Originally posted by MDR Foto I've got the Cactus connected to the Zed nd then a receiver connected to the Indra by cable.
I guess with "Zed nd" you mean "645Z and", right?
Am I also correctly assuming that you have two V6II units?
In general, one can use the V6II as an "HSS enabler", even when the flashes/strobes aren't supported the V6II. For instance, if you have two V6II units, one should go on the camera and the other should be connected to your Indra500 with a sync-cable.
You may also be able to fire another (native) trigger system through the on-camera V6II, e.g., by putting the transmitter on top of the on-camera V6II.
However, such setups (involving a sync cable connection) only work if there is a way to manually engage HSS on the flashes/strobes. The Godox AD360, for instance, supports such a manual activation of its HSS mode, which is why fwbigd can use HSS even though the standard AD360 is not supported by the V6II (which still manifests itself by the lack of remote power level control).
Alternatively, if HSS cannot be engaged manually on the flash/strobe, you may still be able to use PowerSync (aka HyperSync). This requires the flash/strobe to issue a long pulse. For (IGBT-controlled) flashes that means full power, otherwise the pulse will be too short.
For strobes it depends on the strobe technology. Classic strobes produce longer pulses, the lower their output power is set. Some modern strobes, however, are also IGBT-controlled and then typically require full power output as well in order to produce a pulse that is long enough.
If the longest flash duration is shorter than ~1/180s then you'll notice it as a black bar in your images.
Originally posted by MDR Foto Quick note, when I mess with Power sync, and I turn it all the way up to 32, I get half a picture with the bottom half being black...sync is messed up and I don't know why
What do you mean by "turn it all the way up to 32"?
Are you talking about V6II power levels?
Note that in the standard relative power level mode (there is also an absolute power level mode), the V6II shows power fractions, e.g. "1/32" which is a rather low output compared to "1/1" (full power).
Note that you can adjust the PowerSync timing by going to the sync mode setting when it shows "POWER SYNC" and turning the dial while pressing it (or the "OK" button). This brings up the PowerSync timing adjustment feature. You can take test shots while adjusting the value. This makes it easy to see when dark bars enter/leave the frame.
EDIT: Just realised that you may be talking about the timing adjust feature, as its maximum value is "32". If you get a black bottom-half then reducing the "32" to a lower value should reduce the black part (provided that the 645Z's shutter blades travel in the standard direction; the K-1's shutter blades do not).
You'll only find a timing adjustment setting that does not cause any black bars if the light output from your Indra500 is long enough (by either engaging HSS somehow or using a respective power level).
Originally posted by fwbigd 2. Set the Cactus receiver to "Nikon" for the flash system.
With the latest firmware versions, setting the receiver to "manual flash" should also work.
The "Nikon" setting was required before a respective bug fix was made.