Problems with skyport universal set

I just got my Skyport set from B&H after reading several good reviews on them. I know they are not the "gold standard" Pocket Wizards but they are literally half the cost. I had been using the ebay triggers with great success and thought this would be a logical next step as I wanted superb reliability at an affordable price. I got the units and was impressed with the overall packaging and build quality of the units. I charged the receiver overnight and excitedly attached it to my monolight in the morning. The first test fired with no problem, the second test did not fire, the third test fired and the fourth did not....do you see a pattern emerging. The unit would only fire every other time. I changed the groups, frequencies, and distance to the strobe; all without success. I used the test button and fired it from my hotshoe.

Needless to say I called B&H and they immediately issued me a return authorization and I'm waiting for a UPS label to be mailed to me.

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem with the skyports?

I also think I will continue to use my "cheap" ebay trigger until I make some scratch to buy the PW.

Any thoughts on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Are you giving the flash time to recycle?

Yup, I would wait until I saw the indicator and heard the beep. I would even wait several seconds between flashes with my strobe on the lowest power for immediate recycle times. That was a good question though.

Interesting. Mine are due to arrive today so I'm hoping either your problem is either unique or obvious but overlooked. Connections are solid? Antennae up & such? The higher the receiver, the better the reception. Did you try mounting the receivers to the tops of the strobes?

I had both antennas up and fired the strobe from 1 inch to 20 feet. Same problem every time.

That's really odd. Perhaps one of the experts will be able to chime in, although you're returning them anyway so it seems kinda moot.

It would seem that you happened to have gotten a bad set. I haven't heard of this problem with the Skyports so I would think that replacing them should do the trick. Obviously, if you got another set and had the same problem then I would look more closely at your own setup and check every little detail to track down the problem, but from the sound of it you just got unlucky and received a dud!

I wouldn't mind getting another set, but my confidence is a little shaken. It makes me chuckle that in this, most likely isolated, incident both of my cheap ebay triggers were more reliable than the skyports.

I didn't need the reach of the PW, or the size of them, but I wanted the reliability.

I doubt that Elinchrom, a company with a massively excellent reputation in strobes, is going to put out ghetto triggers & tarnish their image as a result.

I wouldn't think so either, I'm sure I just got a bad set. Like I said I have used PW and ebay triggers on my lights with no problem.

I'm just going to take this as a sign from the cameras gods telling me that I am so good that I really need the Pocket Wizards and nothing else will do, LOL.

I'm sorry, I didn't post in my original threat that I used my buddy's PW and had no problems at all.

Did you test the receivers? They have a test button on the transmitter right? Check to see if they are receiving a signal every press. Did you put the transmitter on backwards?

Also what lights are you firing? I have a lot of problems with using my PW with my 580EX II as the pc cable sucks.

I haven't heard of this problem before, but it might help to know what brand/model of monolight you're using.

Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that the Skyports keep the trigger circuit closed for a shorter duration than other radio triggers (as evidenced by their failure to work with master-manual mode on Canon Speedlites). It's possible that this short duration may be an issue with some strobes. If you have access to other strobes or flash units to try the Skyport with, some experimentation might help with the diagnosis.

Village_Idiot wrote in post #5737992
Did you test the receivers?

One thing about the Skyports that irks me is the lack of an indicator light on the receiver to verify a signal from the transmitter. This makes it harder to diagnose problems.

I originally tried them on an Interfit Stellar 300, I just tried them on a Novatron 600 pack and had similar results.