Got my replacement TX back and am happy to report all dials are nicely tight now :-)

Also bought a used Vagabond (the DIY Vagabond was soooo not worth it) and did some testing. Turns out one of my B1600's will crash if powered up w/ the RX attached; I have to power it up and let it charge to ready, then I can attach the JrX RX. The other B1600 doesn't care when the JrX is attached. Fired a bunch of full power pops w/o problems.
Just another data point...seems like an opamp manufacturing variance determines the remote port sensitivity to low voltage (no surprise to me)...

Has anyone tried the vegabond, JrX, and WL X1600? Am I safe to assume I will have the same problem with the WL strobes with the vegabond and JrX?

No...you can't assume you will. You can assume you might but probably won't.

When I placed my order for several CSR+, AB800, CC, Vagabond II etc, I had a lengthy discussion about how I intended to use the setup and SPECIFICALLY asked if there were any known issues. I was told everything would work fine. I discovered this problem the hard way and am "less than abducted" at the moment.

So my choices are to return the ABs for the currently unavailable and probably pricier Einsteins, which will put me out shipping costs and without lights until "someday" when the Einsteins are available. Not to mention that I'll need the new plug-in receivers and have to re-box everything and ship it off. (Jim is not a happy camper at the moment!)

-or-

Figure out a work around.

For now, I have two solutions in mind but I'm not sure if one of them will work. I'll have to call tech support and see (or hope from an answer here)

1. Use the regular CST to trigger and adjust the lights manually. I'm not a fan of that solution as it is really inconvenient for the way I shoot, but I know it will work. At least the background light(s) will stay constant and I'll only have to mess with the others.

2. Dial in the power setting with the Cyber Commander and then turn it to "group 8" (that's how I stopped the flashing when my ABs were going haywire), and then use the regular CST to trip them. I'm not sure if the power settings are retained this way or if the lights will revert back to what the slider on each light dictates. My understanding is that the RC11 cable disables the back panel completely, so my hope is that the CC settings are retained by the lights even when it is set to a group that contains none of the lights in use.

Any thoughts?


Paul Buff wrote:
Jimmy Ho wrote:
Thank you for responding, Paul. I'll assume that the Alien Bee Max will not have these interface anomalies then?
Correct. Unlike most digital monolights on the market, next generation Buff lights will operate down to 40VAC without problems. Typically, with multiple lights connected to an inverter like Vagabond or Innovatronics, the inverter output drops to 60 to 70VAC at the beginning of recycle, then rises to 120VAC. This crashes the uP in most digital lights and causes some problems with the telephone style remote jack circuits in classic Buff lights. Next generation Buff lights won't be affected.

But this brings up a potentially similar situation with Cyber Commander connected via telephone connector and CSR+ or CSRB+ and classic Buff lights - every thing mentioned can tolerate the "brown out" except for the analog remote input of the classic Buff lights.

The best interim workaround, until the next generation Buff lights appear, is to use a Honda generator instead of battery inverter, or to use manual control when using vagabond.

As for remote tripping of classic Buff lights with Vagabond, either the CSR or CSRB or CSR+/CSRB+ receivers connected to the 1/8" sync jack rather than the telephone style connector will avoid these problems - but the CC will not be able to do its magic - power control grouping, etc.

I hope this adds more clarification than confusion.

jimpoor: did you try the recommended power up sequence? If you're Jimmy Ho w/ a different username, you were one of the early adopters and no one knew of these quirks initially...even the RP folks didn't use a Vagabond for their testing

Nope, not Jimmy Ho.

This is my real life name

Recommended where? Certainly not in the manuals anywhere.

My order was placed a week ago so the "quirks" were known by then and should have been disclosed when I ordered.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/834983/0#7785493

FWIW, my CC and CSRB+'s are working fine with a VB2 and my own 4lb NiMH pack. I would try CSRB+'s instead of CSR+'s.

bacilonur: did you get the Kemple pack working? AIMS actually replaced my inverter under warranty so I'm debating whether to sell it or try again to see if the inverter can't survive two B1600s hooked to it

jimpoor: Sorry...I thought you might be Jimmy because you quoted him and he was one of the first to discover this quirk, and then vanished from FM when we asked him questions
If you talked to Joe in tech support, he should have mentioned this which should be in the new manual (from the thread bacilonur mentioned)...give this powerup sequence a try and see if it helps:
=======================
I posed the sequence of power up with my tech department. Here is what I got back:

Yes there is a specific sequence when installing and powering up the CSR+,
CSRB+ with the Commander. The Bees seem to be a little touchier vs. the WL.
But it is good practice to follow the procedure with the all current PCB
strobes.

