Off camera flash misfiring issue

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Derek
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Trying more home portraits (thanks Covid) and have been messing around with off camera flash.

Using D610 with Godox XPro trigger and V860ii flash. I was getting a lot of shots with no flash which seems fairly random (would miss one in four then be fine for six then miss four kinda thing) so i read up a bit and tweaked a few settings (channel number, distance, checked batteries) which seemed to improve things a bit but still wasn't great.

I then started using two lights (V860ii and AD200) and I have found that the AD200 doesn't miss nearly as much (one in twenty) but the V860ii has gone back to how it was before. I have tried them in the same and different groups but no change in number of misfires.

Any ideas what I could try to get better consistency with this kit? I'm fairly new to this setup so I may be missing something fairly basic and/or obvious.
 
Yes I read that in a few places so got everything fully charged up (including camera) and put fresh alkalines in the trigger
 
Will the v860ii run in s1 mode. If so then use the more reliable triggered ocf to control it- at least then its all or nothing

If you’re looking to control power and zoom remotely then thats a bigger issue but if not it takes one receiver out if the loop
 
Thanks Jim, will give that a go.

They both flashed more consistently when pressing the test button on the trigger which initially had me thinking it was a hot shoe problem but the AD200 seems to work fine when triggered via the shutter release button
 
Is it something simple like not giving the V860 enough time to recharge between shots? The AD200 has more power so can sustain more shots taken in quick succession. I guess you’ve ruled this out?
 
Some reasons spring to mind (assuming nothing is faulty)

1..the flash does not have sufficient charge to fire again - if you are firing quickly at full power, or close to it, then the flash may skip some frames. Tbh though, it normally fires anyway with whatever is in the tank so you'd see an underexposed image rather than no flash at all. The pattern of failure you describe doesn't fit this one though tbh (hah - cross posted with Tim !)

2..the flash does not receive the signal. This can happen if the flash is too far away, but also when it is too close. If you are <30m away from the flash, select this mode in the custom settings on the XPro.

3.. the trigger does not receive the signal from the camera. Examine the hotshoe on the camera, and the foot on the trigger. All it takes is a minute piece of bubble wrap caught on a pin to cause problems.

4.. outside interference. This system operates at 2.4GHz - so if you're next to a phone mast which is transmitting in this band (or something that just emits RF noise on a broad spectrum), it may jam your signal.

Other (less likely) things to check: if you're using TTL flash, and spot metering, this will produce wildly different results depending on where you aim the camera. Make sure flash-bracketing is turned off on the camera. Make sure the shutter speed is within the X-Sync limit for your camera (1/200th of a second on a D610 I believe).

Ultimately, replacement testing is the fastest way to figure it out, so see if you can get hold of another trigger, and another camera. I repaired a smashed SB900 once and thought I'd got all of the pieces out of it, but it still rattled when reassembled with new parts. Drove me mad, until I finally thought of shaking the other 3 I had at the time. Yep - they all rattle :)
 
Thanks for the replies Tim and Scooter.

I did have it at full power and read about the recycling delay so turned it down but it made no change.

Before I introduced the AD200 in to the mix I did notice that once the V860ii had stopped firing I had to change a setting or fire it by pressing the test button before it would work remotely again.

I'm guessing if there was an issue with the camera and/or trigger then neither lights would fire?

I'll set it up again when I get some time and check all the in camera settings. I have an SB700 I can swap in to see how that performs.

Thanks again, will report back
 
I don't think so or it wouldn't fire the AD200 but will check
 
I'm guessing if there was an issue with the camera and/or trigger then neither lights would fire?

I'll set it up again when I get some time and check all the in camera settings. I have an SB700 I can swap in to see how that performs.

One other thing you might try is to repeatedly fire the flash with the test button on the trigger (emulating what you would normally do when shooting) and see if you get the same pattern of failure. If it always fires from the test button, it's going to be down to something in the connection between camera and trigger, or the camera not sending the signal at all.
 
Ok so I've checked a few things and whilst the AD200 fires every time whether via the shutter release on the camera or the test button on the trigger, the V860ii was still missing a lot.

Had a look at it and it wasn't even firing with it's own test button. Made me think battery but it was showing a full charge. Took it out and plugged it in to its charger and the charger shows only 50% charged. Not sure how accurate these scales are but I'll give it a full charge for a while and try again.

Might be a dodgy battery :rolleyes:
 
Ratfarts!

Looks like a dodgy battery and/or flash gun. Seemed to charge up ok but only fires with the test button very seldomly and way less than before :(
 
I've just updated the firmware as was nowhere near up to date... made heels haw difference :(

The control panel lights up fine so it can't be a battery issue. Test firing is still very erratic and it misses as much as it fires. Loose connection somewhere? Power not getting to flash head? Any good repair places around or is it likely to be cheaper to replace?
 
One thing that's not been mentioned, but could be an issue when testing, is that the trigger and flash cannot be too close together - so if you had the flash close when testing (so you could see the back panel, for example), that could actually cause problems in reliability.
Not sure of the required separation, but make sure they are a couple of meters apart and retest, if they were closer before.
 
One thing that's not been mentioned, but could be an issue when testing, is that the trigger and flash cannot be too close together - so if you had the flash close when testing (so you could see the back panel, for example), that could actually cause problems in reliability.
Not sure of the required separation, but make sure they are a couple of meters apart and retest, if they were closer before.
Right, this has tripped me up before. As I recall the distance needs to be more than 30cm or so.
 
Will fire it off (pun intended!) to Lencarta and see what is going on.

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated
 
One thing that's not been mentioned, but could be an issue when testing, is that the trigger and flash cannot be too close together - so if you had the flash close when testing (so you could see the back panel, for example), that could actually cause problems in reliability.
Not sure of the required separation, but make sure they are a couple of meters apart and retest, if they were closer before.
Very strange as I've just tested this - took a pic with my lens touching the side of the screen on my AD200 using the xpro to trigger it - fired fine.
 
Very strange as I've just tested this - took a pic with my lens touching the side of the screen on my AD200 using the xpro to trigger it - fired fine.
There is a setting you can change which allows the flash and trigger to be closer - but it reduces the maximum range. It's possible you have it set to that (or it could be that the 'too close' issue is simply something that makes triggering less reliable, and you were lucky this time).
 
There is a setting you can change which allows the flash and trigger to be closer - but it reduces the maximum range. It's possible you have it set to that (or it could be that the 'too close' issue is simply something that makes triggering less reliable, and you were lucky this time).
If I'd had to change a setting to allow it to trigger close to the flash (AD200 pro) then it wouldn't have fired as I've not changed any of the default settings (just looked up how to do it and I've definitely not done it) - might have just been lucky but it worked consistently - I didn't just fire the flash once.
 
One thing that's not been mentioned, but could be an issue when testing, is that the trigger and flash cannot be too close together - so if you had the flash close when testing (so you could see the back panel, for example), that could actually cause problems in reliability.
Not sure of the required separation, but make sure they are a couple of meters apart and retest, if they were closer before.


I mentioned it in post #7 (in amongst a bunch of other stuff) however we now know that isn't the problem - Derek says it is intermittent when pressing the test button on the flash unit. The problem is inside the flash :(
 
I mentioned it in post #7 (in amongst a bunch of other stuff) however we now know that isn't the problem - Derek says it is intermittent when pressing the test button on the flash unit. The problem is inside the flash :(
Oops - sorry, I missed that you had included the too close option.
 
Just to close this one out. It was a failure of the control board. First for me but I guess these things will happen if you take enough photos (or are just unlucky). It also gets you more familiar with things generally as you scratch your head :thinking:
 
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