Where's all the CyberCommander's?

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Archive 2009 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

derek walter
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p.3 #1 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

kenyee wrote:
derek walter wrote:
Then I might think of going all that way with the built in cybersyncs

You probably know this already, but in case you don't, you still need a $30 cybersync dongle for the einstein...
Gotta admit the CC is cool...it'd be awesome for studio work

Oh yeah, that I knew, I wasn't talking about costs. But apparently the einsteins will just be plug and play, the CC will recognize them automatically

Oct 29, 2009 at 11:11 AM

dbaphotography
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p.3 #2 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

I got mine yesterday and had an hour or so to get acquainted with it last night. I had already read the online instructions, and was able to get my simple setup with two AB1600's working nicely. (I mainly use these for indoor sports.)

Overall impressions - very cool, not hard to get the hang of, and it works. I'm looking forward to some Einsteins. :-)

One suggestion though. I seriously doubt I'll ever use anywhere near 16 lights at once, which leaves a lot of the screen area wasted. I wonder if a future version of the software could allow the user to limit the maximum number of displayed channels to 8, 4, or 2, and display those channels in a larger format? That would be a lot easier on my old eyes. ;-)

Oct 29, 2009 at 02:07 PM

derek walter
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p.3 #3 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

I have no idea how complicated that would be to change, probably very, but what do I know? That's the one and only thing I've heard negative so far, "hard to read".
If the screen only showed the currently used channels, that would make alot of sense.
Again, not a criticism, Paul, but an idea.
Man, I'm getting jealous.

Oct 29, 2009 at 06:07 PM

derek walter
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p.3 #4 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

What's the current backorder status at the moment?

Oct 29, 2009 at 06:09 PM

Paul Buff
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p.3 #5 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

It's not impossible that we could consider attempting an auto-fit method of sizing the bars to fit the number of channels used in the future. We considered this in development. But here are a lot of programming and ergonomic considerations to make this work properly. Unlike the Apples and Microsofts, we have limited engineering resources when you consider a product like CC sells in the thousands VS the millions.

Regarding the plug in transceiver, the costs are about the same whether we do a plugin VS building it in. Had we built it it the cost of the light would be higher for those who just want the light alone. The bigger consideration is potential future improvements in the transceiver system and troubleshooting. If the transceiver is built in and should develop a problem or a problem should develop the whole light would have to be repaired or upgraded. Remember those all in one stereo systems with built in 8 track cassettes? Along comes CDs and the whole system is obsolete.

Regarding back orders, we are only about two weeks order time at this point.

Oct 29, 2009 at 06:12 PM

RDKirk
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p.3 #6 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

derek walter wrote:
I have no idea how complicated that would be to change, probably very, but what do I know? That's the one and only thing I've heard negative so far, "hard to read".
If the screen only showed the currently used channels, that would make alot of sense.
Again, not a criticism, Paul, but an idea.
Man, I'm getting jealous.

What will mitigate this to some degree is the extensive ability to create saved setups. Doing all the intial work is rather eye-blurring and will definitely give you the feeling "this is 'way too small." But then again, I get the same feeling with cell phones, PDAs, and DSLRs...the initial setup is eyepain.

But after you've got your basic setups done, using them is much less stressful on the ojos. Here is a suggestion: A way to name the setups. Also, being able to set the flash power increments from the current 0.1 stop to third or half stops would help. The old RR-1 could make full stop jumps, which was handy.

Using the flashmeter--that's going to take some practice and thought. With the integration into the flash control and the use of saved setups, it becomes a one-step process. I can see it will take a bit of change to the traditional meter methodology to get the best use out of it.

Oct 29, 2009 at 07:40 PM

Paul Buff
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p.3 #7 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

To repeat the words of a wise and experienced product development person who worked for us for a while but had to leave for a heart transplant "First, you make it work, then you make it elegant."

RD - you (and me) need to find the fountain of youth . . . I think it's in Florida someplace.

As for naming setups, I agree - but that would involve a whole new and complex layer of interface to allow typing characters into the system . . . display alpha numerical keyboard, click to "A", select, click to "B", select . . .stuff like that. Would drive me nuts, and we all know I'm already nearly there.

Easy for Apple with 10,000 programmers and engineers, not easy for us. Now if we start selling millions of CCs, sure - anything's possible. But first we have to find millions of potential customers and then I'm a corporate CEO instead of a mad scientist. I like being a mad scientist better.

Oct 29, 2009 at 08:21 PM

RDKirk
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p.3 #8 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

There was a suggestion that the CyberCommander would not work reliably with the Vagabond because of the RJ-11 connector. I never had any trouble with the earlier Paul C Buff Radio Remote-1 remote control (which used the RJ-11 connector).

