Cactus Trigger antenna mod

After trying to use a set of cactus triggers I was (not surpisingly) dissapointed. I was shooting in the shade on a mountain bike trail, and could not get the flash to trigger more than 2 feet away from the transmitter. I also have a 550ex to trigger the 580ex but it does not work very well outdoors.

I've looked into this DIY http://jeremykuster.bl​ogspot.com …odification-tutorial.html

But cannot find the antenna anywhere! Has anyone found a suitable substitute for a 433mhz 1/4 wave whip antenna?

Thanks,
Chris

Even a piece of wire helps, if it's about the right length. Or do yourself a favour and get a decent set of radio slaves.

The antenna is just a coiled wire in a plastic container. If you have an electric cord laying around you have what it takes to make the mod. If your receiver can only be triggered from 2 feet away I suspect something's not right - don't expect the antenna mod to do wonders (or, actually, much at all). But why not try, it's fun and it's cheap and it makes you warm inside (no, not from radiation!).

/D

tim wrote in post #7199971
Even a piece of wire helps, if it's about the right length. Or do yourself a favour and get a decent set of radio slaves.

The next big purchase will be those triggers, and an umbrella/stand kit once I find some cash.

David Rossberg wrote in post #7200119
The antenna is just a coiled wire in a plastic container. If you have an electric cord laying around you have what it takes to make the mod. If your receiver can only be triggered from 2 feet away I suspect something's not right - don't expect the antenna mod to do wonders (or, actually, much at all). But why not try, it's fun and it's cheap and it makes you warm inside (no, not from radiation!).

/D

I'm going to try the cat5 wire. I'll report back.

-Chris

I made the antenna mod using a piece of strong copper wire (wrapped in black heat shrinking tube). Increased the distance and reliability conciderably.

chris jones wrote in post #7199948
After trying to use a set of cactus triggers I was (not surpisingly) dissapointed. I was shooting in the shade on a mountain bike trail, and could not get the flash to trigger more than 2 feet away from the transmitter. I also have a 550ex to trigger the 580ex but it does not work very well outdoors.

I've looked into this DIY http://jeremykuster.bl​ogspot.com …odification-tutorial.html

But cannot find the antenna anywhere! Has anyone found a suitable substitute for a 433mhz 1/4 wave whip antenna?

Thanks,
Chris

tim wrote in post #7199971
Even a piece of wire helps, if it's about the right length. Or do yourself a favour and get a decent set of radio slaves.

I have Tims old set that he fixed up with a short bit of wire.
It is nothing fancy, just medium guage electronic wire.

They work extremely well, and having a short length of wire means they don't take up a lot of space, and are quite portable.

Alway check or replace the receiver's battery when range or sync speed is dropping.

For the antenna mod, it does not have to be on outside. Here's what mine looks like for some ideas. It's coiled up 6-7" CAT 5 wire.

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Moppie wrote in post #7203484
I have Tims old set that he fixed up with a short bit of wire.
It is nothing fancy, just medium guage electronic wire.

They work extremely well, and having a short length of wire means they don't take up a lot of space, and are quite portable.

I forget which was which, but one set I had worked fine at home but always failed at wedding receptions. Very weird. Dang annoying.

tim wrote in post #7203709
I forget which was which, but one set I had worked fine at home but always failed at wedding receptions. Very weird. Dang annoying.

From the build quality, I can see why you wouldn't want to use them proffesionally.

But so far the only failures I have had have been from a flat battery in one of the recievers, and I have use both sets.

I mean studio vs hotshoe, I forget which you got. I have the others in a drawer somewhere.

The O/P could try www.digikey.com.
# ANT-433-CW-RH antenna, about US$6.50
# CONREVSMA004 socket, about $3.20
Use a 5.57" length of solid-core wire to hook up the Transmitter's furthest aerial hole to the socket. (By the "616" in Lotto's pic above.)

Lotto wrote in post #7203676
Alway check or replace the receiver's battery when range or sync speed is dropping.

For the antenna mod, it does not have to be on outside. Here's what mine looks like for some ideas. It's coiled up 6-7" CAT 5 wire.

Very tidy. I noticed both ends are soldered. Could you explain that for us? Thanks.

I was at a shoot last night with the cactus triggers, with the antenna mods. I also re-wired the receivers with better connections to the 1/8 jack and the hot shoe adapter and cut out the pc connection. I am now able to trigger reliably (1-2 shots per second for a series of 10 shots) at 120 yards outside, and in all locations in my house and studio.

Caution:
Two of three was nearly flawless, the other only worked with the battery door off. I was quite embarrassed and ended up setting a flash to optical slave, to quickly resolve the issue. All new batteries, no bad wiring, or touching contacts. So be warned mods may effect performance and reliability in a positive or negative direction. I'll be grabbing out the multimeter tonight to see whats going on.

I'm going to be upgrading to more reliable ones, however the mods to the cactus triggers really did improve performance for the cost and time that i put into them.