Ebay RF-04 Wireless Transmitter question

I just received my PT-04 transmitter in the mail yesterday and opened the package right up to test these out.

I immediately had some issues. I am using a Canon 300D DRebel and a 420EZ in Manual mode.

I turn on the transmitter and receiver, switch them to the same channel, and push the 'test' button. Both LED's on the receiver and transmitter light up. So far, so good. I then attach the transmitter to the 300D's hotshoe, and the receiver on the 420EZ's hotshoe. I push the test button, but get no flash. The LED's are lighting up, but there is no triggering of the flash.

I can attach the receiver to the transmitter via the PC and phone adapter that came with the transmitter/receiver. I can then push the 'Test" button and get a trigger and the flash fires.

As long as I have this cord attached, I can get a trigger, and the flash will fire, but as soon as I unhook it, there is no triggering and no firing of the flash.

There are no random mis-fires as I have read about previously, there is just a lack of firing period when the receiver is attached to the flash's hotshoe and the transmitter is attached to the camera's hotshoe.

Any ideas as what to do to remedy this problem?

Also, I pulled the battery out of the receiver...the CR2 battery, and tested the voltage across it. It read 2.7V.

Would 2.7V be sufficient to trigger the 420EZ flash?

I've never tried them with flash guns, but I use them with my studio strobes with no problems. But I have heard of them not working very well with flash guns.

It should be 3v. It sounds like you need a new battery. My problem with the same setup is random firing.

I tested the random firing problem by putting the flash on an off-camera cord and the trigger at the other end of the cord. It still happened so at 1 foot distance, that's a heck of a long way for RF interference to be the cause.

I then tried the flash on its own on a Wein Safe Synch and no problem. I put the safe-synch on the receiver and got random flashing again.

The receivers just do not work. I would advise avoiding this gear.

I'll try the new battery, and if no luck, I will simply get a larger 1/4" to PC cord and go wired. I just want some off-camera flash experience.

I would really like to get the flash to fire though. I don't have a problem with random firing, but just the opposite. Almost as if the receiver doesn't have enough juice to trigger the flash unless the pc cord is attached to the transmitter directly.

It sounds very much as though no quality control takes place with these units as the Chinese reckon that return postage is so expensive that nobody will return defective units.

Open the back cover for the receiver, and take a look at the wires going to the hot shoe, look for loose of broken contacts.

i used it with 580 II.
with mine, if I were to tighten the flash to the hot shoe all the way, it doesn't seem to be working properly. So what i did was tighten it half way and it works perfectly.
Still working fine after hundreds of pictures using the original "test" battery.

Ok, here is the update:

When the flash is in "rapid-fire" mode (aka, the LED on the back is green/yellow) the receiver will work about 30% of the time, but when the flash is red(aka, "normal" flash mode) at full or half power, the remote receiver will not trigger the flash. To get it to work, I can only use my flash at most 1/4 power and even then, it will only fire sporadically.

Any ideas? What would keep the flash from triggering at full power?

Have you tested it with new batteries yet?

Yeah, bought all new batteries, and it has the same issues.

It's a typical piece of ebay crap.

Bin it and get something better - ie pay real money instead of peanuts.

I suppose, but it just seems like it should be working...blah. It flashes red like it's getting the signal to trigger, but it's just not actually triggering. I hate to just throw money out.

civicseth wrote in post #4264027
Yeah, bought all new batteries, and it has the same issues.

Did you replace the battery in the transmitter?

Enjoy! Lon

civicseth wrote in post #4264211
I suppose, but it just seems like it should be working...blah. It flashes red like it's getting the signal to trigger, but it's just not actually triggering. I hate to just throw money out.

After I threw good money after bad on new batteries for my receivers only to find them firing the flashes whenever they wanted - whether the transmitter was on or off, I considered the ebay vendor's solution of returning them and decided it just was not sensible to toss yet more money away on trash. the odds were that what came back wouldn't work either.

I bought them as an experiment but the experiment didn't work out. Why waste more time when I have already got my new solution in a brand spanking new STE-2. I'd rather spend $210 on something that will work rather than $80 then $10 then $20 then god-alone-knows on something that might just possible work but quite likely won't.