YN-565EX wont work with my E-TTTL cables

Just received my YN=565EXf;ash. The whole reason I purchased this unit was to use E-ttl with my softbox. I have three different brand ettl cables and none will work consistently with the 565, yet when I mount it to the camera it passes exposure info perfectly.

when I look at auctions for the ettl cords, even the Yongnou brand, it never says it is compatible with the 565, only mentioning the various Canon series lights.

I just paid 61 dollars for a 24 foot straight ettl cable and it will not work, most of the time the flash won't go off, or when it does it is simply full power and too bright, yet the flash is reporting the proper zoom on thelens and when I make zoom changes to the lens the flash reflects the changes properly.

My camera sees the flash in ettl mode andgives me the option to change settings, when I change fec on the camera the flash chages power accordingly, but then won'tfire or will fire with too much light. Put it directly on the 5D2 and it fires properly and the 5D2 has noproblemswith it.

Surely all three of my eltl cords are not bad.

Any ideas?

Thanks

guitarjeff wrote in post #14844424
Just received my YN=565EXf;ash. The whole reason I purchased this unit was to use E-ttl with my softbox. I have three different brand ettl cables and none will work consistently with the 565, yet when I mount it to the camera it passes exposure info perfectly.

when I look at auctions for the ettl cords, even the Yongnou brand, it never says it is compatible with the 565, only mentioning the various Canon series lights.

I just paid 61 dollars for a 24 foot straight ettl cable and it will not work, most of the time the flash won't go off, or when it does it is simply full power and too bright, yet the flash is reporting the proper zoom on thelens and when I make zoom changes to the lens the flash reflects the changes properly.

My camera sees the flash in ettl mode andgives me the option to change settings, when I change fec on the camera the flash chages power accordingly, but then won'tfire or will fire with too much light. Put it directly on the 5D2 and it fires properly and the 5D2 has noproblemswith it.

Surely all three of my eltl cords are not bad.

Any ideas?

Thanks

one suggestion, make sure the cord is seated properly on the camera and flash. My Yongnuo ETTL flash works fine with ETTL sync cords (but I have the earlier 465)

watt100 wrote in post #14844622
one suggestion, make sure the cord is seated properly on the camera and flash. My Yongnuo ETTL flash works fine with ETTL sync cords (but I have the earlier 465)

reseated them several times, no difference.

This sounds very much like you have poor electrical contact(s).

I have six TTL cords, three different makes, which all work in every conceivable combination with 2 different Metz 54 (1 off MZ4, 1 off MZ4i), three different Yongnuo YN565EX and a Canon 580EXII. They will also work if I 'borrow' the shoe off either Metz 54 and use (with Metz lead) on either of 2 very ancient Metz 45 units (but I don't like doing this because of hotshoe trigger voltage issues). So non-Canon flashes can certainly be used with either Canon or non-Canon leads to fire with full compatibility on Canon cameras.

1. #1 thing I'd do is to take an alcohol wipe and clean all the pins, all the contact pads and all the rails on each item you have - TTL cords, camera and especially the YN565EX.
2. By any chance do all of your TTL cords have rubber-like shrouds around the shoe which slides into the camera? A number of folks have had problems with this - apparently, when you clamp the rubber down it can marginally lift the shoe and break contact. Does your flash fire reliably if you don't clamp the cord down on the camera? This is a quick fix, simply peel the rubber shroud off and use the cord without it (it's not an essential part of the circuit).
   
3. Winding the YN565EX locking screw down pushes the flash up against the upper edge of the rails. Great contact for that part of the circuit but it could make the spring-loaded pins in the centre of the shoe try to reach just that little bit too far. If they are right at the extreme of making contact, you are going to get the dreaded internittent fault.
   
4. Is it possible to test your cables with another flashgun? Doesn't have to be a YN565EX, just something to prove the cables work.
   

Well, I have another ettl flash, off brand, and it doesn't work in ettl mode with two of my cords and I haven't tried it yet with my new 24 foot 61 dollar cable yet. Can't be the contacts because this all happened the same on both my rebel bodies, 450D and 500D, the 5D2 is brand new, and so is the 565.

Now, I was looking at an auction for a 565 and check this out.
http://www.ebay.com …-TTL-Remote-/330602865675

Now look down the page for the statement in red. It says this.

Notice:

This item is not compatible with Yongnuo's 10m FC-681, if you want to use it with 10m TTL cable, please kindly use DSLRKIT brand:

Item image
10M 10 meter E-TTL Off Camera FLASH sync Cord for Canon

And it so happens I have that 30 foot exact ETTL cable,and low and behold, it works with the 565ex. I set it in programmode and it exposes properly and the zoom works as does flash compensation. Now why would this auction say that their 10m cord DOESN'T work with the 565 speedlight, and then link to this very brand cord that I have?

Then I try it and sure enough, it works, yet I can hook up my brand new 61 dollar straight ettl and it gives improper exposure, too bright or won't even fire, then i hook uo my small three foor one and again, absolutely nothing. This makes me believe that the Yn-565 uses some kind of different protocol than the YN cable they said is not compatible, and a different one than two of my three cords.

Now, I was just thinking, I am using my 70-200 L lens, which zoome past the auto zoom amount on the 565. The 565 goes out to 105mm zoom range, yet I have been zoomingpast 105 on the lens, so could this be causing confusion with the falsh iwonder?

I do have a Tamron 28-75, which falls within the power zoom range on both ends of the 565 flash. I'll have to give that lens a try and see if the flash can then function properly with my cables.

