Pop-up flash to trigger YN468?

I just got my 468 the other day and started to mess with it (bouncing).
I keep reading about getting the flash off-camera and wanted to give that a whirl as well. Since I don't have any radio triggers yet I wanted to use the optical slave capability of my new toy and trigger it with the pop-up flash but cant seem to get it to work due to the pre-flash setting the thing off before the shutter opens. Now, is there a setting that would help me work around that or is that how it is with T1i? I am very new at this so please forgive me if this seems to be a dumb question.
I saw some threads regarding this issue with the 7D but obviously that body is a lot more capable than mine.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Just pop it in maual S1, (S2 ignores preflash if I remember right)and place behind item to shoot,on a lowish power. Gives a rim effect and also will let you see it in the photo.
Or simply place on the table and pop your flash and see.
If you havent got a meter you will have to chimp.
Just try different things.

I have put it in S1 since it doesn't trigger optically in S2 at all. However the speedlight does not seem to affect the exposure whatsoever. It fires every time but must be during pre-flash before the shutter opens.
I set FEC to -2, covered the pop-up with my hand, snapped a pic, 468 fired but did not light the subject at all.

Since you cannot put your popup in manual mode like the 7D is capable of, you would need to use S2 so it ignores the preflash. I see where you say it will not fire in that mode though. Not sure what that is about unless it is defective. I will have to dig out my equipment and try it. I have the 7D and the YN-560 but it has the S2 mode also.

that would be great Dale. It could be defective and I dont even know it. my first flash.
I will try S2 again when I get home from work. It is very possible that its the user error, too.

I read that about the 7D and thats why I asked the question regarding T1i.

I set the popup on my 7D to eTTL mode and turned in -3 stops of FEC. I put the YN-560 in S1 mode and it fires too soon and does not contribute to the lighing as expected. I change the mode to S2 and the flash fires in sync with the shutter and works fine. Not that it matters but the camera settings were Manual mode SS 1/200 F5.6 ISO 200.

yeah, I just read elsewhere that in S2 it needs a stronger flash than the pre-flash and now that I think about it I cant remember how I was testing it in S2. if I was trying to take the picture or just tried to trigger it with pre-flash (not pressing the shutter all the way down).

Dale, can you check if you are able to trigger your flash in S2 by just pressing the * on your camera? It might have been another thing I was trying to do and it did not trigger mine.

2pm cant come soon enough so I can go home and figure it out. LOL

I have the * set for focus on my camera. The preflash is not emitted until the complete press of the shutter button. It just fires milliseconds before the main flash. S2 is not looking for a weaker flash, it is looking for the second flash in a very short time window.
I have heard of people pressing the FEL (flash exposure lock) button and then taking the picture. FEL will fire the preflash and then if you hurry and take the picture the camera will not do another preflash and only fire the main burst. You would have to be in S1 mode for this. The remote flash is going to fire on the FEL burst and you have to make sure you give a second for it to recycle and be ready to fire again. This is too much of a pain and you are going to run down the flash batteries twice as fast doing this.
If your YN-468 is not defective it should work just fine in S2 mode and the popup in eTTL. That is exactly why that feature exists. Hopefully you just missed a step and everything will work fine when you get home.
Honestly, just spend a few $$ on some wireless triggers and you will be much happier in the end.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

I was planning on getting some wireless triggers soon but wanted to play with what I had.

Thank you for your time, Dale.
I will give it a go again and hopefully will be able to report that it was just me not knowing how to work the thing. LOL

it works, but it does not fire in S2 with FEL and thats how i must have been testing it before.

Good news.

yes, and thanks once again for all your help, Dale.

Now I have to find a thread that would show me how to effectively use this kind of "set-up"