Godox AD360II and Flashpoint Streaklight 360II Thermo protection

Can anyone tell me what specifically happens to these lights when thermo protection kicks in? Trying to diagnose an issue I experienced at an event.

I was shooting a triathlon finish line position using one godox 360ii and one streetlight 360II with the R2 trigger. Using HSS with burst of 3-4 shots per runner set to manual power at 1/64 using HSS. After a couple hundred shots or even 300-400 shots, the lights would stop firing. Both at same time. At first thought batteries in transmitter died so I swapped though which did nothing. Checked to make sure correct channel was selected or settings were still constant. Only way to could get the lights to fire again was to power cycle the battery packs. Once that was done, I was good for another couple hundred shots.

Only thing I could think of would be thermo overload. Shooting at 1/64 is very low power though so not 100% convinced at that.

Does this experience signal thermo shutdown?

Thanks

From the Streaklight TTL manual:

When I hit thermal protect, recycle time drops to 10-15 seconds, sometimes longer. I generally power down, wait 10 seconds, power back up and it behaves as if the thermal protect has been reset. There is also the appearance of a thermometer on the LCD screen once thermal protect kicks in.

Thanks so much for that. With the number of pops, I was between 1/32 and 1/64, so that is 60-80. But not all at once. So how long between a burst of 4-5 shots would the unit cool enough not to initiate Thermo protection? For instance, first group 4 shots, second group 4-5 seconds later of 3 shots, third group maybe 5-6 seconds later 4 shots, etc. Would that count as 11 consecutive shots? Or would that 4-5 seconds between groups be enough to reset the thermo protection count?

I didnt see any thermometer icon either, was looking for something like that to clue me in.

I was experiencing similar behavior so most likely it was the thermo protection kicking in.

I'm not really certain. The material indicates that these are "consecutive" shots, and my guess is anything under, say, 2-3 seconds counts as "consecutive". The HSS mode puts a massive strain on the capacitors, so much in fact that it's more strain than even a 1/1 full manual pop.

In the future you may want to change up your strategy. I don't have experience shooting the same subject you're working with but I can tell you that:

1) If I need a greater # of HSS shots before thermal protect kicks in, I will use 1/1 power and ND the light. You can get 1/8000 syc at manual 1/1 using the YN622's, and I also assume the Cells II triggers.

2) If I can get away with a 1/250th shutter speed - max sync on my camera - flash duration gets sufficiently short to not show ghosting at 1/64th and below with the 360s. Experiment and see for yourself if 1/64th in manual at 1/250th shutter is OK for your work (I assume not but figured it can't hurt to try) - this looks like 500 shots possible.

3) Your circumstances may require that you move up to the Xplor 600, or - ironically - down to a speedlight setup. The good news with the speedlight is that you can use your 360 battery pack as a high speed recycler with just the purchase of a $15 cable. Speedlights have incredibly short flash durations and many work in HSS - given your need of HSS, number of pops, but also very low power, a speedlight might actually be better suited to the task.

cory1848 wrote in post #18343423
Thanks so much for that. With the number of pops, I was between 1/32 and 1/64, so that is 60-80. But not all at once. So how long between a burst of 4-5 shots would the unit cool enough not to initiate Thermo protection? For instance, first group 4 shots, second group 4-5 seconds later of 3 shots, third group maybe 5-6 seconds later 4 shots, etc. Would that count as 11 consecutive shots? Or would that 4-5 seconds between groups be enough to reset the thermo protection count?

I didnt see any thermometer icon either, was looking for something like that to clue me in.