After quite a bit of testing, I'm not having any trouble at all with the CyberCommander and either my two Vagabond "classics" or my Vagabond 2. "Working as intended."

Oct 31, 2009 at 06:12 PM

RDKirk
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p.3 #9 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

One of my philosophies is that any tool worth using is worth modding. I've tested my CyberCommander enough at this point to declare it usable, so I made my first minor mods to it.

I drilled a hole through the hotshoe foot and forced a split-ring through it so that I can wear it on a belt keeper. It's on the belt keeper that used to keep my old Radio Remote-1. I also wrapped a silicon wristband around it as a slight bumper.

That's the RR-1 controller and an RR-1 receiver in the background. Notice how much larger they are than their Cyber descendants. I had also modded the RR-1 controller--I removed the stub antenna and attached a rubber-jacketed wraparound antenna.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdkirk/4066257677/sizes/o/

Nov 02, 2009 at 02:23 AM

Paul Buff
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p.3 #10 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

Cell phone or point and shoot camera pouches with belt loop work good for CC. They are $5 to $20 at Walmart, etc.

Nov 02, 2009 at 05:52 AM

onetrack
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p.3 #11 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

For those that shoot from a camera stand or tripod, leaving it on the camera is OK if you're not going to use the built in meter. Otherwise, the simple trigger on the camera will work but the CC needs a place to go while shooting.

I'm assuming that it doesn't measure ambient light, right? If it does, what's its sensitivity?

Scott

Nov 02, 2009 at 02:04 PM

RDKirk
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p.3 #12 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

onetrack wrote:
For those that shoot from a camera stand or tripod, leaving it on the camera is OK if you're not going to use the built in meter. Otherwise, the simple trigger on the camera will work but the CC needs a place to go while shooting.

I'm assuming that it doesn't measure ambient light, right? If it does, what's its sensitivity?

Scott

I use a regular Cyber trigger on the camera. Even if I did not use the CC as a flash meter (and I'm still exploring how to do that effectively), I recognized that I'd prefer to keep it close to hand the same way I used the RR-1. Also, because the flash trigger is vital, it needs a backup.

You can set the CC flash meter function to read ambient light for a specific shutter speed, but it's not designed as an ambient light meter. I did have to calibrate my CC flash meter to match my Sekonics (it has a calibration function).

Nov 02, 2009 at 02:43 PM

crgunn
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p.3 #13 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

I received my Cyber Commander last week and I really like it.

But, I am having an issue with either it or my CSRB+ not honoring groups if the CSRB+ is not attached with an RJ-11.

I have 3 CSRB+s, 2 AB400s and a canon 580EX on a speed light foot adapter.
I have main AB on Channel 1 and I setup a Group 1 with only channel 1 in the group
I have fill AB on Channel 2 and I setup a Group 2 with only channel 2 in the group
I have 580ex on Channel 3 and I setup a Group 3 with only channel 3 in the group
I setup group 4 with channels 1, 2, and 3 in the group.

The problem is no matter what group I select, Channel 3 still fires. So I can't properly meter Group 1 or Group 2 because the 580ex is still firing. The only way to stop it is to turn off the flash, or go through the menus and change the light settings for Channel 3 to Standby.

Basically, if the CSRB+ is connected with a sync cord (not the RJ-11 telephone cable) it will fire no matter what channel is fired.

Am I doing something wrong, or can this be fixed?

Nov 02, 2009 at 05:06 PM

HappyCamp
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p.3 #14 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

crgunn wrote:
Am I doing something wrong, or can this be fixed?

Have you called up AlienBees tech support and asked them?

They would be the ones that should know and I'm sure they will try to answer your question.

Nov 02, 2009 at 05:26 PM

tamara328
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p.3 #15 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

I think there is a few bugs left to work out. I received mine last week but really put it to the test yesterday. I have 5 lights, combo of WL1600 and AB800
One thing I've had happen is one or two of the channels drop off. Then when trying to get them working again they would only fire at the lowest power. If I would take the jack out they would fire normally but then when I put the jack back in after turning the light off it still would only fire at the low setting and still wouldn't register on the CC. The only thing that would seem to clear the issue was to take one of the batteries out of the CC and open all of the lights again. I have a call into one of the techs and am expecting a call back.
One other little nit I have is when trying to meter the light it's fairly easy for it to switch to a different screen. It's almost like you have to press it dead on which I guess I'll just have to learn to deal with.
Hopefully they'll come out with some firmware to correct the problem of the channels dropping off soon.

