Help with new Nikon/Hugy/Inon

I just received my new D700 Hugy housing and Zen dome. I also have twin Inon Z240s. Very excited to get them wet. Leaving for Indo in a few weeks.

While all of the small adjustments to my Hugy housing now have it fitting the camera like a glove, I cant get the strobes to fire and thought you might be able to help.

Set up:

D700 Hugy housing with no TTL converter card. Hot shoe plugged into J1, all 6 switches off.

I have a dual Sea and Sea cable plugged into a single housing nikonos port. I am trying to cut down on one o-ring and failure point. The cable splits to connect both strobes.

The strobes are set to 0.5 to 6 Manual and I have the Ev set to 2.8 on each.

The strobes will fire if I short them at the hot shoe.

The camera is set to manual aperture and exposure.

I have tried adjusting the e3 menu settings with no success. Interestingly, the e3 menu does not change from "Built In" to "Optional" when the hot shoe is connected like the camera manual says it will if a Nikon product is attached. Makes me think the camera does not "see" the strobe so it is not triggering the hot shoe. I have been told however, that this should not matter. A bit skeptical.

If I remove the camera from the housing and pop the built in flash up, the built in flash will fire in the same environment that the external strobes do not fire.

I think it is something simple that I am missing.

Thanks for your help.

Hot shoe plugged into J1, all 6 switches off.

I have a dual Sea and Sea cable plugged into a single housing nikonos port.

The strobes are set to 0.5 to 6 Manual and I have the Ev set to 2.8 on each.

The strobes will fire if I short them at the hot shoe.

With the above I would do two things:

- Check if maybe the switches are all on (maybe you got them wrong) and try.

- Reset the camera and try again.

- Tape all but trigger and ground connectors on the housing hotshoe and try (trigger is the big central one and ground is the one that connects to the sliders).

The strobes-cords-connector-hotshoe combination works because they fire when short is done. So the problem is with the camera recognizing the strobes.

With the above I would do two things:

 

- Check if maybe the switches are all on (maybe you got them wrong) and try.

- Reset the camera and try again.

- Tape all but trigger and ground connectors on the housing hotshoe and try (trigger is the big central one and ground is the one that connects to the sliders).

 

The strobes-cords-connector-hotshoe combination works because they fire when short is done. So the problem is with the camera recognizing the strobes.

Thanks for the reply. Tried this test and the strobes still did not fire and the camera still did not recognise the strobes are connected. The strobes did fire when I shorted the two pins you pointed out.

Anyone with a D700 and Inon Z240 strobes have an idea?

All the switches should be in the off position, then only ground and X are connected trough.

And if you short the hotshoe, X and ground they fire? Very strange, settings on the D700 are on manual flash?

Try without battery that supplies the pcb board.

I have problems with connecting a SB800 strobe, trough the Hugyfot pcb, but this with all the wires connected trough.

I have to use the bypass piece, but this is a different story.

The camera will never see if the strobes are connected, there is no data transfer. The camera pulls the X to the ground on every shot you make.

Try to set your built-in flash on manual!

All the switches should be in the off position, then only ground and X are connected trough.

And if you short the hotshoe, X and ground they fire? Very strange, settings on the D700 are on manual flash?

 

Try without battery that supplies the pcb board.

 

I have problems with connecting a SB800 strobe, trough the Hugyfot pcb, but this with all the wires connected trough.

I have to use the bypass piece, but this is a different story.

 

The camera will never see if the strobes are connected, there is no data transfer. The camera pulls the X to the ground on every shot you make.

Try to set your built-in flash on manual!

Thanks for this reply. Your logic got me thinking that the hugy hotshoe must not be seating correctly on the camera- especially if I could trigger the strobes by shorting the circuit. I confirmed the camera hotshoe was triggering using a nikon strobe. That narrowed the problem to the way the two must be matching.

Long story short, after a few minutes using my handy jeweler's file, the brand new hugy hot shoe fits better and the strobes fire!

Thanks to all of you that helped with the replies and advice. Next stop is Indonesia. Time to get this rig wet.