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Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:57 am

Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 12:40 am
Posts: 23

I was at a location shoot yesterday in a large estate and was setting up a couple of Einsteins with PLMs in a cross lighting configuration. One Einstein was plugged into a wall outlet (Alpha) and one was plugged into a power strip (not surge protector) on wall outlet (Bravo). An Alien Bees B1600 was also plugged into the power strip on Bravo. I started powering up the lights and hit the power button on the Einstein on Bravo and the LCD lit up and then turned off immediately. I hit the power button again and it was dead. I thought, hmmmm, blown fuse? So I took out the spare from my Einstein bag, put it in and it was still dead.

I then thought, "Wow, that blows. Brand new Einstein just died." So a friend of mine at the shoot had a brand new Einstein with a hundred or so pops in his car and he let me borrow that. So I plug it into the strip on Bravo and it was up and running. Then I went back to business finishing up the lighting setup. Then I glanced over at the Einstein on Bravo and noticed it turned off. So I went to turn it back on and it was dead.

Now I'm thinking, "What the Hell? How can I kill two Einsteins?" Was it the power cord? I thought it might be the outlet, Bravo, but thought, "If it's the outlet, why is the B1600 still fine?"

I spoke to my friend who owned the Einstein and he was puzzled. Another friend of mine thought the boards might have been defective and may have come from the same batch (since indeed my friend and I received those two respective Einsteins on the same day).

At this point I was a bit peeved and ended up changing the lighting setup and ditched the idea was going for at that part of the house.

4-5 hours later I was shooting downstairs in the house and my other friend called down to me and asked me what outlet I was using when I killed the two Einsteins. I told him the outlet (Bravo) and he said two of his Einsteins were plugged into a strip (not sure if power strip only, or surge protector) on that outlet and they both shut off after a few minutes and would not turn on again.

Then we thought, ok, the outlet must be dirty. So we dug up a spare fuse, replaced it on one of his Einsteins that died and plugged that Einstein on battery (Vagabond Mini Lithium) and it started up fine. Also checked his other Einstein with the same good fuse and it powered up fine. The rest of the day, he ran off Vagabonds (Mini and II).

So after all this, I guess my question is, what was happening on that specific outlet (Bravo) that would constantly result in blown fuses? Also, what about the B1600 I had plugged into the same strip with the Einstein on the 'bad' outlet? Was the B1600 able to handle the dirty power better? Or is it possible the B1600 is damaged now (though I shot the rest of the day with the B1600 without issue).

Feedback from Tech Support much appreciated.

Side note: I'll be ordering a bunch of spare Einstein fuses.




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Mon Apr 25, 2011 9:21 am

Site Admin
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:43 am
Posts: 5266

Did you try the Vagabond on a light without changing fuses? Changing fuses and power sources simultaneously leaves two variables, neither of which can be the certain culprit.

Also, was a Cyber Commander in play, and if so, were its light settings set to Standby?




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