Ebay Radio Trigger/Recievers Question

[Deadeye008]

I purchased a set of the radio trigger/reciever and an extra reciever on ebay. The trigger and one of the recievers work great with all my flashes except my 430EX(it fires whenever it wants) which I have read on hear some times have troubles with these recievers.The other flashes I have are a Bower SF829TW,Sunpak Auto Zoom 331, and Promaster 1000. The Bower only works if I use the PC cable. With the extra reciever I purchased, the only flash that works with it is the Sunpack. The Promaster will not fire on it and the Bower fires whenever it wants. I noticed the little blue switches on the trigger and recievers so I tried switching them around but can't get it to work with the other flashes. Does anyone have any experience with these? How do the blue switches work? What flashes do you have that work with them? Any advice or wisdom is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Big Mike]

The switches are how you set the radio channel. You need to set the switches to the same positions on the sending unit and the receivers.

 

[keith204]

I imagine we probably have the same radio triggers... just bought mine off ebay a few weeks ago. I hook mine up to my 430EX and it works fine. However, it will go on standby if I stop shooting for awhile. I've fired the 430 off (wirelessly) about 500 times probably, and have only had 5 or so "random firing" spells.

So, to answer your questions:

What flashes I use with my triggers -
I use a Sunpak 383 and a Canon 430EX with mine. They both work hot-shoe, and the Sunpak works PC-Sync too (the 430 doesn't have a pc port)

Troubleshooting your problem -
Crack open that case so you can see the battery. Check around the battery to make sure it's making contact (it's a snug fit in there so you may have to push). Then, compare the two receivers on the inside...look for differences. Of the two I ordered, one of them had a broken pc-sync port, and so only hotshoe would work. Lucky for me, the ebay seller (big_is) sent me a new one at no charge. Anyway, I found out the culprit by comparing the two triggers and noticing that the soldering was all messed up on one of them, and certain connectors just weren't making contact.

Hope this helps...

give us a link to the products you bought, because I think there are 2 or 3 types of ebay flash triggers going around now.

 

[Deadeye008]

Thanks for the help you two. The product I bought is the PT-04 trigger and recievers. I'll have a look at the two recievers side by side to see if I can see any differences. The wierd thing is that my Sunpak flash is the only one that works on both of them. Did you have to do anything to your 430EX to make it work? ie change it to slave mode or change the channels? What do you have your blue switches on, O N or 1 2? Thanks again.

 

[keith204]

I just have both my blue switches to the O N... they came on the 1 2, and so I just clicked them all the way up.

Yeah, the PT-04's are what I have...

No, I didn't have to do anything fancy to get my 430 to work. I just tried it now, and it works without having to put it in Slave mode... and the mode can be either in Auto or Manual. I always shoot in manual though.

Let me know how the progress goes on this, I'll try to help however I can, especially since we have partially the same setup.

 

[SteveEllis]

Hi Guys,

I have a PT-04 and two strobes, but it only works with one strobe.

The vivitar 728 works
The Miranda 500-cd doesnt

I'm guessing they only work with some strobes

 

[Mike_E]

Just a dumb question, did you try the flash that didn't work on both receivers?