S-Turtle Mobie - Sony A6400

3 hours ago, ScottAudette said:

Based on the conversations I had with Balazs it's not going to be any time soon. Said it was going to be a massive undertaking with no timetable for it.  

Bummer. I wonder what it is that makes it so challenging.

10 hours ago, stuartv said:

That is awesome that the RPs can do 1/4 power at 3-4fps. Any chance you could test them at 6fps and see what power level you can use? Even for just a 1 - 2 second burst?

I'm a bit reluctant to push them too hard on dry land - they're a pretty expensive piece of kit, and I've got a Richelieu Rock liveaboard coming up in two weeks - and I don't have a bathtub large enough to do proper testing in, but next time I go diving (possibly as soon as tomorrow), I'll bring along a slate, mark it camera and strobe settings, and use it as a target for some test bursts.

10 hours ago, Barmaglot said:

Bummer. I wonder what it is that makes it so challenging.

I'm a bit reluctant to push them too hard on dry land - they're a pretty expensive piece of kit, and I've got a Richelieu Rock liveaboard coming up in two weeks - and I don't have a bathtub large enough to do proper testing in, but next time I go diving (possibly as soon as tomorrow), I'll bring along a slate, mark it camera and strobe settings, and use it as a target for some test bursts.

Understood about pushing them on dry land. Any time you have a chance in the water is GREAT by me. I'm not in a huge rush to spend $2500 on new strobes....

21 hours ago, stuartv said:

Understood about pushing them on dry land. Any time you have a chance in the water is GREAT by me. I'm not in a huge rush to spend $2500 on new strobes....

I did some testing today, and got very odd results. The UWT trigger functions fine in LO (3fps), HI (8fps) and HI+ (11fps) camera modes, but in MID (6fps) mode, it flashes a few times, and then stops working - I can hear shutter clicks, but there is no red coming from the LEDs. Worse yet, even the few times that it does flash in the beginning of the sequence are not continuous. This looks like a software bug; I will need to contact Pavel about it.

As far as burst power goes, in LO (3fps) mode, with supercharger and eight brand new (right out of the package, one testing cycle on a charger and two dives) fully charged Eneloop Pro batteries, it can go as high as 50% power continuously. At 75% power, I got one good shot, then a skipped shot (strobe did not fire), then a sequence of reduced power shots. In HI (8fps) mode, 6% power seems to be the sustainable maximum - at 8% power (it's not labeled, but that's the click between 6% and 12%) I got four bright exposures and then sustained flashes at reduced power; at 12% I got two bright exposures and then sustained reduced power.

On 2/24/2021 at 7:46 AM, Barmaglot said:

I did some testing today, and got very odd results. The UWT trigger functions fine in LO (3fps), HI (8fps) and HI+ (11fps) camera modes, but in MID (6fps) mode, it flashes a few times, and then stops working - I can hear shutter clicks, but there is no red coming from the LEDs. Worse yet, even the few times that it does flash in the beginning of the sequence are not continuous. This looks like a software bug; I will need to contact Pavel about it.

As far as burst power goes, in LO (3fps) mode, with supercharger and eight brand new (right out of the package, one testing cycle on a charger and two dives) fully charged Eneloop Pro batteries, it can go as high as 50% power continuously. At 75% power, I got one good shot, then a skipped shot (strobe did not fire), then a sequence of reduced power shots. In HI (8fps) mode, 6% power seems to be the sustainable maximum - at 8% power (it's not labeled, but that's the click between 6% and 12%) I got four bright exposures and then sustained flashes at reduced power; at 12% I got two bright exposures and then sustained reduced power.

That is awesome info. Thanks for doing that test. 

I don't think my UWT trigger for the a7rIV has a problem with shooting at MID, but I will have to try it again and see.

[mention=41708]Balage_diver[/mention] has been working with me on this for a bit now. He's found the same things happening as I did. So here ia a little bit of a wrap up!
The A6000x series will not work in mid continuous or high continuous with the Sony Turtle. Neither in TTL or WL/Manual. He had hoped it would be an easy fix but it's not.  So there is no timetable on this. 
Also when using the Turtle in TTL the first frame would be exposed perfectly. Consequently if you fired the camera again quickly the next few frames were typically blown out. Like nuclear. He's ordered a YS-D3 to look further into all this.

So, we at least know the Turtle with 150 leds WILL fire a Sea & Seas YS-D3 Lightning.  Just that there are a few other issues.
Now, I bought this to use in my pool studio to fire FO manually. It does that so I am going to keep it just for that. And will stick to my electronic bulkhead for diving. That fires every time and can even cheat up up the Sony's flash sync to 1/200th.

@OwenF I think it would be fine in that scenario. BTW, I've decided to get rid of my S-Turtle and I'm just going to stick to Electrical Sync. So, if you're in the market let me know! ; )