The curious case of the disconnecting Logitech G930 headset.

Model:  Lady Fosta

Yeah yeah I know this technically isn't photography related but I'm gonna talk about it anyways.  If it helps, I like to listen to music/streaming audio while I edit so in a round about way it's related.  So there!  :P

I own a few pairs of headphones (you can see my Sennheiser's on the lovely Lady Fosta on the left there), but the ones I like to use with my computer are my Logitech G930's.  While they don't have the clarity of my Sennheiser cans they have one very big advantage:  THEY'RE WIRELESS!  It may sound like a dumb reason to love them but having one less cable getting in the way makes a world of difference sometimes.  Besides, I have to really strain to hear the difference between them to be honest, but I chalk that up to me just getting older.  :D

Thing is though for the longest time the headphones drove me up a wall.  When I first bought them they worked great but after a while they started acting weird.  If you own a pair of them you probably already know what I'm talking about here.  Every so often and for no apparent reason the audio will cut out for a second or three.  I really thought I broke the things at first:  Once I had accidentally bumped into the USB transceiver and slightly bent the plug on it.  Another time I pulled a stupid and partially dunked the ear cup with the charge port in a dish of water (don't ask... :D ).  When I couldn't get them to stop cutting out every so often I gave up and chalked it up to my own stupidity and clumsiness.

Call it morbid curiosity but lately I wanted to see just why they were cutting out every so often, mainly since when they work they are an awesome pair of headphones!

Since I bent the USB plug on the transceiver I figured that'd be the best place to start, so I ripped it open to see if there was any broken traces on the PCB.  Nope, not a one!  Scratch that off the list.

Next I opened up the cans themselves, starting with the business end that contains the USB charging port.  I was mainly looking for corrosion from the quick aquatic adventure that cup underwent, but I couldn't find any visible trace that water had actually made it into the casing.  Nothing looked out of the ordinary either; no cold solder traces, no apparent shorted components.. nothing!  It looked fine (of course that doesn't mean that one of the chips wasn't shorted internally, but since the things were off when they got wet, and they worked fine except for the sporadic disconnecting issue, I doubted anything like that was wrong).

Since I hit a dead-end there I figured that maybe it was the LiPo battery failing.  I did notice that the battery wasn't lasting as long as it was before, but given that they were two years old that's normal really.  I went ahead and ordered a new replacement battery but as I was goofing around with the headset afterwards I noticed that when the audio would cut out the headset never turned off...

At this point I started digging around online to see if I could find an answer.  Pretty much the consensus is that it's an *interference problem* since the headset works on the 2.4Ghz band.  For you non-geeks, that means things like cordless phones, wireless routers, etc, could interfere with it, causing the audio to drop out.  In all the information I found the general answer was that there was no way to fix the problem because Logitech was a bunch of cretins and didn't take something as simple as interference from a wireless router in consideration and there is no way to resolve the problem...

....or is there?  :D

One solution I read was to change the channel on your wireless router to channel 1 and that seems to help, but let's get real here.  I wouldn't just have to change MY router to channel 1, I'd have to ask all my neighbors to change their routers too since radio waves don't exactly stop at the walls.

Obviously since I'm writing about it I must have found a solution, no?  If you found this blog post because you were looking for a fix for your G930 headset, this is the info you've been looking for.  Now just because it worked for me doesn't necessarily mean it'll work for you too, but you've got nothing to lose trying it.  It's one of those things that glaringly obvious when you point it out but I've yet to see anyone mention this.

All you have to do is re-pair the headset to the transceiver.  :)

Do the following:

1. If the transceiver isn't already plugged into your computer, plug it in now.  Don't use the USB puck/extension thingy though.  Plug it directly into a USB port on your computer.
2. Turn on the headset.
3. Wait a moment for the headset to link with the transceiver.
4. Get a pin or any other thin pointy implement.
5. If you look at the transceiver, just above the green LED light there's a pinhole switch.  Press the switch with your pointy thing.  The green LED will start blinking fast.
6. Wait between 15-20 seconds.
7. Near the USB charging port on the headset you'll find another pinhole switch.  Press it and the led light on the transceiver will blink slow again.

That's it!

Since doing this last Saturday I've used them for four days without a single hiccup or droput.  On a side note, because of the length of the cable on it, I have noticed that the hockey puck/USB extension/charging cable can cause some issues with the transceiver.  So unless you absolutely need it it's best just to plug the transceiver into a USB port on your computer.  Instead of using a USB port up to charge the headset though, go to Walgreens and pick up a "Tech & Go" 2.1A USB wall wart for $15 and plug the puck into that instead.  Heck you could get away with the $8 1A version of the charger but the 2.1A version will charge the headset faster and it's only a paultry $15.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

Model:  Nichole Ferreira

One of the things I absolutely hate about this business is just how catty it can get at times.  The dick wagging / measuring, the hair pulling, the one-upsmanship bullshit that goes on, peacocking, etc.  The popularity of Facebook doesn't help either so everybody including their unborn offspring is on Facebook now these days, which means everybody is usually up in everybody else's business.  :/

For those of you who follow me on Facebook though:  have you ever noticed that I don't say much (other than posting photos, an occasional joke, and *maybe* sometimes saying something I shouldn't?  :D ).  There's a reason for that.  It's because Facebook is like a real life version of Hotel California: you can check out any time you'd like but you can never leave.  :D  In the Facebook version of Hotel California though it's rife with fights, douchbaggery, backstabbers, gossip mongers, and egomaniacs who try to out-do each other, put down the other person, and in between they post status updates of what they just ate too.  :D

