Odd RF-603 problem - Socket is shorting the shutter cable.

I got some RF-603s a little while ago but I didn't get a shutter cable until today and I'm having an issue with triggering the shutter using them.

If I push the cable connector fully into the trigger it shorts the shutter half press contact to the ground contact and prevents me from activating autofocus (because it's already activated as the half-press is shorted) or from using the buttons on the back of the camera (the same as half pressing the camera's shutter button does). It allows me to fire the shutter but that's it.
If I pull the connector back out a bit it all works fine though it means the cable is a bit loose and may fall out if knocked.

I've tried shorting the pins on the cable and the cable is working fine so that leaves the triggers. It seems a bit odd that both of my triggers are doing this - I tried them individually as a wired remote to eliminate it being an issue with wireless or it being an issue with one of the units affecting the other.

Has anyone else experienced/head about this shorting issue? I can't find any mention of it anywhere.

I opened one of the units to see if there was any obvious soldering that could be shorting the connections and I couldn't see anything but I'm no expert.
One thing that did surprise me when I opened the unit was that the top and bottom halves of the unit are held together with three thin self tapping screws that go into plastic holes which doesn't fill me with confidence for mounting a flash on the hot shoe.

Is this with both trancievers or just one unit? I haven't had that issue with mine

Both of my units exhibit the same behaviour.

Have you tried them on a different body to rule out the camera?

Some shutter release cables have the focus circuit closed already and are called "pre-relaese" cables. Some have switches built in to turn this feature on and off. Like this one from Flash Zebra.
http://flashzebra.com/​shutter_pw/0090.shtml

I wonder if Yongnuo built this short into the trigger instead of the cable?
Maybe someone that has the trigger and the cable can jump in and tell us how their units work.

Most of the Cables sold for use with trigger kits are also notorious for being very cheap. There is a chance the cable is defective which imho would be the most logical explanation. If you have another cable give that a shot or if not send it back for exchange.

dedsen wrote in post #13990324
Some shutter release cables have the focus circuit closed already and are called "pre-relaese" cables. Some have switches built in to turn this feature on and off. Like this one from Flash Zebra.
http://flashzebra.com/​shutter_pw/0090.shtml

I wonder if Yongnuo built this short into the trigger instead of the cable?
Maybe someone that has the trigger and the cable can jump in and tell us how their units work.

how would one test this?

A pre-release cable has the white wire shorted to the shield. Here is a site that shows the pin out of the C3 connector.
http://www.gophotograp​hy.net/tips/releasecan​on.html
Any more tests you want me to do?

seoul4korea wrote in post #13994327
how would one test this?

Use a multimeter to check the continuity between the two pins on the cable.

Darren,

Just trying to eliminate some assumptions here.....

If you're using the remote trigger socket then you need to have the focus configured on the shutter button and not one of the back buttons (not sure which body you have).
I suspect the fact that it works with the plug pulled out slightly means that it's the "half press" that is then firing the shutter as the jack plug will be making contact with the other wring pair.
A quick test is to switch you lens to MF and try to take a shot with the RF603....the body ignores the focus command in this mode.

Bob

seoul4korea wrote in post #13990207
Have you tried them on a different body to rule out the camera?

No but I shorted the connections on the cable which worked fine and it also works fine with a normal wired release.

dedsen wrote in post #13990324
Some shutter release cables have the focus circuit closed already and are called "pre-relaese" cables.

Yongnuo advertise it as operating the AF on a half press. If it was closed by design you wouldn't be able to do that and you wouldn't be able to press any of the buttons on the back of the camera because half pressing the shutter disables the review/menu/etc buttons.

isoMorphic wrote in post #13991352
There is a chance the cable is defective which imho would be the most logical explanation.

That's what I thought but the cable works fine if I short the contacts with the end of a screwdriver, the only way I can see it being defective is if the plug is the wrong shape so the contacts don't match the ones inside the socket but it looks like a normal 2.5mm plug to me. It could possibly be a slightly different length which is making the ground and AF connections on the plug touch one connection inside the socket (like it might if you put a 3-connection stereo plug into a 2-connection mono socket) and cause the short but it seems like a really odd thing to get wrong.

Canon Bob wrote in post #13995794
If you're using the remote trigger socket then you need to have the focus configured on the shutter button and not one of the back buttons (not sure which body you have).
I suspect the fact that it works with the plug pulled out slightly means that it's the "half press" that is then firing the shutter as the jack plug will be making contact with the other wring pair.
A quick test is to switch you lens to MF and try to take a shot with the RF603....the body ignores the focus command in this mode.

I do use back button focus (Canon 40D) but I switched it and the other AF settings back to the default for using the RF603.
I'm not having problems firing the shutter, the shutter fires fine no matter what I do with the cable,it's just the autofocus (half press shutter) is being activated as soon as I plug the cable into the trigger which means the camera is permanently autofocusing, the buttons are locked and images don't appear on the screen after they've been taken. Unplugging the trigger stops AF, makes the most recent image appear on the screen and releases the lock on the buttons.