Installing Vivitar 285hv Metal Hot Shoe Question!

[jeff_allen5]

Hello,

So I'm installing a metal hot shoe onto my vivitar 285hv. I took the

plast shoe off the flash and saw that there are four wire,

black,white,red and green. However, the metal flash shoe only has two

contacts for wires to be soldered to. I am not sure if I solder the

black or red wire to the middle contact or outer contact, polarity

issue? Becuase the test button will fire the flash with either black

or red wire on either contact. Also, what do I do with the white and

green wires? Do I attach those to one of the contacts also? or do they

do something else? As detailed as possible would be very helpful

thanks a ton

jeff

[frank_kimble]

Look at the old shoe, there probably is a little connector or wire connecting two of the contacts together. If not you can ohm out the contacts and find the pairs that are common.

[rjclarke]

Hi- This is from one of the vendors that sell these. I am waiting for about 15 of these, I want to convert all of my 285's and 285HV's. Let me know how this works

 

"Red for the center point and black for the

side point on the bottom of the hot shoe. Rest of the

wires are suppose to be taped up."

[shaun_kelly1]

Hi Richard,

 

I finally got around to installing the replacement metal foot (w/ external sync connection and test button) I had bought on eBay about 2 years ago! I opened up the 285 and found 4 wires (red, black, green, white), but the replacement foot only has 2 contacts! So, since no installation instructions w/ the foot, I searched all over the web and found your posting saying to connect the RED wire to the center contact and the BLACK wire to the other contact (negative) of the replacement foot and to tape up/not use the GREEN and WHITE wires. Did that and the test button fires the flash, but the external sync connection seems dead. Not sure if bad foot or incorrect wiring! Any idea? Thanks Shaun

[beale]

Red wire (positive voltage) goes to center pin. Black is ground, goes to outside shield or shoe edge contact. If

the wires are

reversed, a simple test switch will still work, but a photo slave will not (because it is powered from the

+voltage so it depends on the polarity to be correct). Of course, the small PC contacts and cables can be

unreliable so it could also be a bad cable.

 

For much more detail and photos see: <a

href="http://www.photo.net/photography-lighting-equipment-techniques-forum/00Po9t">photo.net/photography-lighting-equipment-techniques-forum/00Po9t</a>

[robert_standifer]

<p>I spliced all three wires together and connected them to the center pin and EVERYTHING works fine!</p>