yn565ex fires fine using transceiver, but not on hotshoe

Hello Everyone.. So continues my saga of this yn565ex. See my previous threads if you're interested.. LOL

Ok - So I received the correct _Canon_ yn565ex replacement from the vendor. I loaded it with the normal batteries, mounted in on the camera (T3i) annnndddd nothing - doesn't fire. So I tried my yn560 flash and that fired no problem. So I got curious and put the yn565ex on a pair of transceivers - 1 in the hotshoe and the other connected to the yn565ex and it fires just fine! I've reset all the flash unit settings and no change.

Is this unit defective also? Is there something I may have misconfigured on the camera preventing it from firing?

Thanks in advance for the help

So I guess no answer yet suggests it's a bad flash unit.. I'll work to get it replaced then.. LOL Thanks everyone!

See my post in your other thread. https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=15438369#po​st15438369

Hi there Whortleberry - I did and no luck It does work just fine when I mount my 560. No problem, fires just fine.

The only other odd thing I notice is that the "Pilot" light goes Green on start-up remains red (normal between flash ready/not ready), but the light below it never illuminates at all. This is different than on my 560, which the same is for the "Pilot" light, but the light below this remains Red.

Not sure if this means anything.

On first start, 'Pilot' light will be Green until the unit has cycled up and is ready to use. When it is recycled, the light should turn Red (seems the wrong way round to me but I understand that it's all to do with voltage change LEDs). The "light below" you mention is used in ETTL mode (item #22 on pages 38-39 of the User Manual) is a Flash exposure confirmation indicator. It should only ever be lit for 3 seconds after a correct level exposure. Most of the time it'll be unlit.

So - your YN565EX starts up OK. It starts with the Green 'recycling' light which then changes to Red. Normal procedure. With the flash totally unconnected to anything at all, just loose in your hand, does it fire when you press the 'Pilot' button? You may have to press quite hard as they seem to be deep-set contacts and not all that easy to push onto.

It ought to flash OK, you've had it fire on a remote trigger so there's no logical reason it wouldn't fire 'freehand'. But just a test to make sure.

Turn the flash off, turn the camera off, insert the flash as per instructions on the other thread. Turn on flash. Turn on camera. In camera Menu, go to Flash Control. Make sure that "Flash firing = Enable" then scroll down to "External Flash Func. setting". Select that and tell us what it says.

Which transceivers are you using, and what mode is the flash actually in on for on and off camera? It is sounding like something isn't set to fire in ettl mode, but I'm not familiar enough with it to make a guess and don't have an ettl flash with me at the moment to test. (For people who know more about using ettl, you can't block it with something stupidly simple in the settings, like having the flash exposure compensation set all the way down, can you?)

Do you have another ettl enabled flash that you can test with?

Hi Whortleberry - Yes it will flash if I push the button. It also operates just as you described. I'm not able to check the flash settings, but I'm more than confident that I've been there and set them to what you've suggested. I will check tonight though.

Hi Luckless I have the Yongnuo RF-603 C1 transceivers which work great with my Canon based yn565-ex. The yn565ex is for the Canon camera. I do not have another ETTL flash.

Thanks to both of you for your help!

If it fires on the 603 and via the pilot button but not on the camera it may be an ETTL pin problem. Either there is an open on one of the pins inside the unit, or one of the pins is retracted and not extending and contacting the button in the camera hotshoe. In either case, I'd be inclined to have it exchanged.

Hi David - Understood.. I think that is the only and best option at this point.

Whortleberry wrote in post #15438708
Turn the flash off, turn the camera off, insert the flash as per instructions on the other thread. Turn on flash. Turn on camera. In camera Menu, go to Flash Control. Make sure that "Flash firing = Enable" then scroll down to "External Flash Func. setting". Select that and tell us what it says.

See attached. I go into the menu, "Flash firing = Enable" .. When I scroll down and select External Flash Func. - When I try to select anything I get the error in the other screenshot.

Thoughts?

clickfinish - I assume that you have a an RF603 on the camera, talking to another RF603 under the YN 565EX flash.

I am surprised that you can bring up that "External flash func. setting" menu. Or, is that what you get when the flash is mounted on the camera?

AFAIK, the RF603s cannot handle the data flows required for most of the settings, so the RF603 is described as an incompatible flash, (The 560s do not have the extra pins and so are recognised as dumb flashes, which the camera knows how to handle.)

The RF603 is not fully compatible with the capabilities of the 565EX. The YN-622C would probably fix your remaining problems.

BTW - "with normal batteries" does not ring alarm bells, it sounds sirens.

Hi CliveyBoy - No that was following Whortleberry's direction with the flash mounted. RE the normal batteries, I use Eneloops.. They've always worked fine. I use them as recommended by other photographers.

Thanks for the help!

If you don't already have a smart charger for your eneloops, then I strongly suggest picking one up. I would give your cells a full cycle and recharge just to be safe. If the cells you're using now are near dead or had a poor balance on their charge they can possibly cause you all kinds of random issues.

So you're seeing that error with the flash directly in the hot shoe? Not a great sign to be honest.

What is the order you're powering the devices on in? Try making sure everything is connected properly but turned off. Power the camera on, wait for it to boot, then power on the flash and try checking the settings again. If your contacts all look good, batteries check out, and boot order is correct but things still aren't working, then you're stuck somewhere fun as it can be hard to rule out an issue with the camera vs the flash. At that point I would suggest trying to track down another ettl flash that is known to work for sure and see if that does anything as expected.

clickfinish wrote in post #15441442
Hi CliveyBoy - No that was following Whortleberry's direction with the flash mounted.

I understand that the only Yongnuo flash that can be controlled by the flash control menus is the YN-568EX. So the message you got is exactly right - it is not compatible with the menus.

I doubt this is playing a role but just to be sure... you're not trying to use Liveview for any of your testing are you?

If so, don't. Non-canon flashes, rebels, and liveview do not play well together for some reason.