Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I am really liking the Einsteins, love the quality of the light. I do almost exclusively travel to location and setup style of shooting, I do not have a fixed location where the Einsteins are setup on stands and never move around much. In my situation the heads are packed back into a carrying case after every shoot.

The way the CSXCV Transceiver protrudes from the housing of the Einstein makes it very risky looking to even attempt to place the unit in a case with the CSXCV still plugged into the head, even if there was more than enough room for the CSXCV to clear any of the case walls.

As a result, I always unplug the CSXCV from each head and pack the heads, then I have kept the little plastic foam pieces that the CSXCV shipped with to place over the pins of the CSXCV.

My questions are as follows:

I assume it is normal to plug and unplug the CSXCV for every use where the heads are traveling?
The "socket" on the head seems very easy to get misaligned, I worry about bent pins on the CSXCV, is this common?
When the CSXCV is unplugged from the head there is exceedingly little protection for the exposed pins, has anyone come up with a good fast means of protecting the pins on the CSXCV, I was thinking of something like the little snap open clamshell cases that hold multiple compact flash cards, if I could find an appropriate item similar to the flash carrier that might be ideal?
Any risk of the "socket" in the head becoming worn after repeated plug/unplug cycles of the CSXCV?
Do people just not worry about it and leave the CSXCV in the head all the time, even when packing the heads?

I love my new toys and want to take good care of them :-)!

Thanks!

I remove mine each time, replace the pink anti static foam on the pins, and place them in the little ziploc bag.

I would not consider packing the units with the CSXCVs in place unless I was using a hard case with customized foam cutouts.

Yes what I am doing exactly, I wish there was a more elegant solution for storing the transceiver rather than the zip lock bag and antistatic foam, it does not offer much in the way of mechanical protection, and that foam is not going to last forever.

I may check and see if I can modify a compact flash clam shell case in some fashion.

Thanks for the validation that I am not crazy to be removing the transceiver every time I pack the heads.

I plan to find a little plastic case to put that into, and if I can find the right size case in antistatic material, then I can dump that little ziploc bag.

In theory, the socket may be deep enough to afford some protection, but that antenna sticks up high enough that I don't feel like chancing it.

I suppose one could find a way to attach a plastic cover over and around the mounted CSXCV, but it would be a kludge, and hard to ensure it was sufficiently strong to hold up to a shearing or levering force.

The PocketWizard MC2 comes with a pin protector that's attached to the receiver with a short lanyard. Perhaps PCB can do something similar in the future. In the meantime, why not source these for sale as an accessory?