Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Moderated by: guardian

Visit the FM Store · Image Upload · Buy & Sell
FM Forum Rules

FM Forums | Lighting and Studio techniques | Join Image Upload

3 end

Archive 2008 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

AndrewE
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #1 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Just that C cell bit is going to boom your sales. I cannot remember, but is there an estimated number of full power flashes using C batteries?

Nov 04, 2008 at 09:28 PM

Paul Buff
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #2 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

We're calculating around 140 500WS flashes per charge. (Eight rechargeable NiMH C cells).

Nov 04, 2008 at 11:10 PM

RDKirk
Online
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #3 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Wrong. It was incident/reflected with movable dome. I realized the reflected mode was not usable without metering zones so it is now only incident.

Ooops, okay. Now I understand why you were talking about carrying the device in your pocket. I missed that before.

Well, that could cause me to retire my beloved Sekonic L558.

Nov 04, 2008 at 11:43 PM

bacilonur
Offline
Buy and Sell: On

p.2 #4 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Paul Buff wrote:
We're calculating around 140 500WS flashes per charge. (Eight rechargeable NiMH C cells).

Wow. Will it have a built-in charger? That'd make things a _lot_ easier.

Nov 05, 2008 at 12:02 AM

dmward
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.2 #5 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Since a CSR can be attached via appropriate cable to fire the camera and then use a CST to fire the lights, carrying the Commander around makes a lot of sense.

Nov 05, 2008 at 02:45 AM

AndrewE
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #6 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Paul: Sign me up for a Beta tester program if there is one. When the pre-order list comes out I'll be on it.

Nov 05, 2008 at 04:53 PM

Beni
Offline
Buy and Sell: On

p.2 #7 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Incident meter included, WOW!

I'm buying two!

Nov 05, 2008 at 05:54 PM

Paul Buff
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #8 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

bacilonur wrote:
Paul Buff wrote:
We're calculating around 140 500WS flashes per charge. (Eight rechargeable NiMH C cells).

Wow. Will it have a built-in charger? That'd make things a _lot_ easier.

Yes, built in charger. If you use it in the studio at any line voltage it will always be charged and ready to go.

Nov 05, 2008 at 06:41 PM

mgipe
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.2 #9 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Paul Buff wrote:
RDKirk wrote:
I want to know how it meters the lights? Is it measuring some kind of voltage, or light? If it's light, how the heck is it metering it?

Paul has said on his forum that it has a built-in reflected light meter (metering at the camera). That's not doing much for me, but the prospect of full control of Buff lights from the camera is something I found incredibly valuable with his older Radio Remote-One devices.

Also, he's said on his forum that he's started engineering on a C-cell powered flash system.

Wrong. It was incident/reflected with movable dome. I realized the reflected mode was not usable without metering zones so it is now only incident. That's why we suggest carrying it around like a flashmeter and firing from CST on your hotshoe. You can fire from either and, if you like, you can put CC on your hotshoe to adjust power and groups, etc., then take it off to do meter readings.

And yes, we're working diligently now on the C Cells built into Einstein 500. All of this is causing delays - but in product development, delays, like xxxx happen.

That's great! My credit card is back in jeopardy.

--Mike

Nov 06, 2008 at 10:03 PM

DubRepublic
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #10 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

I take it all back. Keep on doing what you're doing. I was just about to order some new triggers but I think I can manage with my wires and wait a bit longer.

Awesome work.

Nov 07, 2008 at 02:23 PM

Jeremy Conoley
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.2 #11 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

and I JUST got the CSRB's..figures

oh well I can always use that to fire my 580 and get the CC and CSR+ for my WL. Keep up the innovation it will make life so much easier.

I can already see people complaining about having to use the "old strobes where you had to manually adjust the power setting."

Nov 07, 2008 at 08:58 PM

RDKirk
Online
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #12 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

and I JUST got the CSRB's..figures oh well I can always use that to fire my 580 and get the CC and CSR+ for my WL. Keep up the innovation it will make life so much easier.

If the CyberCommander is released in time, you can use the 60 day satisfaction guarantee and make return/new purchase.

I can already see people complaining about having to use the "old strobes where you had to manually adjust the power setting."

The CyberCommander power control features are backward-compatible with the current Alien Bees and White Lightning.

