I have S&S YS-D3 Duo strobes, a Canon R5 camera, an UWTechnics optical trigger, and a Nauticam NAR5 housing. My strobes fire with increasing intensity from the lowest setting to the +0.7 setting. At all strobe settings higher than +0.7 (to full power) the strobes flash, yet the image that is captured is 100% black. Both of my YS-D3 Duos do this. I also have a YS-D1, and it does the same thing (works at all setting from lowest up to +0.7 only). I figure that at strobe settings higher than +0.7 (via back of strobe dial), the timing of the flash gets out of sync with the camera. I've tried it at various camera speed settings and it makes no difference. I have the trigger set to 9 and have carefully programed for the YS-D3 Duos per the users manual.

Any ideas??? Thanks

TTL or manual? If it's manual it seems like perhaps you have the camera emitting a pre-flash and it takes some of the strobe power when it fires on the pre-flash and at higher powers there is not enough charge to fire the main flash. Which setting are you using on the strobe, see if it behaves differently in one lightning bolt vs 2 bolts setting.

You can test is it is pre flashing if you can set second curtain sync in camera then take a test shot at a slow 1/2 - 1 sec shutter speed. If the camera allows this the preflash goes off at beginning of exposure and main flash goes off 1/2 - 1 second later at end of exposure. By using a slow enough shutter speed you can see both flashes . In manual you should only see a single flash, if it is being cancelled properly, This is only to test if the strobe is firing a pre-flash to assist with trouble shooting.

14 hours ago, Marmeister said:

I have S&S YS-D3 Duo strobes, a Canon R5 camera, an UWTechnics optical trigger, and a Nauticam NAR5 housing. My strobes fire with increasing intensity from the lowest setting to the +0.7 setting. At all strobe settings higher than +0.7 (to full power) the strobes flash, yet the image that is captured is 100% black. Both of my YS-D3 Duos do this. I also have a YS-D1, and it does the same thing (works at all setting from lowest up to +0.7 only). I figure that at strobe settings higher than +0.7 (via back of strobe dial), the timing of the flash gets out of sync with the camera. I've tried it at various camera speed settings and it makes no difference. I have the trigger set to 9 and have carefully programed for the YS-D3 Duos per the users manual.

Any ideas??? Thanks

Please specify some information:

1) Did you program YS-D3 DUO options before usage, as described in the User Manual of TTL Converter?

2) What flash mode is set by the strobe knob, - TTL or Manual?

3) What flash mode is set by camera menu, - TTL, Manual, or HSS? What sync, - 1/st or 2-nd curtain?

4) What position of the rotary switch is set on the TTL-Converter board?

5) What is the fiber cable model? Is it 613 core type and brand new?

Edited Wednesday at 05:22 AM1 day by Pavel Kolpakov

Thanks Pavel, Thanks Chris,

Answering your questions:

1) Did you program YS-D3 DUO options before usage, as described in the User Manual of TTL Converter?

Yes. I have the video you made and followed it closely

2) What flash mode is set by the strobe knob, - TTL or Manual?

The strobes are set to Manual (Green). When I set them to TTL, the image is properly illuminated regardless of where I have the strobe power set (from lowest to highest). In TTL mode, I can adjust the strobe power via the camera settings.

3) What flash mode is set by camera menu, - TTL, Manual, or HSS? What sync, - 1/st or 2-nd curtain?

Camera is set to ETTL with 1st curtain. I also tried setting the camera to manual flash, but the problem remains. I also tried with 2nd curtain and HSS, but the problem remains. I've tried every combination of flash settings I can think of, yet the result is always the same.

4) What position of the rotary switch is set on the TTL-Converter board?

Per the instruction, the TTL-converter is set to position 9 for my YS-D3 Duos. (I also tried position 2 for my YS-D1 (see below)

5) What is the fiber cable model? Is it 613 core type and brand new?

My fiber optic cables meet the 613 specs. I also have a brand new cable that I carry as a spare. I tried that cable too, but the problem remains.

Other things I tried:

I temporarily set the TTL-Converter rotary dial to 2 and connected my YS-D1. The exact same problem occurs with my YS-D1 in manual mode: The intensity dial on the back of the strobe increases the flash output with every position EXCEPT when I go past +0.7. At all strobe settings beyond +0.7 I get a totally black image even though the flash fires. Because my YS-D1s behave the same as my YS-D3 Duos, I think we can rule out the problem being in the strobes. However, I'm thinking that there has to be some circuitry within the strobes that changes when they are set beyond +0.7 and then the trigger/converter doesn't know how to read that change. Lastly, since the whole image goes from being blown out at +0.7 to being totally black at all intensity settings higher than that (even though the strobes flash), I don't see how it coud be a sync issue. I'd think (could be wrong) that with a sync issue, I'd see banding rather than a totally black image.

Edited Wednesday at 05:12 PM1 day by Marmeister

12 hours ago, Marmeister said:

2) What flash mode is set by the strobe knob, - TTL or Manual?

The strobes are set to Manual (Green). .....

3) What flash mode is set by camera menu, - TTL, Manual, or HSS? What sync, - 1/st or 2-nd curtain?

Camera is set to ETTL with 1st curtain. .....

So, you set the strobe to Manual mode by the knob, but you set the camera to TTL mode by menu. This means the flash settings on the strobe and the camera are inconsistent. This is a mistake that causes the image to be black (unlit). Let's see what happens:

In TTL mode, the camera fires two flashes (pre-flash + main flash). If you manually set the strobe output to a high level by knob, all the flash power will be discharged by the pre-flash, leaving insufficient power for the subsequent main flash. The image should be black, as you can see.

Edited yesterday at 03:52 AM1 day by Pavel Kolpakov

Yes camera needs to be set to manual and the strobe the same, the pre-flash chews up too much flash power responding to pre-flash at higher powers meaning it can't fire the main flash.

It's not a sync issue - you need the camera on manual flash when the strobe is on manual.