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

onetrack
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p.4 #1 · 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.4 #2 · 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.4 #3 · 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.4 #4 · 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.4 #5 · 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.4 #6 · 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.4 #7 · 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.4 #8 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

crgunn wrote:
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?

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?

Nov 02, 2009 at 07:40 PM

Paul Buff
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p.4 #9 · 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.4 #10 · 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.4 #11 · 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.4 #12 · 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.4 #13 · 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.4 #14 · 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.

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?

You have indeed found a firmware bug . . . good work. Your workaround was smart.

I repeated your test and, indeed, when set to Speedlight Channel 3 did ignore the group exclude. We'll get this corrected in frimware - shouldn't take long. Thanks for finding this bug.

Nov 03, 2009 at 04:29 AM

Alvaro3663
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p.4 #15 · 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

RDKirk
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p.4 #16 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

Alvaro3663 wrote:
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?

Is it slower than the excess energy is dumped with the same decrease manually? I had long ago adopted the habit of just hitting the "Fire" button of my Radio Remote-1 when decreasing power, and I'd been doing that with the CC as well, so I hadn't noticed that it dumped any slower.

Nov 03, 2009 at 12:12 PM

tamara328
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p.4 #17 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

Alvaro..this one got me so I'll throw it out there. Unless you read the online instructions you wouldn't find this in the manual that comes with the CC.
"The receiver outputs should be connected via the supplied telephone style cords and dummy plugs should be inserted into the sync jack of the lights to disable the slave trippers."

Nov 03, 2009 at 01:21 PM

RMS956
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p.4 #18 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

tamara328 wrote:
Alvaro..this one got me so I'll throw it out there. Unless you read the online instructions you wouldn't find this in the manual that comes with the CC.
"The receiver outputs should be connected via the supplied telephone style cords and dummy plugs should be inserted into the sync jack of the lights to disable the slave trippers."

I recommend this online Cyber Commander instruction site and not the PCB one. At least until they update their paper manual.

http://www.webecool.com/

Nov 03, 2009 at 03:25 PM

Alvaro3663
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p.4 #19 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

RDKirk wrote:
Is it slower than the excess energy is dumped with the same decrease manually? I had long ago adopted the habit of just hitting the "Fire" button of my Radio Remote-1 when decreasing power, and I'd been doing that with the CC as well, so I hadn't noticed that it dumped any slower.

I sometimes do that but the models don't like to be caught by surprise by a sudden flash. Usually, when I power it down within an f-stop I just wait.

Nov 03, 2009 at 05:20 PM

Alvaro3663
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p.4 #20 · Where's all the CyberCommander's?

tamara328 wrote:
Alvaro..this one got me so I'll throw it out there. Unless you read the online instructions you wouldn't find this in the manual that comes with the CC.
"The receiver outputs should be connected via the supplied telephone style cords and dummy plugs should be inserted into the sync jack of the lights to disable the slave trippers."

That is actually to prevent other lights from firing but it doesn't work to dump the excess of energy.

Nov 03, 2009 at 05:23 PM

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