wireless flash trigger

Hi aputure users and flash experts.

Is anyone using an original Pentax flashgun ie 360 or 540 with the aputure triggers?

I'm currently dipping my toes back into flash and bought some yongnou 603n triggers which trigger my Pentax 330 flash but only trigger the Pentax 360 in auto mode, it will not trigger the 360 in manual mode.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hmmmm...... an odd one, but I have to agree with you, just tried my 360 with the Trigmaster 11's and have the same situation, I mainly use either of 2 different Metz units in manual mode with these triggers and they work every time.

Chris,

Many thanks for having a look and going the extra mile and running some tests!

It is very strange indeed!

Glad I asked before committing to buying another set of triggers!

Managed to have a play with the 603n triggers this afternoon using a Nikon body and same result - triggers fine on 330, but on 360 just triggers on auto mode not manual mode.

If the AF360 is anything like the AF540, there is some communication between the flash and the camera (e.g. with a zoom lens, the zoom head of the flash is adjusted depending on focal length) when the flash is in M-mode; this is not the case when the flash is in auto-thyristor mode.

The trick MIGHT be to block this additional communication. Maybe you can use a thin plasticized business card (cut to size) with only a small opening for the center pin. Slide the 'gadget' in the receiver hotshoe and another one in the camera hotshoe.

Alternatively you can buy something like http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/89976-REG/Hama_HA_6899_Universal_Flash_Ada... (do some research for possible cheaper options) for the receiver and the transmitter side. If your camera has a PC contact, you can use http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/89982-REG/Hama_HA_6952_Hot_Shoe_Adapter_2.... at the transmitter side.

Technical note: I don't know who the 'failing' party is, the camera or the flash. It might be that the camera is aware that there is something 'intelligent' in the hotshoe, tries to talk to it but does not get a reply back and hence refuses to trigger the flash. But it might also be that the flash is aware that it's connected to something 'intelligent' and waits for the receiver to tell it something. Based on Chrism8's reply, there is a chance that it's the flash side of things and that it might be sufficient to just interrupt the communcation at the receiver side.

Hi sterrettje,

Massive thanks for such a detailed and involved post.

I think it will take my entire Christmas holiday to digest the information contained within!

I tried a bit of scotch tape over the all the contacts apart from centre on one unit with the flash yesterday with no luck. Will have to try on both or be more systematic in approach.

Those universal connectors look like a logical possible solution as there is a signal being transmitted, but not one that triggers the flash in m mode.

Plenty for me to peruse!!!

Yes thanks for asking the question and to those who gave advice, as this is one bit of my photography I want to try in 2014.

Good news is that there is now a RF603/II; see http://flashhavoc.com/yongnuo-rf-603-ii-released/

Bad news is that it does not seem to be possible to get the older ones to work on Pentax; I quote from flashhavoc

I have returned from overindulging on festive food and messed about again with sterretje's gadget advice in mind.

I seem to have a result that works for me at least, and at least for the time being.

So now the setup that seems to work with the k30 and k20 and Pentax 360 flash with yongnou 603n triggers is as such;

1) Centre pin only allowed to contact between trigger receiver and Pentax 360 flash by way of hole in tape for centre contact on trigger receiver unit. All other contacts on receiver unit covered by tape.

2) The junction between the trigger transmitter and the hotshoe on the camera is unaltered. No holes, no tape.

Clearly my first experiment was flawed - it isn't easy to cut a small hole in the middle of tape! Oh, and not one, but two layers of magic scotch tape seems to have done the trick!!

No idea what other information is being sent via the other pins, but it clearly flummoxes the Pentax flash in Manual mode.

Now to weld something onto that ridiculously tricky dial on the flash!

Really appreciate all the help given and those new triggers look interesting.

Best of luck with the flash projects for 2014. And no doubt I'll be back here asking a whole load of questions.

Wow, that's great news. Enjoy it.

PS I guess that the 'n' in 603n stands for the Nikon version

Hi,

Yep, the Nikon version of the triggers.

Currently doing the Pentax flash system shuffle, waiting for the canon c1 cable to be delivered so I can wirelessly release the shutter too, which I may well use more than flash triggering!. This could turn out to be really useful as I've just found my k30 doesn't have a rear ir receiver.

Thanks

And thanks for the persistence.

David - I've got K30 and Trigmaster lls as well and am looking for a cable to enable the wireless remote function.

Would I be correct in assuming any 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable would do the job? Why did you go for a Canon C1 as a matter of interest? Thanks.

The cable does not have 3.5mm plugs, I think they are 2.5mm and are available from various sellers on ebay.

Regards
David

Hi Stephen,

As the other David says, it's A 2.5mm male to male cable. If the trigmaster is like the yongnou, there is a connector for a 2.5mm male.

From a quick swuizz on eBay there was a coiled candidate called the canon c1 cable, which I hope will do the trick. There were some longer CCTV cables that also came up in the search. I'll report back when it arrives.

Has it arrived yet David? "cotswoldphoto" are advertising one for £3 on fleabay.