TerryT wrote:
Has anyone had the problem with the transmitter falling off the hot shoe? It just fell off? Is tape the bandaid?
I have had my skyports for 4 months now & love them.
If I had any gripes it would be that they don't have a fastening ring to lock the transmitter onto the camera, and perhaps that the receiver is too easily turned on in the bag (As mentioned easy to fix by sticking a washer around it).
I had no problems remotely firing my 350D with them. To do that I built a cable with a 3.5 & 2.5mm Male mono headphone plug. One end in the camera, the other in the receiver.
I now have a 40D & it has another plug.
I also use it to fire my 580 EX, again I built an adapter cable to plug into a hama flash shoe adapter.
If anyone is interested in the parts & cables I did a review on another forum Here
Note: If I am not allowed to link to another forum please PM me & I'll remove the link.
TeeJay wrote:
will these fire a 430EX flash that I have off camera on a tripod?
Of course, if you have the correct adapter.
You need a way to plug the receiver into the flash.
I think there is an adapter that has a built in cable that you can plug directly into the skyport.
I use a hama adapter, then built a cable to make it work.
Is anyone having problems with their skyport receivers turning themselves off? The work flawlessly whenever I test them at home. However, as soon as I am out on an assignment (its happened the last two assignments), 2 of my 3 receivers work fine at first, but then the just start shutting themselves off after a few flashes. They've been fully charged before each assignment, and did not turn on accidentally in my bag. The 3rd receiver has been working flawlessly. I'm using them to trigger Canon 550ex's and Norman 400B strobes.
Has anyone experienced these issues? Does anyone have an ideas as to why this keeps happening?
I'm happy with my Elinchrom set. I have one transmitter and two universal receivers to fire my Canon 430EXs. Initially I used a hot-shoe adaptor but got into tinker-mode and added a miniphone jack so I can plug in directly (the 580EX II comes with the jack)
My only nit is the same as TerryT - it's just friction that holds it in place. Went into tinker-mode again and drilled a small hole in the case to attach a leash (the one that comes with the rx). My camera strap has clips so I can disconnect and slip the leash over one side of the strap - now if it pops off it won't go in the drink (again)
Bdigital2 wrote:
Is anyone having problems with their skyport receivers turning themselves off? The work flawlessly whenever I test them at home. However, as soon as I am out on an assignment (its happened the last two assignments), 2 of my 3 receivers work fine at first, but then the just start shutting themselves off after a few flashes. They've been fully charged before each assignment, and did not turn on accidentally in my bag. The 3rd receiver has been working flawlessly. I'm using them to trigger Canon 550ex's and Norman 400B strobes.
Has anyone experienced these issues? Does anyone have an ideas as to why this keeps happening? ...Show more →
B,
Yes, I've run into this, but only after they've sat for awhile. They have an auto shut off to protect battery power. At first I thought something was wrong, but once I realized it was simple matter to reactivate again. Better than my PW's always going dead on me. Plus I found that if the battery did go dead, I was able to bump charge them for a few minutes enough to finish out a shoot. I'm not sure how long before they go into auto shut off mode though.
BTW, a piece of gaffer over the on switch of the Pocket Wizards really makes a difference. I had my Multimax units turning on in my bag a bit, so I got some gaffer, folded a bit of the edge over itself to make a tab, and then taped the rest to the switch. Very easy to move/remove, and put back, and no more switch problems.
The standby mode kicks in after 4 hours non-use. Thats not the issue in my case however. Mine seem to shut off within a few flashes. Today for instance, I was shooting team shots, and my one "good" receiver worked flawlessly, so I decided to add another kicker light. Turned the unit on, took one photo, and the receiver turned off again. Bear in mind they were all fully charged and kept in seperate soft compartments with no chance on turning off accidentally.
I've tried to call elinchrom, but getting through to an actual person has been impossible.
Anyone else have any thoughts beyond my bad luck having my buy two dud receivers?
Anyone else have any thoughts beyond my bad luck having my buy two dud receivers?
Mine have worked flawlessly. Never misfired let alone shut-off spontaneously. No doubt you have ensured the receivers are charging properly and fully charged so I can only suggest you return them for a warranty replacement. But it does seems odd that it is two receivers and not just one, or all three.
Yeah, it is very odd that one receiver works flawlessly while the other two... don't. I talked with an Elinchrom tech today who also had never heard anything like what I've been experiencing. So I sent them in today to have them look at them. Hopefully I'll have the replacements by early next week. My only concern is that that seem to work flawlessly UNTIL I am on assignment. Today was the third assignment in a row that they started acting up, and yet when I got them back home they worked perfectly. I just hope this doesn't turn into a situation similar to when you take your car to the mechanic and then can't replicate the problem!
