Disclaimer: I think this is a spectacular device and I aplaud Paul for having the vision to be the first to bring it to the market. It's got loads of potential uses and I'm 100% sure that Paul will keep his engineers working on the firmware to find these glitches.

My notes here are for anyone who may be considering bringing it to a wedding or a critical shoot or using it in a way that will not allow you to perform a hard reset on the CSRB+ easily (catwalks in a stadium) . As with anything, Murphy's law will always find a way to bite you at the worst possible time. I'm fairly sure Paul will say he tested all these conditions, but I'm a software engineer and I know how incredibly difficult it can be to test for every condition and track a series of events that cause an error. I honestly didn't expect this many problems, or else I'd have taped my testing to be able to send in. I read the entire manual first and the only CC sections I was going through during my testing were the ones you would on a shoot: FLASH, MODEL, GROUPS, LIGHT SETTINGS, and FLASHMETER.

All tests were conducted with a brand new CC, CSRB+, and a two year-old AB800. Nothing was changed with the strobe/CSRB+ setup except for when a hard reset was performed, at which time I disconnected the RJ-11, turned off the AB800, and removed the batteries from the CSRB and CC. On the AB800, the MODEL LAMP "ON" button was pressed in, both others were depressed.


#1: While this isn't technically a bug, it's something that I assumed would be included in the programming from day 1 and that I'm very disappointed about: Metering each light individually in sequence with the click of a button. I tried using groups and All, but nothing seemed to work. Currently the only way to see each individual light's meter reading is to scroll through each channel individually and click Meter. Clicking Meter when All is selected only gives you the overall reading, it doesn't update each channel's individual meter reading (the little yellow bar). I'm not sure how difficult this is to program but it's one of the things I was looking forward to the most.

#2: Twice the CC stopped responding to my power adjustments on the AB800 completely. Firing it did not work and changing the power did not work. One time it had set the Power setting to Standby (which I am 100% sure I did not do on my own), and the next time it was also on standby but setting it to On did not fix it. A hard reset of the CC did not fix it, either, only removing the CSRB+'s batteries remedied the problem.

#3: Once, after changing some of the Group settings, I went back to the Channel selector and the AB800 decided to fire every time I clicked Meter regardless of which channel was selected. 1-16 and All fired it every time. The little yellow bar showed up in the exact same spot in every channel. I hadn't touched the CSRB+'s channel setting. Changing the CSRB+ channel from 3 to 4 did not fix the problem. I reset the CSRB+, CC, and strobe, and that fixed it.

#4: Once, after performing a hard reset and re-initializing a single channel with the strobe model, switching between individual channels and attempting to fire them did not work. It took selecting All, firing the meter button (successfully), and then switching to channel 3 for it to trigger. Nothing else was changed during the meantime, and the strobe was set to On, not Standby.

#5: The Model Mode selector seems to have a mind of its own. It usually seems to work fine, but twice after I enabled and disabled the light, I would attempt to change the Model setting with the joystick and it would switch momentarily to the light but then it would switch back real quick. I assume it attempts to change and sends out the signal, but then the CSRB+ is returning an error that resets it. If you hold down the joystick to the top or bottom (without releasing it), it would sometimes work, but the next time you did it, it would switch back to Off.

#6: Model Mode "Off" sometimes doesn't really turn it off. It just sets my modeling bulb to a very, very low setting. Other times, after I let the CC fall asleep, I would go back and it would shut off the bulb completely.

#7: After setting Light Settings -> Model Mode to Track, nothing happened. After a hard reset, it worked.


I've numbered them from most important to least important, in my opinion. This was throughout a 90-minute test period involving just a single AB800, CC, and CSRB+ while I was on a boring conference call. I'm going to use it on a shoot this afternoon (along with my new 3lb/5aH battery pack :->, but I'll keep a CST on camera in case things get wonky.

bacilonur wrote:
Disclaimer: I think this is a spectacular device and I aplaud Paul for having the vision to be the first to bring it to the market. It's got loads of potential uses and I'm 100% sure that Paul will keep his engineers working on the firmware to find these glitches.

