Hello Waterpixelers,

Yesterday part way through a dive, my strobes stopped flashing consistently. If I'd take a break, sometimes it would work for a few shots, then stop working. I figured I just needed to change the batteries on my UW Technics trigger. I went out again today, with new batteries and started getting intermittent failure again part way through the dive.

The issue is for both strobes, so I ruled out the cables and strobes.

When the strobe's are failing, i took the cable off one strobe and there is no red light pulsing out the end. When it is working, I can see the light pulse.

I am assuming it is the UW Technics TTL Converter, but wanted to ask folks if there is anything else I should try to troubleshoot before sending it for service. The UW Technics is 1.5 years old and is the Canon version.

Thank you for any advice :)

-Jaycee

I have had this inconsistency of similar nature with my A6400 and two UWT triggers. Never could find a reason.

Hi,

had similar problems with brand new UWT TTL Converter on Nikon D850. Tried to troubleshoot everyting with email support from UWT as it happen on a two month holiday in Philippines wihoutpositive result. Was lucky that I had the Nauticam converter as spare with me. UWT replaced the converter to a new one after holiday. The new one is working fine so far.

Br Markus

The other part of the equation is the Hotshoe cable. You could try on land to see if joggling the cable a little can reproduce the issue or not. Check and clean the hotshoe contacts on the camera as well.

9 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

The other part of the equation is the Hotshoe cable. You could try on land to see if joggling the cable a little can reproduce the issue or not. Check and clean the hotshoe contacts on the camera as well.

I'll check. My camera is impeccably clean as I only use it within the housing, and have never had a drop of water ingress.

I tried to recreate it on land.

The first try, I attached the cable and began shooting every couple of seconds and observed the optic cable end for the red actuation light. The first 10 or so firings worked fine, but after that, it would stop flashing. If I waited a bit and fired a couple of more test shots, it would start working again for a few times, then stop again.

The second try, I attached the cable again and began shooting. It never stopped working.

I tried a few more combinations of turning the camera off, removing and replacing the cable, wiggling the cable, pulling it just a mm or so off the shoe, etc. I was not able to reproduce intermittent failures again.

Not exactly what I was expecting. As I am not sure of the what caused the issue, I'm not confident that it won't pop up again.

Here are the contacts on my camera hot shoe and cable.

11 hours ago, JayceeB said:

I'll check. My camera is impeccably clean as I only use it within the housing, and have never had a drop of water ingress.

I recall there was another Waterpixeler having issues with a trigger a couple of weeks ago and it appears it was a wire that had come loose. Aside from the main issue, were you able to shoot HSS with the UWT and the Backscatter HF-1?

First thing I would try is getting a new hotshoe cable assembly, I would guess they are the weakest link. If I recall they plug onto the UWT board.

4 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

First thing I would try is getting a new hotshoe cable assembly, I would guess they are the weakest link. If I recall they plug onto the UWT board.

Yeah, I agree. Get a new hot shoe and replace that assembly. As Chris says, they do indeed plug into the board - as you’ve seen.

11 hours ago, JayceeB said:

Here are the contacts on my camera hot shoe and cable.

On this image it seems the hot shoe contact patches on the camera have white dots on them which indicates corrosive action on the contact patches. If this is the case I would use a fibreglass brush or a wooden chopstick/toothpick to try and remove these stains and then use a clean microfibre cloth to wipe them. ideally with a drop of isopropyl alcohol.

On 7/22/2025 at 1:17 AM, Oskar - Retra UWT said:

On this image it seems the hot shoe contact patches on the camera have white dots on them which indicates corrosive action on the contact patches. If this is the case I would use a fibreglass brush or a wooden chopstick/toothpick to try and remove these stains and then use a clean microfibre cloth to wipe them. ideally with a drop of isopropyl alcohol.

I tried this and ran several more tests. I was unable to recreate the issue. Will report back after a few dives. Thank you, @Oskar - Retra UWT :)

4 dives and ~400 photos. No issues. Case closed for now.