Need help with my new WEIN hot shoe adapter

I just bought a WEIN hot shoe to hot shoe safe sync adapter.

I have an older stobe set up made by SP Systems. 2) 920mdlvp and 1) Sp100 background light.
Botzilla shows on user testing the voltage of the 920MDlvp at 8.4 volts. Do I need the safe sync? I know under 6 volts is optimum.

When mounted to my camera hot shoe I can manually trigger my studio flashes by pressing the "test" button (on the Wein) via sync cord from Wein to one strobe. The other two lights are triggered by slave. But when I press the shutter, the camera doesn't trigger the strobes in any mode M,Av,Tv or P or Auto.

What can I be doing wrong?

I should point out that my 430ex works fine mounted on my camera without the WEIN safe sync and can trigger the stobes via their slaves. Only problem is that the 430 ex doesn't sink because of the pre-flash problem. That's why I bought the safe sync to begin with. The onboard flash works by itself, but again won't trigger the stobes becasue of the pre-flash problem.

So the camera can trigger the on board flash, and 430ex flash, but the camera can't trigger the stobes by pressing the shutter button with the WEIN safe sync attached.

I have a standard hot shoe adapter but haven't used it because of possible voltage issues.

There could be a voltage polarity issue.

I would suggest that you do two things. First, MEASURE the trigger voltage from the strobes. That's the only way to be sure what you are dealing with. Second, look in your manual or on Canon's web site to determine the actual voltage limit for the camera's switching circuitry.

If the camera can handle the voltage, and especially if the trigger voltage is fairly low, get rid of the Wein adapter and get a conventional hotshoe-to-PC adapter without the voltage reduction circuitry. I have had situations where on some cameras my Wein hotshoe-PC SafeSync adapter did not trigger the lights but a conventional adapter did.

SkipD wrote in post #2762755
There could be a voltage polarity issue.

I would suggest that you do two things. First, MEASURE the trigger voltage from the strobes. That's the only way to be sure what you are dealing with. Second, look in your manual or on Canon's web site to determine the actual voltage limit for the camera's switching circuitry.

If the camera can handle the voltage, and especially if the trigger voltage is fairly low, get rid of the Wein adapter and get a conventional hotshoe-to-PC adapter without the voltage reduction circuitry. I have had situations where on some cameras my Wein hotshoe-PC SafeSync adapter did not trigger the lights but a conventional adapter did.

Thanks!
If the problem is the safe sync...Then why is is possble for me to manually trigger the strobes by pressing the test button on the safe sync, but not when pressing the shutter button?

Just Be wrote in post #2762814
Thanks!
If the problem is the safe sync...Then why is is possble for me to manually trigger the strobes by pressing the test button on the safe sync, but not when pressing the shutter button?

There is a possibility that the test button is a mechanical contact while the electronic switching reacts different to the different polarities of the sync voltage from the flash. This is all conjecture, of course, but folks HAVE had polarity issues that prevented proper triggering of flash units.

Another possibility is that the voltage from the flash unit is too low for the Wein circuitry (the electronic switch) to operate properly. You must remember that its purpose is to lower high voltages to a lower voltage. If the trigger voltage is low to start with, it would not surprise me (and I've been in electronics for a few decades) that you can have problems.

i have had nothing but unreliability with my WEIN safe sync on DSLR and film Nikons. We never know when and if it decides to lay dead or fire the strobes. That thing cost me over $50 and well, anyway I have discussed it here and others have reported problems.

Oh and I went ahead and bought their infared firing slave deal and that was never trustworthy either. then one day as i was changing the 9volt battery, one of the terminals got stuck to the internal spring thing and pulled out the whole attachment!! $200 down the drain and was beyond warranty

WEIN products don't seem to be consistant in their reliability according to the many complaints and reports I have read. Others never seem to have problems. I like their products and hopefully the company will watch the quality and reliability issues

katt

I just tested both my stobes and I get a little over 8 volts. I keep seeing these posts all over the web that a Canon specialist claims that the XT/XTi and new Canon DSLR's can handle 250 volts. But with just as many in favor as against on this issue, I hate to take a chance and use my (non-safe) hot shoe.

Is 8 volts instead of 6 volts that big of a deal?

Botzilla.com shows one user got 8.4. It says,"your call" on wether or not it's safe on DSLR's.

What other options do I have? If my strobes would not trigger on the pre-flash I could just trigger them on their slave mode, with my 430 ex.

No, I have checked the specs on strobe voltage on the 30D and it seems Canon is saying anything up to 250 v is safe in the newer DSLRs. If that is the case and anyone fried their camera with even a few points under, it would have to covered under warranty. So far I have not heard of anyone with a 30D or similar frying their cameras from any strobe hookup. If anyone has had trouble, please let us know. katt

For the Wein adapter not firing, it's posible the center pin on the Wein is too short and not making contact with the XTi's hot shoe.

You can trigger the strobes with the 430 on camera in manual mode.

Lotto wrote in post #2764601
For the Wein adapter not firing, it's posible the center pin on the Wein is too short and not making contact with the XTi's hot shoe.

You can trigger the strobes with the 430 on camera in manual mode.

Thanks but...

The Wein safe sync seems to make good contact.
It may be dropping the voltage too much. If my strobe is 8v without the safe sync. With it is may be dropping it so much that it won't fire the strobe.
The 430EX will trigger the slaves, but fires on the pre-flash and is useless because the flash completes before the shutter opens. This is why I bought the hot shoe adapter.

I'm finding many posts saying that the XT/XTi can handle up to 250v. I'm awaiting word from Canon before I hook it up.

Ah, dropping the voltage too much makes sense. Let's try this, short the Wein's center pin to ground and see if it trigger the strobe. If not, maybe the Wein is defective.

Setting the 430EX in M will bypass the pre-flash, I am very positive on that.

Started with the 20D, Canon camera uses it's own circuit to generate the sync signal instead of using mechanical switching and relies on the external flash to supply the power. The User Manual says don't put high voltage external flash on the hot shoe. Well, 8 volt is not exactly hi volt. If I were you, I will give it a shot. Then again, I am a taking chances type of guy