Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

My Einsteins started turning on and firing by themselves this morning before a session. This seemed to be a CC battery issue so I put new batteries in.

Random firing continued, so I replaced batteries again with the same result. I pulled the batteries and went on with the session.

I replaced the batteries after the session and noticed later that the CC was power cycling itself. I replaced the batteries and noticed that the CC continued power cycling. Removed the SD card and the same thing happened. Checked the battery contacts and they were/are fine. Replaced the SD card and the behavior continued.

CC is less than a year old (replaced under warranty), has FW ver 50.

Is there a "master reset"?

Sidenote: Just added a bluetooth speaker so the studio: Is there a bluetooth interference issue?

Bluetooth would not cause a power cycling of the CC. It is unlikely, if not impossible, for bluetooth to trigger a light directly.

Generally, this is caused by a corrupt SD card, and removal would correct the problem, though not the case here.

When you say the battery contacts are OK, does that mean they are both soldered solidly to the board as well as making solid contact with the batteries (i.e. the batteries are not loose in the compartment)?

Also, have you tried another (3rd) set of batteries, or tested the new batteries? It is entirely possible for even new batteries to have a dead/low cell. Also make sure you are using alkalines or lithiums. Rechargables are not recommended due to the lower nominal voltage (Low Self Discharge type rechargables have worked OK, but be aware they still have a lower nominal voltage and could still pose a problem).

And while trouble shooting, I would leave the card out.

I have tried many new sets of alkaline batteries with the same results.

I have checked the battery contacts to make sure they are making contact with the battery and did not notice the contacts being loose from the board.

I mentioned the speaker as it was the only new device in the studio.

Just for grins, I formatted the SD card using the CC (took a long time) to see if there was a corruption issue. No change in behavior.

I did notice that if I change the display brightness to 10 the resetting becomes much less frequent; changing to 20 (standard) or higher causes the rebooting problem to happen. This is with fresh (before Energizer or Duracell "use by date") alkaline batteries, although I can see an argument for the batteries being "stale."

If the unit is continually rebooting even after the card has been removed and new batteries installed, the unit will need to come in for service.

Please visit this link for repair information:

http://www.paulcbuff.com/repair.php

It's on its way...