Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Technical Support wrote:

On the whole, the CC works quite well. One needs to keep in mind that very little is said from customers who are not having issues. Only those with issues tend to seek guidance in a forum such as this (that is its sole purpose).

I've had my Cyber Commander since Nov. and have had these same kinds of problems, as well as the joy of using it just as advertised. How absolutely wonderful it is when working properly! How infuriating and embarrassing when it doesn't work!!! I've only used my CC successfully three times before having two successive failures in the midst of shoots, and quite frankly am leery of using it again. I've simply been too busy to look into solutions for the last few months, and have reverted to the reliable wired controller, (or the jogging from light to light method). But, I really want the CC to work for me, because when it does it's amazing!

If, as you imply, there are plenty of users that have had no problems with the CC, I'd like to know what they're doing differently that make them successful. Or, if they're successful because they got a 'good' CC unit, then please, may I exchange mine for one of the 'good' ones?

I'd really appreciate your help with this. Thanks.

I read, calibrated, then set up my CC according to the instructions. Tested the unit at home, then headed out for an all-day (AB800's)five light shoot. Thirty minutes into the shoot, the CC system failed! Luckily, I had my PW's with me, and as usual...they performed flawlessly. It was quite embarrassing to had clients wait while I tried to "figure out" why the CC unit didn't work as advertised. At this point, I'm reluctant to use the CC until such a time that the issue is resolved. I've tried the "batteries out" routine (fresh batteries), the "card out" routine, and still no result(s).

Looks like this time, I may have made a mistake in being among the first to purchase/try the new technology.

Please do not be so condescending. This is my first post regarding the issue although I have been in contact with support. So far, I have been very unhappy with the reliability of the CC. I am on my second CC since my first one had the manufacturing defect (battery terminal soldering).

The black out after firing occurs far too often.

Condescendingness was not my intent. The statement was directed to the immediately preceeding poster who was questioning whether or not he/she should buy one now "since it's not working correctly". Some obviously aren't working corectly, but most are. Again, we are working with our consulting firm on identifying and correcting the issue as fast as we can.

I appreciate your efforts and the challenges you face on this. Perhaps it is time to escalate this to Paul's attention as lack of confidence in a timely and thorough CyberCommander software fix undermines the Einstein.

"As fast as we can" is telling us little given you rely on a 3rd party for it to happen. It would be great to hear about any intermediate milestones:

1. Have you and the consulting firm been able to replicate the issues reported on this thread?

2. Have the consulting firm been able to identify the root cause(s)?

Regards
Alex

FWIW, I didn't think it's condescending either. It's fairly common for web forums to turn into gripe forums to make it seem like there are a lot of issues (car forums are also subject to this if you've ever read them).

What's more important is if you can characterize your issue and tell tech support how to reproduce it because for them to fix it, they need to reproduce it. When I fix software, you wouldn't believe how many customer complaints I have to filter through where a customer just says "it's not working right" and I have to start the question game to figure out what's wrong ;-)

[/quote] What's more important is if you can characterize your issue and tell tech support how to reproduce it because for them to fix it, they need to reproduce it. [/quote]

OK, here are the issues I have seen both in on-the-job fiascoes, and in trying to figure out if I am doing things correctly (I think I am)

1.) The CC will sometimes go black randomly. ejecting the card juices it enough to come back on usually, but a couple of times I had thought it was flat dead, came back a couple of hours or days later and found that popping the card out yet again did the trick.

2.) When the CC wakes from sleep it wont recognize my receivers [two CSR+, and two CSRB+, controlling two WL X1600, one AB 800 and one AB 400]. Sometimes one of my four will flash at full power and the others not at all or perhaps two will fire but not as they were programed to do moments before or even flashing in response to the wrong channel. I've learned on this forum that popping out the memory card causes a restart or reset and gets it working again. This seems to have brought the functionality of the CC back to exactly 'as advertised', eventually... sometimes requiring multiple ejections of the card; one time it just needed a rest - about 45 min. later it started working correctly... I did try removing the batteries as I've also seen suggested here, but didn't notice that this had any effect on resetting the CC.

3.) Occasionally, when I fire the lights with a CyberSync, they all fire like strobes in a light show flashing continuously, and I have to shut down power to reset them.

4.) This is all a bit random. I can never be sure what's going to work.

I'd sure appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks.

I updated the firmware in my CC to version 29. The CC is now working nearly perfectly. It recognizes the receivers when it wakes up from sleep, and the previous settings are just where I left them, whether it's been asleep for 1 min or for an hour.

Well done Paul C. Tech team!

One caveat is that I have seen one occurrence when the CC blacked out completely. Ejecting re-seating the memory card one time brought it back to full function - all settings remembered accurately.

Having said all this, I have only been testing the new firmware for one day. Remembering the history of not being able to rely on the CC for the past few months, I'll reserve full judgment for a future date when I've seen it consistently perform reliably for a greater length of time.

Thanks to everyone who helped to solve the problems!

are using the old card or new card?

I re-formatted the old card and used it to install v.29.