Wireless trigger for studio lights

LOL, you are correct, don't know what I was thinking about ...
I have now got wiring diagrams for Pentax and Canon hotshoe's, the centre pin and overall size of the hotshoe is an ISO standard, the auxiliary pins are maker specified. When I opened the trigger, there are only three hotshoe pins wired, ground (common), centre pin (ISO standard for trigger, short to ground method) and one further wire which is "D2" on canon, don't know exactly what this is but it is driven by the camera and triggers a few micro seconds before the flash sync, approx 5 volt signal. Basically, the worry is that somehow this pin makes contact on the Pentax hotshoe (remember the trigger is not locked on the hotshoe) and causes some damage. Basically, we don't need it so lets just get rid of it for safety. You could tape over the contact on the trigger or on the camera hotshoe but I chose to keep it tidy and simply removed the wire from each trigger / receiver. I have taken some pictures of this and will post these later, once I have had a chance to do some sync testing. I can also test the RF603 with a RF602 receiver to see if it works ...

The extra wire is probably to wake up the flash from sleep mode.
On the RF-602 Nikon version a wakeup wire has to be isolated before it will work on a Pentax.

I've never had that problem with my RF-602 which is Canon compatible so possibly it doesn't do anything or hasn't got one.

I'm really annoyed that the 603 and 602 aren't compatible. The previous models were backwards compatible.

Algi, is the RF602 receiver not compatible with a RF603 used as a transmitter ? Meaning only the transmitter would need replacing ?

As far as I understand it the 602 and 603 won't work at all together.
Some people were complaining on another forum. Some had already bought up to 15 RF-602's and certainly weren't going to cough up the cash to replace them all with RF-603's. They were instead going to buy more RF-602's as spares.

Sounds like the RF-603 is just a ploy to get people to replace the RF-602's

My poartner shoots Canon and has the RF602, I will get them from him and test it to see.

Might be a daft question but for firing my studio lights (portaflash, 2.5mm phono) with the RF602 / RF603 triggers do I need to use the front PC connector or can I use the side 2.5mm phono jack ?

I'm not sure if your on about the connector and phono jack on the Portaflash here? I think your just going to have to try it. I've only ever used mine via the Hotshoe to fire a small flash which gets picked up by the slave cell on my Bowens Monolites, they are about 600v so I don't risk a direct connection.

I thought my partner was using RF602 triggers but it turns out his are pixel soldier (nice little triggers, will try his cCanon version on my Pentax). On his pixel soldier, the reciever has one 2.5mm jack plug connection, this works for both wireless remote (plugging it into the camera body) and triggering the portaflash lights (which also has a reciever 2.5mm phono jack plug). On the RF603 (and most likely the RF602 reciever), there is both a 2.5mm jack plug on teh side and a PC connection at the front. I tried the 2.5mm connection at teh side into the portaflash last night and got nothing, but it worked as a wireless remote using the same connection into the camera body. Wondered if I HAVE to use the front mounted PC connector to trigger the portaflash lights or if it simply does not work with Pentax ...

I would have thought that it wouldn't have any problem firing the flash. The only problem would be the syc whether it works at 1/180th or 1/90th or just the camera doesn't pick up the flash at all. Make sure that receiver and sender are on the same channel (they must be if it will fire the camera). On the RF-603 I would think there might be a switch for the flash output.

The shutter release is a 2.5mm phono jack female on the side of the YN603 transceiver which goes to the 2.5mm phono jack plug female on the K20D body for remote shutter release. There is a cable supplied for this. This connection does not trigger the studio lights. There is a second connection on the front of the YN603 transceiver that is a PC female type connector which I believe is the connection to be plugged in to the studio lights. No cable was supplied for this. As our studio lights (portalight) require a 2.5mm phono cable male I either need a phono to PC adaptor to use the supplied cable or I need a 2.5mm phono to PC cable.
My confusion came as my partners pixel soldier trigger has only one connection that does both the remote shutter and studio light trigger. Should get hold of these tommorrow and see if they work on the K20D. Off to amazon to find my cable ...

I'm surprised it wasn't supplied. The YN-603 transceiver is shown connected to a studio flash on one of the photos on this ebay listing

According to the Englinese manual it is an option. Would rather pay £2 exra to have it supplied ! Really like the pixel soldier doing it all with one lead, quite clever. The amount of leads and different batteries I am now carrying is not funny ! Should work witht he flash off camera without this lead so I can check the sync speed tonight.

The only good thing I've seen about the RF-603's and possibly why you can't use just one lead is that the one on the camera can transmit and receive at the same time without getting the signals mixed up. So you only need 3 units. One on the camera, one on the flash and one in your hand to fire the camera. With other makes and even the RF-602 you need 4 units. I think even Pocket Wizard needs 4.

Some more up to date info here

PW II plus only requires 3 but older versions will be 4.
I am now becoming a wireless trigger boffin, even have a "decision matrix" for six brands. There is even a distant spark of an idea in the back of my head that I will use my 20 odd years in electronics manufacturing to make my own "ultimate trigger". So far, all triggers seem to have there failings, if I designed a unit that could do everything good from all the different current triggers I reckon it could sell quite well. Just a pipe dream at the moment but I do have electronic manufacturing contacts in very large far east companies. What would be the wish list :-
1) support all platforms - not going to be possible so platform specific, lets concentrate on Pentax for now !
2) Transceivers that can transmit and recieve at same time
3) hotshoe with lock and lock pin
4) AAA or AA batteries
5) Range 100m +
6) Grouping
7) "passthrough" hotshoe with P-TTL
Remote shutter release with half press autofocus
9) Standard 3.5mm phono connection
10) Selectable channels
11) Half press LED confirmation on recievers for grouping
12) Intervalometer
13) change speedlight "group" power from transmitter
14) Achieve full 1/180 sec sync

If this could all be done with a retai price under £100 ???
Anything missing from the list ?

Sorry for the tangent !

That sounds OK. I think some of the Canikons have also digital shutters that can sync at very high speeds.

Quote: "Remote shutter release with half press autofocus"

This is already on the RF-602 and a Red and Green LED come on to show which position the switch is in.

I think you have to set ALLOW in the camera for it to work.