RadioPopper RPCube Initial Impressions

I received my RadioPopper RPCube from UPS from RadioPopper.com. I purchased 1 for my Nikon SB26 and 1 for the Canon 550EX I use at work. 

They each came in a sealed plastic bag with a cardboard label on top which is a little different than the RadiopPopper JrX's Studio Transmitter and Receivers. Those came in a nice box that had a bit classier presentation. (The photo shows the Canon and Nikon RPCubes with labels that I added so I could tell them apart without having to look at the differences on the hotshoes.)

The RPCubes packaging felt more like something you'd find at any general big box merchandise store or maybe your local photo store. It didn't feel like it was a special item. It felt like an accesory instead of special item that allows you to do something special. A manual isn't even included but then again an RPCube is only going to be used by people with other RadioPopper items so maybe that isn't a neccesity.

I however would have liked to have received a condensed 1 page instructions on how to use the RPCubes with the product and some notes on using it with the different transmitters and receivers. The online pdf manual is 14 pages but it is mainly just warnings and information that could have been more tightly condensed.

The meat of the manual is the 1 page of instructions consisting of 4 steps.

1. Slide your flash (turned off) onto the RPCube's hot shoe.
2. With your JrX studio receiver off, connect your JrX studio receiver with a 3.5mm cable (included in your original JrX package) to the the RPCube.
3. Turn on your flash and set it to TTL.
4. Turn on your JrX studio receiver and the transmitter you are using (JrX transmitter in my case.)

One significant note is that there are 2 versions of the JrX receivers you can purchase from RadioPopper. The basic ones will not work with the RPCube. On the plus side you can use either a RadioPopper JrX tansmitter or a RadioPopper PX transmitter to fire the JrX Studio Receivers.

Of course once I opened the packaging on the RPCubes, I immediately started plugging my flashes and JrX's together with the RPCubes without reading a manual. The big bright orange stickers on RPCube made it abundantly clear to not use telephone port on the device. That's for a future use as they say in the manual. 

Instead you plug a 3.5mm audio cable (mono or stereo) from the RPCube to the JrX studio receiver. I wish the RPCube would have come with a cord so I didn't have to go looking for my JrX boxes to find the 14" cords. It was easy enough to find them and because they are standard 3.5mm audio cables I could easily have purchased replacement cables at almost any store with a modest electronics department. To me that's a plus over having a fragile pc sync cord or specialty connector.

Right off the bat they didn't work. The Nikon was firing, but at about 1/64th power and it wasn't controllable. The Canon wasn't firing at all. So I had to do what no self respecting guy does. Go read the manual. 

The online RPCube manual isn't much help beyond saying to check the manual for your transmitter, so I had to find the online manual for the manual for the JrX Studio Receivers and Transmitter. I had already figured out that one of the switches was probably set in the wrong position, and that is what my problem was. On the transmitter, I had switch #6 set to disable level updates which means the transmitter wasn't talking to the receivers.

Once I flipped that switch the controls started working and I could select anywhere from off (if the transmitters switch #5 is in the down position) to full power.

Having proven that they do work with my flashes I decided to set each flash to its own group so I could control them individually. Grouped together they were outputting different levels of flash power.

I assume this is because the Canon flash goes from full power to 1/128th power while the Nikon goes from full power to 1/64th power.

According the the RPCube manual ,"After setting the appropriate option switches (see option switches section in JrX manual), the three dials on the side of a JrX transmitter can control the output power of up to three groups of strobes. Note that EZset Strobe can control roughly 8 stops of flash power. Each 1/8th turn of the dial on the JrX Transmitter will represent 1 stop of flash power. Note that due to the wide variety of flashes available, each 1/8th turn may be slightly greater or slightly less than 1 stop of flash power." 

(To the left is an animation of 19 frames of still images I shot of a RPCube controlling a Nikon SB26 (top) and another RPCube controlling a Canon 550EX (bottom). I used the ridges on the RadioPopper JrX transmitter to slowly and equally raise the power levels from off to full power on both flashes at the same time. You'll notice the power control is more minute than 1/8th power as the manual says and the Nikon starts brighter than the Canon. I assume this is from the power level differences since the Nikon only goes from full to 1/64th power and the Canon goes from full to 1/128th power.)

It's a shame that the RPCube cannot set both dials on the transmitter to the same place to get equal amounts of flash power when the flash groups are set to the same level. I'll have to label the knobs with some power settings so I know where they should be placed when I'm in a rush. This will be difficult as the control knobs are tightly placed together and don't leave much room.

If RadioPopper is listening I'd like to see the knob changed on the JrX to allow some room for writing information or to change the three turning knobs over to 3 switches that have 8 settings each. This is the limitation anyway so I expect it would be easier to control the power levels with a switch instead of knob. And I use the word knob since they move so easily and have no way of quicly knowing what power setting they are at. Labelled dials would be a good switch too with perhaps distinct clicks that you can switch to.This only makes sense when you can only control the power settings in about 1/8th incruments an no smaller as the manual states.

There are two really nice feature on the RPCubes that could easily go unnoticed. First is that there is a hotshoe for your flash on the RPCube. They could have gone with a connector that would have added another thing to hang from the strobe unit. Instead the replaced the hot shoe I needed anyway. And the second I really appreciate is the beefy metal insert for attaching the RPCube onto a light stand or tripod. It gives me some assurance that this piece will last throug some abuse.

Overall the RPCube seems well made and strong enough to hold a strobe unit without any worry. It has some weight to it which makes it feel like a solid piece of equipment. Only time will tell how well it holds up with regular use, but I'll be putting it through some regular use in my job as a staff news photographer and as a freelance photographer.