Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

After doing a few shoots this week in mild heat, I noticed the cybersyncs began to have issues, shutting off and "firing" (LEDs coming on receiver and Triggers but NO flash)

Are there any steps I could take to reduce the chances of this funniness happening??

Best Regards :D
Patrick

Never heard of this before. Please describe what you mean by "shutting down" and how you determined that. How many recivers were you using? If you were using multiples, did they all act the same simultaneously? Were they AC or battery powered recievers? What lights were they on? Did they return to normal function when cooled? Did the flash fire normally from the test button on the back?

If the reciever's LED was blinking red in response to a CST, then it was not "asleep" or "shut down" (this assumes this is not a seperate symptom). If the recievers blink red, then there is a disconnect between the reciever's sync jack, and the light's trigger mechanism. This could be the the sync cord, or it could be an internal issue in the head or reciever.

By shutting down, I mean they were on but not triggering the flashes. I had 3 (DC) receivers (1 in use) and once the first one had an issue I tried the other two which seemed to have the same problem.

The flash did fire when the "test" button was pressed, I also closed the circuit on the pc cord with one of my metal clamps to check it was a bad cord, but it fired correctly.

Today I also had the trigger stop after a dozen shots or so (the LED in this case NOT coming on) , I finally thought to remove and re-insert the battery to "reset" it (I note it was a fairly new [ 1 month old, on less that 4 shoots] battery from Radio Shack - so relatively reliable) and it worked the rest of the shoot flawlessly!

I'm racking my brains out, but I don't remember what color the receivers were blinking. Perhaps I was in shock! haha thankfully I had a wired sync from my AB800 so most of the shoot went on as planned! :)

Patrick

Oh, and yes the receivers seemed to go back to normal once they cooled down; though I'm trying to avoid too sudden of a shift in temperatures as someone had suggested condensation might the problem.

When "on", the CSRB's blink green to indicate so. When they get triggered (by a transmitter or by its own test button) it will blink red in response.

Were these taken from a cold, dry location (air conditioning) to a hot, humid location rather rapidly? If so, you could try the "wrap-in-plastic-'till-it-warms-up" trick. Incidentally, camera bags are quite insulated, so if you keep them in your camera bag, they could still be fairly cool when removed, even after a couple of hours.

Yes AC to Outdoors!

I haven't heard of that yet. Despite the apparently sefl-explanitory name, would you expand on this trick? For instance would they be kept wrapped until the plastic acclimates to the warmer temperature, or until they've warmed up with a few flashes?

Thanks again, by the way!

The idea is when warm humid air hits colder drier air, moisture will condense on/in the recievers (a glass of iced tea on a hot day does the same thing). If it is wrapped in plastic, the plastic acts like a vapor barier, allowing the units to warm up with less moisture to condense. You will want them to warm up to ambient temperatures before opening the plastic. They really don't get warm from being used.

This technique has been recommended for years for for cameras, however, I have never personally put it to the test.

Sounds like a good idea, I'll try that for the next shoot!