Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Got a CyberCommander fixed a few months ago (AAA battery corrosion).

Had a few problems yesterday where the flashes would not fire and I got black frames with the unit. I'd press a few buttons to get the LCD on, press up for Refresh, and then get maybe half-power flashes even though the LCD indicators were at full. I also tried using a dummy 1/4" phone plug in the backs af the W.L. Ultras and that only seems to keep the light sensor out of the mix in bright daylight where it might repeatedly flash due to sunlight unless it is plugged in.

Does the CyberCommander shut off or the receivers in say 10 minutes and needs to be resync'd up somehow? Something seems to go to sleep and needs a hard awakening to get the system back up to working order where they pop, and also go to full power as shown on the CC LCD rather than rest at half-power and after fiddling then they go to full again.

Mack

The battery powered receivers will shut off after an hour of non-use. The AC power receivers will remain on the entire time there is AC current fed to them. The CC does not shut off, though the screen will time out (the unit should still trigger immediately).

To know what exactly is going on, there are green and red indicators that will shed more light on the problem (pardon the pun).

First, are your green ready lights coming on on the back of your flashes? If not, then this could explain why the lights are firing at half power. Is the power slider on your flash set to full power? If not, this could cause issues as well.

When you press up on the refresh command, do you get red outlines around your defined channels consistently?

Are you using the provided telephone cords, or are you using replacements? Do they fit properly and have the locking tab?

Largely, this sounds like maybe a grounding problem. This could be sourced in the electrical system of the building, maybe or maybe not limited to the single outlet or circuit you are using. Or, it could be sourced in an extension cord, power strip (even if some outlets in the strip are working fine), or even the power cord going to the light. I would test the set up with the lights plugged straight into the wall, swapping power cords as needed. Then add in any power strip or extension cord one at a time.

hmmm.....

It was an old building, maybe 100 years old, but it had grounded outlets in it. Some didn't work in some locations so who knows. I was using their AC power and not the Vagabond mini when the half-power issues occurred.

1. Would one of those 3 prong plug-in LED things that check AC outlets work if the outlet does have a ground issue?

2. The slider has bearing or it over-rides the CyberCommander too?

Need to play around with it more now while at home. Never thought about the AC outlets.

Mack

Help? Yes, but you can get false positives (i.e. false indicators of a good ground). But if it says "bad", then the circuit is bad.


Not overriding exactly. But, the system runs off reference voltages that pass through the slider. The slider is a potentiometer which can affect the voltage coming through it, and affect the reference. Sometimes it doesn't matter, sometimes it will. But to eliminate it from being a problem, keep it at full.