Nikon D90 strobe not firing

This seems impossibly, maddeningly simplistic yet I'm unable to resolve the issue. I've been shooting, for about 15 dives, with a new rig.....Nikon 90, Aquatica housing, single Sea & Sea strobe manually fired. Camera is set to shoot in manual exposure mode and I see where to set the flash so it always fires. However, without changing anything obvious, my strobe is now not firing. I see the bits on the housing as set as expected for manual mode. The wiring is clean and good with all rubber clean and slightly greased. It seems to either have to be a setting on the camera or something has malfunctioned.

So let me narrow down my question to the camera itself. What settings do you use on your D90 to fire the strobe? I've gone through the manual but am probably over complicating things at this point as no resolution has appeared. Any ideas out there before I throw this thing against the wall?

'Frustrated in San Jose' Mark

Did you try a different strobe cable? Could be a bad one.

Do you have a 'land' flash to try? You could then test the camera flash separate from dive equipment. If you do not have one, try a local camera store. They usually have demo models you could try. If that all works, you know the issue is on the cable/strobe side.

When I have had trouble like this, the camera mode has moved due to contact with a bag, etc. You might check this as well. That pesky dial is not hard to move when taking the camera out of a bag.

You must find out is your D90 not fire or you SnS strobe not fire.... camera not fire u need to check with your setting, use "Auto mode" and shoot on dark area and see the flash will pop up and fire or not. if the flash is fire, try in "M mode" and see, if not fire this may be your manual flash control setting is wrong. normally in manual i will set to 1/128 and if u accidentally set to "commander mode" (Built in flash --, Group A -- and Group B --) your camera flash also not firing however your camera flash is pop up.

If is your strobe not fire, it can be 2 thing. Cable (F/optic or sny Cable) and button over twis to "Manual 1 to manual 2 or TTL mode". It happen to me before...

Hope This help....

Hey Mark,

Before you throw it against the wall, (turns out that doesn't work either) make sure your hot shoe connection is solid. Both to the camera and to the bulkhead fitting.

Good luck,

Steve

Hey Mark,

Before you throw it against the wall, (turns out that doesn't work either) make sure your hot shoe connection is solid. Both to the camera and to the bulkhead fitting.

 

Good luck,

Steve

Not wanting to sound obvious but the hot shoe connector from the bulkhead is in the correct way. On my canon it slides in both ways but will only fire when placed in one direction. Just a thought as this has happened to me also.

I had the same problem with a brand new Aquatica D90 housing. I was told by my supplier (Peter Mooney, Scubapixs Australia) to carefully unscrew tiny screws on the hotshoe (in the housing) and clean the connections with Alcohol (I use some hand cleaner as its high in alcohol) and alow to dry.

Becareful as there are some little springs in there also.

This worked for me.

Regards Mark

I recently had a problem too with my AD90, the hot shoe connector harness was constantly getting trapped between the body and the housing as I placed the body in the housing, this in turn caused a kink in my harness which led to a failure, consequently on the back of the liveaboard, I took the sync cords off to try someone elses sync cords and strobes to try and resolve the problem, this never worked but made it worse, once all checked by Aquatica, they discovered the faulty harness, plus the fact water had seeped down the bulkhead connectors (from me trying to resolve the problem on a partly wet bench, or even me with my hair being wet dripping on it slightly), they have now replaced the bulkhead connectors.

Has your strobe ever sporadically flashed while assembling? If so then it definately wont be the body, and may be something here, especially if you know you're pretty sure with yourself that you havent changed the camera settigngs. I played with mine too forever thinking that I may have, but hadnt

Good luck

Also double check sync cords with one that you know works. Can you trip the strobe to fire from the sync cord you have. I know you can with the Ikelite ones. This trouble shoots if the sync cord is the issue or the hotshoe/camera issue.

Regards Mark

Is it that simply the strobe may be switched to slave mode - it's very easy to change this setting without being aware.

On the Sea & Sea strobes this simple thing can throw a real curved ball at the new user.

several relevant responses....my thanks to you all

1. Prime suspect is the cable at this point. I only have the one so I'm thinking I'll take it to Backscatter this weekend and see what they say. My wall will remain safe at least another week.

2. No extra land flash to try but the hot show is a candidate. The connector is hooked up correctly per the specifications, and in the same manner it was working fine for 15 dives. Pretty sure that's good to go, however, the point about the cable being squeezed between the body and the housing is a possible suspect. I noticed that as well and it's a concern, especially given the comments here.

3. In reading the manual, I started wondering about the Command mode as well. In my reading, it seemed a logical choice. Is anyone using this setting?

4. Double checked slave mode. I was hoping that might have been the answer as I actually struck my forehead when I read that. I'd forgotten that point. Alas, I appear to remain SOL.

Backscatter! Oh Backscatter! Time to annoy you folks again...