Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have two of the first Einsteins that were shipped. In a studio session recently I used two Einstein triggered by the Cyber Commander. While every operation (adjusting the flash units from the CC) works just fine, I got a lot of shots where only one unit would fire. I don't mind an occasional glitch, but it was about 20-30% of the shots. It was so bad that I pulled the transceiver out of the one Einstein that kept failing to fire and just used the optical trigger which was 100% reliable.

It's a small studio, so distance was not an issue.

Can I send the Einsteins and CC in to have them checked?

You are always certainly allowed to send anything in for inspection. However, given the time you purchased the CC and E640's, there have been upgrades to the firmware. Have you updated them to the most recent firmware (CC v.39 and E640 v.26)? If not, I would try that first.

Just updated both the CC and the Einsteins to the latest firmware. Doesn't seem to have changed much. Most of the time all flashes fire, but the number of non-fires are still too high. It is actually easy to reproduce. Even at a small distance (20-30 feet) I get one or the other Einstein not firing. Just holding the CC behind my body or sometimes an object that blocks the direct line of sight between the CC and the flash can be enough to consistently have one or the other flash not fire. Frustrating :(

Are you using rechargeable batteries instead of FRESH alkaline batteries? Not suppose to. I bet if you put fresh Alkalines in, your problems will go away. Let us know how it works out.

Have you tried a different frequency ? CC uses a similar frequency range as wifi and can get quite crowded, especially in urban areas. I use my iPhone to scan for wifi signals in the area before selecting the least congested frequency.

The next step would be to change frequency. When you do so, be sure to move a significant amount on the dial (say 5 to 11) instead of one or two positions.

I'm not using rechargeable batteries.

Since I need to send in my two Einstein units for the update I will do that first.

One thing I just noticed is that the CC unit is shown with an external antenna on the web site. Mine doesn't have that.

Mark the recievers, then test to see if you can repeat the problem. Swap the recievers among the lights, and retest to see if the problem follows the light or the reciever. There is the possibility of a bad connection between the head and reciever.

Yep, I did that. I swapped the receivers out to see if one of them was the issue but the missed flash was more or less random between them, not just one.

Didn't earlier versions of CC have slight problem with range? If I recall they upgraded it with an external antenna to make it perform as good as CST.

You could just have the CC in your pocket and use CST on camera. Less weight on the hotshoe.