YS-D2J strobe not firing

Hi everyone,

I am hoping someone might be able to give me some suggestions with the following:

Camera - Sony a7R3, Housing - Isotta, Strobes - YS-D2 & YS-D2J 

I bought an Anglerfish remote trigger last month and I found it was not triggering my strobe all the time (approx. 1 out of 10).  I emailed Anglerfish and was told I was not able to use fibre optic cables on my main strobe.  There would be too much delay having two triggers back to back.  I was told to use electronic sync cables instead.

Forked out more money and bought some Sea&Sea 5 pin sync cables and the bulkheads for my housing.  I then found that the YS-D2J strobe would not fire via the electronic sync cable but the YS-D2 would.  I tried both cables and I also tried a friends YS-D2J and had no success.

Isotta said the D2 and D2J should signal the same and had no suggestions.  I am still to receive feedback from Sea&Sea.  Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this or has any suggestions.

Currently my options are to upgrade my strobes (which I can't really afford at the moment) or sell the remote trigger and not bother with it.

Are you using TTL or manual?  You can test for manual firing with this method:

https://reefphoto.com/blogs/lighting/troubleshooting-strobes-with-electrical-sync

Are you using one strobe on camera and one off camera?  is it possible to use the sync cable on the on-camera strobe that works with electric sync  and the anglerfish to trigger the other strobe that doesn't trigger electrically - optically?

Hi Chris,

I am using my strobes in manual and I have tried that firing test. I found it didn’t work on either of the strobes.  The notes did say it doesn’t work for the YS-D1 strobes so I figured it was maybe the same for the YS-D2??

I guess I could use the sync cable for my on camera strobe and the fibre optic on the remote trigger and strobe when I have it on a tri pod for macro snoot work. It just means I won’t be able to use it for any wide angle shots when I would prefer to have two strobes on camera. I have another strobe with fibre optic connection only which I was going to use with the remote trigger and then have my D2 strobes on my camera using the electronic cables.

You could look into the quick release strobe arms that have come out recently to get it off camera perhaps?

an alternative you could try is that the S&S strobes have a port to daisy chain your strobes, this is just in front of the sensor port, page e-22 of manual.  Run a long fibre optic from there to the strobe that won't fire electrically and use that for on camera shots and hook up your anglerfish to your other strobe?  Then the one strobe would trigger electrically, and the slave cable could trigger the second strobe that won't fire electrically.   

There's seems to be a rash of people complaining about S&S strobes that are difficult to fire at the moment.   I'm glad I went with INON for my strobes.

Hmmm...complicated!

Cameras and strobe are in Manual mode?

The YS-D2J should fire electrically. Can you try the YS-D2 on the bulkhead that was not working with the YS-D2J? 

Does it fire using fire optic? Do you have a fiber optic converter on the housing?

I'm not sure about Anglerfish's advice. I use fiber on both my housing and (Anglerfish) remote regularly. Speed of light is pretty quick! It does not work if your strobes (or camera) are in TTL mode and bear in mind that it does need some time recycle between flash dumps (particularly full power ones) .

Adam

Yes, everything is in manual. And I have tried the strobe on the same bulkhead as the one the D2 is firing on.

I too was surprised when I was told I couldn’t use fibre optic cables with the remote trigger.  This certainly was not mentioned in the manual.  Anglerfish reckon the Isotta flash trigger in my housing is too slow. I need to replace it with a proper electronic sync cable.  This is when I bought the bulkheads which plug into the Isotta flash trigger and convert it to an electronic signal.

I did do a test with my speed light on my camera and the anglerfish trigger. It fired every time with the speedlight.  So I guess the Isotta flash trigger is too slow.

I think any time delay is inside the electronics, there are probably tricks to getting the LED up to full power quickly among other things. 

I did not realise you were plugging the bulkheads into the trigger - this is still using the electronics within the trigger perhaps?   Not knowing the electronics within the trigger I would place that on the list of suspects. 

Also to be clear we are talking about the trigger being too slow and the flash not firing - is that right?  Or does the flash fire but it is not syncing, or are they separate issues?  So maybe I should go back over the issues in a bit of detail - sorry if it sounds pedantic but getting the details communicated clearly can be a bit hard typing responses back and forth.

First when using fibre optics - You said the flash was firing 1 in 10.  So let me confirm :

• Which strobe was connected to the anglerfish?
• When you say it wasn't firing  do you mean it did not fire at all or does it fire but not sync so no flash in image?
• Are the YS-D2 and YS-D2J connected optically to the housing and both firing happily?And they were being used to trigger (sometimes) the Anglerfish and remote flash?

I can see a slow response from the trigger causing the anglerfish not to sync but it shouldn't cause it not to fire I don't think.

On the issue with the D2J not firing -

You have this connector I assume you have this bulkhead plugged into the trigger:  https://duai.com.au/product/isotta-nikonos-bulkhead-5-pin-ttl/ 

Do you know anyone with an electrically triggered housing you could test your D2J on preferably one that connects direct to the camera hotshoe.  I'm thinking you might have a better chance of triggeting the D2J with this style of bulkhead:  https://www.bluewaterphotostore.com/nauticam-universal-bulkhead-connector-25056 

Not suggesting you rush out and buy it but could be worth trying.

Hi Guys,

I have resolved the issue of the Anglerfish remote trigger not firing my strobe.  It turns out all I needed was a new fibre optic cable, the one I was using was faulty.  Yes, I feel like a bit of an idiot not checking this first.  But it is always the simple things that are over looked.

So the advice from Anglerfish saying it would not work with fibre optic cables and I had to install electronic sync cables was not the case.  That just presented me with another problem as my YS-D2J would not fire when plugged into the sync cord.  This issue still stands, but I am no longer chasing the answer to this as I no longer need the sync cords.  I am going back to my fibre optics.

Thanks for your input, appreciate it.

Happy Diving

Tash

Good that it worked out, sounds like anglerfish were making up a solution as they went along.  The thing to remember is with S&S strobes first step is to assume there's an issue with the fibre optic cable.