Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

My CC started acting up last week when used to trigger Einstein's. The CC was mounted in the shoe of a Nikon D700, and the E640 fired maybe once out of every 3 or 4 shots. I replaced the batteries in the CC with new lithium's, with the same result. I also tried removing the micro SD card.....still inconsistent. The E640 fires every time when triggered with a CST.

Ideas?

Is this in the portrait or landscape orientation? Did you ensure the foot was fully inserted in the hotshoe? Is this the same via the buttons or PC cord? What is the distance from light to Commander? Are there any obstructions?

The CC ws in landscape orientation. The CC fits quite tight in the D700's shoe, so there's no reason to believe that it wasn't making contact.

Regarding the question about buttons or PC cord, I don't know because I didn't try.

The E640 was barebulb, with a direct line-of-sight between the camera and the CC. The distance ranged from 10-15 feet. I duplicated the same situation (with misfires) today while tinkering around with a 64" PLM. Not to repeat myself, but keep in mind that there are zero misfires when using a CST.

Does the light adjust normally via the CC? Try using the CC's buttons to see if the light responds any better. Also, to clarify, use the PC cord for the CC to see if improvements are obtained. You may want to try a different fequency as well. I know the CST fires perfectly, but the two do not have equal range. Any interference could affect the CC at that range, but possibly not the CST.

Nice things to try, but not practical when you're the only thing keeping 40 people from getting to the reception. It's got to be reliable to be of value, so I'll make phone contact and figure out how to get it repaired or replaced.

If you would like to send the unit in for repair, you can do so by mailing it back to us, no RMA is required. Be sure to specify the problem you are having. All Cyber Commanders are still under warranty, so there will not be a charge to have it fixed. You can follow this link to our repair page which has our address as well as a repair form: http://www.alienbees.com/contact.html#repair

However, if the issue is based on interference or misaligned frequency/channel dials on the recievers, then a repaired or replaced Cyber Commander will not be of any help. I would strongly recommend trying to isolate the problem at least to the CC in a non critical environment.