JohnVila 3 Posted August 31, 2020 Hi all. Technical Question - I am using the backscatter mini flash with Nikon D500 / Nauticam housing. Using nauticam sync cord with sea and sea plugs. Cord seems in good condition (and have tried several others). I use in conjunction with two inon z330's which run from one dual sea and sea plug into a sea and sea adapter. The miniflash is also connected by sea and sea adapter. The z330's fire everytime. I am finding that the at times the mini flash just won't fire, pre dive no problem but then sporadic once on the dive. As of yesterday I can't get it to fire on land either. Connected to a compact camera with flash - no problem. It seems the pulse from the LED trigger on the D500 is not enough. Batteries fully charged in miniflash and new ones on flash circuit. I thought I had read somewhere that others had experienced issues - any advice on solving? My intention was to use it as focus light and snoot. All the best and stay safe John Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChrisRoss 150 Posted August 31, 2020 INON slave sensors are known for being particularly sensitive and easy to trigger. seem to recall others having issues with triggering the mini flash with LED triggers - there should be other threads on this forum. Have you tried swapping trigger ports to see if one LED is better aligned than the other or otherwise playing with the alignment of the LED to the window? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davehicks 58 Posted August 31, 2020 I've had this issue with the BS Miniflash as well. My Inon 330's flash fine with the same cable that the BS rejects. A new cable will probably help, as I noticed that just a bit of a crimp or bend in the fiber will reduce the light enough to cause a problem with the BS but not then Inon. Also look into upgrading your optical fiber to something like a 2mm fiber that will transmit more light then the standard fibers. The Backscatter Flash is clearly using as less sensitive trigger. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChrisRoss 150 Posted September 1, 2020 If you can't get it to work with your current cables as a stop gap you could try rigging up some type of mounting for a sync cable to the front of one of the Z-330s and using that as a slave to trigger the mini flash. It would work in manual but probably not TTL. I don't know if you are using them both at the same time or not, but sounds like you have the Z330s and the BS strobe on your rig at the same time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JohnVila 3 Posted September 1, 2020 Hi Chris and Dave Thanks for your replies. Yes I have the two Inons and Miniflash on at the same time. I retried at home last night and it fired every time with the same cable I used on Sunday! Go figure. Cheers John Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pavel Kolpakov 63 Posted September 16, 2020 (edited) Hi John, MF-1 requires some more optical power for control than some other strobes. Buy this reason, for example, UWTechnics updated all their TTL-Converters, - specially for Backscatter MF-1 strobe better support. Optical power and pulse duration in M mode has been increased in all circuitry produced since September. Edited September 16, 2020 by Pavel Kolpakov Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bvanant 162 Posted September 17, 2020 (edited) That is interesting. My BS flashes all fire (Olympus OM-D EM-1 II) with the Nauticam LED trigger and home made 613 fiber cables. Sometimes underwater there can be a small bubble between the end of the cable and the sensor on the strobe. Pulling the cable out of the sensor and let the air out and putting it back together fixes that problem Bill Edited September 17, 2020 by bvanant Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hijodelmar 0 Posted March 22 Hello Guys, I have Sont A7rII and just bought the BS MF-1 , have the same issue, I tried YS cable, Nautica and Inon without any success. Anyone solved the issue with cable with more diameter ? Thanks for your reply. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TimG 62 Posted March 22 On 9/16/2020 at 9:04 PM, bvanant said: Sometimes underwater there can be a small bubble between the end of the cable and the sensor on the strobe. Pulling the cable out of the sensor and let the air out and putting it back together fixes that problem Bill A good tip from Bill. I've had this a couple of times with homemade cables and the Howshot L-adaptors. Man, was I cursing till I realised what the problem was! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChrisRoss 150 Posted March 22 1 hour ago, hijodelmar said: Hello Guys, I have Sont A7rII and just bought the BS MF-1 , have the same issue, I tried YS cable, Nautica and Inon without any success. Anyone solved the issue with cable with more diameter ? Thanks for your reply. What are you triggering with? Check you can see the trigger fire through the ports, you can see the trigger through the ends of the cables. Is the window clean? You'll see in the post above from Pavel, UWT updated their triggers to be able to fire the MF-1. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hijodelmar 0 Posted March 25 On 3/23/2021 at 12:58 AM, ChrisRoss said: What are you triggering with? Check you can see the trigger fire through the ports, you can see the trigger through the ends of the cables. Is the window clean? You'll see in the post above from Pavel, UWT updated their triggers to be able to fire the MF-1. Hello, I'm using nauticam trigger, I finally changed the batteries and also the cable to a new one and it works, but I can confirm that the diameter of the fibre optic is a key point here. I'm building my own fibre optic, let's see if the result will be better. Thank you so much. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
davehicks 58 Posted March 25 10 hours ago, hijodelmar said: Hello, I'm using nauticam trigger, I finally changed the batteries and also the cable to a new one and it works, but I can confirm that the diameter of the fibre optic is a key point here. I'm building my own fibre optic, let's see if the result will be better. Thank you so much. I also shoot the MF-1 and use a Nauticam trigger. I build my own cables and used this 2mm fiber from Ebay. It works flawlessly with the BS MF-1. About $30 for 5 meters, buy the 2mm diameter option. 5m Black Plastic Pmma End Glow Fiber Optic Cable Light Inner Diameter 1mm-6mm | eBay Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hijodelmar 0 Posted April 12 Thank you. It worked for me :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pbalves 42 Posted April 12 On 9/17/2020 at 2:04 AM, bvanant said: That is interesting. My BS flashes all fire (Olympus OM-D EM-1 II) with the Nauticam LED trigger and home made 613 fiber cables. Sometimes underwater there can be a small bubble between the end of the cable and the sensor on the strobe. Pulling the cable out of the sensor and let the air out and putting it back together fixes that problem Bill This is the way to go. I have a pair of really cheap FO cables (most probably not multifiber) and even with my z240 Inons time to time I have problems to fire them. At those moment I take out the cable and move the strobe upsidedown to allow any air bubble that is there to get out, do the same to the connection of the cables on the housing, and the firing problem is solved. The air bubble that gets inside the FO adapter is enough to reduce the amount of light that reaches the sensor till a degree it is not enough to activate the strobe. Do not forget that this might happen in both ends of the FO... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dann-Oh 6 Posted April 13 I just got this cable and its working better than any of the home made cables I have tried to make. I am using an Olympus EPL10 in and AOI housing with the MF-1 https://www.amazon.com/DIVTEK-Connection-Underwater-Photography-55Inches/dp/B082PRK942/ref=pd_ys_c_rfy_rp_m_all_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B082PRK942&pd_rd_r=SPKC68YWD9B7E1VEHKXW&pd_rd_w=OjJ5e&pd_rd_wg=2FUbA&pf_rd_p=5d61ee21-c9c1-4f53-887e-8583c213529a&pf_rd_r=SPKC68YWD9B7E1VEHKXW&psc=1&refRID=DA8SNMVJ9TY65NR08BKS Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
