INON Optical Converter D - Help

Hi all,

 

I am trying to get the INON optical converter D to work properly with my system, but I am struggling.

 

The instruction manual is available - but it is a bit dated. And not much help.

 

I am using it with Z240 strobes. Annoyingly the only way it works reliably is with my D2X attached to the hotshoe in my F100 film housing! In the D2X housing it works intermittently - well it starts off working when swapped from the F100 housing and soon stops. Weird. My F100 housing has 5 wires connected to the hotshoe, my D2X just two.

 

I am concluding that you need more than 2 wires connected to make it work - it seems to need that to "charge up". I say this because it works for a short period after being on the F100 housing (with D2X camera) when swapped back to the D2X housing.

 

If anyone can offer any experience with the OC, I'd be v. grateful.

 

Thanks

 

Alex

Further investigation suggests to me that the Inon Optical Converter seems to need the ready light to work. This seems to charge up the unit so it will fire the strobes. Without the ready light from the camera a charged unit will fire 3-4 times then stop. An uncharged unit won't fire at all.

 

Alex

Hi Alex,

 

I'm down south in Oz. I have spoken to Mark Rupert on quite a few occasions regarding the Inon 'optical converter'. He has always been very helpful and VERY quick with replies, even though I am not in his area.

Mark Rupert (INON)

E-mail Address(es):

mrupert@inonamerica.com

 

BTW, are you trying to get TTL with the strobes or just manual flash?

I remember him telling me that i-TTL wasn't possible from this unit...

HTH.

 

Bruce...

Just trying to get it to fire reliably. Think I have got it figured now. It needs the ready light connected to work.

 

Alex

Shot with this again today. I find it works 100% reliably but it has an annoying feature that when the camera switches off its metering (about 8 seconds after you have taken a shot) it fires the strobes again. No photo is taken, but it does make your buddy think that you are trigger happy.

 

I have had this behaviour on the three different Nikon bodies I have used it on. Anyone else had the same issue or indeed know a cure?

 

Alex

You're using Subal housings, right? How do you have Bulkhead Distribution Circuit Board configured? I never had any issues with my old Subal housing for the 20D but when I upgraded to the 40D and got the Subal housing for that (the circuit board is the same in both housings) I had issues getting my Z240's to work correctly (in manual mode) until I figured out that the configuration of the Bulkhead Distribution Circuit Board can make a difference. Fortunately, Reef Photo and Video now have a quick how to on configuring it:

 

http://reefphoto.com/tt/index.php?action=kb&article=22

 

Changing the configuration of your circuit board may solve the problem.

Thanks Gudge,

 

The Converter only works when connected in TTL mode - maybe it is a case of having less than all 5 wires (nikon) connected that will make it work better?

 

Alex

maybe it is a case of having less than all 5 wires (nikon) connected that will make it work better?

That's what I was sort of thinking, maybe you're getting a signal back along one of the extra wires (not required for actually firing the strobe) that is triggering the optical converter when the metering switches off. It only takes a few seconds to switch over the plugs on the circuit board so it's worth trying to see if it works. All I know is that with my 40D reconfiguring the board to manual mode so that less wires were actually connected to the Z240 made it work properly. Oddly enough with my 20D in the old Subal housing the Z240's worked perfectly when the board was configured to TTL mode, so what camera is connected would also seem to make a difference.

That's what I was sort of thinking, maybe you're getting a signal back along one of the extra wires (not required for actually firing the strobe) that is triggering the optical converter when the metering switches off. It only takes a few seconds to switch over the plugs on the circuit board so it's worth trying to see if it works. All I know is that with my 40D reconfiguring the board to manual mode so that less wires were actually connected to the Z240 made it work properly. Oddly enough with my 20D in the old Subal housing the Z240's worked perfectly when the board was configured to TTL mode, so what camera is connected would also seem to make a difference.

 

The unit won't work at all if the plugs on the circuit board are switched over. It only works when they are connected with all the pins (rather than the 3 pin option). I usually run my circuit board as 3 pin only, but have to move the plug for the Inon converter.

 

Maybe an intermediate between the two (4 pins?) might be the solution - but since I use fibre optics so rarely, I am not sure if I can be bothered to test it.

 

Here is the converter in action:

 

Alex