Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I had a slightly scary experience happen12/21/10. I had previously removed the reflector and replaced the protective cap on an einstein, but I hadn't unplugged the unit from the AC. The shoot was over many hours previous to this. I walked into the room where I had partially broken down the einstein setup and I heard the fan on. I looked up and could see the glow from the modeling light. I felt the unit and luckily it wasn't hot yet; it had just come on! It was still mounted on a light stand. It had been off for hours and had just come on by itself. It had the CSXCV receiver in it, but my transmitters had no or dead batteries in them (I had dead batteries and had to use pocket wizards for remotes). If I hadn't come into the room at that moment and seen the unit on, I'm afraid it would have melted the protective cap and possibly started a fire. Maybe the einstein would have tripped an overheating sensor or maybe the halogen would have melted the cap before the internal system got too hot. I'm not sure I'd like to find out.
I don't know what radio freq. item(s) might cause this to happen, but I have no other explanation. I did use a radio freq AV remote control just before this happened.
If anyone has any experience with this, I'd love to know what's going on.

I realize it was foolish of me to leave the unit plugged in with the protector on, but I don't think these things should be coming on by themselves. Ideally, these things can be left set up and just turned on and off with the cyber commander. I wouldn't want one to come on when no one was around and be left on indefinitely with a hot modeling light without someone monitoring it.
For the record, this was a ver I unit. I find the einsteins a giant step up from my old AB's and WL units. I'm still exploring their capabilities and am very impressed in general. I'm OK with there being some bugs to be worked out, but I think this needs to be followed up on and I think people need to know about it to avoid destroying their einsteins or starting a fire.

Stuart

Was the unit switched off via CC or by its own button? If switched off by its own button, the CC is still in charge. If it refreshes or reboots, it will restore the lights as set in the CC, including power.

It was switched off by the power button as the batteries ran out in the CC. I tried new batteries that tested ok on a battery tester, but the CC display would not come on with them. It did come on when I reinstalled the orig batteries, but gave a low batt warning and then went off. I then used my pocket wizards for the shoot and adjusted the lights manually. I turned off the einsteins manually using the button on the back. One came on roughly 10 hours later. I don't think I had touched the CC in the time leading up to the discovery of the light being on, but I can't say exactly when I put the CC away, back in its orig box.

If I understand what you are saying, then the safe thing is to always shut down with the CC. If the einstein is unplugged and then re-plugged in, will the CC still restore its settings to the previous levels?
thanks,
Stuart

Right. Either switch them off via CC, or remove the CSXCV. Should the CC refresh for any reason, this can revert the E640's to the "ON' status.

I am curious about the CC in this scenario. If the CC batteries are too low to turn on the display, can it still send signals to the lights? If the OP hit the refresh button with the display off, could that wake up the lights?

Richard K.

If the batteries are right on the threshold, there can be spikes that can trigger the procesor. This can in turn refresh the signal sent to the recievers. It does not require the screen to come on.