Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

While doing an outdoor wedding shoot this afternoon, five minutes in, my Einstein started to "flicker" uncontrollably. It was being powered by my Vagabond II and I was firing it using my Pocket Wizard II's. This is the third time that this has happened to me in the short time that I owned this unit. Can you tell me if this sounds like an Einstein or a Vagabond problem. I ended up having to use my Canon 580EX to finish the shoot. Powering it down and re-starting did not fix the problem, although when plugged it into a wall outlet this evening when I returned home, it worked perfectly. Any suggestions?

This sounds like the "known" issue with the slave eye, vagabond, and outdoors in sunshine issue mentioned in other threads here. Basically, the default setting for the slave eye is Enabled, even when trigger/receivers are connected. This, in combination with vagabond usage and directly sunlight causes the rapid firing.

V2 Einsteins should have a fix for this, apparently. Though some of us question why the Einstein even allows the slave eye to be default enabled when trigger/receivers are connected.

So, in the meantime, ensure either that you have disabled the slave via the menu screen on the back (which can be hard to see in the sunlight), or put some tape over the slave eye.

Apparently the vagabond itself contributes to the problem, so AC power alone will solve it, or not being in direct sun, or having the slave disabled. It takes all three things to get the conditions for uncontrolled rapid fire. In my case, the rapid firing only began after the first triggering. I went and turn the slave eye back off (it had been inadvertently turned on since the assistant could not clearly see the screen in direct sunlight--the "blue" selection indication is hard to detect. My other Einsteins were also on vagabonds, in the sun, but their slaves were disabled.

It is important to note that the DEFAULT condition for the Slave Eye is ENABLED, and it stays that way even when receivers are connected (unlike the Alien Bees) so you have to manually set to Disable on each einstein.

Thanks so much. I'll disable it before tomorrows shoot and see what happens. I've got a feeling you've solved today's problem. Come to think of it... all three times that this has happened have been outdoors. Thanks once again... looking forward to receiving the additional Einstein that I ordered in late July.

Ken

V2 appears to have solved this problem. We started building V2 Friday and will start testing and presumably start shipping Mon or Tue. We will be doing very extensive testing of each unit so build rate will ramp up rather than building a zillion on the first day.

Paul,

Will there be a period before international shipping commences?

Did a high school senior shoot this afternoon, some of it out in direct bright sunlight... absolutely no flicker problem with my Einstein after disabling the slave. Thanks for the tip... I have to admit that that would have been down at the bottom of my list of things to think of to check.

Ken

the gadget maybe got too exhausted just like we do :mrgreen: :mrgreen: just take good care of it and make sure to check it once in a while :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

That the right solution. With the slave active, the slave was picking up the same RF noise as was causing the PW range issue. Both are fixed in V2.