PW's don't fire - on some strobes

[joe_lacy]

I have some pocket wizards for 2 remote flashes, a 580ex and an sb80.

 

These won;t fire even from the PW itself. I can put the same PW on my Quantum t2d or the white lightings and they

work fine.

 

Any ideas why they won;t work on these smaller strobes? The connectors are new.

 

Thanks

Joe

[Ed_Ingold]

I have no problem firing various Nikon flashes, including an SB80DX, using a Pocketwizard receiver. I connect to the auxillary PC port on the side, or using a Wein hot shoe stand adapter.

 

Please describe your setup in detail, and perhaps someone can troubleshoot for you. If you use a cold shoe stand adapter, the shoe must be insulated so that the terminals on the flash are not shorted. I use Magic Tape because it is thin, tough and stays put (unlike electrical tape on all counts).

[frank_skomial]

If it was SB800 and not SB80DX, and set in Remote CLS mode, perhaps it would not fire by Pocket Wizard receiver connected to remote flash, expecting CLS light communication instead, and having the PC sync socket on the flash , and the hot shoe foot sync disabled on the remote CLS flash.

[joe_lacy]

I think I fixed one issue, bad cord on one of them the sb80 I use for a stick light but that 580ex still won;t fire. I have a pc connect on the 580 but not convinced it's the right one.

[joe_lacy]

Well, it fixed itself :) All working now, thanks. I cleaned the contacts and remounted it and it's firing fine. Was kinda odd to have two flashed down though at the same time. It came down to two different issues.

[frank_skomial]

Joe,

 

Your picture shows a "hot shoe" adapter that may not be "hot enough" for the latest digital flashes with multiple active electric pins in the flash "hot foot" at the bottom that slides into that shoe, possibly shorting some pins that should have remained not connected to anything, perhaps.

 

Some of the in the foot contacts may need to be not jumpered short by the external metal round in the shoe shown in your picture, and could possibly prevent flash to operate at all. If you jiggle the flash, you could make it work, or not work ?

 

Question that you need to get answer and understand is:

 

is your "hot shoe" adapter shown in the picture "hot enough" for the flash that slides into it ?

 

I will not explain that any further, as that was discussed well before. Some expert even ridiculed me stating that "either the shoe is hot or not" but there is no "hot enough" thing.. do not take my word fo it, experiment yourself with isolating extra pins in the shoe adapter, to make it "hot enough".