Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

How do I get all my equipment to work together?

When I set the Einstein to Channel 1 Mode A (used w/ Power MC2) I can use the Pocket Wizard Mini tt1 and AC3 to adjust power and trip lights with no problem, BUT I cannot use my Sekonic L758DR to trigger/meter my Einsteins.

When I set the Einstein to Channel 21 Mode A (used w/ Power MC2) I can use the Sekonic (set to Channel 21) to trigger/meter my Einsteins, BUT I cannot use the PW Mini and AC# to adjust power or trip the lights. Seems to be a one or the other senario.

This seems to defeat the (perceived) advantage of using this equipment together.

Sooo, again I ask: How do I get my equipment to work together? :?: :roll:

Check out this post to see what it is all about with the meter and the lights etc

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1385

Thanks. After reading the above mentioned posts I do not understand "overlapping frequencies" so a further explanation would be appreciated. And did I understand the posts to mean that I cannot use the AC3 and the Sekonic simultaneously to work with the Einsteins? And that I have to go to the Einsteins each time to change the channels to be able to use them with either the PW or the Sekonic? Still a bit confused or maybe just disappointed. :cry:

Most importantly you need to know if you are setting your Power MC2 to Standard Channel 1 or ControlTL Channel 1.

Standard Channels are compatible with all older tech (PW II, Multimax, Wireless Meter Trigger, Profoto trigger, etc) but they don't offer additional control. Just a basic trigger with some hypersync options to cheat the sync timing.

ControlTL Channels are new and compatible with all the new tech (Flex, Mini, AC3, etc). These channels send extra packets of data (in a new format) over the air to their devices allowing them to send eTTL info, power settings, HSS, Hypersync timings, Modeling Light info, and the list goes on. The downside is that these channels aren't compatible with the old standard channels. So your meter sends like it's an older PW II and basically the triggers just aren't listening for it when they are set to ControlTL channels.

You set your channels both in the Mini and Flex via the computer but the Power MC2 is set on the Einstein (very nice) and the screen tells you when you are on Standard Channels or user ControlTL.

If you have to have all ControlTL channels then the only real way to meter is to set your meter to Cumulative (not the wireless trigger) and set your camera to timer, press the shutter and then meter and wait for the flash. If you have the new beta firmware then you can instead carry the camera with you and as long as the camera is awake you can dial with the AC3 and just press the meter button on your meter (still in cumulative) and then the test button on your Mini. The new beta firmware makes the test button trigger at the appropriate levels now (production firmware doesn't). This is far less of a pain than it used to be and of course doesn't use the built in trigger at all.

If you want you can set your lights and minis to a standard channel at which time your meter will work but you will lose remote power management. One option though is to set C2 for standard channels on your mini, set the lights to the same channel and meter the scene dialing in your settings. From there you can switch to your C1 (setting it to ControlTL) in your mini and change your lights to a ControlTL channel. Then you just translate the power settings you metered into the appropriate AC3 settings. It sounds complicated but it's not that bad.

Until we just recently got the MC2's at our studio we had our Flexes set to use a ControlTL channel on C1 and a Standard channel on C2. We used C1 when we were our with our speedlights and C2 when we were in the studio (manually adjusting power in the studio). Now that we have the Power MC2's working nicely we may switch to C1 being ControlTL with HSS enabled and C2 being ControlTL with HSS disabled (relying on more Hypersync when in the studio). The nice thing is that it's easy to reconfigure and hopefully they will come out with an Ipad or Iphone app to make it even easier. I used to love my wireless trigger in the meter but I'm not going to have it hold me back when with the new beta firmware I can just meter in cumulative and his the test button on my camera based flex. Hopefully someday they may come up with an updated module for the the meters (or firmware) to allow ControlTL triggering but then I can see people trying to meter eTTL scenes (not smart) and that will be a can of worms too.

Hope that helps,
Brian

Brian,
That is one great explanation. Thank you. I sent an email to PW asking if there might be any updates in the works for the RT-32 module (Sekonic) but have not received any reply yet.
Joe

Brian,

I just received an email from Dan over at PW and it seems that there is a
module in the works to be able to go ControlTL. Preliminary tests look good. However, no release date yet.

Just in case you are interested, and yes I know that using a meter and iTTL/eTTL together is not a good idea. But it will sure be nice to be able to get all my PW accesories working together.
:D

The issue is not necessarily for TTL only. This would also affect manual wireless adjustment after metering as well. Mixing manual and TTL is not inherently bad, but it can be confounding if you do not know how it works. Kinda like herding cats.

That's cool to hear. I use my AC3 in the manual setting most the time so that module would save me carrying the camera to trigger.

Has PW/Sekonic found a way to make this work now? I have the Sekonic l358 and the MC2, and I'm searching my a** off, but haven't found a solution to this yet.

Since this thread is almost two years old, I assume there has been released some fix for this by now?

Some updated products are available. This is a question better directed to Sekonic or LPA/PocketWizard, as we are not part of the development of these products. Others are welcome to comment.