spiltting a PC sync cord

[john_davids]

How many times can a PC sync cord be divided and still fire a flash?

FYI i am triggering with a canon XT and triggering calumet genesis and adorama flashpoint units.

[cabbiinc]

None of those have optical slaves? If they do, then you should fire one from the cord and have the others fire optically.

 

Splitting a PC cord like that means that you start adding up wattage. The XT is rated for 250 watts at 6 volts. The voltage doesnt add up (I dont think, someone correct me if I'm wrong) but the amperage will. If your flash units have a pretty low trigger amperage then you should be ok. But if they start adding up pretty high then you may run the chance of frying your camera. Also some have run into a problem when mixing trigger voltages. I have no experience in this but I have heard of problems.

 

I have seen a PC cord with a triple outlet on the end. So I would say that splitting it into a triple would be fine if none of the other things were a problem. http://www.mpex.com/browse.cfm/4,2236.html

 

Dan

[rffffffff]

I am really not sure how it works, but I would be careful mixing devices with split sync cords too..

 

based on my limited understanding, the voltage comes from the flash to the camera until the camera shorts the pins and the flash sees that and fires... if the sync voltage from one flash is different than the sync voltage in the other unit you will be applying voltage from one flash to the other flash that just shouldn't be there. If polarity is different you have a whole 'nother mess. If they are all the same kind of flash, I wouldn't worry too much, but if not, I would check them with a volt meter before going too far.

[qiang_lin]

If your flashes are the same model, you may be able to split quite a lot of times. The trigger on a camera is just to "short circuit" the trigger signal. Modern flashes use low voltage and very lower current on trigger signals, so the camera can short them quite effectively.

 

Personally I'm using ebay RF triggers to avoid cabling trouble.

[john_davids]

Thanks. so its a little more complicated than I thought.

 

All the flashes have optical slaves, however, i'd like to be able to turn each one on/off directly from right next to my camera and then take a picture (have a splitter with switch on each "branch"), to basically see the effect of each light. I learn much better this way.

[hjoseph7]

Sync cords(especially the long ones) are often the weak link in the chain. I would not mess with them at all unless I had to. A bad sync cord can ruin an entire shoot in no time.