Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I took out the Einstein and CC two nights ago for my first senior shoot of the 2nd half of the year and was getting a LOT of misfires from the Cyber Commander. I could always fire test pops and metering with it but many times it stopped firing the Einstein from the hotshoe. I would push the joysticks to fire a few test pops and refresh and it would eventually come back to life. I checked the batteries and they both read 1.35V. I'm not a battery expert but is this considered low and would that explain the behavior of the CC?

Thanks,
David

What versions of firmware are you running on each, in particular the Cyber Commander?

Firmware version on the CC is 36. The Einstein says SW-0173 Ver 22 when I start it up. Is that the firmware version?

Thanks,
David

Yes, that is the firmware version. There are newer ones for each, so you may want to try that, particularly for Einstein.

We may also want to take a look at the possibilty of the CC not communicating with the camera. First, is the CC directly in the hotshoe, and not using any adapter or SafeSync? Are you also using the PC cord from CC to camera? Are you more likely to see the problem in the protrait orientation, or landscape?

Ok, I'll try the new Einstein firmware. The CC was directly in the hotshoe and I was in landscape orientation. I even tried collapsing the CC down so that there was a potentially better connection and that made no difference. I've had this problem on and off since I got it early this year. Are you saying that the batteries should not have been the issue then? Anyway, I'll try the Einstein firmware. That's something I had not updated since I got it in January.

I cannot rule it out entirely, but if you are using alkaline batteries, a "LOW BATT" indicator should appear in red. Lithium batteries may not give a warning. NiMH batteries may cause problems as well. Certainly nothing wrong in changing out batteries!

Ok. I'm definitely using alkaline and they've had little use since I put them in back in June. I wouldn't expect to have to change them that often and was relying on the LOW BATT indicator (even checked before I went on this shoot). I updated all my firmware so we'll try again and see what happens. I may end up getting a regular CS transmitter as well for a backup.

+1 on getting a CST to go along with the CC. You won't regret it.