Well, I got my three plus II's back from the repair center; they replaced the circuit board on one of them and declared all three healthy. Shooting this morning they worked fine, then, without warning, they wouldn't fire at all.

I called Pocket Wizards to tell them that they were not successful in the repair efforts. They told me to send them back in.... on my dime, yet again, and they would replace all three.

More to follow........

perhaps it isnt the pw's....
the cords are usually the cause of most pw issues I have found.
bb

it fires with the test button every time.

Hopefully it works out, if not, there's always Elinchrom Skyports, Alien Bee Cybersyncs, and Radio Poppers

Good luck!

Maybe Luck_Dog isn't so lucky when it comes to PWs

Ive been lucky with mine (knock on wood)

Paulcbuff.com CyberSyncs are awesome... half the cost... check em out!

-tmiller

Lucky_Dog wrote:
it fires with the test button every time.
exactly!!! thus you can basically rule out it being the pw itself. Now isolate the cause. Just start removing variables. Does it fire every time with the pw in the hot shoe and no cord?? Start with the synch cords....its almost always there. Also the pc socket in the camera can come loose...mine did on all my canons. Turns out the nikon screw lock connector, while helping, actually caused the sockets to become loose. The only way i could make them fire was to apply pressure one way or another on that connection. TBH, since switching to nikon on october 4th i have not had one pw misfire. (knocking the hell out of all the wood in reach right now)

What cameras?? Ive had and heard of many times more pw issues with canon equip. Misfires due to interference on the off camera model are common with canon strobes but almost non-existent with nikon or vivitar strobes up on the stick
bb

tmiller wrote:
Paulcbuff.com CyberSyncs are awesome... half the cost... check em out!

-tmiller
More like 1/3rd the cost ... 60 bucks compared to 180... but that's not the point of the thread though =P

The camera is a 40D but that doesn't matter because it wouldn't fire with either of the two remaining PW's even when handheld and no camera at all. The flash is a Nikon SB26.

Thanks for the help!

Sync cords are almost always the culprits, and the receptacles on the flash as well. The PC port is such a bad design IMO. Retire it, make something new manufacturers.

i thought you said it fired with test button every time

Brad Barr wrote:
i thought you said it fired with test button every time

I should have been more clear... it fires when you push the button on the PW that the flash is connected to... which eliminates the cable as a problem in my mind.

I guess you checked the whole local remote switch thing....as well as the correct camera/flash outlet being plugged in right Seems unlikely they would not have tested the repair and at least had it working via the test buttons to ensure transmit and receive functionality.

I know you can make a tranciever into just a receiver by simply holding down the test button while you turn it on....I wonder if that function has stuck "on"

you should be able to "check" the communication part by simply turning them both on...no flash no camera just the pw's..use local and remote setting, both on channel 2, and press the test button...the red transmit light should lite up as well as the red light on the receiver. Is that functioning?? If no..then the pw's are not functioning, replace batteries and rechek, if still no then return.

If yes to the above test, then we need to dig further, examing the connections to the sending unit since the rec unit is "getting the signal", and thus the pw part is ok.

bb

The thing is that it was working fine... I stopped to upload a few images to a client and when I came back it wouldn't work. Nothing was changed. They're still under warranty; PW said they'd replace them. I’ll ship them back and see if my luck changes… not feeling so lucky at the moment.

yeah...sounds like..

only thing that could have changed is the battery power. Maybe there is a short somewhere and its killing the batt power on the tr unit.
bb

I switched them off while I was away and they all have brand new duracells

on camera and what mode? I've found a 580-2 will fire on the hotshoe in live view mode but PWs won't fire.
I've also had very spotty luck having strobist type gear work. A sigma 500 would not fire on a 'fake' hotshoe. I have two hotshoes now and the 550 I have only works on the one, the metz on the other. Don't ask me. I labeled them so I don't have issues like at the first wedding I tried the 550 at. It worked at home on that hot shoe but not at the reception. Don't ask me what the hell's going on.

I agree that it's usually the wires not the PWs that are at issue. Have you tried other channels? I've had odd things happen on ch 1 but no issues on ch 2.