elinchrom problem

hi, I had aproblem the otherday,(just as I started to shoot a model who had travelled a while of course) I have an elinchrrom 400 fx set which I take on location. Now I connected up my sync lead and metered, great, then something stopped working. My lightmeter worked perfectly on its own, my monoblocs worked just perfectly on its own as did my camera but none of it worked when connected up via the sync lead, I could not meter or fire the flash! After a while I ran round to a lokal studio and borrowed a new sync lead which did not work either. The actaul bulbs were fine and everything else was fine but nothing worked with either sync lead.
before I send my monoblocs away does anyone know what may have been the problem and is it possible to fire the flashes with on camera flash with like red tape over or something?
Any help will be appreciated.
Andy

It's the gremlins, they always cause problems.

Seriously, when you work it out let us know. Good luck!

thanks, its amazing, if something big had gone wrong like a camera , no probs , I had three with me . But no it had to a silly little(but very important) sync lead.

I never get into a session with my studio lights without having two or three spare sync cords available. They can be problematic at times.

Not sure if this helps but I had a similar problem on the weekend where the flash / strobe to which I had the PC cord attached stopped firing. What is worse this is the first time I have used the flash set-up in a full blown model session and it had worked fine during the pre session try outs.

So I changed the lead (I had a spare thankfully), no joy; checked the attachment to the camera that seemed fine. Just in case it was the camera I switched it on and off still it didn't fire. Finally I swapped over the pc cable to the fill flash and it worked! But still not the faulty light. Thankfully I had a very patient model.

Taking the troublesome light off line I noticed that it was a little on the warm side. I have since been told that if the unit overheats (modelling lights were on the whole time) the sync can stop. This may be the case as later in the session when I wanted the second flash I retried the troublesome flash on slave as a fill and it did fire I'm not sure it did all the time its a bit hard to tell after the event.

What do you guys think, can overheating cause the flash to no longer sync?

Easily - if there's a poor solder joint or other temperature-sensitive connection somewhere. Connections (of various types) are responsible for about 80% of the electronic systems failures I have dealt with over a 35+ year career in industrial control systems.

I have a set of 400s, and I have found them a bit less reliable than their earlier 500 series with the analogue dials etc. They old ones have nice heave threaded sync leads and stuff, but the newer 400s have cheap moulded plastic junk. The connection on the monoblock is where i found most problems. I have had to use all sorts of quick fixes to get them going reliably again. Never really have any problems with the units, just the sync cords.

As for firing them another way... maybe a speedlight on a long off-show cord mounted right up behind the monoblocks light sensor?

Hope all is well now... but yeah, keep those extra sync cables handy. Even on their more expensive gear the cables can be just as bad.

Rob

Amen to that!

Too bad germans couldn't think of a better way to make a PC cable. Those things are HORRIBLE!

The simple question... if you stick a car key in the end of sync lead, do the flashes fire.

If yes, blame the camera or connection to the camera - If no then it's the heads.

I've found Elinchrom heads to be amazingly reliable, both new and "Classic" types.

Where in the world are you Andy ?

Baz

Some flashes have a thermal overload shut-off to protect the flash. They will start working again when they cool off to normal temps.

Thanks for the comments guys.

On a short test last night when the problem flash was hooked up to the camera either by the sync cord or the wireless remote it was giving interminent misfire problems when it was acting as a slave it was a little more reliable (missed a couple of times I think, a bit hard to see with all the light).

I will take the flash back to the dealer and have a chat about my problems and clarify whether the units have an overload shutt-off as chtgrubbs suggests.

Can I ask one more question and that is how important is having the slave switch set to on or off depending on it being master or slave. My unit when it is tethered to a cable / wireless receiver seems to fire even when the switch is set to slave?

thanks for all input, ill probably fix some kind of salve method of firing or maybe buy an infa red, bivett- I am in sweden, in halmstad to be precise.

Andy

nks for all the input, I think im going mto buy an infa red or Tha