Who uses Cactus wireless radio triggers?

[jenn76]

I got mine a little while back (couple of months maybe) and was waiting to order the rest of my cheap lighting setup til I could get some cash together. The rest of my stuff is supposed to be delivered today, so I got my radio triggers out, pulled out the instruction book, and it's not working.

After a few minutes of tinkering, I have the channels set to match on the transmitter and receiver, I have pulled off the plastic wrap from the battery for the receiver (that stuff is tight, didn't even notice it at first!), and switched the receiver to "on". When I press the test button on the transmitter, nothing happens. The receiver light doesn't light up, and it's supposed to, according to the manual. I know these batteries that they send with it are crap, but they're supposed to be sufficient to test the unit, and I didn't want to spend cash on batteries til I know it works. Has anyone else had this problem? I'm going to check out the website now to see if there's a number I can call (of course, they're in HK, so who knows?), but thought someone here might be able to help me out in case it takes them a while to get back to me. Thanks in advance!

 

[Big Mike]

HERE is a recent (and long) thread about these triggers. So yes, we are using them.

Make double sure that the batteries (in both trigger and receiver) are not covered in plastic and are seated correctly.
Try different channel combinations.
Try it on a flash, maybe it's just the test light that is bad.

Mine worked fine until the batteries died.

 

[jenn76]

I will check out that thread, thanks. I must have to unscrew the casing of the transmitter to look at the battery in that one. I'll have to find a knife or something for that little bitty screw. And I should have mentioned, I did go ahead and hook it up on my flash, both with the transmitter on and off of my camera, still nothing. Thanks, Big Mike.

 

[danman281]

Mike, the reason why you couldn't pull off the top circuit board was because it was soldered onto the bottom one via two connecting pins.

I screwed mine up somehow. Be careful guys.

 

[Village Idiot]

Batteries in them generally arrive dead. Switch them out, test the connections, etc. If they don't work, send them back and hope for a pair that do.

 

[jenn76]

Batteries in them generally arrive dead. Switch them out, test the connections, etc. If they don't work, send them back and hope for a pair that do.

We got it working, thanks VI! I'm off to get new batteries today though. They are supposedly good enough for testing only, and it worked for me last night, but I'm not going to leave them in there.