4Gb2 Cam not sending

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Drew Ewalt
My 4G camera seems to work when it wants. It worked fine for about a month, and isn't functioning correctly now. It quit sending pics a couple of days ago. On my way to the stand yesterday afternoon, I turned it off for a minute and to setup. It showed 5 bars and I turned it ON. I sat in my treestand and watched a buck feed in front of it for 20 mins. No pictures. I recieved pics at 8:47pm to 12am. It sent 5 total. I have scheduled events setup to send a report at 1600, take pics at 00, 0700, and 2100. The camera hasn't taken any pics or anything since last night? The camera always has 5 bars, and is on an external battery. These cams are great when they work correctly, otherwise a huge headache. Especially when I'm trying to see if a particular buck is showing. This is my 5th year using Spartan cell cams.
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  • John Lockburner
    • Edited

    Look on the lower right of your pictures, especially the night pictures, do you see anything other than P5? Is the cameras firmware up to date?

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  • Elizabeth Swoope

    You didn’t mention the first letter so we can’t tell what carrier it is, but have you confirmed that it has current firmware?

    What carrier? Are you buying your data from Spartan or from the carrier?

    Did you take/send a manual photo yesterday? What’s the date/time on the latest status report? 

    What’s the sensitivity set to? 

    Is there any way you can save a picture from the portal to a computer and post the picture here? It would help if we could see your set. Sometimes even a minor change in camera placement can make a big difference in how well the camera detects motion. If an animal camps out on a corn pile or feeder, doesn’t move much, sometimes the camera doesn’t “see” movement. 

     

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  • Drew Ewalt

    It's an At&t cam. No I didn't have time to stand there a mess with it. I was already late getting in the stand. The firmware is 10-2-19 and says up to date. The last status was 12/19 00:10:18 just a few mins before the last pic was taken.

    Theres nothing in the left corner other than "P5".

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  • Drew Ewalt
    • Edited

    Data was purchased from the At&t buy a session....3 months. The camera hasn't been moved in a month.

    The buck walked around and was active and it didn't take a single picture. He was there for over 20 mins.

     

    The sensitivity is on normal.

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  • Elizabeth Swoope

    Do you have premium credits? There are two reasons I ask that question. The first is that you are using Buy-A-Session, which is just data. Premium credits are extra, paid to Spartan. The second is that you mention that it worked for about a month. You get one month of free premium credit with a new camera. If your month is up, you'll get the midnight status report but no pics.

    https://support.spartancamera.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010539473-Premium-Credits-what-are-they-buying-them-and-monitoring-them

    Are you sure the camera didn't take any pictures of the buck yesterday or is it possible that it took pictures but didn't send them. (you'd have to look at the SD card).

    But it sounds like you got a picture this morning shortly after midnight? (Sorry if I'm a little confused.)

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  • Drew Ewalt

    I have a 3G camera that I've been running since September. It says that I have 1 credit remaining. I'll have to look at the card when I get a chance to go mess with it. 

    I normally get a lot of pics throughout the day, whether it be squirrels, deer, or turkeys, and I'm not receiving the scheduled pictures. 

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  • Drew Ewalt

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  • Elizabeth Swoope

    Okay, premium credits are not likely the problem. The set looks fine (camera position looks good). It took/sent one photo today just a few minutes after the midnight status report.

    Can you post the status report from the app? 

    What SD card are you using? Looks like power is good and you aren’t using lithiums so the P number should be pretty accurate.

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  • John Lockburner

    Do you have the time zone set in the camera settings on the app?

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  • Drew Ewalt

    Sadly, we live in a rural area and we don't have many options for internet. I used a friends computer yesterday to post the pic.

    I received a status report at 16:00 like it should have been sent. Power isn't an issue at the moment, it's running on an external. The memory card is a SanDisk 32gb class 10. If the camera worked fine for a month and it just quit working like it has (I've not touched it since the other day briefly) then the memory card shouldn't be an issue. It's not even close to full.

    I guess I'll see if I can get it to send a picture manually, turn it off on, remove batteries or whatever. If it doesn't work, ill send it back. It's pretty sad my 3G is working better.

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  • Drew Ewalt

    Yes, the time zone is set.

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  • Elizabeth Swoope

    >> the memory card shouldn't be an issue

    It shouldn't, but SD cards work until they don't. You would not believe how many problems are caused by SD cards. Sending status reports but not pics is a common symptom of a problem SD card.

    I strongly suggest that you try a different SD card or format that SD card. That will either fix the problem or rule it out.

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  • Drew Ewalt

    Well, I wanted to report back that I got the cam working(fingers crossed).

    I tried to send a pic manually and it would not send despite having 5 full bars. I changed the SD card to a 64 GB Lexar. I didn't want to format it, because I didn't know for sure if it was clean. It still wouldn't work.

    Changed to a 8gb Sandisk and it started working fine! I checked the card that was in the camera originally at home on my PCand it had pics from my Canon camera (I had no idea). It's also strange that the cam worked fine to begin and stopped suddenly.

    Thanks for the help and recommendations, I though that I knew about everything about them since I've ran them for 5 years now. Apparently not..lol

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  • Elizabeth Swoope

    SD cards work...until they don’t. The cameras will NOT work with 64 G SD cards. They don’t work well with cards that are not formatted in them. The fact that yours did work at all is a miracle. You have no idea how many weird problems are caused by SD cards and how much flack we get from users when we suggest formatting, trying a different one, using one that is “to spec”, etc.

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