Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Was strobing a basketball game yesterday. Everything was working fine for the first couple games. For the last couple, one of the four AB's I had mounted would not reliably fire. It would fire everytime I used the test button on the CST, but not everytime I actually took a shot. The other three bees were still working fine and firing. Using CSR+'s to fire the bees with the phone jack cord and a dummy plug to disable the slave.

Were you also using a Cyber Commander? If not, you should not be using the telephone jack, as it can lead to inconsistent behavior.

Did you check the batteries of that reciever? Low batteries can cause problems.

Did you change positions? If the reciever ended up behind metal, or someone sat or stood in front of it, then range can also be reduced.

Yes, I was using a cyber commander. The receivers are CSR+'s, so no batteries. The receiver was in clear line of sight even from the transmitter.

The thing that is weird to me, is that it fired every time without fail when I just pushed the test button on the transmitter.

What firmware version are you running? To check, pull out one battery and reinstall it. The firmware will quickly flash at the bottom of the screen.

The cyber commander is running ver32.

I was only using the cyber commander to adjust power settings. Otherwise I was using the regular CST on the hotshoe for triggering. It was the test button on the CST that would trigger the flash everytime.

First, I would recommend updating the firmware of the Cyber Commander. This is not related to your problem, but it is worth doing anyway.

Second, I feel the problem may stem from some type of interference or other RF anomoly. When up to your eye, the CST is oriented in a certain way at a certain height. Likely, when the test button is presses, the hight and orientation changes. As silly as it sounds, this can make a big difference, especially in a venue that has a large amount of metal. This is likened to when you are sitting in your car at a stop light/sign, and the radio gets staticy, but you roll forward 6" and it is clear again.

Also, if the light or transmitter was near a strong source of RF this could exacerbate the problem. PA systems and wireless scoreboards could fall into that catagory.

As to why it happened later rather than sooner; there was likely something that changed, obvious or not. Even as simple as the CST battery falling below a certain voltage threshold, a change in position, a change in equipment used, etc.

You may try switching frequencies or putting the reciever closest to that one in repeater mode.