Inon Z240 Strobe Not Firing

Hi everyone,

3 weeks ago I got myself a Nauticam NA-5DMKIII housing for my Canon D5 MK3, along with an inon Z-240 strobe, connecting them both together with a fibre optic cable and the nauticam flash trigger that fits to the hot shoe of the camera inside the housing. Don't know if anyone has this same setup?

The problem I'm having is that I can't get the strobe to fire at all, (it powers up OK)

So far to problem solve I've:-

Unscrewed the fibre optic from the strobe to check light is coming through and it's being triggered by the camera when taking a shot, and I can see a light when the photo is taken.

Quickly flashed a light down the fibre optic while it's connected to the strobe, and the strobe fires.

Double checked the D5 menu for the flash, (from what I can see it's either on or off).

Now I'm stumped. The only thing I can think off is new batteries in the flash trigger, (the unit is not sending enough light down the fibre optic to trigger the strobe), but these will take a few days to arrive by post.

I have the strobe set to Full.

Am I doing something incredibly daft?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

Rich

Hey Rich

Ouch, how frustrating.

From your snagging list it sounds as though light is getting down the system so it may be a setting on the Z240 (I have a pair of them firing with fibre optics from a Nikon D800/Subal: no problem)

I don't have my gear nearby (it's about 3000 miles away) but have you tried the TTL settings on the Inon rather than FULL?

Hey Tim,

I've tried just about all combinations of settings on the strobe itself, and no joy. It's very frustrating.

Yeah, I can image. ARGH.

So, you know: the strobe fires; you know the camera flash fires; you know the light is being transmitted down the fibre optic cable (and it's not twisted or cracked); and you know the camera is activating the Nauticam flash trigger? Can you check the flash trigger with any other device?

Use the flash trigger outside of the housing first without optic cable and then with the optic cable to see if the strobe fires.
- if the strobe fires then change the fiberoptic cable and check for obstructions on the housing
- if the strobe don't fires, change the battery on the flash trigger and recheck
- if strobe don't fires with new batteries have the flash trigger checked

1° cut and then peel off a short piece on both ends of your cables to make sure that they are nice and fresh

2° broken cables can give intermittent problems difficult to tackle down, changing with a new one does the trick
3° you can buy a cheap toslink cable and cut off the end plugs cable to make a test

i had twice a internally broken/blind optical cable driving me nuts as depending of its position it worked or don't

Chris

Chris

Thanks Tim and Chris, new ideas to fault find.

Think I might have found the prob. The crimp at the end of the fibre optic cable is almost off the end of the cable, not sure how much this will affect it but.... I can fire the strobe without the cable no probs, with the cable no way, I don't think enough light is getting down there. The misleading thing is that if I use a torch with the cable it fires the strobe, but then this is a much stronger light source.

Rich

Ahhh, sounds like cable problems. As Chris says, easy to sort..... fingers crossed.

I have the same setup. Two of my Nauticam FO cables refuse to fire the strobe, the third cable does... All seem to transmit the same quality of light from the flash trigger.

Typically, the Inon strobe sensor (the one that makes it fire) is very sensitive. I would check the alignment of the Nauticam trigger, make sure that it is aligned correctly, also try both fiber optic ports, on my 7D system one side worked and one didn't. You can get some high NA (0.46) fiber from a variety of places (fiberoptic products) and try them pretty easily.

Bill

The INON Z-240 has a very sensible optical sensor and usually don't suffer of problems using a strobe to trigger.
I fear thet the LED light inside the Nauticam Trigger Unit is at the edge of being too weak to trigger the Z-240 with

a "older" cable.
It may help to peel ALL the part of the optical cable residing inside the plugs on BOTH ends and to check for

dull/faint/chafed parts on the cable as they may block enough light to create unpredictable behaviour or no triggering.

Chris

Where are you based? You can bring it to us and we can have a look at it with some different cables for you. We are in Bournemouth. Did you buy it in the UK?

Alex

Thanks for all your help and advice, I'm just waiting for a replacement cable to be delivered at the min to rule that out.

Has it improved the issue?

Just received a new cable, this time an official Nauticam cable, and all appears to be working fine. Thanks for all you help.

Splendid!