Ranger rx was having seizures???

[suecassidy]

I was shooting marketing pics yesterday and my strobe head started firing in short bursts continously. I unplugged it and plugged it in, again bam*bam*bam*bam, it would do it again. Turned on and off, plugged into different socket on pack, same thing. The thing was possessed by the lighting devil, I swear it. Eventually, it stopped that nonsense, but what was THAT about? Any ideas?

[Mike Panic]

What kind of triggers do you use, and how is the battery in them?

[PacAce]

I was shooting marketing pics yesterday and my strobe head started firing in short bursts continously. I unplugged it and plugged it in, again bam*bam*bam*bam, it would do it again. Turned on and off, plugged into different socket on pack, same thing. The thing was possessed by the lighting devil, I swear it. Eventually, it stopped that nonsense, but what was THAT about? Any ideas?

I had that happen to me the first time I ever used my Ranger RX. I was using the head with an umbrella. Were you using an umbrella also? If so, check to see if the pigtail wire that wraps around the flash tube is hanging away from the tube and making contact with the umbrella shaft. If it is, just wrap the pigtail wire around the flash tube, so that it's not hanging free, and away from the umbrella shaft.

If the above isn't your problem, then may I suggest calling a local Catholic church to see if they do exorcisms. :D :lol: ;)

[suecassidy]

I was using skyport triggers, and a fresh battery in that. That's a valid point to trouble shoot in the future though, for sure. The head was in a big ass octabank and it never occurred to me to take the cover off and see if anything was wonky there. PaceAce, the last exorcism done by my local Catholic Church was done on ME, they won't talk to me. ; )

[Wilt]

Too much rigamarole to get exorcism performed...eat a head of garlic next time!

;)

[PacAce]

I was using skyport triggers, and a fresh battery in that. That's a valid point to trouble shoot in the future though, for sure. The head was in a big ass octabank and it never occurred to me to take the cover off and see if anything was wonky there. PaceAce, the last exorcism done by my local Catholic Church was done on ME, they won't talk to me. ; )

You might want to check the pigtail wire anyway to make sure it's not dangling free. That's the wire that triggers the flash and if it's shorted to ground, it'll set the flash off. The flash tube is close enough to the metal built-in reflector that the wire could be touching that instead.

[bobbyz]

Seems like very poor design if what Leo is saying is the case.

[Cathpah]

Seems like very poor design if what Leo is saying is the case.

Given it happens pretty rarely (I've only heard of it a few times, and own a couple rangers myself), I don't know if this qualifies as poor design. Moreso just a bit of bad luck.

[bobbyz]

Given it happens pretty rarely (I've only heard of it a few times, and own a couple rangers myself), I don't know if this qualifies as poor design. Moreso just a bit of bad luck.

If there is wire which can touch the umbrella shaft and make the strobe go haywire, I say poor design even if it happens once in a while. There will be bunch of regular jumping up/down if it was AB strobe instead of Elinchrom:D

[PacAce]

If there is wire which can touch the umbrella shaft and make the strobe go haywire, I say poor design even if it happens once in a while. There will be bunch of regular jumping up/down if it was AB strobe instead of Elinchrom:D

It's not poor design, Bobby. It's just that Elinchrom, for some reason, decided to keep the pigtail longer than other makes do. If you take a look at your AB strobes, you'll see the same kind of pigtails, too. Except they're cut shorter.

[Semmonka]

Make also sure that photocell is turned off. Sometimes when bright light hits the photocell it makes
the unit fire. Never heard of bursts but its worth checking imo

[Hermes]

It's not poor design, Bobby. It's just that Elinchrom, for some reason, decided to keep the pigtail longer than other makes do. If you take a look at your AB strobes, you'll see the same kind of pigtails, too. Except they're cut shorter.

I've always found that his wire touching an umbrella shaft will stop the strobe firing altogether. It's also always been the retaining clip for me, never the actual wire.

Could be better designed but their goal was obviously to get the umbrella mount as central as possible bringing it in close proximity to the tube. If the clip rotates out of place or is left a little too long it can short the head in a pretty baffling way. Fortunately trimming a couple of mm off with a wire cutter is a 2 second job.

In this case, I'd be more inclined to think it was something to do with the triggering. A sync cable not fully in the socket can produce this effect. A dodgy test button or radio interference could also do it. All have simple solutions if you can narrow it down to the right one.

[PacAce]

I've always found that his wire touching an umbrella shaft will stop the strobe firing altogether. It's also always been the retaining clip for me, never the actual wire.

Could be better designed but their goal was obviously to get the umbrella mount as central as possible bringing it in close proximity to the tube. If the clip rotates out of place or is left a little too long it can short the head in a pretty baffling way. Fortunately trimming a couple of mm off with a wire cutter is a 2 second job.

In this case, I'd be more inclined to think it was something to do with the triggering. A sync cable not fully in the socket can produce this effect. A dodgy test button or radio interference could also do it. All have simple solutions if you can narrow it down to the right one.

Can you explain what you mean by the retaining clip. I didn't see anything on either Freelite heads near the umbrella shaft (or the whole front face of the head, for that matter) that looks like it could be called a retaining clip.

[uyarchie]

Make also sure that photocell is turned off. Sometimes when bright light hits the photocell it makes
the unit fire. Never heard of bursts but its worth checking imo

+1. I had seizures with mine as well. lol.

[Hermes]

Can you explain what you mean by the retaining clip. I didn't see anything on either Freelite heads near the umbrella shaft (or the whole front face of the head, for that matter) that looks like it could be called a retaining clip.

Don't know about the freelite heads but on the RXs there is a thicker wire that wraps around the flashtube just above the umbrella mount to hold down the thinner flashtube wire, Not really a clip but it does the same job.

[chimpychomps]

Make also sure that photocell is turned off. Sometimes when bright light hits the photocell it makes
the unit fire. Never heard of bursts but its worth checking imo

Thanks for this. I was out shooting in bright sunlight when I had this seizure issue. It totally confused me but didn't do a search on here until after the shoot - back home. Just went and checked it out - the above seems to have been the case.

Thanks again for the post, really helped, and I'm glad that it was as simple as turning off the photocell in my case.