Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

As I mentioned in a previous post, I got a CC for Christmas and had a couple of problems with it failing to fire the strobes and sometimes it firing them rapidly on its own.

As a solution I was told to use the CST to trigger and keep the CC in my pocket. I've been trying to do that but man, my whole system is going haywire. I can't trust it to work anymore. The last year I've been shooting with the CST things have worked 100%. Since putting the CC on the "network" it fails more often than it works.

The CST won't trigger the lights about 50% of the time now. Sometimes it will work for a little while, then it will stop and nothing I do will get it triggering the lights again. Sometimes the CST will cause the lights to trip rapidly (or it could be the CC transmitting from the pocket or table I suppose).

I've switched channels, swapped batteries, tried everything suggested and everything I can think of but the two together simply won't work.

Sometimes I turn my lights on and they won't do anything (the fan is running but nothing else gives any hint of life), even the modeling lights won't come on. I unplug the CSR and plug it back in and that usually does it... but not always. Sometimes I have to spend 5 minutes going to all of my lights unplugging everything and testing to see if the CST/CC is working and if the light is working.

Should I send in the CC for service? Should I send in the CST too?

Thanks for any help.

Please disregard. I swapped batteries yet again and this time things with the CST appear to be working. I'm doing a shoot today and so far no issues with the CST. My CC still have quirky behavior, but for now things seem to be working ok.

Whew.

Just curious -- what kind of batteries are you using?

I was initially trying to use NiMH just to see what would happen when I first set things up, and noticed some odd behavior as well as a couple spontaneous "reboots" of the CC (even with barely-used cells). Not long after that, I read some posts here indicating that the CPU of the CC is spec'd to require 3 volts -- clearly not a good situation for NiMH cells. For "real" shooting and ever since then, I've used alkalines or lithium.

Although expensive, the lithium have worked much better for me. After several days of fairly solid use, I checked the voltages on the lithiums I just put in, and (no-load) they were still registering over 1.6 each. I take that as a good sign. :)

A low battery in the CST can cause the lights to rapid fire. This can also be followed by normal triggering, then not work at all. If the lights rapid fire, and a CST is in the vicinity, press its test button and see if the LED blinks multiple times. If so, the battery is low. Ditto if it does not blink at all.

TS