The sequence goes as follows. Make sure all the model buttons are on, on
the back panel and the power slider is slid all the way the right, (full
power) and switch the Bee to the ON position. In the case of the WL and Zeus
make sure the model slider is set to full power as well. Then plug in the
RJ11 cable. If you are using the CSRB+ make sure you press the test button
to turn the unit on.

I believe the procedure is in the newest commander manual.

Joe

Working great, used it three times so far, each time with the CC+, CSRB+, and a CST on camera. I bought three 180W's and I'm waiting for my other two battery configs to arrive. My location configuration will be a Pelican 1510 w/ dividers, two AB800/AB1600's with short covers, two Nano stands, all the cables and triggers, and two separate Pelican battery packs with a combined 195wH, compared to the VB2's 240wH (or the Quadra's 43wH, or AcuteB's 60wH).

The Pelican packs have little carabiners that go straight onto the stand knob, and I've designed the AC slot in the Pelican so that they face down when hanging from a stand, so you can easily shoot outside in light rain with just a plastic bag over your head, which I do all the time with speedlights.

You shouldn't run two 1600's on a single 180W, though. Get the Aims 600/1200W burst if you want just a single pack. Multiple little ones are great for redundancy.

I actually have the 300W AIMS inverter...was only $110 so about the same as the 180W one. I thought it was needed for the B1600, but it sounds like you're ok w/ the 180W inverter w/ a B1600? Did you measure how many pops you can get w/ a B1600 and that Kemple setup? I wasn't sure a 10Ah NiMH battery would last long either and thought it died. Another reason I may have killed it was I used the connector on the battery rewiring it w/ an Anderson connector...didn't think it'd matter that much though.

Do you have the new or the old 300W? I've seen a number of complaints about the new one. You can still find the old one, though. I believe it's the one without active cooling.

The 180W works fine with a B1600, but its optimum working range for recycle time is 300-400ws. I let the battery sit for 4 days (which amounts to 6-7% battery loss for NiMH without LSD) and then got 172 full power B800 pops out of it. I'm getting another battery identical to it but with 11 cells instead of 10, which will put me right at 200 pops as I'd originally estimated. I'd go with 12 cells except they peak at 1.4V and a tech at Aims said he'd only successfully tested the 180W up to 16.3V.

The third battery pack I'm making will have 9 12-aH D cells, fitting in a Pelican 1120. That will mean a bit over half the power of a Vagabond 2's battery.

I've got the new one w/ the built-in fan...guess you can add me to the list of bad experiences with it :-P
Did you get batteryspace to make you a special w/ the 11 cells? And if you don't mind me asking, what did the D cell setup cost?

Batteryspace quoted me $100 to make a 9-cell pack using these: http://www.batteryspace.com/nimhrechargeablecelldsize12v10000mahrechargeablebattery8pcs.aspx

But I ordered these 12aH cells instead and will make the pack myself.
http://www.batteryjunction.com/tpeh-td-12000.html

The 11 cell (5aH / Sub-C) pack is from cheapbatterypacks.com.

Let me know how it turns out and take some pictures during assembly if you don't mind...the 12aH cells might work better for the B1600

Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

You guys should take this conversation private, or start a new DIY thread.

Jus sayin....

derek walter wrote:
You guys should take this conversation private, or start a new DIY thread.

Jus sayin....
No Please, this is some of the most useful information i have encountered since i started reading Lighting and Studio techniques habitually.
not having to drag a Vagabond II deep into the woods is my idea of a bright future.
there is just about enough info posted to risk buying the parts and trying to build one.
my gratitude to bacilonur and everyone else who adds a useful source or hint

I agree it is useful information, but it is somewhat off topic for this thread, and probably should have it's own

This is the Kemple DIY pack that Joe mentioned:

http://kemplemedia.com/blog/2009/01/06/diy-alien-bees-power-pack-—-lose-weight-on-location-for-‘09-—-pt2/

Mark

Just stumbled across this thread. I have had my JrX's for about two months but today I plugged into the Vagabond II for the first time. With both WL UltraZaps (800 and 1600), I also get sputtering flashes and misfires. This is with the phone cord attached. Unusable. The Jr's/ WL work fine plugged in to the sync jack (similar setup as PW's). What I did find is that if I unhooked the Jrx and left just the phone cord plugged in, I still got the same sputtering of misfires. I concluded the phone cord was bad. So perhaps it's not the JrX Vagabond II combo, it's a phone core Vagabond II issue. This sucks since I mostly use the WL's with the Vagabond and wanted to be able to adjust power remotely. Are there any remedies?