Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I just recently ordered an AB800 and 2 AB400's, along with a Cyber Commander and 3 CSRB+ units.

So far, everything has arrived except for the 2 AB400's.

When configuring the Cyber Commander for the first time, I followed the Instruction Manual and got to the page where I use the Cyber Commander to wirelessly check for any studio lights.

When I selected OPEN MEMORY so that I could set up the studio and define the lights, I chose the OPEN ALL FROM STUDIO as per the manual. The screen then displayed a small white bar at the bottom of Channel 1 to indicate that it had found something.

According to the manual, a blue bar should have appeared on the screen for Channel 1 (the channel the AB800 and CSRB+ were connected to). Instead, all that happened was a small white bar appeared under Channel 1. According to the manual, this occurs if you are using a non-Paul C Buff light.

I then did a test fire and the light gave the tiniest of flashes and made a clicking noise indicating a cycle.

I decided to enter the type of light manually. It was fairly easy to do for a first-timer. Once the AB800 was configured manually, it's modelling lamp illuminated properly and I was able to use the light normally (at least I thinkso).

As part of my troubleshooting, I tested the same light with the other two CSRB+ remotes and got the same result. I will have to wait for the AB400's to arrive before I can test to see if the same problem occurs with them.

Does anyone have any idea why the AB800 was not recognised automatically? The reason I purchased the AB lights and Cybersync remotes was because they are all supposed to work seamlessly together.

Thanks.

This is normal behavior. Only the Einstein will have the blue bar automatically appear. Blue bars are only available for Paul C Buff lights, but they will need to be programmed on lights other than Einstein since the receivers have no way of knowing what kind of light it is connected to.

From pg 29:
>> STUDIO: This is the starting point for recognizing lights and creating new setups. The OPEN ALL FROM STUDIO command allows the Cyber Commander™ unit to
discover all of the lights in the area with CyberSync™ receivers (CSXCV, CSR+,
and CSRB+) that are powered on and set to the same frequency. When the open
command is sent, the Cyber Commander™ unit scans the area and will identify each receiver by its channel. Recognized receivers will be displayed on the
screen’s graph with white or gray dashes located at the bottom of the vertical
column for their corresponding channel. Channels with Einstein™ lights using the
CSXCV receiver module will also show a vertical bar on the graph as the settings
are already transmitted by the CSXCV receiver.

Thanks. I misunderstood. I thought that that the Alien Bees were Paul C Buff Lights. Sorry for the confusion.

Alien Bees are Paul C Buff lights. Alien Bees, White Lightning, Zeus will all need to be defined. Once defined, there will be a blue bar. Einstein will get the blue bar automatically. All of these lights are Paul C. Buff lights.

Speedlites, monolights, and power packs from other manufacturers will not be able to get the blue bar, though they will get the white dashes (or gray) and can be triggered and metered.

Thanks again. I was able to get the blue bar when I set it up manually. It's a shame that it doesn't automatically detect the AB lights upon initial setup too, but it's not really a big problem because it's a task that is performed rarely. Just out of curiosity, are there any plans to update the firmware to allow automatic detection of Alien Bees?

No can do. The telephone connection does not transmit the type of light. It would take a complete redesign of the remote connection. This type of system was not imagined in 1987 when the remote jack was designed.