Has anyone used Alienbee Cybersync CSRB to fire a Speedotron 805 Black Line or an older Speedotron High voltage Sync power pack? I can not get it to work. I have called both companies and they both said it should work. I have tried two different CSBR and cables and nothing worked. The Pack will fire using a PC cord from the camera. I read some wear that Speedotron might have reversed polarity for the plug?
jfn: FYI, the 805's sync voltage is -63V (yes, I measured w/ a multimeter and yes it's reversed). Doesn't fire w/ my RP JrX Studio either, even after I built a reverse polarity mono cable (to make sure the stereo adapters weren't the issue). Oddly enough, the cheapy fleabay V2s triggers fired it off fine w/ a sync cord and they're only rated to 40V.
I asked RP about it and they haven't gotten back to me yet. Ask the PCB folks and see if you can get an answer or if you can get them to test a Speedo 805 pack because I suspect your answer will be mine as well
hmm...in a previous post, PCB mentioned that some older Bowens strobes had too much current in their sync circuit which would cause the cybersync trip circuit to latch up. I doubt switching polarity would fix it (it didn't work for the RP at least).
A resistor inline w/ ground wire in a custom cable should drop the voltage enough, but you'd have to use one that can survive whatever the amperage is; I have a few but they're all the tiny circuit board kind. If you could find out from Speedo how much current flows across that sync circuit, that would let us figure out what kind of resistor to put in to work around this...
I just ordered the Wein Safe Sync. My camera should be able to handle the voltage from the Speedotron but why chance it, I'm going to carry a sync cord as a back up.
jfn: the voltage I measured was definitely -63V (-62.7 roughly). Only the older 1201 packs have 300V sync voltage...
And the safesync should work according to the thread I was in on the strobist forum.
Just for yucks, I called up Speedotron earlier today and asked them for the sync current. Got a "you mean voltage?" reply, then was told voltage is between 60-70V and I told them I measured it at -63V already, then got bounced to the repair guy because he might know, but he didn't know and took down my number to call me back so he can figure out how to measure it. Well...it was funny
I have to find some retro resistors...every junk board I can rip one off has surface mount devices on it...sigh.
This is an interesting thread. My Norman P808M would not fire with a cheap ebay radio trigger (it worked with all my hot shoe flashes). It makes me wonder why some flash packs will not trigger with various radio sync units, and how you could tell before buying if it will work or not (the Norman has 4.4 volts across the sync, BTW).
You can't really figure out before buying it and trying it unless someone else has. Your Norman should be easily triggered by any trigger except maybe the "V2" because that one was designed for up to a 200V sync voltage so it had problems w/ lower sync voltages. The 805 pack can be triggered w/ the cheapy fleabay "V2s" trigger. Which fleabay trigger did you use?
kenyee wrote:
You can't really figure out before buying it and trying it unless someone else has. Your Norman should be easily triggered by any trigger except maybe the "V2" because that one was designed for up to a 200V sync voltage so it had problems w/ lower sync voltages. The 805 pack can be triggered w/ the cheapy fleabay "V2s" trigger. Which fleabay trigger did you use?
Rather than and link that will die in a couple of months: It was an RD616 bought from eBay seller magic_trigger (charged me a restocking fee), one of the newer 16 channel 433mhz sets. As I mentioned, it worked fine with all my shoe mount flash units, but not with the Norman P808M. Currently I am using the sync cord or an old Wein optical slave. I keep wondering if the RF-602 would work as it seems to be the current "most bang for the buck".
The thing I find curious is that I have seen several posts on the web mentioning problems with power pack type strobes and various rf triggers that seem to work fine with shoe mount flash units and monolights.
The RF602 will probably work because it wasn't designed for higher sync voltages (40V max supposedly like the V2s). The RD616 is from the V2 cactus days IIRC, so it'll work w/ higher sync voltages (like the 283HV).
Had a chance to try out the CyberSync, with the Speedotron. It works with a reverse polarity cable. I also try it with just a Wein safetysync, but it wouldn’t fire until I reversed the polarity on the cable.
Well I am 10000% Shure thet the rev Polarity does work 100% Here is what you need to do
http://www.lilsamedia.com/805Sync/805_w_RPS-2.jpg
Second Picture is the pack Lighting up the entire room with the light off bouncing off ceiling. I am using a Dotline EL Cheapo trigger. The Speedotron trigger is $115 for the same thing I paid 49 bucks for, except with a Rev POL 1/4 mono installed on a coiled wire. LINK to Speedotron wireless trigger
