Alien Bee B1600 Flashing by Itself

I set up today for a shoot, and hooked my B1600 into the Vagabond mini. I then hooked my radio triggers (Powersync16's) to the rig. I turned the vagabond on, and then my light. I took my first shot, and it didn't flash. It then popped about four times back to back. I checked all my connections, and they were fine. It did the same thing on the second shot. I turned the light off, and removed the triggers, and turned it back on. It sat for about a minute then popped off three or four times again. Each time I turned it off, then back on it would do this. I let it sit and after about five minutes it popped about four or five times again.

Any idea what could cause this behavior? It's never been dropped, and lives in a padded Pelican case. It seemed to behave fine a little later on, but I'm not one to believe problems just fix themselves...and to be honest, I don't want that embarrassment on a shoot again..

It happened to me once when I was in a bright sun and I just covered the unit and it worked fine, I don't know if its the same case or something else happening with you

Thats interesting. It was cloud covered, but rather bright out. I wish I had thought to cover the slave sensor with gaffe tape...Thanks for the thought!

My einstein does this when the trigger batteries are really low. Do you have fresh batteries?

Also check the cable...a loose cable could make it flaky. Low batteries and slave eye are more likely though.

After the first couple of incidents, I completely removed the trigger set up (including the cable). The light behaved in the same manner.

You didnt leave it out where it could draw condensation overnight did you? I had a morning shoot and loaded the ab's in the back of truck in the camper shell on a moist night. I think they drew a bit of dew and they fired like that. After it warmed up they went back to behaving normally.

alabama1980 wrote in post #16213771
After the first couple of incidents, I completely removed the trigger set up (including the cable). The light behaved in the same manner.

Does it behave the same way when plugged into the wall?

At this point, I'm guessing it's a loose connection inside. You did all the reasonable debug things...

gonzogolf wrote in post #16213784
You didnt leave it out where it could draw condensation overnight did you? I had a morning shoot and loaded the ab's in the back of truck in the camper shell on a moist night. I think they drew a bit of dew and they fired like that. After it warmed up they went back to behaving normally.

I ve had this to happen also, seems like condensation could be the problem

Like JakAHearts said, this happened to me when my trigger batteries were about to die. Changed the battery, and voila - all returned to normal.
Dave

triggers need new batts