Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

The AB MAX line was announced last year but has ... what? Died?

The Einstein has come to fruition in a 640 W-s unit ... will there be a 160 W-s unit?

Given the power range of the Einstein, er, platform, I don't think there's a need for a 320 W-s unit at all.

It would be better to get 2 or 3 640 W-s units and maybe 1 or 2 160 W-s units. Whether labeled Einstein (a terrible name for a light IMO) or AB is really not important.

Thoughts?

Is there some way to filter a square wave inverter such that the voltage is high enough and the wave smooth enough as input to an AB or Einstein? Eg: pump up the inverter by 20 or 30 VAC and then filter it to a near sine?

Has anyone run an AB with a Honda generator? Specifically the 1000W model that purportedly has a "clean electronics friendly" output.

Hi Alan, I asked a similar question recently and Luap has responded. My posting should still be on the front page of the forum.....

The AB Max was not released due to the power supply not up to standards or promises made by the consulting firm. Paul redesigned the power himself, and added several features not found in AB Max. Einstein is everything both AB Max units would have been, then some, at almost the same price (except need for a pure sinewave inverter).

There are no plans for any other power level of Einstein at this time. Higher power units would require significant modifications to the current design, and are not in a high enough demand to make it fruitful. A lower powered light would not have much benefit, as a 160Ws unit dial from 160Ws to .625Ws (if all else were equal), at not much cost savings. Where the current one dials down to 2.5Ws, lower than any of our other lights.

The Honda EU series generators work well for our applications. We do reccomend using 1000W per light to keep the generator from overcharging at recycle from the high draw and causing damage to the light.

As for using a filtered modified inverter, I do not know of a sound way to do so.

The Honda EU generators work great w/ *all* strobes...you can even use modeling lights outdoors though it won't work well in sunlight :-)

Thanks all for your replies.

FYI, I had major problems with Einstein and Honda EU 2000i today. after operating normally for 5 mins, the generator shut down, wouldn't restart. After letting it rest, i could restart the generator. It runs normally until i power up the light. From everything I've read, there should be no problems at all. (even shuts down with one light, not even close to full power, no modeling lamp)

Does anyone have any information?