?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I bought a 4 pack of the long range IR model when Sportsmans guide had a special. Worked out to $150 a piece. Nothing else needed with those.


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## Whitetail88Arch (Sep 4, 2012)

I have a guy who is a salesman for cuddeback and a bunch of other outdoor companies and he was telling me he should be able to get me about 40% off the retail price so I’m thinking around 500 for 4 would be awesome. Do the newer aa battery cameras still only have like a 30 to 40’ range? I just can’t figure out why every single person isn’t using these or why they aren’t pushing them harder this seems to good to be true


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## Bigeclipse (Jul 7, 2013)

Whitetail88Arch said:


> I have a guy who is a salesman for cuddeback and a bunch of other outdoor companies and he was telling me he should be able to get me about 40% off the retail price so I’m thinking around 500 for 4 would be awesome. Do the newer aa battery cameras still only have like a 30 to 40’ range? I just can’t figure out why every single person isn’t using these or why they aren’t pushing them harder this seems to good to be true
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


150-200$ a cam is very steep compared to other comparable (quality picture) models coming in at $80. The link technology is really really great and I would love to have them...however, I cannot afford to replace all my cameras with these. I may be able to buy 2...but by the time I can purchase anymore (may be a couple years) will the newer models be compatible with the older models?


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## Binney59 (Nov 28, 2008)

Just put 6 cuddelink cameras out. Can I pull my home card and view in a portable card reader or do I need a computer to access each cameras folder? Thanks!


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## GunnerNYS (Sep 7, 2011)

Seems like a great concept . Thanks to all that have shared info so far.


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## jrod1222 (Jul 10, 2011)

I use a Boneview and check them on my phone and Ipad and it works great!


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## jrod1222 (Jul 10, 2011)

Here are a few of the pics I got this spring. Made turkey scouting very time efficient!


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## gcab (Mar 24, 2010)

those pics from the home unit or direct from each camera? my thought was the quality of pic is lower on the home unit since it is sent down the data link from the camera, but the pics direct on the cameras are higher quality. that seem to be the case?


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## Fillip (Sep 14, 2017)

You guys always have cool themes for those who love taking photos!


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## JPhuntNC1 (Jun 22, 2018)

I like the system. We are running around 16 or 17 with two different cell home cams. It had its glitches but it works 

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