MangoCats Product Review
Wildgame Innovations YN1 WiFi Module
MangoCats Product ReviewThe early part of this review is mostly first night impressions, and also some "Aha!" howto guide that might save somebody the frustration that seems to have some (but clearly not all) customers sending these things back.
The system I purchased consists of:
All(most all) of this was ordered through Amazon on December 19th and arrived with Free Shipping (from 3 separate vendors) on December 23rd 2011. I list the batteries because: a) I'm a little surprised they are still not including the wierdo 27A battery with the WiFi module, you have to either order it online or drive to a battery specialist store to get one, sort of a sucky out of box experience since you can't turn on the WiFi module without it, and b) I'm also disappointed that the Pulse 10 camera says in its PIG (Product Information Guide) "Important Note: 8 AA-style batteries must be installed in the camera, even when using the EBX." - I thought the camera was equipped with an internal NiMH battery that would retain the settings while the EBX was being charged, but a later note in the PIG states "Note: If using the EBX External Battery Pack, you must first uninstall it before opening camera." so, I suppose there's some problem accessing the LCD menu while powered from the external pack? Strange since it gives the same nominal 6V as the 4 AA in series configuration inside the camera. Anyway, enough about batteries, I installed my $4 worth of AAs and have been charging the EBX in the meantime.
More nit-picky out of box notes, the WiFi module is an optional accessory to the Pulse 10 line of cameras, the cameras that use larger D or Lead Acid cells have a place inside to store the WiFi port plug incase you want to remove the WiFi module for whatever reason. I chose the AA battery Pulse 10 because it was smaller, and I have no beef about not having a space to store the plug (even though it could have screwed into the bottom of the camera without adding any real size...), but there are two tempting little spots in the EBX lid that look like you can store the plug there, and you can, but it's obviously not made to do it since the circular dents are just a little too small for the plug and you have to do a sort of balancing quick-slam act to get the EBX lid closed with the plug in there, again, nit-picky.
Less nit-picky is that the EBX is pictured and described various places as having a metal armored cable, but the one shipped to me is black plastic... I was really really looking forward to chipped squirrel teeth underneath my camera, I hope they can't chew through this plastic... time will tell.
What really matters are the pictures. This is the first from my Pulse 10, I hope to be adding some with actual
wildlife in them soon. About that picture... it was taken by the Pulse 10 in High resolution mode (why, I'm not
exactly sure, more on that later in the section about "Delay"), downloaded via WiFi to an iPad, e-mailed from the iPad as a large (1.5MB) image
(original was 2.2MB), and then posted here, click the small picture to get the 1.5MB version. I'm happy with the
image quality - like most 10MegaPixel cameras on the market, there's a lot of grain at full resolution, but if you
reduce the image to more like 2.5MegaPixels, it starts to look pretty sharp.
So, about the camera setup, the PIG dutifuly walks you through the LCD display menu, which I assume is somewhat standard for WGI cameras - especially since later in the PIG they mention "the camera will then draw power from the computer as opposed to the onboard C-Cell batteries." and, none of the Pulse 10 series cameras I have seen even use C-Cells, however, for those of us who haven't had a WGI scouting camera before, there are some setup points that are less than obvious:
One last bit of whining and I'll get around to some helpful stuff... the PIG and website (click to view specs) both mention adjustable bungee straps, and I'd really like to have those. Don't get me wrong, the two fixed length bungees included in my kit are nice ones, but they barely fit around the smallest tree in the field, and most trees out on our trail are either bigger, or really small (almost too wobbly for a camera).