Nov 07, 2008 at 10:33 PM

crockett
Offline
Buy and Sell: On

p.2 #13 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

I'm sold and have a pre-order in for a CST and CSR+ to begin playing with. My question is this.....

When the CC becomes available, can I purchase it and do the following.

Set-up: Camera on Tripod with CST attached, AB800 with CSR+ attached, CC in my hand.

Stand next to my model with CC in hand, trigger the AB800, check the meter, adjust the AB800 using the CC without moving, repeat until necessary?

Finally, using the exact same set-up above, I'm assumming I can't use the CC to actually trigger the camera, which would in turn trigger the CST, which in turn trigger the AB800?

However, if I hook a CSR+ to the camera (or maybe even a CSR to save a few dollars) and the CST to the hot shoe, could I remote trigger the camera using the CC? This means I could adjust lighting of all my AB800s, remote trigger a camera and my lighting setup (assumming each one has a CSR+ attached) without moving an inch, while watching the results on my laptop while tethered to the camera? Do I have this correct?

Assume a 40DCanon camera for sake of discussion.

Do I have it right? If I do, i'm very excited and will be spending some cash!

Finally and most importantly, I know you have TBA on release date on the CC but is that like TBA announce in 2010 or are you meaning like a couple months?

Nov 09, 2008 at 03:40 AM

dmward
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.2 #14 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Your described setup should work based on my experience using the CSR with a 5D attached via a cable from FlashZebra. The cable is wired with a switch so that the shutter circuitry thinks the button is half depressed, thus the focus is active. Fire the camera via the CC and the CST on the camera will fire the lights.

Nov 09, 2008 at 06:29 PM

Paul Buff
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #15 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

You need two frequencies because of the shutter delay. Set up your lights with Cyber Commander on frequency one (or whatever). Then you need two CSTs and one extra CSRB. Put one CST on the camera hotshoe set to the CC frequency (one) - it will fire the lights when you camera trips and will honor all CC settings.

Put the extra CSRB on your camera remote trigger input and set it for frequency 2. Hand hold the second CST and set it for frequency 2. Push the button on the second CST, the camera fires with a few milliseconds shutter delay. The camera fires the lights.

Nov 10, 2008 at 03:18 AM

crockett
Offline
Buy and Sell: On

p.2 #16 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Paul,

hmmm...O.K. I'm with you on the 2 frequency thing, but couldn't you save a component by setting up the lights on Freq 1 then change the CC to freq 2 and have it fire the CSRB (set on freq 2) wired to the remote trigger of the camera?

Finally, you didn't answer the question I had about availablity of the CC? Are you looking at spring of 2009 or is this a product that is way off in the future (1 year +)?

Nov 10, 2008 at 05:21 PM

RMS956
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #17 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

OK, I'm anticipating the shipment of the new CyberCommander so much now that I'm reading the on-line manual on how to setup my pair of WL X2400s.

But, I couldn't help but notice that in the setup under "Spec Lights" that the WL X1600, X2400 and X3200 are listed twice for Full and then again for 1/4 power.

So some questions here for PCB.
1. Does this mean that CyberCommander can only see these particular lights as two different units in one? If so, that seems to negate the funtion of 100% remote power adjustments on these WL X*** models with dual power. For example, having to climb back up and change the setting on the units from Full to 1/4 by hand. And then going back into setup on the CyberCommander and making the changes there as well.

And
2. Can this sort of thing be modified so as to have 100% control over power output settings(Full to 1/4 switching) with a firmware update in the future?(Hope so). Sorry if this topic has already been covered.

RMS

Oct 12, 2009 at 06:32 PM

Paul Buff
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #18 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

There is no capability to switch the X series lights remotely. So the only way to do this is at the light itself. There is no path for us to be able to do this. Sorry.

Oct 12, 2009 at 07:30 PM

SkankPile
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #19 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

I don't know why there are so many oooh and awwws; Paul announced this a while back and all the info has been on his site for months now. People bash him so hard and then when he produces the tone completely changes... wow.

I've put off my pocket wizard purchase because of this and now I can finally get some remotes that do something and stop using my ladder and tripping over the pc cord.

I talked to Dave there a few days ago and he also mentioned that you can adjust the meter calibration... which is good news as its not published how to do this in the manual yet as I have to adjust this when I use different cameras.

