Reveal problem

buckmanmike

Senior Member
I have 3 Reveals. I like them but one is not sending pics. Camera was showing bad reception, so I swapped locations with another camera and now it is showing good reception but still not sending. I checked camera today and when in set up mode, the camera reception light is red, meaning bad to no reception, but the app is showing good reception. The camera is taking pics because I looked at the card and saw last nights action and me driving up to camera today.
Any idea on how to get camera to get reception? I checked the antenna and it was tight.
 

sghoghunter

Senior Member
Some of the Tactacams have been having problems with people tightening down the antenna to tight and breaking the wire and loosing signal. Also they are known for corrupting SD cards and not sending. Everyone thinks I’m stupid for doing it but I have extra SD cards for all my cellular cameras and every time I cut one off to move or change batteries I’ll change out the card also with a fresh formated card. Which camera is it?
 

buckmanmike

Senior Member
I went to the Tactacam website. It has instructions on how to do a reset. Also suggest unscrew antenna and look for any connection problems. So I'll do that tomorrow.
 

sghoghunter

Senior Member
This is something I saw on FB a while back and saved it just in case I needed it one day. Tactacams are decent cameras when their working like the suppose to BUT they are very temperamental at times.
 

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BUCKFAT

Senior Member
I went to the Tactacam website. It has instructions on how to do a reset. Also suggest unscrew antenna and look for any connection problems. So I'll do that tomorrow.
Make sure that camera is still active on your account. Also make sure it has the correct SIM card in the camera. The SIM cards can not be switched between cameras. When you get to the camera take the antenna off and see if the antenna port is loose. If the port is loose, the antenna wire can get pulled off the circuit board. If the camera is out of warranty you can take the camera apart to put this wire back onto the circuit board. If it still has warranty contact Tactacam and send it in to be repaired.
To match your SIM cards to the correct camera, point your smart phone camera at the QR code on the door. The first number is the camera the next one/two are the SIM card numbers. 8901 is ATT 8914 is Verizon.
 

lildorris00

Senior Member
I have 3 Reveals. I like them but one is not sending pics. Camera was showing bad reception, so I swapped locations with another camera and now it is showing good reception but still not sending. I checked camera today and when in set up mode, the camera reception light is red, meaning bad to no reception, but the app is showing good reception. The camera is taking pics because I looked at the card and saw last nights action and me driving up to camera today.
Any idea on how to get camera to get reception? I checked the antenna and it was tight.
I've had one camera do something similar. I took the SIM card out, reset it and reinserted the SIM card and it reconnected to the network and no problems since. The tech support didnt/couldnt tell me what was wrong so I just started trying different things and that seems to work. Sometimes they get "stuck".
 

BWill

Member
I own and maintain 22 Tactacam cell cams. They are set up the first of October and stay until February til the end of the first week. 22/23 season I had zero failures. I had one that was sporadic with sending photos twice a day however that was my fault for putting it in a known sketchy/dead area for cell service. 90% of the problems with ALL cell based cams are user error. 10% are due to a sd card, battery, firmware, or other issue. One thing that will mess up cameras is static electricity from lightning that’s very close to cameras. I’ve actually had a camera get lightning struck when said lightning hit the tree and it travelled down the tree stem. I am simply sharing my experience here On the forum. Do take time to fully read the technical manuals and watch the company videos for the cams regardless of manufacturer and you will save yourself much grief.
 

buckmanmike

Senior Member
I was not able to check out my camera yesterday. Last night the camera recieved an update. It is now sending pictures. So Im not going to touch it as long as its working. Thanks for the help.
 

sghoghunter

Senior Member
I own and maintain 22 Tactacam cell cams. They are set up the first of October and stay until February til the end of the first week. 22/23 season I had zero failures. I had one that was sporadic with sending photos twice a day however that was my fault for putting it in a known sketchy/dead area for cell service. 90% of the problems with ALL cell based cams are user error. 10% are due to a sd card, battery, firmware, or other issue. One thing that will mess up cameras is static electricity from lightning that’s very close to cameras. I’ve actually had a camera get lightning struck when said lightning hit the tree and it travelled down the tree stem. I am simply sharing my experience here On the forum. Do take time to fully read the technical manuals and watch the company videos for the cams regardless of manufacturer and you will save yourself much grief.


