PocketWizards firing intermittently!! Any ideas?

Snowball

Snowball

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Paul Buttle
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Hi all,

I've just finishing shooting an indoor freestyle course at Hemel Hempstead Snow Centre, but had a few issues with my Pocket Wizards - so much so I was close to throwing them out the window.

I use a Mini TT1 for the Transmitter and I have 4 x Flex TT5's for the Receivers, during the course of the day I was required to take various shots of the riders as they went over the various features (Kickers and rails).

Now each Flashgun and Receiver had a set of fully charged 2450mha batteries in them. The trouble came quite quickly with various strobes refusing to fire for a number of shots, then randomly firing and then refusing to fire again.

Each rider was only going over the feature a few times, so each missed shot was potential money out the window.

I knew that the cold could possibly affect them, so I bought heated handwarmers and elastic band them around the TT5's, no luck, I went and bought new batteries (non-rechargable ones), no luck, I tried changing all the flash guns around, no luck, different channels, no luck!!!

The moment I get home I set them all up in a long row and begin taking random shots, every single one fires every time without fail!?!?!?

Any idea what could be causing this as at the moment it is truly doing my nut! :bonk:

Huge thanks

Paul
 
What distance were the guns from you? Are the PWs US or EC versions? Do you have the latest firmware? Which flash guns? Were you shooting in continuous frame mode? When you say randomly firing, were they popping off without the camera firing? Anyone else using PWs nearby? Any possible RF interference nearby?
 
Hi Hoppy,

The guns were close, within 3 metres! I have the latest firmware on all my PocketWizards and all my flashguns are 580EX's (not MkII's). Shots were taken in One Shot mode. No one else in the centre was using Pocket Wizards or any other type of radio transmitter.

I was in the middle of the snow centre so couldn't tell if there was any other type of RF Interference.

Really annoying as obviously it's a one chance shot! Was manually shooting to underexpose everything other than the rider and jump / rail - so if the flash didn't pop then I didn't get anything at all!

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Am wondering if changing any of the pocket wizards settings would help in any way?

Thanks again
 
You don't say if they are US or EC versions, and if the former I would suspect RF issues with 580EX guns - they are the worst, but there are different shields available or you can get them modded with an RF choke. Switching channels may help. Lots of good stuff on www.robgalbraith.com about sorting out RF probs.

If the mystery remains, email Pocket Wizard. Their customer service is very good and fast. Let us know how you get on :)
 
Hey Hoppy,

They are the EU versions, have emailed their customer support so will let you know what they say. Been thinking about changing them to RadioPoppers as I've heard nothing but good things about them.

Have you ever had any troubles with PW's?
 
Does the building have a wireless security alarm or staff with walkie talkies?
 
I believe some of the staff carried walkie talkies! Real problem if that is what is causing it as I'm taking photos for every course from now on. May have to take my sync cable from now on :(

I thought it may have been the connection between camera and TT1 and Flash Guns and TT5's so checked that over and over. They were all fine.
 
Snowball said:
Hey Hoppy,

They are the EU versions, have emailed their customer support so will let you know what they say. Been thinking about changing them to RadioPoppers as I've heard nothing but good things about them.

Have you ever had any troubles with PW's?
Click to expand...

I don't have PWs. I used to have a pair of the basic Plus triggers but sold them and replaced with five RF-602 - and still had money over! They have been great, I think better than the PWs actually.

I have thought about getting the new Mini/Flexes more than once and TBH I believed they'd sorted out the early problems now. But I don't actually need them. However, if I was shooting your kind of stuff regularly, ie remote flash action/sport, I'd get them, erm, in a flash.

HyperSync, optimised high speed sync, remote second curtain sync - could make the shot in some situations. Radio Poppers do none of that, but they do run on the higher 2.4GHz frequency that would sort PW problems instantly but they've stuck on the old RF band for backwards compatibility reasons and that would seem to be a very mixed blessing at best.

I'm sure PW will come up with an answer, and hopefully a solution too. It could be something simple like Admiral suggests, maybe fixed with a channel change. Here's hoping :)
 
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