Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I e-mailed and they told me that I was on the list and my number. I thought I was really early... turns out I was/am #800

Thanks for the update!

Maybe I'm wrong... and maybe I'm just a little too anxious to get my Einsteins... but it seems that no more notices have gone out since May 6th and nobody over 600 on the list seems to have been contacted. (Admittedly these assumptions are due to my lame detective work and not based on quotes from PCB staffers). :?

On the other hand, I haven't heard any mention of shipping or anything being on hold either, and Luap's usually pretty good about keeping us all up to date. Maybe things are progressing after all.

Hope that, in spite of some CC remote issues mentioned in these forums, shipments (and preorder notifications) are still ramping up. Really, I can't wait to start flashing people with my E640. :D

Anybody have different info or care to set me straight?

I would not see good reasons to ship CCs with known range issues to clients only to have them shipped back. I have some Einsteins on order along with CC etc and if it had any obvious issues the whole kit would go right back for adjustment to spec plus confirmation of consistent interoperability.

If Paul is making sure no new units with known / already reported issues go out the door he's doing himself and his clients a favor, methinks

There's a post on POTN that says Einstein production has been stopped while they figure out some issues ...........

AB

Just a speculation on my part, but I have put my the two Einsteins I have through a pretty good pace so far both in studio and in the field for about a month now and have had zero issues with the lights so far. However, the CC has been a different story and multiple reports indicate that we are all having the same issues with radio reception primarily outdoors and some other strange issues. From the reports from PCB and long phone calls with CS, they are aware and are working with great effort to repair this issue.
So I would only assume that since the CC and Einstein are directly built for one another then the CC problems might be the issue instead of the Einstein.
Just thought I would chime to let you know the E lights are everything that they are reported to be from in field use. I am sure you have already heard this before though.

Well, I made someone happy! I had been offline with travel for a month or so, and when I did get the notice that my fairly low number was ready for confirmation, it was two days beyond the 5 working day response limit for me to press the "go" button. I pleaded my case a little bit, but I was politely sent to the back of the order bus.

I'm not complaining at all, as the rules were clear from the beginning, and one day or two days past the 5 day window is still past the window. I'm just letting everyone know that at least two units were shipped a day early to someone thanks to my lack of attention, and also be warned that if you don't respond to the email in time, you will forfeit your place in line.

Of course, the bonus for me is that I might reap the benefit of engineering changes to the early models when my place comes around again, but a warning to those who are chomping at the bit to have the unit in their hand ASAP; If you snooze, you lose....


By the way, a high five to Paul Buff for taking a public stand against the Arizona border protection initiative boycott nonsense. Very few people with skin in the game have the big brass stones to stand in the face of such an evil political tsunami. Kudos, Paul. I'll leave it at that.....

Yes, having to wait has it's advantages, and PCB is doing the right thing by delaying production to investigate the issues.

Still, the long delays and reports of issues are disheartening. They're surely losing customers in the mean time who are either impatient hobbyists or professionals who can't afford to wait. But what they do have going for them is that there doesn't seem to be any competition with similar price and feature set.

One problem with this timing, though, is that the market can see that Einstein is the future of PCB, so why would we invest in AB/WL in the mean time (unless there's a trade-up program that's very aggressive)? Einstein competes with AB/WL and is superior on paper, but even while it's not available it discourages investment in AB/WL. In other words, I'd guess AB/WL sales are down, but Einstein isn't moving either... doesn't seem like a great scenario. Bottom line - PCB needs to fix the issues and get these things out the door, ASAP.

I'd also echo, props on the Arizona stand.

We're doing the very best we can, and will exchange any problem units as fixes are resolved. The only problems that are significant are CC range (usually easily solved by triggering from CST) and PW interference issue (I exchanged at least ten emails with LPA today alone and we are jointly addressing the PW range issue. We are also working to extend CC range ASAP. Nobody ever gets stuck with a sub par Buff product . . . I make sure of that. E640 production has not stopped, but is on a 2-3 day sabbatical.

Vagabond IIs just came in and PLMV2 is right around the corner and working fantastic. We've made over 50 prototypes. We (I) are so slammed its almost beyond believability. 2010 sales/deliveries are already up about 20% without PLMV2 or Einstein or Europe . . . so we are very busy bees. Not a lot of sales to illegal aliens though :?

There's no dipole sticking out so it's either internal or you folks are using a solid state antenna. May want to consider a fractal antenna. If modeled right it can be tuned for its near-field obstruction environment (like a big hand cradling the CC) better than other antennae.