Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I've been having issues w/ my cyber commander/csr+ (3) receivers. At first everything works fine, but when left alone for more than 5 minutes the lights quit responding or just fire at full power or fire when there's a noise in the house (no joke). The biggest issue is the lack of response, channels are correct, frequencies are correct and not low battery.

I can change frequency and everything works again for a few minutes then goes back to the way it was. Pulling out the phone cord doesn't fix it, turning the light off/on doesn't fix it, rebooting the cyber commander doesn't fix it. The only fix is turning it all off and coming back the next day.

Any fixes?

Do you have each light set to its own channel (i.e. 1, 2 and 3), or are they sharing a channel?

Do you have a white dash for each channel at the bottom of the graph? Or do you have gray dashes? Or no dashes? (note: If you have bars, you have dashes. You can have dashes in either color without bars. White matches the color of the text in the corners, i.e. MENU. Gray matches the gray in the lines of the graph and may be difficult to see if you don't know what you are looking for).

Do you have a blue bar for each light? Or an empty bar for each light? Or no bar for any light?

Do all lights quit firing at once, or do they quit individually, or randomly?

Each is on it's own channel.
White dashes.
Blue Bar/red flashing border
Randomly

If the lights really do fire when there is a noise, what kind of noise is it? What is the source? Might this correlate to an HVAC system starting, or a refrigerator compressor kicking on?



Are the power sliders on the lights set to the far right/ Full power? They should be if not.

What frequencies have you tried? Most people start at 1 or 5, so try taking the dial away around to, say, 13.

If this is easy to replicate, next time one or more receivers lock up, check the LED on the receiver to see if it blinks green or stays a red/orange color. Note the color, then remove power to the receiver (i.e. unplug the power cord to the bottom of the receiver or from the wall), then reapply the power. Scroll to ALL on the CC and fire from either joystick. Do the affected lights work again?

What is your power source? Wall outlet? Vagabond? Extension cords? Power strip?

Noise was in the specific case me tapping on a laptop. The cyber commander was on the table a foot or so away.

Other
Sliders are all the way up.
I've tried 1,3,7, and currently 9 for frequency
All receivers are green
Wall source, though in the past it has been Vagabond

This has become such a frequent problem that I can't trust the units for their intended purpose. I don't have time in the middle of a shoot to test all this, I need it to work every time regardless of any situation. If my camera can be used in any situation the lights should be equally reliable.

Is this something that happens only in one location or has it happened in a variety of locations?

Are you using any other strong wireless transmitter in the immediate vicinity, like a WiFi dongle for the camera, or a particularly strong router within a few feet?

Are you tethered from camera to computer via a wire (at least at the time of typing when the lights tiggered)?

This has happened in multiple locations on a few shoots.
Not near a wifi router or hotspot
The laptop was w/in 3 feet which had wifi on
Tethered via USB
And no it was not tethered at the time of the typing incident

We are suspecting the receivers for most of this, though the spontaneous triggering is curious.

Bear with us as we study this a little more. Likely, this will require some type of service, so we will follow up with you via email (the one associated to your purchases) today or tomorrow.