Nov 02, 2009 at 05:54 PM

kenyee
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p.3 #16 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

tamara: are you running on a vagabond? And when it drops to firing at the lowest power, if you look at the back of the strobe, is the ready light lit green?

Nov 02, 2009 at 07:07 PM

tamara328
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p.3 #17 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

No, I'm not running it on a vagabond and the green light is showing ready.

Nov 02, 2009 at 07:26 PM

Paul Buff
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p.3 #18 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

crgunn wrote:
I received my Cyber Commander last week and I really like it.

Nov 02, 2009 at 07:40 PM

Paul Buff
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p.3 #19 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

tamara328 wrote:
I think there is a few bugs left to work out. I received mine last week but really put it to the test yesterday. I have 5 lights, combo of WL1600 and AB800
One thing I've had happen is one or two of the channels drop off. Then when trying to get them working again they would only fire at the lowest power. If I would take the jack out they would fire normally but then when I put the jack back in after turning the light off it still would only fire at the low setting and still wouldn't register on the CC. The only thing that would seem to clear the issue was to take one of the batteries out of the CC and open all of the lights again. I have a call into one of the techs and am expecting a call back.
One other little nit I have is when trying to meter the light it's fairly easy for it to switch to a different screen. It's almost like you have to press it dead on which I guess I'll just have to learn to deal with.
Hopefully they'll come out with some firmware to correct the problem of the channels dropping off soon.

I think talking to tech help is the best solution to this question - it's hard to troubleshoot via back and forth posts. Tech help has a better setup for troubleshooting than I do here at home.

Nov 02, 2009 at 07:42 PM

tamara328
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p.3 #20 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

I just swapped a new set of batteries into the CSRB+ channel that was giving me problems. My short test since then was 100% good. Could it be this easy? I sure hope so.

Nov 02, 2009 at 07:44 PM

crgunn
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p.3 #21 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

Paul Buff wrote:
crgunn wrote:
Basically, if the CSRB+ is connected with a sync cord (not the RJ-11 telephone cable) it will fire no matter what channel is fired.

Am I doing something wrong, or can this be fixed?

I just repeated your setup and tests here, firing both from the CC and from CST. In both cases, a group with channel 3 not included did not fire or meter channel 3 - as it shouldn't - whether connected via sync cord or RJ11 connection.

When you are in a group where channel 3 is excluded is channel 3 missing on the CC display? It should be missing because it is not enabled.

I suggest you call tech help and let them run through this with you. Perhaps you might try swapping the CSRB+s around - could be one is weird?

I tried telling CC that the speedlight was an AB400 and it started working as expected. In the spec lights section, if I choose anything in the "OTHER" category it doesn't honor groups. I'll leave it as an AB400 as a workaround for now, but it thinks it can set the power and modeling light of a speedlight now. Is this fixable in a future firmware update?

Nov 02, 2009 at 10:15 PM

RMS956
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p.3 #22 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

Paul Buff wrote:
Cell phone or point and shoot camera pouches with belt loop work good for CC. They are $5 to $20 at Walmart, etc.

Yes indeed they do make nice little unit cases. I had modded a couple for my CSRB+s as shown here along with one of two HOBDs, CST on camera and CyberCommander. Cell phone cases from walmart, straps from strapworks.com.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/1/24/2283141/image1.jpg

Edited on Jan 18, 2010 at 06:32 PM · View previous versions

Nov 03, 2009 at 12:16 AM

RDKirk
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p.3 #23 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

One thing I've had happen is one or two of the channels drop off. Then when trying to get them working again they would only fire at the lowest power. If I would take the jack out they would fire normally but then when I put the jack back in after turning the light off it still would only fire at the low setting and still wouldn't register on the CC. The only thing that would seem to clear the issue was to take one of the batteries out of the CC and open all of the lights again. I have a call into one of the techs and am expecting a call back.

I don't know what causes the problem, but you might want to save your set-up configuration and when that happens, just re-open that configuration, which will "over write" whatever had gone wrong.

Nov 03, 2009 at 12:34 AM

Paul Buff
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p.3 #24 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

crgunn wrote:
Paul Buff wrote:
crgunn wrote:
Basically, if the CSRB+ is connected with a sync cord (not the RJ-11 telephone cable) it will fire no matter what channel is fired.

Nov 03, 2009 at 04:29 AM

Alvaro3663
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p.3 #25 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

I got my CC today.

After some initial panicking I managed to start figuring it out. So far the problem that I encountered is that when I change to a setting with lower lights, the dumping of the excess of energy is going very very slow. Any ideas?

Nov 03, 2009 at 06:28 AM


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