Oct 12, 2009 at 07:50 PM

RMS956
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #20 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Paul Buff wrote:
There is no capability to switch the X series lights remotely. So the only way to do this is at the light itself. There is no path for us to be able to do this. Sorry.

That is no problem Paul. Just wanted to know so I can put it to rest.
I'm assuming that I will be able to save several setups from my two lights and recall them when I do need to switch from Full to 1/4 power. For example:
"SD1 Save" can be X2400- Full on Ch1, X2400-Full on Ch2
"SD2 Save" can be X2400-1/4 on Ch1, X2400-1/4 on Ch2
"SD3 Save" can be X2400-1/4 on Ch1, X2400-Full on Ch2

Am I close here? I know that I will have to play around with it before I can really put CC to use. Defintely looking forward to it.Thanks Paul for your quick reply.

RMS

Oct 13, 2009 at 12:25 AM

Deezie
Offline
Image Upload: On

p.2 #21 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

What is a C Cell?

Oct 13, 2009 at 01:14 AM

Paul Buff
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #22 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

RMS956 wrote:
Paul Buff wrote:
There is no capability to switch the X series lights remotely. So the only way to do this is at the light itself. There is no path for us to be able to do this. Sorry.

That is no problem Paul. Just wanted to know so I can put it to rest.
I'm assuming that I will be able to save several setups from my two lights and recall them when I do need to switch from Full to 1/4 power. For example:
"SD1 Save" can be X2400- Full on Ch1, X2400-Full on Ch2
"SD2 Save" can be X2400-1/4 on Ch1, X2400-1/4 on Ch2
"SD3 Save" can be X2400-1/4 on Ch1, X2400-Full on Ch2

Am I close here? I know that I will have to play around with it before I can really put CC to use. Defintely looking forward to it.Thanks Paul for your quick reply.

RMS

Yes, you can do it exactly that way. But you will have to physically switch the X2400s to match the 1/4 or Full that you have in the presets.

Oct 13, 2009 at 02:58 AM

Paul Buff
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #23 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

Deezie wrote:
What is a C Cell?
I'm amazed . . . you live in the actual world and don't know what a C Cell is? Don't mean to be a smarty about this, but I have never heard of anyone who doesn't know what a C Cell is. Got a flashlight? Look inside for a clue

Oct 13, 2009 at 03:01 AM

Paul Buff
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #24 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

crockett wrote:
Paul,

hmmm...O.K. I'm with you on the 2 frequency thing, but couldn't you save a component by setting up the lights on Freq 1 then change the CC to freq 2 and have it fire the CSRB (set on freq 2) wired to the remote trigger of the camera?

Finally, you didn't answer the question I had about availablity of the CC? Are you looking at spring of 2009 or is this a product that is way off in the future (1 year +)?
To do this, the CC would have to know the exact time between the camera receiving the trigger signal and when the shutter is wide open. If you are firing a camera from the Cyber Commander it wouldn't be mounted on the camera so it would still take a second transmitter (CST) on the camera hotshoe to communicate back to the CC and tell it when to fire the lights.

If that were the primary design goal of the system, sure, this could have been done. It would have added a huge layer and complexity and cost that is easy to implement with two frequencies.

Regarding shipping, CC is beginning to ship to pre-orders now.

Oct 13, 2009 at 03:13 AM

Paul Buff
Offline
Image Upload: Off

p.2 #25 · Alienbees Cyber Commander Information HERE

SkankPile wrote:
I don't know why there are so many oooh and awwws; Paul announced this a while back and all the info has been on his site for months now. People bash him so hard and then when he produces the tone completely changes... wow.

I've put off my pocket wizard purchase because of this and now I can finally get some remotes that do something and stop using my ladder and tripping over the pc cord.

I talked to Dave there a few days ago and he also mentioned that you can adjust the meter calibration... which is good news as its not published how to do this in the manual yet as I have to adjust this when I use different cameras.

It takes a long time to write a totally complete manual and I am the only person that can do it. Everything will eventually be in there. The prompts in CC are totally logical for calibrating the meter and also for setting a plus or minus offset from factory calibration - In 1/10f steps.

Oct 13, 2009 at 03:18 AM


FM Forums \| Lighting and Studio techniques \| Join Image Upload 1 2 3 end