optical slave for 285hv (PN doesn't work)

Just got the wein peanut optical slave and sad to say that it is not working with my new vivitar 285hv flashes when using NIHM batteries. Switching to Alkaline batteries allows the peanut to fire for only a quater of the battries life and then quaits because the voltage goes down as the battries get depleted.

The problem is that the new 285hv flashes have very low voltage (below 6v using nihm batteries). Therefore, my question is: are there any optical slaves that avoide this problem (meanning run at voltage below 6v closer to 4v?


I heard good things about the Sonia slaves, but could not confirm if they can work with new vivitar flashes using nihm batteries.
http://www.flashzebra.​com/opticalslaves/inde​x.shtml


Please share your thoughts, experinces, and solutions. Thanks!!

My Sonia optical slaves work with my Vivitar 285hv with Nimh batteries. My kit is too new to be sure that I've had several cycles at less than 50% power remaining to have experience with comparable conditions to your Wein optical trigger and flash setup.