Sunpak 383/Wein Slave Problem.

I am having a really difficult time triggering my Sunpak 383.

Basically my major problem is that I can not get my Wein Peanut Slaves to trigger the 383. I have both the standard slave(100ft) and ultra slave(300ft), the classic kind, not the digital, since I shoot manual.

I have the peanuts connected via the mono sub-mini jack/male pc cord that comes with the Sunpak. I am trying to trigger them with an on camera 580ex in full manual mode at 1/128 directly aimed at the peanut with 2ft distance and I get nothing at all. Can it be the cable? or am I not doing something right, even though I am pretty sure I am doing everything fine.

Does anyone know of a common problem that I do not know about??

Thanks in advance for any help

I use virtually the same set up, and the only issues I've had have been tired batteries. The Wein allows mine to fire without the cord. Maybe try it that way...

The Wein Peanut is a bit of a crap shoot as far as function.

Most likely the problem is the hybrid male PC/Vivitar connector on the Peanut. The male PC connector is problematic by itself, then overlaying the need to also accommodate the radically different geometry of the Vivitar connector is possibly at the root of the hit or miss function of the Wein Peanut.

You may want to check out this thread on Strobist that deals with this issue directly.

http://www.flickr.com …discuss/7215760​0098851800

Just try a different optical slave. There are many brands and models that function reliably.

But, as you suspect it could also be the cord. Can you connect the cord and short out the center and outer contact and get the flash to fire (on the end that you would normally connect to the Peanut). Just stick a metal paper clip end in there and short the center and outer contacts on the male PC connector. If this fires the flash, then it is likely not the cord, but the fit between the PC connector on the cord, and that oddball hybrid connector on the Wein Peanut.

Enjoy! Lon

I have one of the $35.00 Wein hot shoe optical slaves. I should have just flushed the money down the toilet. Doesn't work worth crap, maybe about 1 out of 10 times will it fire the flash.

shooterman wrote in post #4101084
I have one of the $35.00 Wein hot shoe optical slaves. I should have just flushed the money down the toilet. Doesn't work worth crap, maybe about 1 out of 10 times will it fire the flash.

You may have just received a bad unit. Mine is completely reliable and I've used it on several flash units over several years. See if you can return or exchange it.

I have several Sunpak 383 units and I do have a lot of trouble with their flash cords so I just slip the 383 into the hotshoe of the Wein Hot Shoe Optical Slave and use it that way. Works great every time.

I grinded the tip off the stock 383 cord (PC side), it works better with the Peanut slave. But have since added a 1/8 mono jack to the flash foot and no longer use the Sunpak cord.

I tried getting a shoe/male pc adapter and I had very little luck.

I got the peanut slave to fire for about 5 shots when attached to the shoe/pc setup and when I took it all apart and tried again, both peanut slave and peanut ultra slave stopped working, the ultra slave has yet to trigger the flash even once. I tried a cheap $25 no name optical shoe slave and it fires every time.

I also tried shorting the cable out while the flash was on, and I do get it to fire. I am thinking that there is a weak connection from peanut->pc. Grinding down the male end of the PC would make sense if it is a reach problem, Since it seems the hybrid PC plug on the wein end is approx 2mm longer then the shaft of the male PC, I will give that a go.

Lotto, I saw your post of pictures for adding a 3.5mm jack somewhere else, what wire would I use if I added that jack to the flash? A sub-mini+3.5 adapter--->PC male??Also, do you have a diagram to show your wiring, even though I think I can figure it out.

PR, adding a mono jack might not solve your problem either, as the jack is just an extension of the sync terminals. I would also try to recondition the PC plug, by squeeze in the outter PC plug, and bend the center pin to the side a little bit.

Anyway, here's the pic of 1/8 jack mod and the link for instruction.

Thanks lotto,

I tried grinding the male PC down on the sunpak wire with no results at all, I will try to bend the male pin and see if it works, that makes sense, since I strongly believe it is a connection issue with the wein more then anything.

The unusual thing is that I also tried a hotshoe adapter with a wire sticking out of it with a male pc connection on the end and the Wein slave attached with no results at all as well, but the hotshoe optical slave I got works fine.

Just from the result so far, I think that the Wein slave pin is ultimately to blame, since I have tried two differnt Wein slaves, both the normal slave and the ultra slave with no results, on both the sunpak PC and a generic slave->PC device. I have been testing them by holding the flash right up against the slave unit and setting off a pilot flash in the dark and getting no triggering.

Of approx 100 flashes, the only time I got it to work was the wein slave on the hotshoe adapter with the pc cable. I fired the other flash in my car outside of the store to test and I got 3 flashes, after I took it home, nothing again.

I must say, I am not happy with my wein slave, even though I know they work on the vivitar, they are not really designed to work with the sunpak, as a matter of fact with any standard PC connection, at least reliably speaking.

Not sure if it's the issue here, but anyway: I have a (different) Wein slave for my Lumedynes, and it took me a while to figure out that it either worked or not worked, depending on how I plugged it in. If you soldered the cable yourself, try switching the wires. (reversing polarity)

Well these are orginal sunpak cables/shoe adapter so the issue is not a bad cable, and i have shorted the original cable out and I know the cable itself is good.

The earlier problem I encouter with Peanut was the center pin/hole, too. It's a little bigger than the Sunpak cord's center pin anyway. Since I added the 1/8 jack, I have been using a different cord, the one that comes with the eBay radio trigger. I am getting more consistant firing, although sometimes I still have to wiggle the plug a bit to get it working again.

I think this all goes back the PC connection design. It's just not reliable.