My notes here are for anyone who may be considering bringing it to a wedding or a critical shoot or using it in a way that will not allow you to perform a hard reset on the CSRB+ easily (catwalks in a stadium) . As with anything, Murphy's law will always find a way to bite you at the worst possible time. I'm fairly sure Paul will say he tested all these conditions, but I'm a software engineer and I know how incredibly difficult it can be to test for every condition and track a series of events that cause an error. I honestly didn't expect this many problems, or else I'd have taped my testing to be able to send in. I read the entire manual first and the only CC sections I was going through during my testing were the ones you would on a shoot: FLASH, MODEL, GROUPS, LIGHT SETTINGS, and FLASHMETER.

All tests were conducted with a brand new CC, CSRB+, and a two year-old AB800. Nothing was changed with the strobe/CSRB+ setup except for when a hard reset was performed, at which time I disconnected the RJ-11, turned off the AB800, and removed the batteries from the CSRB and CC. On the AB800, the MODEL LAMP "ON" button was pressed in, both others were depressed.


#1: While this isn't technically a bug, it's something that I assumed would be included in the programming from day 1 and that I'm very disappointed about: Metering each light individually in sequence with the click of a button. I tried using groups and All, but nothing seemed to work. Currently the only way to see each individual light's meter reading is to scroll through each channel individually and click Meter. Clicking Meter when All is selected only gives you the overall reading, it doesn't update each channel's individual meter reading (the little yellow bar). I'm not sure how difficult this is to program but it's one of the things I was looking forward to the most.

#2: Twice the CC stopped responding to my power adjustments on the AB800 completely. Firing it did not work and changing the power did not work. One time it had set the Power setting to Standby (which I am 100% sure I did not do on my own), and the next time it was also on standby but setting it to On did not fix it. A hard reset of the CC did not fix it, either, only removing the CSRB+'s batteries remedied the problem.

#3: Once, after changing some of the Group settings, I went back to the Channel selector and the AB800 decided to fire every time I clicked Meter regardless of which channel was selected. 1-16 and All fired it every time. The little yellow bar showed up in the exact same spot in every channel. I hadn't touched the CSRB+'s channel setting. Changing the CSRB+ channel from 3 to 4 did not fix the problem. I reset the CSRB+, CC, and strobe, and that fixed it.

#4: Once, after performing a hard reset and re-initializing a single channel with the strobe model, switching between individual channels and attempting to fire them did not work. It took selecting All, firing the meter button (successfully), and then switching to channel 3 for it to trigger. Nothing else was changed during the meantime, and the strobe was set to On, not Standby.

#5: The Model Mode selector seems to have a mind of its own. It usually seems to work fine, but twice after I enabled and disabled the light, I would attempt to change the Model setting with the joystick and it would switch momentarily to the light but then it would switch back real quick. I assume it attempts to change and sends out the signal, but then the CSRB+ is returning an error that resets it. If you hold down the joystick to the top or bottom (without releasing it), it would sometimes work, but the next time you did it, it would switch back to Off.

#6: Model Mode "Off" sometimes doesn't really turn it off. It just sets my modeling bulb to a very, very low setting. Other times, after I let the CC fall asleep, I would go back and it would shut off the bulb completely.

#7: After setting Light Settings -> Model Mode to Track, nothing happened. After a hard reset, it worked.


I've numbered them from most important to least important, in my opinion. This was throughout a 90-minute test period involving just a single AB800, CC, and CSRB+ while I was on a boring conference call. I'm going to use it on a shoot this afternoon (along with my new 3lb/5aH battery pack :->, but I'll keep a CST on camera in case things get wonky.


I do not understand how you can test Group and different channels with only one AB800..
Please explain..

All my testing was with a single AB800 because as soon as you throw a second light in there, you add a whole lot more variables that can make bugs much more difficult to track down.

The bugs I listed that pertain to group and channel settings will do the same thing if 2 or more lights are connected. Firing a group works the same regardless of whether there's one light or 8 lights in the group.

