Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

My alien bee is not working consistantly. More often if does not work.

I shoot with Canon 5dmkII, my shutterspeed was 1/120, the curtain is at 200 so I know thats not the problem.
I used to use a wireless trigger, some off brand. That stopped working consistantly, changed the batteries, no change. Thought maybe I had changed a camera setting, so I played with those, no difference. So I started to use my cord. That worked for a bit, but now that's only firing 1/4th of the time. So I resorted to using my flash to trigger it. It worked more consistantly than the cord or wireless remote, at first, but still not 100%. After 30-40 shots, it was back to 1/4 the time or even worse.
If I touch the test button, it fires every time.

Ideas as to what could be going on?

How quickly are you firing the flash?
If you have it powered to full power and fire too quickly, it won't flash.

When you used a speedlite, are you sure the flash did not fire? Or did it just not appear in the photos? Was the speedlite set to manual mode?

What happens if you place the speedlite directly behind the AB and fire it?

What modifier were you using when trying to slave? If it was a large modifier, then the light would need to wrap or bounce around and reach the back panel. This can cause intermittent firing.

When you plug the sync cord into the light with the light on, does the flash fire consistently? If so, the sync jack is not the issue.

I suspect, but cannot verify until these questions are answered, there are multiple issues at play. A bad sync cord, faulty remotes, and conditions not suitable for slave triggering the lights.