I know some people will try to say otherwise, but for the most part I try to lead as drama free of a life as humanly possible without outright cutting off the civilized world.  Engaging in that crap really doesn't get me anything and it sure as all hell isn't going to change how things work in social media, so I willingly chose not to engage in it.  It does mean that I sometimes go out of my way to avoid people that I think are drama magnets though, but in the end there's less stress in my life so I stay happier.  :)

All the same just because you don't hear me say something doesn't mean I don't hear what others are saying.  :D

When it comes to me I don't think some people realize not only just how long I've been doing photography, but just how much I've done, how many people I've worked with over the years, the different genres I've dipped my toe into, the various styles I've experimented with...  and just how much crap I've dealt with along the way. too.  :D

This stuff used to get under my skin but these days it cracks me up because it not only shows ignorance and pettiness on the part of the people engaging in this crap, but when it comes to me and my work, it shows how little they know about how much I've done and what I do.  Photography and modeling are rather tight knit businesses (everybody knows everybody, and everybody likes to talk.  :D ).  That and people mistake the fact that I don't bang my own drum as loud as I can about my accomplishments because I have nothing to say or show when in reality I'd rather let my work speak for itself.

Case in point.  Here's some of the things I've either read, have had relayed to me, or said directly to me:



Meh...  he's only been doing this for 3 or 4 years.  Pinup's dead and he'll fade away pretty soon.

Actually I've been doing this for going on 13 years.  I started out doing scenic and landscapes, but then got introduced into glamour photography around 2003.  2005 is when I started learning how to light with studio lighting.  Around 2007 is when I pretty much fell into pinup photography.  In this span of time I've shot pretty much every genre under the sun too.  If I fade away it's not because I can't adapt; it's because I choose to go away.


He can only shoot pinup.

I love to (and have shot) a LOT of other genres like fashion, retro, glamour, wedding/bridal, boudiour, goth, glamour nude, and artistic nude.  It's just that the majority of people that contact me have a hard on for pinup (and usually only want to shoot their narrow definition of it).

He can only shoot on a white backdrop.

Yeah... right...  I can shoot on more than just white (or black) backdrops.  I've done a ton of on-location work, multi-light setups, colored lighting, etc.  One of the reasons I shoot a lot on white lately is because that I prefer to shoot my style of pinup stuff on white.  It's also because of how my shooting space is arranged that it's easier for me to do that instead of trying to hang different backdrops (not that it can't be done).

Just because it's easier for me to do doesn't mean it's a cinch though.  If you think it's that easy, feel free to try doing a proper high key background that's properly exposed and also properly exposing the person in the foreground, all in camera and without resorting to photoshop with a shooting space that's about 12ft x 22ft.  Get back to me on that one...


He'll only shoot with me if I get naked!

That's a half-truth.  :D  Until now I've never publicly said anything about this because I really thought this one was funny as all hell.  I find it funny because it really shows just how far people will go in their heads to read into something just so it fits their world view.  I make no excuses or bones about it that if someone wants to work with me for trade on my pinup work, they have to be comfortable posing up to lingerie and implied nude.  If you look at my work you already know why that's a requirement.  What I've never disclosed publicly before though is that the question is more of a psychological test than me probing for a model's limits.

He doesn't want the models he works with working with anyone else!

I actually know where this one started, who started it, and who the individuals were who continued to spread it for a while.  I'm not going to go into the details behind this one because it's not worth rehashing it all and getting into a "he said, she said" situation.  I will say this though:

The truth is that none of the models I work with are under contract to me and not only do I not care about who they work with or what they do with them, I have less than no say in the matter as well as to what they do.    They're also not my girlfriends or wives (surrogate or actual), so even on those grounds I have no say in the matter.  I'm not going to outright lie either though;  I am good friends with a handful of the models I currently work with and they've asked me occasionally if I would be upset if they worked with certain people (and vice versa where I've been told that they'd be upset if I worked with a certain person).  At the end of the day though I can't and won't stop them from working with who they want;  it's their choice, body, lives, and careers.  I try not to engage in this petty crap though whenever I can.  It's completely unproductive not to mention completely pointless in the long run.

Waaaaaaah!!!  He's posting work that looks like my style/he's copying me/he's trying to show me up!  Waaaahhh!!!!!  Call the Waaaaahmbulance!!

News flash:  I give less than a shit what people think of my work or what I do.  I'd be lying if I said that I haven't drawn inspiration from other's work, but chances are good that if you're local to me that I have never attempted to recreate something you've done (it's that whole "never steal from your neighbors" thingy).  Chances are pretty high that I probably haven't even seen what you're crying about either.  I purposely avoid looking at others work these days whenever I can.

I also don't put work up just to show-up people.  I have better things to do than engage in petty one-upsmanship.  I've got very little free time to myself these days, never mind finding the time to do my creative work.  When I post my work somewhere it's because I'm either promoting myself or just showing the work because I'm proud of it.

He's an arrogant prick!  I put up something and he doesn't even comment on it!

Read the above.  To elaborate a little more on this though; I generally don't say anything about anybody's work unless I'm specifically asked by that person to comment.  The reason for that is because when I don't say anything people think I'm being snobby, an elitist prick, etc.  When I do say something it's usually taken negatively (even when I mean it positively), and they think I'm being a know-it-all asshole.



Either way I can't win so I just keep my mouth shut and let people think what they want.  It takes less energy and effort on my part.  :)