Confounding problem with intermittent strobe firing

2 hours ago, TimG said:

Yeah, battery replacement and and clean the ports is a very good start. Fingers crossed that does the trick. If you're using fibre optics, it's unlikely that it is those unless one if visibly broken.

I have to disagree about the fiber optics. They can get bent and degraded in ways that are not visible or obvious. That was exactly the problem I had, and not for the first time. Keep a few spares on hand and swap cables to diagnose. 

The Nauticam flash trigger batteries last a LONG time, like years and many thousands of shots. The same 2032 cells in the vacuum/leak detector get chewed up in just a few months time. I'm changing that one out all the time.

40 minutes ago, davehicks said:

I have to disagree about the fiber optics. They can get bent and degraded in ways that are not visible or obvious.

Fair enough, Dave. Just not an experience I have had. Thankfully!

5 hours ago, davehicks said:

I have to disagree about the fiber optics. They can get bent and degraded in ways that are not visible or obvious. That was exactly the problem I had, and not for the first time. Keep a few spares on hand and swap cables to diagnose. 

The Nauticam flash trigger batteries last a LONG time, like years and many thousands of shots. The same 2032 cells in the vacuum/leak detector get chewed up in just a few months time. I'm changing that one out all the time.

My experience with the cables and the vacuum leak detector batteries is similar.

Multicore cables are "less" likely to be the culprit, but it would be wrong to rule them out.

I have had and seen failures with them. A good check is to disconnect the cable at the strobe end and trigger the camera. You should get a consistent bright and obvious flash in the cable. If you don't check the other cable....if it is showing a flash, it is lilley a cable problem. if not, it is a trigger one.

Another potential issue is a slight misalignment of the hot shoe. This normally causes a complete failure, but can also be frustratingly intermittent. The test above will allow you to troubleshoot this though.

I have had trapped bubbles in the connectors causing intermittent problems too. If a strobe isn't working, I disconnect the fiber cable and see what is going on, this helps release any bubble too

39 minutes ago, adamhanlon said:

I have had trapped bubbles in the connectors causing intermittent problems too

A really good point from Adam. I get this quite often - and always at the start of the second of a two-tank dive!

53 minutes ago, adamhanlon said:

Multicore cables are "less" likely to be the culprit, but it would be wrong to rule them out.

I have had and seen failures with them. A good check is to disconnect the cable at the strobe end and trigger the camera. You should get a consistent bright and obvious flash in the cable. If you don't check the other cable....if it is showing a flash, it is lilley a cable problem. if not, it is a trigger one.

Another potential issue is a slight misalignment of the hot shoe. This normally causes a complete failure, but can also be frustratingly intermittent. The test above will allow you to troubleshoot this though.

I have had trapped bubbles in the connectors causing intermittent problems too. If a strobe isn't working, I disconnect the fiber cable and see what is going on, this helps release any bubble too

A bit hard to isolate now as the cables were renewed at the same time as cleaning the optical window so both are possible culprits. I suppose you could swap back to the old cables but if it's working now probably not much incentive to fix it.