So, since I have vowed that I will only download pictures off my Pulse 10 using the WiFi (not messing with the bungee straps, weatherproof seals, flash card, etc.) and I have that picture up there, I obviously succeeded in getting the YN1 to work on the first evening... it took some doing. First a trip to Batteries Plus for a $4.99 Duracell 27A (there are much cheaper ones available from Amazon.) Then, I got my little PC with built-in WiFi to connect to the "WGI238" open network after clicking on the remote control and refreshing the available networks list for about 90 seconds. Some poking around and I determined that the camera was at address 10.10.10.254, but I couldn't get much further without additional web research. Finally, on a reseller's website, I found a link to the WGI WiFi apps page. I swear I couldn't come up with that link from any of their related product pages. Anyway, I downloaded the PC app, which is just a FTP client, and connected to the camera again at 10.10.10.254 using the app's default "anonymous" user setting. It connected, but only showed an empty root directory. Seems that I was failing to read the Download Instructions, clue for customer support: I know how to download a program, I even know how to install it without instructions, so why would I click on something called "Download Instructrions"? Well, anyway, I switched over to an iPad and tried the iPhone app on it. In the iPhone app, anonymous wouldn't even connect, and something possessed me to read the "Download Instructions," where I found that the username and password are both "admin". That helped a lot. The "Download Instructions" also tell you where in the (extensive) file structure you can find your photos.
Another helpful hint: you can log into the FieldNet router manager via a web browser at http://10.10.10.254 with username "admin" password "admin" - in here, you can do all kinds of crazy things like change the SSID (network name), change the "admin" username and password (so nobody else can change it for you), and lots of other things that look better off left alone. It has options for wireless security, but with the accounts renamed and passworded, I feel like the remote control power switch is security enough for a simple camera. Note: changing the SSID went without a hitch. Changing the admin username/password seemed more problematic, the changes "took" in the server (HTTP) interface, but over on the FTP side, things weren't working. I had changed admin and added a second account. Then I changed admin back, still no FTP joy, then I deleted the extra account and FTP started working. Since I had been playing with all this for about 45 minutes, I decided it was time for bed and called it a night at that - it may be possible to change admin's password and even username, but I haven't tried that yet (see below re: remote battery life).
Along the way, I called customer support at: 800-847-8269, where I got a recording stating that they are closed for the holidays and will return on "Monday, December 28th" which, I truly hope, means Wednesday, December 28th, 2011 and not the next Monday, December 28th in 2016. I'm hopeful that they will be helpful in diagnosing why my night shots are coming out pure black? I've just triggered a couple by walking infront of the camera myself, I saw the IR panel light up, and the green delay LED light while the image was being compressed and stored, but the downloaded image was just pure black with the logo and timestamp on the bottom. Also, it seemed to take a lot of me walking around before the IR strobe flashed, maybe almost a minute, which, coincidentally, is what I have "Delay" set to (1 minute) - is this how it is supposed to work? And, does that mean that if a deer walks by and doesn't hang around for at least 15 seconds, I'm not getting a picture of it?
As I mentioned above, I'll know more as the photos start piling up, and if I get around to it, I'll share some of those photos and impressions here. I'm also thinking about whipping up a Qt App to make FTP connection a little less painful. Check back in a few months and see if I've made good on any of these first night thoughts.
Here is another review of the FieldNet accessory.No new pictures overnight. I walked in front of the camera and intentionally triggered one, it seemed to go off more or less right away, so my new working theory about "Delay" is that it will now wait my set 1 minute before snapping the next picture. I turned my 8 year old loose to play in the yard, and he ran back and forth infront of the camera about a dozen times, but somehow never triggered it... the camera is about 6' up a tree looking straight out on a mild downhill slope, and the "kid run" is about 8' away from the tree, so I guess he was just too short to trigger it.
Around 9pm tonight, I went out and walked back and forth infront of the camera, got it to snap 3 pictures, and the 1 minute "Delay" does seem to equate to a "rearming time." On the way back into the house, I spooked a couple of white-tail deer that were walking by the other side of the house, hopefully they'll wander over to visit the camera. But, now, I have one more disappointment, the $4.99 Duracell 27A I drove out to purchase last night seems to have gone flat, the when I trigger the remote its red LED only lights for about a half second - earlier this afternoon it was lighting for more like 3 seconds per push. And, of course, the FieldNet WiFi isn't coming on in response to this shorter trigger, even from 25' away. Yes, I have been "playing" with it a lot in the last 24 hours, maybe 3 sessions with something like 4, 20, and 10 "pushes", while I sorted through the software on the PC and iPad, just say I'm underestimating and call it 50 triggerings, now the tiny little 27A battery is dead enough to be useless. Not fun.