But I find it strange that the yn auction mentions specifically that it is not compatible with a cable from the same company. That makes me thing the 565 has some kind of different commands and can't use some ettl cords.

guitarjeff: I think the most likely reason for Jiakgong's statement in red is that they have had a number of returns. There comes a point when it becomes uneconomic to sell something; we have no way of knowing what the Jiakgong→Yongnuo returns policy is. If Wenshy at Jiakgong has had several returns and Yongnuo won't replace them then PDQ the recommended brand will be changed. Well, wouldn't you? Far more honest to say "It doesn't work" then folks find that actually it does for them than to say "It works" then folks find it doesn't. I've dealt with Wenshy on a number of occasions and always found him (or is it her, I dunno? I suspect Wen Xi is a lady.) to be completely above board, very trustworthy and reliable - can't imagine him/her deliberately misleading.
A 10m cord is also at the far limits of what is possible due to voltage drop, increased wire resistance and a number of other factors - perhaps it's nothing more than that the cable is thicker on other makes and more conductive. Whatever, a 10M cord is pushing your luck quite a bit, by all accounts. (I use radio slaves, personally, so this is conjecture on my part).

But the common factor in all those hook-ups is the contacts on the cable. Are they actually making reliable contact? Are the cables intact (there are usually something like 5 or 7 ultra-thin copper strands in each element of the cable - they are really easy to break)? Have the cables been pulled out to their full length - that's a common way of breaking wires - the 3ft refers to the length before the curl is put in and they never actually reach that length again without potential damage. You've already proved the YN565EX works on camera (well, it does on the 5D, how about the others?) so the fault has to lie with one or more cables.

All 3 of my own YN565EXs work perfectly on 3ft cables from Canon, Pixel AND Yongnuo - tested on 40D, 50D and 7D bodies. The only tiny hiccup has been with an old Metz 3102 M3 and that was because it's an out-of-date adapter (didn't work any better directly on camera). Otherwise perfect. But they're all 3ft cables and none have been stretched at all, they're used on various flash brackets and live in a totally unstretched state.

No, I don't think that Yongnuo have fouled up the protocols for eTTL compatibility. The firing is controlled by centre contact pin and rail. Simple. If there is a circuit, it fires, if there isn't then it doesn't - there's nothing to foul up! If your flash isn't working then I'm sure the fault lies elsewhere.

The fault won't lie with the lens zooming either. Zooming merely tells the flash head to zoom out to maximum extent - to do anything else would mean all sorts of manufacturing problems. Imagine what would happen if you should happened to try to use the flash (and don't forget that the Canon 580EXII also 'only' zooms to 105mm) with a Sigma 300-800mm zoom? Or would the flash manual tell you not to do it? Of course not.

In the long run, we can go round and round with this because there are too many variables. Let's tie it down to one 3ft TTL cord on one camera body with one flash. Clean the contacts on the cord carefully, make sure that the flash is located (you only need to wind the lock knob partway down to drop the pin in it's corresponding hole) and try it. Put the camera in Manual mode. Try it again. Just a simple fire/not fire test at this stage. Then we can try to advance from that point.

Well, my short 3 foot cable does not work on either ofmy ettl flashes. I did stretch that out many times so that's probably what happened there.

But, my brand new 61dollar24 foot straight cable does not work with the 565ex. But I have the thirty foot coiled cord,the exact one in the guys auction that he says is compatible, and it DOES work with the 565. He gives a link to the one that you should buy, the one that says slrkit, and I have that exact cable and it works great.

So, thenew 61 dollar straight cable is not even the longest cord this guy makes, and he is charging a lot ofmoney, and this new cord willnot work with the 565.

I need to figure out if it is bad because I don't want to pay for a cable that doesn't work. I just tried the new cable on the other ettl flash and it doesn't work with that either. When i try to go in to the cn flash functions it say this menu cannot be used because the flash power is off or the flash is incompatible.

So, I wish i had a Canon 580EX iI to try it on but I think it must be bad. I'll be contacting the seller. Here is the link to this cord
http://flashzebra.com/​products/0125/

Is there a chance that you are placing the cord in the hotshoe or the flash on the cord backwards?

I don't think that if you had access to a Canon 580EXII, things would be any different. As far as I have discovered, the only functional difference between the Canon and the Yongnuo flashes are that the YN565EX doesn't have HSS - which is totally irrelevant in this context.

BAD CONTACTS / NO CONTACTS somewhere along the line!

OK - let's get this clear. Are the following statements all correct?

• YN565EX works directly on top of camera.
  Comment: Flash proven OK.

• DSLRKIT coiled 30ft does work with YN565EX.
  Comment: Cable AND flash proven OK. This would suggest that you can take the YN565EX out of the equation regarding compatibility.
  Question: Does your other, unspecified off-brand flash work with the DSLRKIT coiled 30ft cable or not?

• 3ft cable doesn't work with YN565EX.
  
• 3ft cable doesn't work with other flash either.
  Possibly faulty cable - ??overstretched??

• FlashZebra straight 24ft doesn't work with YN565EX.
  
• FlashZebra straight 24ft doesn't work with other flash either.
  Possibly faulty cable but that'd be very bad luck. 67% cable failure is way, way beyond acceptable.
  

Soor not getting back, but I am in the middle of moving and have been busy. I'll go through the testing again tonight or tomorrow. No way am I attaching the cable backwards, I can clearly see the pins forming an arrow and I am putting the cables to match.

I have stretched the small coiled cable many times so I am sure I have broken that one. So now this is about the new 24 foot straight cable. I don't see how it can be functional when it wont control the 565 yet my coiled 30 fotter does control it. I will test them now again and report back.