Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

So after a year of ups and downs with the system, then finally getting a new CC and the V2 of the Einstein strobes...the last two months have been awesome. Really. Using a combination of 1,2,3 lights...it really has worked flawlessly.

Then I added a fourth Einstein on a shoot today. The fourth strobe would fire...maybe...1 out of 10 shots. The strobe is only 15 ft away from my camera!...with nothing but air between them. WTF?! Yes, it was on ch4, same freq.

I see from other threads, the alternative PW mc2 ain't working out so well either. Hopefully, Buff tech support will have a solution or point out my mistake. I really hope it's something idiotic on my part, but in the meantime, I'm off to craigslist to look for a used profoto or elinchrom kit.

And to think that just last week I was telling Zack Arias how happy I was with the set up. Gonna have to call him and give an update. :oops:

did you try fresh batteries? I've had trouble with my cyber commander in the past where I felt like throwing it at the wall and never looking at it ever again, but replacing the batteries helped and with fresh batteries mine has been rock solid. Very impressed with fresh batteries, very depressed with old batteries. The other thing I would try is just re-opening studio and see if that helps.

Love the cybersync/cyber commander system. Fast latency and great light meter!

Hi Derek. Thanks for the response. I did try fresh batteries and refreshed the CC with "open all from studio". Didn't work. I could change flash power and modeling light settings..it just wouldn't fire. That I could communicate with the strobe but it wouldn't fire it...I don't "get it".

Decided to give it another go just now. Appears to work beautifully! I walked outside my loft behind a brick wall and I could hear it firing. This is maddening. I'm going to wait an hour and try again...yowsa

What firmware version is your Cyber Commander running, as well, what version are the lights running?

Does the problem persist if you swap recievers among heads? If so, does it follow the head or the reciever?

Hi TS...

I'm using CC ver 36. Einstein ver 26

I was about to try the swap receivers method last night, but when I retried firing all 4 strobes, they worked flawlessly...of course. This is probably due to the strobes hearing me threaten to "throw these #$&#$!! strobes out of my third story window".

If the issue returns, I will follow that trouble shooting method and update the post.

Thanks

Did you reset your CC to the ALL group before you started firing?

Hi PHS,

No I didn't *previously*... but I was just testing again...and again the fourth light didn't want to fire. I cycled through the channels, coming to "ALL" I tried firing and all of the strobes fired beautifully. Then if I went to ch 1,2,3 or 4, they continued to fire perfectly.

So...is this where I'm making my mistake? I must return to ALL before shooting? Let me guess, it's in the manual. :oops: :roll:

I'm not sure this is the way it is supposed to work, but it works for me. I also have not found the exact combination of actions that causes the failure, but I have discovered if I switch back to ALL and pop the flashes with the CC then all my problems go away. Note: I am using the separate trigger on the camera so I really don't understand why sometimes everything works and sometime not.

JADUFFY,
No, as long as you are not in "GRP" that excludes a light, all lights should fire from the ALL or CH1-16 positions if triggering from the hot shoe, but only individual channels should fire from any CHXX selection if using the buttons. If you have, say CH1, selected, and three lights fire from the test or meter buttons, but all fire from the ALL position, then I would suggest double checking the slave eyes to ensure they are all OFF (it is the window on the Einstein with two arrows pointing down and left).

PHS,
Are you using Einsteins, Bees, White Lightnings, or a combination?