Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I've just set up a system of 4 einsteins and a cc. It's pretty amazing actually!

I also noticed that there has been some issues with the cc as far as reliability goes. The range is as much as I would realistically ever need in line of sight, but it gets cut down dramatically if there is anything in the way, including myself if a light is behind me - it doesn't seem to transmit a signal to as light as close as 15ft in some cases.

The cst seems to work without a hitch on any distance I have tried, no matter what is between it and the lights.

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I did some more testing and it really just looks like the CC has issues going through any sort of obstacle. The CST can go through walls etc, but the CC has trouble even if I just hold it behind my back while facing the lights...

Has anyone tried firing Einsteins with CST and regular CSRB for long distances (i.e. 150 yards?) Does the issue seem to be with CyberCommander or the Einsteins?


Kent in SD

I would say the fact that the CST works perfectly suggests the Einsteins aren't the issue.

I did some testing last night just to see. My Einsteins were in the house facing the front window. I went outside, closed the door, and proceeded to walk down the sidewalk pressing fire after every couple of steps.

I was able to consistently get about 50' or so through the exterior walls of my house. After about 50' then it was hit or miss and over 60' or so it was pretty much a no go.

That distance will satisfy 99% of what I do and probably most of what others do too. Maybe I got a good CC. I hope so. That will make up for my Flex5's that have about an 8' range on a Canon 580EXII.

I need to try my CST tonight.

MDteX,
Maybe you did get one that has a little better attenuation on the antenna. I did the same tests and shots in the home studio as you are indicating. The problem that I had was when you take the Einstein outdoors away from walls and other reflective surfaces that bounce the signal back to the receiver.
If you want to, just to see if your CC is doing any better than ours, then take your light out in the yard away from anything. Try this with and without modifiers and see if you get the same results that you did in your home tests.
If you receive the same results then this may offer TS some ideas. If you get the same results as the ones of us that are using them on location outdoors, then you are having the same issues. Indoors I got 40+ ft through walls and 60 line of site, but outdoors was less than 90% accurate at less than 10-15 ft.
Let us know if you get a chance to try this out. Any and all tests and information should help TS to solve this issue. I ordered CST today to get the extended range. I love the CC idea and hate the idea of being tethered to a light. Know those guys are working their behinds off and certainly willing to do what it takes to work with them, help if I can and understand when necessary.

I tried my CST tonight. I basically got the exact same results when the light was inside and I was outside. About 60' or so.

I took the Einstein outside hooked up to a Vagabond II. Outside in clear line of sight the CC was only consistent at about the same 50'-60' feet. I did get longer but not consistently.

The CST was consistent at 180'+ feet. Around 200' it became inconsistent.

I think there is some communication problems with the CC and the Einstein receiver.

Did some testing tonight and found that the range was very bad, around 15 feet if the CC was cradled in my hand and I was behind the Einstein. If I held it up thumb and forefinger, the range was consistent to about 50 feet. I ran out of room in the backyard after that. The CST was consistent, no matter where I stood within the 50 foot radius. No new data, really, just a point or two. I haven't had any real issues with the CC, Einsteins, CST or anything else I have purchased recently and it has been a lot.

R.

We have been working with this daily and PW has been helping to identify range issues. Several mods are going in Einsteins now shipping. Also, it came to our attention that a point of the CC antenna is almost touching another part. We believe this may be the cause of some reports of extremely short CC range. It potential point of contact is so small that is't possible for it to shift slightly in shipping, after having passed our pre shipment testing.

We are also working diligently working on fine tuning of the CC antenna to increase the range.

Any customer that has any problems with CC or Einstein will be taken care of at no cost once these bugs are worked out.

Dear Paul,

i've been shooting with the einstein for a month now, and no matter what i do, either the PW multimax, or TT5 have issue to fire the einstein above 20'. I haven't shifted to CC so far because i need the hypersync of the TT5.

I have seen a small improvement by setting the receiver as far as possible of the flash, with the long sync cable.

also putting a magnet- shield on a dead loop of the sync (taken off a usb cable) and setting the PW alone on a high light pole as far as possible from the flash, seems to also help a little bit.

it seems to me that a small amount of interference might also go back by the sync cord also.

rf noise crowded area such a public sport event, and metallic structure such as bleacher and so seems to also interfer with the triggering.

with the balcar i have consistent firing up to 800' but what is interesting is that turning a einstein on in the neightbouroug of the balcar wont affect the range on the balcar itself.

it only affect the remote witch is attached to the einstein via the sync cord.

most interesting, i have tryed to put 1 einstein and one balcar on the same remote via a "Y" conector, and the balcar will fire, when the einstein wont.

do you think the trigerring system of the einstein could be sensitive to RF noise, or maybe sending back some rf noise via the sync cable?

hi there,

any news regarding the range and reliability increase ?