Another bug I forgot about but just encountered again was that if you have your light connected to a CSRB+ on, say, channel 3, and then you switch the arrow to channel 2 (in order for it to match up with your CC's pre-configured settings), it doesn't fire when you select the individual channel or All in the CC, nor can you change the power settings. Turning off the strobe doesn't fix it, you have to do a hard reset on the CSRB+, and then it works fine.

bacilonur wrote:
I'm going to use it on a shoot this afternoon (along with my new 3lb/5aH battery pack :->

This should be interesting...you might be the first who has used the CC w/ an inverter. Did you end up doing the Kemple DIY Vagabond setup? AIMS still hasn't sent back my fried inverter but said it should be covered under warranty...mine ended up near 7lbs.

Thanks for the writeup of observations...I'm surprised metering one light at a time isn't simpler...hopefully there's a better way to do it that wasn't obvious...

Here go my bugs

I have 4 CSR+. The 4 of them work well with the sync cable but 2 of them don't respond to de CC with the telephone cable. I have 4 lights and the CSR+ don't respond to the CC in any of them.

I have 4 AB1600 and one of them, when I plug any of the CSR+ using the telephne cable, it starts firing continuously as the strobes lights in a disco (this has obviously nothing to do with the CC itself).

Bacllomur,

There a several things in your post that don't make sense to me and some of this sounds like the CC wasn't set up properly. Testing many of these functions can't be done with only one light attached.

Regarding metering: If you select an individual light (call it Channel 1) and press METER you should fire that one light only and see the exact metered f stop at the top of the CC and also a yellow dot in the bar graph of that one light. With only one light connected and correct setup, there should only be one yellow dot and only one bar graph.

If you select any channel other than #1 the yellow dot should remain on #1m, but the f display at the the top can only show channel 1's f-stop when Channel 1 is selected. as you scroll through channels (with multiple lights set up) you will see the digital f stop for each light as it is selected.

Now, if you scroll to ALL and METER, the aggregate f-stop for all lights will be displayed in digital form. Doing this should not change the yellow dots for the individual lights . . . why should it - You haven't changed them? This is not a flaw - it's the logical design.

However, if, While ALL is selected, you change the power, you should see the individual yellow dots follow the ALL Power adjustment (Bracketing) and you should also see the digital f-stop display for "ALL" change in response to the bracketing as it's supposed to.

When you leave ALL and scroll through individual lights, one at a time, you should see each light's power setting, f-stop display. color temperature, flash duration, WS and EU number have all changed as result of the bracketing adjustment - again, by design and proper.

I won't comment on the rest of your post here because I'm short on time and it sounds like you may have not had the system set up completely to do meaningful testing.

I will say we now have about 200 CC systems in the field and have seen only about five problems so far. Granted, all users haven't had time to completely evaluate and set up their systems.

Alvaro - we had a customer who had a bad CSR+ and the problems disappeared when we replaced it.

The disco firing can be the result of a bad telephone cable - we see this even with LG4X if a bad cable it present.

There may also be an issue if you plug in both the phone cable and the sync jack cable. Try connecting the telephone cable and connect only one end of the 1/8" sync cable to the light to disable the slave, but don't connect the other end to the CSR+.

Also, we had a case somewhat similar to this with a CSRB+ that was solved by putting fresh batteries in the CSRB+.

Paul Buff wrote:
Alvaro - we had a customer who had a bad CSR+ and the problems disappeared when we replaced it.

The disco firing can be the result of a bad telephone cable - we see this even with LG4X if a bad cable it present.

There may also be an issue if you plug in both the phone cable and the sync jack cable. Try connecting the telephone cable and connect only one end of the 1/8" sync cable to the light to disable the slave, but don't connect the other end to the CSR+.

Also, we had a case somewhat similar to this with a CSRB+ that was solved by putting fresh batteries in the CSRB+.

Thanks for the answers, Paul.

Now I have 3 out of 4 CSR+ working. The other one still doesn't work with the CC but is receiving the signal form the CST. I tried changing to different frequencies and channels and the result is always the same: it works with the CST and it doesn't with the CC.

Thanks for the reply, Paul. I did have to restore the SD card settings at one point and it may have fubarred the initial setup.

My point about the individual yellow bar readings is that I was expecting the system to fire each channel in sequence (basically taking 1/250th meterings for each channel) as opposed to having to scroll through them one at a time. In an average session, you're changing light positions every 10-20 minutes, and each time you move things around you're not going to see the proper power differences unless you go through the channels again.

