Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

well, it seems like there is no fundamental "connection" issue at all, so your thought about pulse duration is worthy. PW tech support should be able to get pulse duration & amplitude information about the Flex, and PCB Tech Support should be able to answer if that is compatible.

Otherwise, someone will have to break out an oscilloscope.

As I said from the beginning, it would take me a while to confirm or refute anything. There is only one tech support person in the office this week, and I have the forum, emails, phone calls, other testing and assignments. Engineering is also in a similar situation. I have been unable to prioritize compatability with a 3rd party product that was released after ours. Please understand our position.

That said, I did some testing with a different hotshoe adapter (our SLFA) which does not have any additional contacts. My results were the same as yours with the CST and CC. I then tried via the cords, same thing. I also tried a PW Multi Max via the hotshoe, same thing. So, via the hotshoe, even the PW products do not work in that manner. However, connecting a PW MM via a cord to the TT5 did allow the MM to fire. My guess is it is desinged to accept trigger voltages from a broader range of devices than those that trigger via a hotshoe interface, and is seperate circuitry from the hotshoe. I believe the CST and CC sync jacks are directly tied to the hotshoe.

You're a busy camper, so no problem. I just hope it doesn't fall off your radar screen.

Edited by OP 4/6/11

That may be true, however the point is some devices will and some devices will not work via a hotshoe adapter connected to a PW. There are PW products in both catagories, making it not unique to our products. Nor do I believe it to be a "design flaw" of any product, just an incompatability. Perhaps a firmware change in the TT5 could fix it, I do not know, but I seriously doubt we would make any changes to specifically address this.

Also, I cannot tell from the photo, but be sure you are not triggering the other TT5 via radio instead of the cable.

Caught me! I set the two TT5's to different channels, and sure enough, one TT5 will not trigger the other when connected to P2.

I've been talking to the PW people about this, and they suggested trying P1 because it has a longer "connect" time. I tried, but the results were the same. One difference, however, is that a CST does trigger as the mono plug is inserted and/or removed from P1. Conversely, a CST does absolutely nothing as the plug is inserted and/or removed from P2.

I asked the PW folks about connecting one TT5 to another using a hotshoe adapter cable where the mono end is connected to P2. Here's what they said:

"The FlexTT5 that you're triggering via the hotshoe cable will need to be placed into Basic Trigger Mode via the PocketWizard utility, as it won't fire off just the center pin in it's default ControlTL mode of operation. I've just tested the same setup, with the second Flex in Basic Trigger Mode, and it works as I'd expect from the P2 port.".

So, it begs the question: What's the CST and/or CC expecting that isn't being delivered by the TT5? Hard to imagine that something so seemingly simple can be so problematic.

No clue. I do not know what the TT5 is or is not putting out in that mode. I did bring the only "dumb" speedlite I have access to with me to test (YN460). The dumb thing apparently does not work at all anymore.