Home · Register · Join Upload & Sell

Moderated by: Fred Miranda
Username  

  New fredmiranda.com Mobile Site
  New Feature: SMS Notification alert
  New Feature: Buy & Sell Watchlist
  

FM Forums | Nikon Forum | Join Upload & Sell

  

Archive 2011 · SB-600 Firing every 40 secs

  
 
Chris Ventura
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · SB-600 Firing every 40 secs


I am guessing something is wrong with a recently acquired sb-600 but wanted to ask here before sending it in to Nikon.

Pulled it out today to use, had it in ttl mode, off camera it fired without any action from the camera. Turned my camera completely off.. flash would fire every 45 seconds or so.??

I went through the flash menu, changed to different modes, reset using the mode button + on/off button... pulled batteries... replaced batteries.

Flash still firing.. while off camera or on camera ( makes no difference ) without any action from the camera.

I am guessing it's FUBAR, figured I would check here if anyone had a suggestion before sending it in. It's only a month old, never dropped or anything like that. Worked great until today. Thanks.




May 29, 2011 at 04:11 PM
Jammy Straub
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · SB-600 Firing every 40 secs


There's nothing bridging the contact on the flash shoe is there?

Maybe the capacitor has gone bad and is unstable or some such weirdness.



May 29, 2011 at 04:34 PM
Chris Ventura
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · SB-600 Firing every 40 secs


You know.. I was about ready to give up.. and toss it in the box ready to send back to Nikon, and I thought " Hmmm... clean the contacts"...

Cleaning contacts has never fixed an electronic device issue for me, so... oh well.

Did it anyway.

It's fixed. Immediately after cleaning them works like a charm. Could be silly luck.. will keep playing. But I think it's good!



May 29, 2011 at 04:48 PM
Jammy Straub
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · SB-600 Firing every 40 secs


Glad to hear it! You get anything conductive across those little spikes and it'll do just what yours was.




May 29, 2011 at 05:01 PM
innovis
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · SB-600 Firing every 40 secs


Wow how fortunate were you... right on the brink of surrender lol. Thats great news that everything resolved itself.


May 29, 2011 at 11:59 PM
corndog
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · SB-600 Firing every 40 secs


If you didn't see a bridge as JS mentioned, I would be suspect of the wire to pin connections in the foot. If it's easy to take the foot off, I'd give it a look see.


May 30, 2011 at 12:31 AM
Chris Ventura
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · SB-600 Firing every 40 secs


I didn't make it clear, it was actually something on the battery door contacts. I cleaned that and used it for an hour with no problems. Prior to cleaning it I spent over an hour changing settings, resetting it, pulling batteries and charging up a fresh set, repeat and nothing helped. Once battery door was cleaned it was good to go. The funny thing is the battery door contacts looked clean other than some minor scuffing that apparently is caused from the sliding motion over the batteries to lock the door. Either way, it will get another workout tomorrow. Thanks for the advice guys.

corndog - if the problem comes back I will check that. It's possible that the sliding on/off camera fixed the issue too ( or made it not an issue for the time being... ).. so I will keep that in mind if the problem pops back up. thanks.




May 30, 2011 at 01:20 AM
FortyOneSixty
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · SB-600 Firing every 40 secs


Hm...

From an electrical stand point I'm trying to figure out how a short on the battery door would cause it to fire every 45 seconds. If there was something on one of the contacts stopping the battery from making a connection with the door then the flash wouldn't even turn on. I guess its possible (though highly unlikely) something conductive bridged the two sets of contacts on the door and created an under-voltage that was somehow messing with the capacitor in the flash.

If I had to guess I'd say you did something else while cleaning the contacts that you didn't realize (maybe knocking a wire back in place or something).

I wish Nikon would publish their wiring diagrams online. I understand why they don't, but I still wish they did :P

If anyone can give a quick explanation as to why this happens I'd be grateful. I rarely deal with low voltage stuff but I'm always in the mood to learn something new



May 30, 2011 at 01:45 AM
Bernie1998
Offline

Upload & Sell: Off
p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · SB-600 Firing every 40 secs


Had the exact same problem with my SB-600 except worse. Fresh batteries would fire the flash at 100% and when the capacitor was recharged it would fire it again nonstop. I reset the flash by holding the MODE and power button down for about 5 seconds. Still fires randomly on occasion but not nearly as often.


May 12, 2016 at 06:33 PM





FM Forums | Nikon Forum | Join Upload & Sell

    
 

You are not logged in. Login or Register

Username       Or Reset password



This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.