Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Please help. Tonight I could not get the lights on on my Alien Bees. I tried adjusting them both at the unit and with the Cyber Commander. To check to see if they were working I turned off all my other lights, using only the 2 strip light boxes attached to the Alien Bees. I adjusted the power up and down on both the Cyber Commander and on the unit itself. Then I took pictures at the various levels. The images all looked exactly the same. The intensity of the light was not changing at all. I must have done something weird on the Cyber Commander. Can someone help? The lights did trigger when I hit the shutter button on the camera, but the lights remained at the same intensity no matter what setting I put them on.

The other problem I have is that in trying to fix this problem, I somehow now have the Alien Bee set on Channel 1, which it should NOT be. The way I'm supposed to have the system set up is with the Einstein on Channel 1, and 2 Alien Bees on Channels 2 and 3. All 3 lights are set on Frequency 6.

I just set up my lighting system a couple of days ago, and so far I'm finding the Cyber Commander extremely difficult to understand, even after reading the manual. Yet I felt like I needed to control my lights with it. I'm short and would not be able to reach my lights to adjust them without it. So I'm using the CST transceiver on my camera hot shoe as the trigger.

I'd appreciate any help, and thanks!

I believe we spoke yesterday and performed the set up on your lights and saved the set up. If so:

Right joystick to the right to enter the SETUP screen

Right joystick up/down to highlight OPEN MEMORY

Push in Right joystick

Left joystick left/right to select SD50 or Internal 1

Press in with your right joystick

Scroll with right joystick to return to the FLASH screen.

This will at least get your lights back on the right channels.

As for the lights adjusting, are you using the model lamp to determine the power, or the actual brightness of the flash itself (visually), or are you metering the flash output?

This may be one of those things that is best to call in about, as trouble shooting can get pretty involved.

Okay....back on the right channels now. I had tried to get back there myself. :-)

As for the lights.....I'm trying to learn what effects I like by trying different lighting configurations, and I wanted to use one of the AB lights with soft box on it as a way to eliminate some shadows on the side of the subject's face. Also wanted to try it on low power as a possible way of a small amount of backlighting. But I can't control the intensity at all. I think I'm doing it correctly.....on the flash screen I'm going to the appropriate channel and then using the left joy stick to move up or down to vary the intensity?

As for the model lights, I'm trying to do all of those things you mentioned......to determine output or actual brightness as well as to get a sense of my lighting coverage. When I press in the white modeling light button, the light does not turn on on either of my units. I have all three model lamp buttons pushed in.

If I don't hear back from you, I'll try to call in for help when you open.

Thanks for your help!

One more crazy thing, which I don't understand. I turned off the Einstein power button, but somehow it keeps coming on. As I'm 'playing' with the Cyber Commander trying to understand it, I must be somehow getting it to come on. How am I doing that....would you have any idea? I read in the manual that when the Einstein is off it's actually in STANDBY mode and can be turned on remotely by the Cyber Commander. I just don't know how I'm doing that! It's happened a few times. I guess the way to be sure it doesn't come on by mistake is to unplug the unit from the wall.

In this system, the Cyber Commander is always in charge. So, if the settings on the light do not match the settings in the Cyber Commander, the Cc will return the E640 to the CC settings when the CC refreshes the commands. The CC will refresh the commands when the "REFRESH" button is activated, or when various other settings are made. The Einstein can be turned to Standby in the CC, or you may want to use the grouping function, depending on what your ultimate goal for having the E640 off is.

If it is temporary for the purposes of learning the CC, then unplugging may be a reasonable answer until you are full familiar with the system. I would also suggest unplugging the light (or flipping a breaker) when the light is not in use (i.e. over night, long lunches, etc).

First, you do have the supplied telephone cords plugged in when trying to make adjustments via the CC?

Second, the blue bars are getting longer and shorter as you move the power up and down on the CC?

Are you getting a red dump light on the Bees? Or a green ready light?

Are you using a power strip or extension cord with these lights?

Yes, we have the telephone cords in correctly.

The blue bars do go up and down when I use the left joystick. Actually, they look more like gray to me though. :-) You're talking about on the FLASH Screen, right?

The green light is on.

We're using something kind of like a power strip. It's a box with 4 outlets hooked to a wall outlet with an extension cord. My husband described it as a homemade outlet box. Why do you ask this question? Can there be trouble by using an extension cord? Just wondering because I'll soon be shooting a job that will require the use of extension cords to power the lights.

We discussed this on the phone, but I want to specify here (for posterity) that extension cords and power strips are not inherently incompatible. However, if there is a faulty ground, you can get this type of behavior, as well as other issues. These faults are commonly found in old extension cords, home-made or home-repaired cords, or faulty power strips (and one outlet on a strip could be fine, and the next one bad).

It seems something had an issue, and you swapped power cables, and the problem went away, so that was the likely reason.

Just one more question, and then I promise I'll quit bugging you. :-) In the event that things go crazy and I get the Cyber Commander in a state where it's not 'listening' to me :-)......in other words, really messed up, I could (if need be) use only the CST transceiver to trigger the flashes and then control each individual light from its box.

But you told me that the CC is in charge now and I can't control from each individual box. How would I remove the CC's power and transfer over to just using the CST transceiver?

Again, I'm sure it won't happen......but just in case. :-) And then I think I'm off and running for my first big photo job! :-)

If all were to go to heck for some reason and you want to go to basic triggering, start by removing the telephone cords from the lights, and use the 3.5 to 3.5 cords that shipped with the receivers. You can leave the module in the Einstein. Then remove a battery in the CC (or change frequency).

Depending on what exactly went wrong, you may want/need to cycle the power (ie, unplug and plug back in the receivers from the AC power). Worst case, you may need to change frequencies on all items (ensuring the CC does not end up on the same frequency).