I used it this afternoon with a Vagabond 2 and my 3lb pack, worked great. I'll go through the manual again tomorrow to see if I missed anything.

Two questions about the CC.

What power setting does the AB's have to be set on? or does it matter? I have my AB800 set on the lowest setting but I am thinking that it does not matter. I saw in another post that someone had their light on the highest setting.

I used my CC yesterday for group formals with the Vegabond and the "meter" joystick is very finicky at times. Sometimes it fire immediately and sometimes not at all. It did however, raise and lower the power as needed keeping me from having to lower the lights. I pulled out the trusted L358 to get my setting. The CC had a fresh set of batteries and still had to fiddle with it to meter, even here at home.

Is there a magical way to press the meter joystick? I am getting some better results if I press in and down though.
a2rob

In and down works better for me, too. It's hard to get the friction just right between all three axes on a switch like that. The 4-way rocker that Canon puts on their mid-level bodies for AF selection is even more difficult to mess with, as you could never really tell which direction you clicked in.

Oh, and it really shouldn't matter what setting your AB800 is on between 1/1 and 1/32, but another anomaly I encountered yesterday is that under some conditions, it wouldn't fire at 1/32 when I hit Meter, it would fire at something much, much weaker. So low, in fact, that I could look at the bulb and actually see the flash arc around the bulb without everything turning white. I'm sure that was caused by a bad setup, too.

One thing I realized is that the frequency adjustment in the CSR+ is more critical when using the CC than with the CST. My 4 CSR+ respond to the CST but still one is not responding to the CC. I will make small adjustments in the frequency dial and see if the problem is solved.

a2rob wrote:
Two questions about the CC.

What power setting does the AB's have to be set on? or does it matter? I have my AB800 set on the lowest setting but I am thinking that it does not matter. I saw in another post that someone had their light on the highest setting.

I used my CC yesterday for group formals with the Vegabond and the "meter" joystick is very finicky at times. Sometimes it fire immediately and sometimes not at all. It did however, raise and lower the power as needed keeping me from having to lower the lights. I pulled out the trusted L358 to get my setting. The CC had a fresh set of batteries and still had to fiddle with it to meter, even here at home.

Is there a magical way to press the meter joystick? I am getting some better results if I press in and down though.
a2rob

With the telephone jack connected it doesn't matter what power is set on the AB back panels - the remote overrides it.

Yes, you do have to press the meter and test flash buttons straight down

bacilonur wrote:
Thanks for the reply, Paul. I did have to restore the SD card settings at one point and it may have fubarred the initial setup.

My point about the individual yellow bar readings is that I was expecting the system to fire each channel in sequence (basically taking 1/250th meterings for each channel) as opposed to having to scroll through them one at a time. In an average session, you're changing light positions every 10-20 minutes, and each time you move things around you're not going to see the proper power differences unless you go through the channels again.

I used it this afternoon with a Vagabond 2 and my 3lb pack, worked great. I'll go through the manual again tomorrow to see if I missed anything.

Interesting concept on sequential firing, but completely different than the design concept. A good idea but would take another operating mode and a lot of new programming and new mode and ergonomics thought. I'll keep it in mind for the future . . . pretty complex to do it right.

bacilonur wrote:
So low, in fact, that I could look at the bulb and actually see the flash arc around the bulb without everything turning white. I'm sure that was caused by a bad setup, too.

Next time that happens, make sure the ready light is on for the bee...I've seen that too, but only when the RP prevents a bee from going to ready when on inverter power...

It was on AC and I was waiting at least 5 seconds between pops. But that's good to know.

Should the title of the post still include "bugs"? Just asking because it reads like something a bit different to me.

These are pretty much the kind of problems I ran into as well. Many seem kind of random, but are probably related to the order in which things are done. I often lose the ability to adjust a channel at all. I pop out the battery in the CC, reinstall it and usually things are back to working. I also did have to do a CSR+ shuffle at first to get more than 1 light working - interestingly, I also could only get channel 3 to fire. Rearranged the CSR+s and things started working a for a little bit.
I have no disrespect for the product at all though. It is a complicated undertaking, and I am knowingly on the bleeding edge. I ran down a set of batteries experimenting with it already, but never got to a picture taking stage. Looking forward to the first patch.