Aquatica AD500 flash trigger not triggering strobes

[TotoTheDog 0]

Hi all,

 

I wonder if I'm a complete idiot and there's something obvious that I'm missing, but my LED flash trigger won't trigger my TS-D1 and YS-D2.

 

I have the Aquatica AD500 with the optical ports for the flash trigger. The trigger fires my strobes just fine when the camera's out of the housing but not when it's in the housing.

 

It looks to me that this is because the LEDs on the trigger are a long way off lining up with the optical ports on the housing when the camera is installed - so that there's little or no light from the trigger LEDs actually traveling along the optical cables.

 

The flash trigger part number is 18956, which seems to be for the Sony a7 II, a7R II & a7S II (doesn't mention Nikon D500). Could I have the wrong flash trigger?

 

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

 

Thanks,

Geoff

[trimix125 73]

LWL Test.pdfHi Geoff,
how is the connector made in the Aquatica housing?
Can you maybe send me a pic from inside and outside?
I have a Hugyfot housing and the Aquatica and the Turtle led trigger.
The Aquatica had to be tuned, was to big and the Leds are not good placed for me.
The Turtle has the possibility to place the leds where you need them.

But to come to your problem:
The S&S strobes are harder to bring to ignition than the Inons....
Have tried several combinations strobes and also important optical wires.
The D2 was the hardest for me. Needs absolut exact positioning of the light in and out point.

Have you the possibility to borrow a Inon strobe? Type 4 makes it easier ;-))

Try moving the plug of the cable just a little bit when testing, maybe you find a position that works, or maybe the Sony style adapter has a different distance / position of the leds.

Attached sheet shows my tests with the turtle and all strobes i have ( D2 borrowed ) and cables.
The Aquatica works sometimes good, sometimes bad......
The Hugyfot housing is great, but the light connection needs a little tuning.

Red - no ignition
grey - ignition
blue - ttl too dark
yellow - ttl too bright
green - ttl ok

As written above, the experiment shows that the D2 works on my housing, when i push the plug a little sidewards.

But thats not a option underwater.
I am not an octopus ;-))

Regards,
Wolfgang

Edited March 17, 2017 by trimix125

[TimG 62]

Wolfgang

 

At the risk of hijacking Geoff's post slightly, what do you think of the Turtle? By all means PM me to avoid a hijack.

 

Thanks

 

Tim

[r4e 24]

The optical sensor of the Sea&Sea strobes is known to have had sensitivity issues with various electronic trigger boards from different brands. You should try to maximize the trigger light emited to the optical cable, If there are small reflectors in the housing, try turning them into a position which gives the most direct mirrored route of the trigger light. Additionally you could line the top inside of the housing by some tin foil. This helped in one case.

[trimix125 73]

Hi,
i used the turtle on my last trip.
With the right combination strobe / cable it worked fine. I normaly use manuel mode.

I was trying with Manfred Werner from unterwasserkamera.at some things,
and he told me today that there is a known problem he heard from the turtle tecnican, with specially the Nikon D500.
I got a mail adress and will discuss this next week direct.
Something with lcd back light that causes a problem.

As soon i know more, i will write here.

@ Tim
worked fine for me manual on the trip.
Have the Aquatica here as well, but had not enought time to test them side by side.

Will do that and then write it down.

Regards,
Wolfgang

[TotoTheDog 0]

Thanks very much everyone for the replies. And no problem, Tim, with the hijack - I'd also be interested in opinions of the Turtle, even just as a manual mode trigger.

 

I'm going to try the various options suggested to get more light to the optical cables - starting with the tin-foil lining of the housing and possibly, eventually, resorting to butchering the trigger to move the LEDs closer to the optical cables.

 

When the camera is installed the LEDs look to be about 10 mm behind the optical cable connections and close to the inside top of the housing.

 

Inside of housing...

 

Outside of housing...

 

 

[Balage_diver 4]

Hi,

i used the turtle on my last trip.

With the right combination strobe / cable it worked fine. I normaly use manuel mode.

 

I was trying with Manfred Werner from unterwasserkamera.at some things,

and he told me today that there is a known problem he heard from the turtle tecnican, with specially the Nikon D500.

I got a mail adress and will discuss this next week direct.

Something with lcd back light that causes a problem.

 

As soon i know more, i will write here.

@ Tim

worked fine for me manual on the trip.

Have the Aquatica here as well, but had not enought time to test them side by side.

Will do that and then write it down.

Regards,

Wolfgang

 

 

Hello Wolfgang,

 

I read this topic now, but here is the settings what you have to set in D500 menu.

Please switch off the LCD backlight in the D500 menu (d9) for the correct TTL pictures!

The i-TURTLE and the new XS switch the manual/ TTL mode with the backlight switching if somebody wants to switch this mode during the dive!

There is cause of the wrong pictures with D500 some users, becasue the default setting is on the d9. The new TURTLE has a DIP when the user can be switch the default mode. (TTL/MANUAL)

 

I hope we can help in this case. If anyboday has question does not hesitate to write me!

Balazs (TRT-ELECTRONICS)

 

[chrisdarke 5]

I can confirm I had the same issue with the YS-D2 strobe.. so my current workaround is as follows:

 

LED trigger set at low power

YS-D1 plugged into housing, set to manual fire

YS-D2 plugged into YS-D1, set to TTL Slave

 

At least for me, the YS-D1 does get triggered, just the D2 that doesn't..