Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

About six months ago I decided to jump into the studio and lighting world of photography and bought a complete PCB outfit, 3 b800's, vagabond lithium, cybersyncs, cyber commander, stands, soft boxes, grids, you name it. All have been working flawlessly to date except one, the cyber commander. When I first got the cyber commander, it worked great and I was very happy with it. However, about once a day when I would go to meter flash it would flash a white screen, reboot, and lose all my light configurations. At first I just wrote it off as a minor glitch and waited for the next firmware update. When version 32 was released, I quickly, and properly, updated only to find that it now did it about 20 times a day, but luckily I didn't lose my light configurations every time. This kept it at the same level of annoyance but unfortunately being a full time student and photographer I didn't have the time to deal with it and just hoped for yet another firmware update that would solve my woes. Finally, version 36 came out, figured this would do the trick, I promptly and properly updated my cyber commander hoping it would fix everything. It rendered it completely un-usable. Now, all it does is flash that same white screen, say "Cyber Commander, FW Ver 36", go black, then do it all over again. I don't know if it will erase my light setups like it previously did because it never gets to that point.

Finally I found some time to call in and try to solve this, turns out, since I'm in Canada, id have to pay to ship it both ways. Plus whatever outrageous brokerage fees, duties etc. adding up to the cost of what it would be just to buy a new one. Not to mention what I've already paid/would have to pay to rent pocket wizards for the added time I'd be out a trigger while it was being repaired. Just so I wouldn't have to turn down or reschedule clients losing even more thats already spoken for by school.

So I guess what im asking is are there any solutions? because right now I simply cant afford to lose the time and money it would take to send this thing in. Ive already tried putting the screen above 50% brightness on the old firmware versions and i would try on ver. 36 but it wont let me get anywhere near that far. If you guys have any other suggestions I would be grateful but if not I guess I just cut my losses and move on.

Unfortunate that this had to leave a sour taste in my mouth because all the other PCB products have been phenomenal. Just bad luck that the key piece had to fail I guess.

Thanks In advance for any help and sorry for the somewhat rant, just frustrating.

Cheers,
Scott

Well, if it's totally broken you're going to have to do that anyway, whether you send it in or not, right? How does it cost $180 (US) to ship such a tiny object to the US and back?

You'd be surprised, then on top of the shipping there are a bunch of fees. But it is not only shipping, the quote you pulled tells you that, it also the cost renting a replacement system for the time that my cyber commander has been down, and will be out if i ship it to get fixed.

Cheers,
Scott

The only repair solution is hardware related and cannot be corrected via firmware. You may be able to reload the older firmware to get it to restart. If you do not have it, we can get it to you.

Anybody with a CC really ought to consider also having a CST, so what about ordering a CST, and then sending your CC in for repair via the Canadian post office? It would be trial & error to set up lights, but it can be done in a pinch.

How could you have bought a Vagabond Mini six months ago? Not trying to be difficult or confrontational but it was only released a bit over two months ago.

As for the problems you reported, you should really contact customer service by phone . . . we do everything possible to make sure our products are working right and that customers are satisfied. Canada sales are a huge problem for us as well, since we have no control over UPS or other shippers.

I was just thinking that, then if i can get ver 32 of the software i can use it until the cst gets here then send it in. Thanks for the suggestion.



No, worries. what I had originally done was ordered a vagabond II thinking it wouldn't be on backorder for as long as it has. After a little bit i just called in and switched my order to the mini. which is awesome, exceeded my expectations in every way.

Technical support, how can I get a hold of firmware version 32 or 29? Thanks!

We will have to email that to you on Monday.

just contact info@paulcbuff.com?