No pics sending
ATT 3G , stopped sending pics on 11/25 , battery was low so switched it out , did a manual pic all worked. No pics during the week, next weekend switched battery out again (external 6v) did a manual pic, worked fine. No pics during the next week, so put an external golf cart battery on it , manual pic sent fine. No pics again, battery tests 6.3 , manual pic sends , hello test works.
Did a manual view of pics and it says “no images” even though I know it took and sent 3-4 manual pics and 1000s before it stopped. Guess I can format or change the chip, but feels odd it will take and send a pic manually, but not by motion. Hope the sensor isn’t out 🤕
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Update , I pulled the external power cable and opened the door to plug it back in and 0000 for the password was showing , however the setting was set to ON. I pulled it down to OFF and it turned off, but then blinked and showed the 0000 again even though it was off. No matter what position I put the selector on , ON, Setup or OFF , it blinks and shows the 0000. If I enter the password I can then take a manual pic and it will send. That explains why I put new batteries in, go no pics and then the battery was out....it’s sitting in the setup mode even though I pushed it to ON. Doesn’t really explain why no pics on the chip, not even the manually taken pics that sent.
Haven’t had time to mess with it further but brought it home.
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Switched the card , reformatted and reset defaults. Looks like a switch problem. When it’s in the ON position it goes into the setup mode, then after 15sec or so reboots but remains in the setup mode and repeats that. Even in the off position it at times reboots into setup and then off. If I could figure out how to get it in the on mode, I’d just leave it there. 🤕
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If the camera is not under warranty, you can try cleaning the contacts with electronics contact cleaner.
Remove the batteries, the SD card and the SIM.
This step isn’t absolutely necessary, but I find it helpful. Put tape across the on/off switch and across the other buttons so that they stay with the inside cover.
Undo the four tiny screws in the corners of the inside cover, then remove it.
Spray the switch with the contact cleaner, then move it up and down several times. Let the contact cleaner dry, put the batteries (you can use just four, two top, two bottom, left side), SD card, and SIM back in place, then try the switch in setup and see if it works. You may have to use the contact cleaner more than once, but this may get the switch working again.
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I was about to do surgery and tried the on/off hard and fast a few times and it finally turned on. I taped it on the on position 🤪
Now I have another cam that has full bars, full power, 90% service left and premium credits.
However it won’t send pics, manual pic remains on “setting” and never sends.Hoping it’s just the SD card needs formatting. Does the Hello Test work if it’s a SD card problem ? Forgot to try the hello test, but will and wasn’t sure if that should work even if the SD card is the issue or will it fail with an SD card issue.
it did appear to be taking pics, just not sending.
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Who knows what’s “driving” the FW update, and it really doesn’t matter. Sometimes FW updates add features, like the one for several of the 4G models in July that added the “format SD card” command to the app. Sometimes it’s to fix connectivity issues or occasionally some other problem, but most frequently it’s connectivity. Cell carriers make changes to their networks sometimes that “break” cameras that were working fine before the network changes. It’s not every camera running old firmware that is affected, but that doesn’t really matter. In order for the cameras to function best, they need to have updated firmware.
I’m running 31 cameras, bunch of different models. Yeah, it’s a bit of a PITA to check and pay attention to the status report page at least every week or so (or look on the firmware update page on the portal, it’s faster to look at all the cameras on one page rather than one status report at a time), but once I’m aware that there’s an update, I generally request it sooner rather than later. I’ve met people running 80 or more cameras.
In general, it’s best to do the OTA FW update ASAP because you’re more likely to avoid a problem with the camera eventually going offline because of whatever problem the FW update was designed to address.
What do you mean by 90% service left?
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ATT buy a session gives you a chart on the # of days left and data usage left per cam. This one has only used 10% of the plan.
Didn’t think to check the status report for firmware date, it’s 2yrs 🤕 but 5 others have the same version.
I know there’s a firmware update button in status report , buts never worked , just hangs the cams up. And these days don’t even have a PC anymore with and SD card reader, have to borrow my sons 🤕.
it’s a att 3g , GC-ATTb , I think I recall a firmware reference page somewhere , will search
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I am having the same problem with my gc atti 21, you only get a few pics sent to you, put a new sd card did not help, yes my firmware is out dated, but the camera worked well until a few weeks ago with the old firmware, tried update the firmware ota, and of course that does not work anymore, dont get no statice pics nomore, only thing that comes in are the statice reports, been with spartan for a few years now, and these cameras sure went down hill,at least a few times a year they start acting up, just look at the wait time for tech support, and you can see there is problem some where.
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Here’s the link for the firmware download page.
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Jeffrey,
Hunting season is always tough for tech support because of the sheer number of cameras going into the field. This year, the situation wasn’t helped when Verizon started filtering text pics and both AT&T and Verizon made changes to their network that affected thousands of cameras that had worked perfectly until those changes were made. Tech support had all those issues on top of the regular load.
If the OTA firmware update doesn’t work (and it sometimes won’t when the new FW is to deal with connectivity issues), then you need to update the FW manually.
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my camera is 750 miles away, so it is not easy to get to keep on doing firmware up dates, I have other cameras out in the field that use att, and they work perfect, and they are not spartan cameras, and let me say all the times the camera starts acting up in past years the problem was on spartans end
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Jeffrey,
With your camera that far away, it’s even more important that you update FW before putting it out or whenever you are at the camera. The FW update for ATTi is not recent. It’s from 1/31/2018. It was to fix a dropped connection issue. That could be why you are having problems.
Different cameras (both models and brands) use different comm modules and different firmware. Now why network changes affect some cameras and not others, who knows, but they are different. I don’t know whether your other AT&T cameras are older than your ATTi or newer.That’s a very old model camera (over 4 years old). I’m not overly fond of the one I have, but the newer models (starting with the ATTx) have faster trigger, faster transmission, stronger flash, and are capable of transmitting video. My experience is that the cameras are getting better, not going downhill. I’ve had a lot fewer problems with the newer models. I’m still running 3 ATTb that are four years old or older, although I’m pulling all but one in early January and replacing them with 4G cameras or ATTxb that I’m replacing with 4G.
Next time you go to your camera, you’d be wise to put the FW on an SD card and install it manually if you plan to keep using the camera.
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