Aputure receivers just died on me

crossmr · 02-08-2013, 11:14 PM

Good news, the pro problem might have been user error combined with confusing design. Apparently the big button on the pro trigmasters does not function as a test button.
Also, the K-30 needs to have the flash set to "wireless" mode to work with the trigmaster pro. Set as general flash on (which is what i used before) the trigmaster pro doesn't seem to fire much at all, not very reliably. After I put it into wireless mode with trigmaster pro in the hot shoe, it suddenly started firing every shot.
My faith might be restored in aputure.

One thing of note when you change the channels on the units, you also seem to need to turn them on and off for it to take effect.

As a weird thing:
Regular trigmaster trigger - flash on
Trigmaster pro as trigger - flash wireless
This difference obviously led me to believe these weren't functioning properly

and even after more or less getting these working, I am still noticing that when they're in really close proximity they sometimes have trouble firing, you want to make sure you've got a little distance between them.

After firing a bunch of shots, this seems to be producing results, but not 100% reliably. Depending on where I am in relation to the two receivers, I've still noticed some slight inconsistencies, even when taking a picture from the exact same spot. I'll have to test them a bit more to see, but it's very annoying that the button doesn't fire the flash, this really limits testing ability.

Last edited by crossmr; 02-08-2013 at 11:42 PM.

crossmr · 02-25-2013, 05:51 PM

Just thought I'd follow up on these as there isn't a lot of info on the aputures out there. Had these out to a shoot yesterday again.
Firing was very reliable. I only had issues when the devices went to "sleep". If you are spending more than a minute re-positioning a model or changing your equipment or something like that, then you may end up having to turn your receivers on and off again. I don't know exactly what the time is, might by 2-3 minutes, but a couple of times we had total scene changes, from standing against a wall to laying in a bed and getting positioned and during that time the receivers went to sleep and I had to reset them. You can wake them with the trigger, but I found that it wouldn't fire reliably at that point. a quick on and off and I could shoot dozens even hundreds without issue. I think I had about 6 pictures that I had to toss out of 250 that the flash didn't fire on because it had gone to sleep. Other than sleeping, I had 100% responsiveness across 250 photos from any position which was great.

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02-08-2013, 11:14 PM	#16
crossmr Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Liverpool, UK Posts: 318 Original Poster	Good news, the pro problem might have been user error combined with confusing design. Apparently the big button on the pro trigmasters does not function as a test button. Also, the K-30 needs to have the flash set to "wireless" mode to work with the trigmaster pro. Set as general flash on (which is what i used before) the trigmaster pro doesn't seem to fire much at all, not very reliably. After I put it into wireless mode with trigmaster pro in the hot shoe, it suddenly started firing every shot. My faith might be restored in aputure. One thing of note when you change the channels on the units, you also seem to need to turn them on and off for it to take effect. As a weird thing: Regular trigmaster trigger - flash on Trigmaster pro as trigger - flash wireless This difference obviously led me to believe these weren't functioning properly and even after more or less getting these working, I am still noticing that when they're in really close proximity they sometimes have trouble firing, you want to make sure you've got a little distance between them. After firing a bunch of shots, this seems to be producing results, but not 100% reliably. Depending on where I am in relation to the two receivers, I've still noticed some slight inconsistencies, even when taking a picture from the exact same spot. I'll have to test them a bit more to see, but it's very annoying that the button doesn't fire the flash, this really limits testing ability. Last edited by crossmr; 02-08-2013 at 11:42 PM.

02-25-2013, 05:51 PM	#17
crossmr Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Liverpool, UK Posts: 318 Original Poster	Just thought I'd follow up on these as there isn't a lot of info on the aputures out there. Had these out to a shoot yesterday again. Firing was very reliable. I only had issues when the devices went to "sleep". If you are spending more than a minute re-positioning a model or changing your equipment or something like that, then you may end up having to turn your receivers on and off again. I don't know exactly what the time is, might by 2-3 minutes, but a couple of times we had total scene changes, from standing against a wall to laying in a bed and getting positioned and during that time the receivers went to sleep and I had to reset them. You can wake them with the trigger, but I found that it wouldn't fire reliably at that point. a quick on and off and I could shoot dozens even hundreds without issue. I think I had about 6 pictures that I had to toss out of 250 that the flash didn't fire on because it had gone to sleep. Other than sleeping, I had 100% responsiveness across 250 photos from any position which was great.