December 30, 2011 - my 6 pack of 27A batteries arrived, replaced the remote battery and it turned on the WiFi without problem. Yesterday, I got around to calling WGI customer service, they are sending me a new battery to try and if it fails quickly they say they'll replace the remote. My camera placement 6' off the ground was not optimal, in a week I only snapped 15 pictures, it looks like most of them were triggered by us and the kids, though about 1/2 of them show empty yard. The night vision is non-existant, just a solid black picture, even though the IR LEDs are obviously lighting up. First week's pictures can be seen here.
Battery was showing 3 bars (out of 4, I think), I brought the EBX inside to charge it, it went from yellow-green to full green within less than an hour, I plan to reattach it in the morning. Changed camera settings to:
The WiFi has better range than the remote that turns it on. I can sit in our bedroom on the opposite side of the house and connect to the camera, but I have to walk over to the other side of the house where the camera is to get WiFi to turn on with the remote (or, at least get my butt out of bed and press the remote up against the window.) I haven't gotten very specific with my testing, but it seems like it takes about 60 to 90 seconds after triggering the remote before the WiFi shows as available to connect to, and it seems to run for 10 minutes or more after turning on, but probably not more than 20. I'm not sure if the WiFi stays powered up when there is continued activity, or if it's just a fixed 15 minutes... would be nice if the documentation would say something about this. WiFi performance is definitely slower when it's down at 2 or 3 bars reported signal strength instead of 4 or 5. From where I'm sitting right now, just holding the notebook up a foot or so higher can make the file download process accelerate to 2-3x faster.
Also in the "would be nice" category, I was wishing that I could change the caption on the photo overlay tonight after coming in the house, it's cold and a little wet outside, and I was standing in the deer run at dusk so I'm sure I was disrupting their evening already just placing the camera quickly on a tree - I didn't really want to stand there for another 3-5 minutes pecking away at the LCD interface to change the photo caption.
Perhaps more realistically, it would be nice if the battery condition could be made part of the photo overlay, it would seem to be a small change since the microprocessor that handles the LCD display obviously communicates with the overlay and it knows the battery condition, just putting that info on the overlay would allow remote checking on battery state by looking at the battery state on the latest photos. Back on the perhaps less realistic side, it would also be nice to trigger a photo to be taken by WiFi, a) to check battery state, and b) to check if the camera is still mounted in a good spot, not covered with leaves, etc. The tree that the camera is mounted on right now is a little on the slender side, again I could use those advertised "adjustable bungee cords" since the supplied ones are on the long side to be secure on this tree.
I'm especially concerned / perturbed about battery state monitoring since the Pulse 10X review at Chasin'Game mentions that the SLA batteries do not seem to hold up well to being deep discharged, and the PIG is telling me to not operate the LCD with the EBX plugged in, so I feel like I have no way of monitoring the charge state of the EBX at all, but if I accidentally let it run flat, I may be out $36 for two new SLA batteries, perhaps less if I shop around a bit, but still, the hassle factor alone is concerning.
The FTP client is progressing, I posted an Alpha release on Chasin'Game but they seem like a bunch of wary bucks there, so nobody has admitted to trying it out. I'm using it myself and will put a page up for it when it's "Beta" testworthy.
Well, the pictures are better when you put it where the deer are. I definitely have a night vision issue, put in a WGI website request for help about that on Tuesday the 3rd, haven't heard anything back yet.
WGI did send me another 27A battery to try in the remote, I thought since it was Chinese that it might contain mercury (and therefore last a bit longer), but whether it has mercury or not (couldn't tell from the labeling), it only lasted between 24-48 hours before being too weak to turn on the WiFi. I have been saving my 27A by removing it from the remote when not in use - the first one has lasted through at least a dozen turn-ons this way, but there is definitely something wrong with the remote, now I just have to find the time to call WGI when they are in the office and answering the phone...
The FTP client is coming along, hosted on SourceForge now, and it's got some (really basic) image processing tools in it.
Just started recording videos, we'll see how the battery life holds up with the IR on for 2 minutes at a stretch - the video files are really big (290MB for 2 minutes), kinda disappointed about that, they must be MJPG or something like that instead of actual MPEG or h.264 compression. It is cool watching the deer walk by though, even if you can barely see them in the dark.