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| Flickering flashtubes https://paulcbuff-techforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4468 |
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| Author: | fotofill1969 [ Tue Jun 03, 2014 6:46 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Flickering flashtubes |
I just came back from a location sesson where I was unable to use my (old but very reliable) Ultra 1200's. When turned on they would begin to act erractically. The flash tubes would flash without any input from a slave or camera connection. I turned them off because I feared damage to the units. Could this have been caused by faulty wiring? The building, is less than 20 years old. |
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| Author: | Technical Support [ Tue Jun 03, 2014 11:19 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Flickering flashtubes |
Probably not. Was there any thing plugged into the RJ11 remote connector when this happened? |
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| Author: | fotofill1969 [ Wed Jun 04, 2014 12:41 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Flickering flashtubes |
No. I didn't even have slaves attached yet. Just the power cord and a 25 ft. extension cord were attached to the units. When I returned, I tested them in our camera room and they worked perfectly. I use these units on location often and with extension cords, always, and have not had that experience before. |
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| Author: | Technical Support [ Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:49 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Flickering flashtubes |
Did you also use the extension cord when you tested in your camera room? A poor ground could cause rapid firing. This can come from the local outlet, or can come from an aging extension cord. Or, could come from an aging power cord. |
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| Author: | fotofill1969 [ Thu Jun 05, 2014 9:13 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Flickering flashtubes |
I re-tested all of my power cords and extension cords and could not reproduce the problem. |
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| Author: | Technical Support [ Thu Jun 05, 2014 1:00 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Flickering flashtubes |
It is likely an issue in the AC power supply at the location you were in. |
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| Author: | fotofill1969 [ Fri Jun 06, 2014 9:19 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Flickering flashtubes |
I have come to that conclusion, too. However I bought a circuit tester to check the area and all recepticles came up ok. I'll just have to be aware of the potential for problems in that area and use a vagabon there. Thanks for the help. |
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| Author: | photoactiveone [ Fri Jul 18, 2014 1:52 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Flickering flashtubes |
You know, this is a really good post - I had this problem too at a specific location and was trying to figure out for the life of me why the heck my AB800s and AB1600 were just firing without reason and I hadn't thought about the power fluctuation/unstability of the power supply! Now it makes sense because I do NOT have that problem in other locations - thanks for posting this!!! Chuck |
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| Author: | photoactiveone [ Mon Aug 11, 2014 9:35 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Flickering flashtubes |
WOW! To further confirm the validity of this problem (unreliable power source) and solution (moving to another power outlet), I had another experience this weekend! Just sharing so folks will see that it isn't the flash units but the power supply... Interestingly enough, I am learning that you can apparently have some variation in power outputs to different power outlets in the same room! I got the uncontrollably flashing strobes problem in one outlet, moved it to another outlet on the other side of the room and didn't have the problem at all - not one random triggering event! Moral of the story: If your flash units are triggering randomly, unplug the power and move to another outlet and give that a try! |
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| Author: | nathantw [ Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:48 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Flickering flashtubes |
fotofill1969 wrote: I just came back from a location sesson where I was unable to use my (old but very reliable) Ultra 1200's. When turned on they would begin to act erractically. The flash tubes would flash without any input from a slave or camera connection. I turned them off because I feared damage to the units. Could this have been caused by faulty wiring? The building, is less than 20 years old. Thank you so much for bringing this subject up. I started experiencing this yesterday with one unit, then it went away and today with a different unit and it didn't go away. I was confused as heck because it was working all yesterday then today the flash tube would just flicker or fire away at random times. I started to believe it might have been the age of the units which is pretty old. I changed the flashtubes and cleaned the remote contacts, but it continued to fire without warning. I was ready to send it in for warranty work until I decided to try the tech forum. Thankfully you had asked the question and that there was an answer! I just tried the unit on a totally different outlet and it worked like a charm! Thanks so much. It saved me a lot of lost time and money for shipping the unit only to have the techs tell me nothing was wrong. By the way, I registered on this forum just so I could write this. I'm so thankful! 8/20/14 Update: One of the lights would still fire periodically when there was sunlight coming into the room. I got some blue tape (gaffers would have worked) and covered the white slave dome on the back of the strobe and that fixed that. |
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