seanpotter

Hmmm...seems like there is an echo in here. You are both too kind for repeating what I have already said, in so many words. If either of you two have anything constructive to say about my issue then by all means share your wisdom.

I bought this off ebay.co.uk: JJC External Flash Battery Pack Replaces CANON CP-E4 for 600EX/580EX YONGNUO 560 I don't know the first thing about electronics. Basing my assumptions on the Vivitar PPG-1 I put 4 1.5V AA cells in the pack, plugged the Quantum CCV dedicated cord (5 pins) for Vivitar into the female DIN plug on the JJC (6 pins - on the Canon cord that came with it) and it fit nice and snug...but did not power up the pack or the flash. Thinking that perhaps there weren't enough cells in the pack I put another 4 in to give it the full compliment of 8 cells and that's when acrid blue smoke started to emit from the pack as it super-heated. Risking life and limb I extracted the cells as quickly as I could to avoid serious damage to anything else; luckily I got away with it but threw £29 GBP down the drain in the process and feel like a complete idiot. I expect that the thing shorted out for some reason. It's fair to say that the two cords were not compatible in this connection set-up so perhaps we should all save up and just get a Quantum Blade, or similar. I wouldn't try that at home again and would suggest that you would do well not to, yourself. I am going to try this next: get another one of the JJC packs and have the plug at the end of the JJC cord changed to one that fits whichever of my Sunpak (auto zoom 2400) or Vivitar (283) That way current should flow and I don't expect that there will be a short in the system causing a burn out again, but I won't know until I try it. At £29.99 for another one versus 100's for a Quantum (too bulky for run and gun anyway) it's worth a punt, in my opinion. Worst that can happen is it won't power either of the flashes and at best it will. If it fails then I'll commit to saving up for a second hand Quantum like the Blade or the earlier version of it, on ebay of course.