Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I just received my cyber commander and receiver to use with my AB800. My questions are:
1. How should i store the CC and CSR? I read on the forums that if you remove the batteries, the memory is lost.
2. How long will the batteries last if I were to leave the batteries in while still left on the light source and camera?I have a newborn at home and like to leave my gear ready to go for when my little guy is having a moment.

You can save your setups on the included memory card and I believe two can be saved in the CC itself so you won't lose anything if you change batteries. If you're just controlling one light there's little to lose anyway.

Did you get an AC powered CSR or a battery powered CSRB? If you have a CSRB you'd want to turn it off if you aren't actually shooting to avoid wasting the batteries. The receiver is always actively "listening" for instructions to fire and thus it does consume power continuously. I think the CSRB can last about 40 hours on fresh batteries. You could leave the AC powered CSR on all the time though.

It won't use the CC battery up at all to leave it on your camera all the time. It uses a tiny bit of battery each time you take a picture but the main drain is turning the screen on to adjust your light. No power is consumed just by leaving it in the hotshoe - it doesn't "talk" to the receiver until you take a picture or adjust your settings. To maximize battery life turn the screen brightness down and the screen dimmer time to the shortest (fastest) setting - I believe 10 seconds.

Ok that makes sense. I have the CSRB+, and so that explains why they stopped firing yesterday. I've had them for only a few days and have been using them daily, each time, taking the batteries out. It didn't make sense to me after reading that the memory was lost so I left it on for about 2 hours yesterday. I changed both sets of batteries.Thanks Itwimberly!
Ive heard nothing but great things about Paul Buff's products and customer service and so it wouldn't surprise me to see an on/off switch in the furure (hint hint :P ).

It still saves time in programming. Also, if the Cyber Commander were to reboot, it may revert to another setting that is subtly different (adjust vs. track on the modeling lamp). I reccommend (and do, personally) saving at minimum a "master" setting that prevent having to reprogram. Once saved to the Internal or SD locations, then the settings will remain (though they may need to be recalled)


CSRB and CSRB+ have an auto off function after an hour of non-use. Premium alkaline batteries should last 200 on hours.