Troubleshooting Q&A
Q. Why are the remote flashes are firing inconsistently?
First make sure the zones and Channels you have set on the Raven match the zones and Channels you assigned to the remote radios. Make sure you have updated firmware in all of your equipment-the Raven, remote flashes, and remote receivers.
Also, your Raven SpeedCycle feature might be turned on. Turn it off and it will fire on every shot instead of rotating through your flashes. Here is a link to help you set-up/turn off SpeedCycle feature by doing the following:
- Start by tapping on any zone to highlight the zone letter or number.
- The tap on the Zone Mode Selector icon
- Here in the Zone Mode Screen, tap on the icon
- To confirm the SpeedCycle is selected, the icon will be green Tap it to turn it off.
- The Raven will automatically return you to the Zone Control Display
Q. My Raven’s battery is dying quickly. Is that normal?
Make sure you have the most current firmware in your radio. We recently added power management to Raven’s CPU to reduce power by 50% when the camera is sleeping or idle.
The Raven’s battery should last approximately 16 hours with normal usage from a full charge. We highly recommend using the supplied USB 2.0 type A to Micro B charging and data transfer cable. Please use a 1-amp minimum charger, such as an iPhone charging cube, a 2-amp Android charger, a multi-port USB electronics charger, or your computer.
Please check this link to make sure you charge your Raven correctly.
The Raven’s lithium ion battery will lose approximately 3% in battery power in a 24 hour period. This is due to the Clock Setting feature that runs in the background, even when the Raven is powered off. This setting cannot be turned off since it is needed for other Raven features. It is highly recommended to always charge your Raven the night before a photoshoot.
If the issue still persists, it could also depend on the fact if you are turning your Raven off after it is charged. If you leave it with the display showing a charge level when it goes into the bag, the display could be the thing that kills the battery.
You can check to see how fast the Raven is drawing power to determine if it is drawing too much power working properly. This test should be done when the battery is above 60%. If it is below 60%, it can draw more current.
- Start from the Zone Control Display and swipe from the bottom to the top of the Touchscreen.
- Rotate the command ring dial to Settings and tap on it.
- Rotate the command ring dial to About (i) and tap on it.
- Use the command ring dial to scroll through to the second page of information.
- Page 2 displays the date and time the Raven is currently set to. It also shows the current battery level along with the amount of voltage. Next is the charge/discharge current with a normal current draw between -150mA to - 190mA. When charging your Raven this value will be a positive value. Then there is confirmation of the Raven battery being charged or not. Lastly, the current operating temperature is color-coded, green is normal, blue is too cold, and red is too hot.
- Leave it on for about 30 seconds. Now see if the charge/discharge current is Red or Green. If it is Green, it's normal.
- If it is Red, then move to page 3 and see if your Canon unit displays App: 1.6.1 or your Nikon unit displays App: 1.6.1 or App:1.7.1, you will need to fully discharge the battery which should trip a disconnect and reconnect cycle which will reset the battery management chip.
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- If the reset does not work, you can send it to us for evaluation. If the issue is caused by a defect in the battery or regulator, the Raven will be repaired or replaced under warranty if the radio is less than one year old. If the radio is out of warranty, we would contact you with an estimate for a repair.
Q. Why aren’t my PocketWizards working with my Raven?
Only PocketWizard radios using a specific E-Release firmware version can be used as a receiver with the Raven. If you are not familiar with the E Release firmware upgrade, you can learn about it and get yours here.
Make sure to check the frequency of your radios. You need to make sure that both your PW and Raven are using the same frequency meaning they both should be with CE or FCC.
Lastly, make sure you are using the correct Channels. If you are triggering a flash from the Raven, your PocketWizards need to use the regular E Release Channels. If you are triggering a remote camera, the Plus IIIe or Plus IVe needs to be set to the LR Channels.
PW firmware versions to be used with the Raven:
Plus III = 2.739
Plus IV = 2.709
MC2 = 4.216
FlexTT-N = 4.107
FlexTT-C = 8.004
Q. My Raven is locked/frozen/wouldn’t turn on even though it is fully charged.
In such rare cases, try a 3-button reset. To do this, you will need to press 3 buttons at exactly the same time for one quick press and release. Press and release the Test, Back/Home, and SyncView buttons.
The reset should be very quick, about 6 seconds, to reboot to the Zone Control Display. The RESET of the 3 buttons at once is a hardware reset, not possible for anything to block it. If the display doesn't change after doing that reset, then it is possible that something went bad on the connector to the display or something like that. But the first thing to look for is "Does the Blue and Red LED on the front nose blink when you do the 3 finger reset? It is very quick and you need to watch at the moment you let go of the buttons.
Blue blip on reset or power up = Bootloader ran ok
Red blip on reset or power up = Main Application started OK.
If you see those blinks but the display does not update, then there is an issue. If you don't see those blinks, then somehow you're not pressing all 3 buttons at the same time correctly. It can take a bit of force to do all 3 at once.
Q. Why is the Raven sold in two different frequencies?
The Raven is sold in two different versions to comply with radio laws in different countries. In North, Central and South America, the FCC reserves the 344-354 MHz frequency for the Raven. In Europe, Oceania, Africa and Asia, regulations assign 433-434 MHz for CE.
A label at the bottom of your Raven will indicate which frequency your Raven is using. If you are using PocketWizard radios with your Raven, you will need to use the same frequency for all of your radios. Products that use the 2.4 GHz band use the same frequency range so the FCC or CE designation will not matter.
Q. Is it possible to fire more than 4 zones on the Raven?
The Raven has only 4 zones at the moment. We don't intend to add more anytime soon as there are other developmental projects in line.
Q. Can I fire two flashes from each zone?
You can set and fire as many flashes as you want from each zone, but they will all be fired at the same power.
Q. How do I know that my Raven battery has completely drained?
One way to know if it has completely drained is if the front nose light starts to give rapid short blinks of blue LED and won't wake up any more. Each of the blue blips is the chip inside the battery trying to reconnect the battery. But the internal protection system for the battery quickly disconnects the battery if it is too low for normal use.
The Raven lithium-ion Battery has a self-discharge rate of between 0.5-3% per month. At lower temperatures, this discharging rate will increase drastically.
Q. Does there need to be a minimum distance between the strobe and the Raven, Plus III from the Raven, Plus III to Plus III and Raven to Raven?
Try to keep everything at least 6 feet away.
Q. Why is the Raven not saving the WiFi password?
The Raven will not save the password if you do one of the following: