External battery pack question

So ive been using my external battery pack for about 2 months now. Oddly, last wedding, my flash ran out of batteries while the pack was plugged in and still showing near full. I thought perhaps I had accidentally switched the "Use external pack only" customer function but I had not. Is there any way to tell for sure if your flash is using an external battery over the double aa's?

The external power pack plugged into the power socket provides power to only the flash's capacitor, It does not provide power to the processor, indicators, zoom motor, etc. That is done from the internal batteries.

If you had a Pixel pack, it will run on only half the batteries, so 4 could replace the internal ones and you could continue, with only a slight increase in recharge time.

I understand, Clive. What Im asking though, is if there is a way to confirm that the capacitor is being charged by the external pack.

Sorry Shane, I thought you were saying the flash turned itself off.

The Canon and Pixel packs I have indicate when charge is occuring. The flash uses the third wire in the cable/plug as a control line to enable/disable pack supply. I see a significant difference in recharge time with and without, at 1/1 and 1/2 output (not test button). And, switch to External only and observe.

A fault can develop with the plug/socket connection, and pack electronics can fail. Which pack do you have?

Its a calumet pack. Im sure that it is a rebranded something or other but Im not sure what. I see zero difference in recycle time with and without the pack plugged in.

As far as I am aware, the only speedlights which can operate without any internal batteries are the Metz range. All the others need those 4 pesky AAs inside the flash at all times for control. The external HV power pack bypasses ONLY the internal supply to the capacitor.

Hence, if you change the speedlight to "External Power only" you are merely cutting off that portion of the recharging power drawn from the internal AAs. I assume that there is no indication on the power pack of recycling (change in status lights in one form or another is a popular way of showing this - some of my Pixel TD-381s twinkle while recycling, the newer ones flash on/off more slowly then return to constant when fully recycled. My CL4500-equivalent, the Godox PB960, ramps up from no blue lights to (eg) 3 blue LEDs then the red ready light comes on)

One way you could check is to set the speedlight to "External Power ONLY" and manually fire it with the test button. Fairly obviously, with only the HV pack as power source if the flash fires and recycles then power IS getting through.

One potential area to check for faults is the cable. Though these things look sturdy on the outside, internally each of the 3 individual wires usually comprises 7 ultra-thin strands of copper thinner than baby hair. Easily broken. VERY easily broken. Can you test the 3 individual wires for continuity with a multi-meter? Test both with the cable relaxed and with it stretched to normal working length. It's very common indeed for cables to be over-stretched and then you get intermittent breaks (usual culprit is pulling the plug out by the cable instead of the plug itself) - trouble is that these intermittent breaks don't always show up on test unless you replicate the conditions of use, which includes stretching them.

Shane,
Set the flash so only the external battery charges the capacitor. That extends the life of the internal batteries which are required to run the electronics.
If the internal batteries are exhausted the flash will quit even if there is lots of juice left in the external batteries. Its happened to me a couple of times with 600s which use the internal batteries to run the radios as well which exhausts the batteries a bit more quickly.

As for confirming that the external battery is charging the capacitor;
Fire the speedlite M 1/1 without the battery plugged in to the HV port. Recycle time, even with fresh AAs should be on the order of 3.5 to 4 seconds.
Now plug the external battery into the HV port and again test fire. Recycle time should be dramatically shorter.

Whortleberry wrote in post #16356433
One way you could check is to set the speedlight to "External Power ONLY" and manually fire it with the test button. Fairly obviously, with only the HV pack as power source if the flash fires and recycles then power IS getting through.

doesn't work that way.

Phil, just tested this with 600s to confirm, and I'm confident its the same with 580EXII et al.


With a battery pack cable plugged into speedlites, no battery attached, CFn set to external only, (Option 1) the speedlite fires using just the internal batteries.

Canon was smart enough to realise that if the pack connection fails or the batteries deplete the speedlite should still work if there is power in the internal AAs.

Unfortunately the didn't think about the opposite proposition. I think its a matter of the Canon 8 cell pack for HV is expected to deplete before the internal batteries with the external only option and all would deplete about the same time if all 12 are working together on the capacitor recharge.

With 8 cell packs I used both external only and default settings and made it a practice to swap all 12 cells whenever the recycle time started to lengthen.

With the Lithium Ion packs that last so much longer I have been caught a couple of times with internal cells quitting while the pack is still going strong.

Now its a matter of having to judge when to replace the internal cells as a preventative measure.

Well, here is something interesting. With the battery pack, if you turn it on not plugged into the flash, it turns itself off. It stay on when connected to the flash though. However, I still have a pretty significant delay in 1/1 recharge.

JakAHearts wrote in post #16356510
Well, here is something interesting. With the battery pack, if you turn it on not plugged into the flash, it turns itself off. It stay on when connected to the flash though. However, I still have a pretty significant delay in 1/1 recharge.

I'd take back to Calumet and either get a replacement or my money back.

HV batteries should more than half the full power recycle time.

JakAHearts wrote in post #16356327
I see zero difference in recycle time with and without the pack plugged in.

Then the flash is obviously not receiving juice from the external pack. Shortened recycle time is the reason to have one.

I recently purchased an 8-cell pack from Flashzebra. With fresh Eneloops I set my burst speed at 1 frame/second and let 'er rip on full power. With C.Fn. 12 set to 0 (using all 12 batteries to recycle) the 580EX II fired consistently on every frame for 20 consecutive shots.

I once made the mistake of not connecting the power cable properly. Be sure the connector is pushed all the way into the socket on the flash. It takes a fair amount of force so it doesn't inadvertently detach while shooting.

Good luck!

Ummm.. shouldnt C Fn. 12 be set to 1 to use the external pack?

http://www.canon.com …report/200708/t​able3.html

C.Fn. 1 uses only the external batteries to recycle the flash, and the internal batteries to operate its other functions. C.Fn. 0 minimizes recycle time by using all 12 batteries for recycling.

Either way, the flash should recycle faster with an external pack than without.

Curtis N wrote in post #16357025
C.Fn. 1 uses only the external batteries to recycle the flash, and the internal batteries to operate its other functions. C.Fn. 0 minimizes recycle time by using all 12 batteries for recycling.

Either way, the flash should recycle faster with an external pack than without.

Ohhhh. I guess that makes sense. I would still think a lithium pack would charge the capacitor just as fast as 12 AAs. Ill have to keep trouble shooting.

Shane, which Calumet pack? Does it have the Canon plug and not the Nikon one?

The spec I looked at said it produced a 1-second recharge time from a 1/1 flash. (Note that the Test button on the flash fires at about 1/32 power, which is so low, the ready light should not go out. The power pack recharge is so fast, it is not easily detectable.)

The speed does not come from the external batteries and their type, although Litium holds more accumulated power than same size NiMH, etc. What makes the difference is the electronics, which use voltage-tripler circuits to boost the voltage to around 300v.

The squelch line from the flash holds that off until released by the flash, until fully recharged. These circuits can develop faults - I have had to repair two of my five packs.