Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Has anyone ever seen this. On a recent field shoot, I was using a freshly charged VII, a cybersync CSR+, a cyber commander, and a single x800 light. The VII was set to Fast, the green led next to the charge connector was on, and the green led next to the fast switch was also on. The x800 had both switches pushed in, the sliders to full, and the modeling lamp removed. When I pushed the "Test" button on the x800, the flash fired, but the flash emited a steady beep and would not stop until I removed the phone plug for the cybersync. If I pushed the CC to test the flash, the flash would fire, and again the flash would beep a steady tone until the phone jack was removed. I swapped to a second x800, with the exact same results. I swapped to a different cybersync and phone cable, again with the same results. The cc was mounted on the camera, and eventually stopped firing the flash from the hot shoe, but would fire it from the cc pushbuttons. The only thing I could not replace was the VII and the cyber commander. Since this was a problem using the test button on the flash, I don't believe the CC is at fault. I gave up on the shoot, went home and tried to reproduce the problem the next day. All combinations worked perfectly. No problems period. Swapped lights, cybersyncs, cables, no problems.....It all worked perfectly.

From the x800 instruction manual, a flash missfire will cause a momentary beep, as will an over heat condition, but there is no mention of a steady beep that goes on for minutes until the phone jack cable is removed.

I talked to tech support, and they believe there may be a grounding issue with the VII, so I am sending it in.

My question is has anyone had an x800 beep constantly?


Richard K.

I've seen this once w/ an X2400 plugged into a vagabond at home while testing it w/ RP JrX plugged into the RJ11 port (I was positioning the JrX so probably jiggled the cable). I couldn't reproduce it either and power cycling the X2400 and JrX and powering it up in X2400, then JrX sequence was fine.
I'm suspecting a slightly loose RJ11 jack or something like that at this point.

It's interesting that your second X800 had the same issue. At the time, did you try swapping RJ11 cables?

Kenyee,

Thanks for your reply. I tried two RJ11 cables, two cybersync CSR+ units, and two X800's. No joy. The next day, the same equipment worked perfectly. I was hoping someone would know why the alarm circuit would "lock-in" when it is only designed to beep for a second or so on a missfire, or overheat.

Richard K.