I have been using cell cameras for almost 10 years and I agree user error is most people’s problems but when it comes to Tactacams the major problems are due to SD cards. I’ve never had a camera company tell me that I’ve got to use a certain size card like Tactacam does. I personally have not had any SD card problems but I also swap my cards out every time I turn a camera off to change batteries. If you’ll google Tactacam problems you’ll see most are SD card problems.
 

BWill

Member
I don’t use the exact spec sd cards but what I do use are pretty close and work just fine and they’re a name brand card and not a generic. Other brand cameras also come with sd card recommendations .
 

frankwright

Senior Member
I am going to tag on here rather than start another thread.
My buddy and I both bought Tacticam Reveal XB Cams.
I have never used anything but Sam's Alkaline Batteries and they last forever.
Our cameras are set up the same and about 200 yards apart.
His batteries go dead so fast. He changes batteries almost every week or so.
We have them set up on pig feeders and our number of pictures are very close.
I compared all the settings and ours are the same.
I can log onto his camera but not sure I can make changes.

Any idea what can be using batteries so fast.
 
If he has his set to send instant it will use batteries faster . That being said it shouldn’t be dead in one week, unless he is getting a tremendous amount of pictures. If you are over a feeder you really should set your delay at a minimum of atleast 30 second delay. Reason being there is a food there and you really don’t want huge amounts of animals standing there chewing raising their heads up and down. That would be one thing to change is the delay the second would be the send times. If your are not hunting them twice a day to send pictures would be fine. When your settings are instant the modem stays running constant when there is triggers and it sends the pictures immediately. Also if the signal is weak or low in the areas you have it it will “hunt” for signal to keep trying to send the pictures. Couple that with the above factors and another battery drain option. If you want to run them like that you should consider using lithium batteries which still won’t last but maybe a month and a half with a high traffic area. Another option is a solar panel but it needs a lot of sun light to be most effective.. you could use a 12 volt power source like a feeder battery and plug that into the bottom of the camera.@frankwright
 
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sghoghunter

Senior Member
I am going to tag on here rather than start another thread.
My buddy and I both bought Tacticam Reveal XB Cams.
I have never used anything but Sam's Alkaline Batteries and they last forever.
Our cameras are set up the same and about 200 yards apart.
His batteries go dead so fast. He changes batteries almost every week or so.
We have them set up on pig feeders and our number of pictures are very close.
I compared all the settings and ours are the same.
I can log onto his camera but not sure I can make changes.

Any idea what can be using batteries so fast.


I’ve always ran Energizer max batteries in all cameras including cell cameras without any problems till I got the first reveal then I started looking into an external battery source. For some reason them Tactacams love batteries way more than anything else I’ve ever used. I have had a reveal work for months on a fresh set then next time it won’t last two weeks. Now I am using a 12 volt external battery with energizers inside the camera and can get a couple to three months of pics on all cameras except one and it has weak signal and only get a month if I’m lucky. The external battery is the way to go IMO but do not trust the battery level in the app cause it does not work right when you use the external battery
 
I have 4 TACTACAM reveals. Two of them are reveal x. I like to get my pictures instant along with instant setting checks. I too have had to replace batteries often when Doing this. So I just ordered enough to make two. 12 volt external power sources
I ordered two Plano 1312-50 ammo boxes,2 herd 360 chew proof power cables, and 2 mighty max 12 volt 12 ah rechargeable batteries. With this setup it should last a looong time… all I got to do is charge up the batteries put them in the box drill a small hole to run the power cables through. Goop up the hole and plug it into the trail camera and done.. pics to come
 

frankwright

Senior Member
I double checked his settings and they are exactly like mine.
His camera is on top of a hill in the open. Mine is down in a creek bottom surrounded by trees.
Both of our signals say "Strong".
I am going to suggest he try lithium first and if that does not work, an outside external battery source.
Thanks!
 

sghoghunter

Senior Member
I double checked his settings and they are exactly like mine.
His camera is on top of a hill in the open. Mine is down in a creek bottom surrounded by trees.
Both of our signals say "Strong".
I am going to suggest he try lithium first and if that does not work, an outside external battery source.
Thanks!


IMO lithium’s is a waste of money for a cell camera. They don’t add enough battery life to be worth the money difference. They will also go from 100% battery today and be dead tomorrow
 
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