Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have the CST and CSRB's attached to speedlights (Canon brand and an offbrand). Recently, when taking a photo, the speedlights will fire very quickly 2-4 times in a row.

I have been shooting in manual mode with a shutter time of about 1 second or longer. It might happen on a shorter shutter time, but I only use the lights when it is 1 second or longer recently.

It seems to happen more when I am connecting the CST through the cameras (5D Mark 2) PC sync port and not if I put the CST in the hot shoe. I would like to be able to shoot with a flash on the hotshoe and the CST attached via the PC sync so I can get the focus assist from the flash.

I have had the CST/CSRB system for less than a year and it has only started happening recently. It is random and is not reproducible unfortunately. I tried taking the battery out of the CST and re=inserting, but the problem will still happen every now and then.

Thanks for any help!

Sounds like the notorious pc loose connection. Try a pc tip re-conditioner or squeeze the outside of the pc end with pliers a tad.

It could be a bad PC connection, but it is very well a weak battery in the CST. Press the CST's test button, and see the LED flash pattern. If it blinks once, then the battery should be OK, if it blinks multiple times, the battery is near exhaustion, and if it doesn't blink at all, then the battery is virtually dead. A replaement battery should solve teh problem.

TS

I think I found the problem. Checked the test button and it blinked once. I already pinched the PC connector...so I didn't think that was the problem.

I turned on my flash and connected it to a CSRB. I had the CST in my hand and while messing with it while it was not connected to the camera, it fired. I found out the problem was the battery was loose in the CST (I could shake the CST and it would fire the flash).

I pulled out the battery and inserted a folded piece of paper between the battery and the plastic tray. It seems to work now.