Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

yup, my old CC (since replaced) used to do that right joystick reset too. However, after a few minutes it would eventually reboot itself anyway regardless of battery type or charge.

The replacement CC I've had for a bout a month seems free of issues so far. Lithiums seem to be the way to go & are lasting a good bit. I have noticed a faint, high-pitched whine when it's turned on (possibly the LCD?) from this newer unit, but nothing to cry about tho.

Hi all ... just got on the forums today. CC & E units arrived about a month ago, and I was having the same re-cycle issue. Emailed tech, and figured out that the problem was in the battery connection. In my CC, the batteries were loose, and that caused the CC to recycle everytime the batteries moved around. Bent the tabs today, and the problem seems to have gone away.

Others have mentioned short battery life, and I was having the same thing. Batteries dead after one week of CC stored in the bag. I am hoping this was connected to the battery connection issue, but only time will tell.

Other than these "little things," I am very happy with both the Einsteins and my Cyber Commander!

The battery should last about a year in the bag. Perhaps something in the bag is pressing one of the buttons in? This will run the batteries down in a matter of hours.

A year? Both mine have gone through 2 sets of batteries each since buying them - maybe 3 months. Mine sit on a shelf in the studio when not in use.

I'd be ecstatic if they lasted a year. I'm on my second set in less than a month, and I keep the CC in a cell phone pouch in the camera bag, so I doubt anything was pressing the buttons.

It's possible the cell phone case itself could be responsible for the buttons pressing up against the side of the case?

I doubt it. The CC si off when I remove it from the case and turns on normally. I am pretty certain that the problem was from the batteries being loose inside the unit. Since I bent the terminals to hug the batteries more tightly, there has not been any problem.

The more the CC is used, the less time you will get on a set of batteries. Lower the LCD brightness down as low as possible, but still able to see it. Also, set the time out function low as well. Many folks who just get the CC play with it constantly (initially) to learn it. This requires the screen to be on, and the batteries will die seemingly fast. Once learned, the screen is off more than on, resulting in longer life out of the batteries.

When I first got my CC in December of '09, I initially tried to use it with NiMH (slow discharge) batteries. It didn't take long to realize that the operation of the unit was erratic with those batteries, and I subsequently checked around here and other online sources to confirm that the unit needed to be used with higher-voltage batteries. After depleting the initial set of alkalines that came with the unit, I have only used lithium since. Today is the first day that I have run into the unit rebooting upon metering since I switched to lithiums, and it's happened 3 times in the last few hours of shooting.

Battery contacts are fine and tight, and just to satisfy my curiosity I checked the no-load voltage of both batteries (1.518 and 1.519 volts). I was actually expecting the voltage to be lower, given how much I've been using the unit. But I do realize that lithiums start at a higher level than alkalines, so I wasn't too surprised. As far as I can remember, this is the first set of lithiums that I've left in the unit this long (installed May 1). The last set was changed just prior to an on-site shoot as a pre-emptive measure, and I suspect they hadn't drained quite as much as these.

My purpose in posting is simply to add another report confirming that this is happening on a unit, specifically when metering (and not on any other function that I've used, including test firing). I don't expect that this will be a big issue for me, as I'm pretty confident that the unit will behave normally again after installing a fresh set of lithiums (which I'll do later this afternoon when I can pick some up). I'll report back after confirming that the rebooting has ceased.

Lithiums have a more constant voltage during life, and at least double the life as Alkaline.