Bdigital2 wrote:
Yeah, it is very odd that one receiver works flawlessly while the other two... don't. I talked with an Elinchrom tech today who also had never heard anything like what I've been experiencing. So I sent them in today to have them look at them. Hopefully I'll have the replacements by early next week. My only concern is that that seem to work flawlessly UNTIL I am on assignment. Today was the third assignment in a row that they started acting up, and yet when I got them back home they worked perfectly. I just hope this doesn't turn into a situation similar to when you take your car to the mechanic and then can't replicate the problem!
It's a bit of a long shot, but do you use anything that could interfere with wireless transmissions of the trigger when on assignment like a cell phone, radio handset or wifi?
Another long shot but, just to narrow down the variables, what are you connecting the three receivers to on assignment? More importantly, what are the two that are giving you issues connected to? Are those two receivers connected to the 550Ex's and is it an issue of the speedlights going into 'auto power off'...potentially? Just a thought.
I appear to still be having some issues. Elinchrom sent me two new recievers to replace my faulty ones, but now one of my original of my receivers started to shut off when I first connected it to the flash. Actually, even when I hit the test button ON THE FLASH, not the transmitter, the receiver shut off after the flash?! It did this 3 or 4 times, and then it seemed to work fine after that. The other variable is that I have the receivers velcroed to the top of the flash (where it says 550ex). When I just let the receiver hang from the cord away from the flash, it started to work fine, BUT it continued to work fine even after I attached back on top of the flash, so I'm thinking that might just be coincidence.
Anyone have any thoughts? So far I've succeeded in pretty well stumping the Elinchrom tech who have never witnessed the issues I've been having. I'm really starting to wonder if its the Household plug connection I'm using thats to blame. The problem though, is that I really don't want to spend $40 each on hotshoe-to-miniphone cables to test that theory. Also, the Norman 400b strobes I intend to use have a direct household prong connection, so I don't know how else to connect them to the skyports.
Out of curiosity, is there any possibility that using a household-to-miniphone cable to connect the skyport to the flash could have the potential to send some amount of feedback, or extra voltage/current/ whatever back into the skyport to cause it to shut off? I've tried reversing the polarity, but that doesn't seem to make a difference.
It's a bit of a long shot, but do you use anything that could interfere with wireless transmissions of the trigger when on assignment like a cell phone, radio handset or wifi?
Bdigital2 wrote:
The other variable is that I have the receivers velcroed to the top of the flash (where it says 550ex).
I'm no expert and this definitely might be a long shot but isn't the label 550EX on the flash head itself? That's got to be putting out some serious, albeit local, interference (heat and radio waves) when that flash tube pops off.
I just let mine dangle from the lanyard, no problems.
Carmen and William,
I think I'm onto something here, and it basically supports what both of you have said. What I was doing was attaching the receiver via velcro to the top of the flash (to a strip of velcro width-wise between the 550ex logo and the front of the flash) then wrapping the cord around the flash and connecting it to the hotshoe adaptor. Once one of the receivers shuts itself off, it will continue to do so after one flash everytime until I take it off of the flash. Once I do that, it seems to trigger fine. This could very well be the issue, because on the norman 400b's, I also attached the receiver to the top of the strobe and then wrapped the excess cord around the body behind the flash dome. Strangely though, one of the suggestions I received from Mark Astmann at Elinchrom was "you might want to Velcro the universal to your device as one customer told me that in windy situations his Skyport Universal turned itself off as it knocked against the side of the head."
Actually, the more I test it out the more this seems like it just might be the problem! I'll have to test it with the Norman's tomorrow.
Jonathan H wrote:
PW Plus II units appear on ebay from time to time from this one seller for $169 each plus about $12 for shipping - the ebay units are BNIB as well. Saves about $40 over B&H.
... or search for ebay seller "urgalaxy" in HongKong. They sell PWs for much less bucks than US sellers can. They are new, fully warrantied, US models (there are also european frequencies!!) and nicely fast in shipping.
I use the multi maxes and would not trade them for anything out at this time. More features...range...and have not let me down one time.
As usual...ymmv
George
This would never have been a problem with PW's because they are too big to velcro on the flash head of a speedlight. But I have had my PW's velcroed to to the back side of monolights before, mainly because their antenna was hanging too close to my C-stands and affecting performance. But they were never very near the flash head itself. When I got the Skyports I tried them this way too but found it was just easier just to let them hang off the angle adjustment knob. They are so small and light I can see why wind could be an issue. There's got to be a better place to velcro other than right at the flash head though, especially on your 400B's. Maybe velcoring them to the battery door of the 550 body would get them far enough away from the local interference. Worth a try.
