RF Trigger Issue

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mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

RF Trigger Issue

Post by mawyatt »

The cheaper and older RF triggers like the Neewer RT-16 and other similar triggers are based upon a simple 433MHz RF system and coding scheme, this is why they are so cheap!!

Long ago I found they were unreliable with random missing trigger signals. I traced this to the receivers and mitigated this problem with multiple receivers triggering multiple strobes that were also optically S1 triggered. This proved somewhat effective until I got the more modern and robust 2.4GHz Adorama R2 RF system and moved away from the older triggers.

I recently have been using the older RF triggers with multiple receivers for some testing and didn't want to have to utilize the Adorama R2 system for various reasons, and discovered a particularly annoying and possibly dangerous situation with the RT-16 and Adorama Flashpoint DG600 strobe. It's well known that when a speed-light or strobe "fires" and enormous amount of EMI is produced during the tube discharge.

The situation I ran into was the Neewer RT-16 (and Viltrox JY-02) receivers would get retriggered by the EMI induced by the DG600 tube firing, this would retrigger the tube firing and a continuous cyclic burst of retriggered tube firings would occur for seconds or longer, then a short delay and start again. Not only is this highly annoying, and ruining any stacking session, but potentially dangerous since the strobe head or tube could easily and quickly overheat. Without someone around to shut things down a meltdown is likely, and potential fire if the thermal management doesn't intervene. I've already had a Yonguno YN-622 plastic lenses cover melt during a long stacking session, the thermal shutdown didn't do it's job!! Also had Enloops get so hot they would almost burn your hand!!

This continuous cyclic strobe firing seems to be very receiver position sensitive, and most likely to happen when the receiver is just hanging from the trigger cord (how they are normally used). I positioned the receiver on the end of a 3' extension cable and it behaved much better, but this isn't practical. Also didn't see this behavior with the Adorama 320M strobes, only the DG600. It may be an issue with other strobes, but I didn't know. Best to test with your setup and strobes, or better yet just trash these older 433MHz receivers and move up to the 2.4GHz devices now available.

Best,

Mike
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

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