[brofkand]

I just bought a vivitar 285 hv used from a local camera shop. It worked perfectly in the store, but when I took it home all of a sudden it wouldn't pop. The test button would work maybe once out of 20, and the same thing with the hotshoe. I drove right back to the store, and they couldn't figure out what was going on either.

They gave me another 285hv with a broken foot and in rougher shape but worked perfectly, and I kept the broken flash. My reasoning behind this versus getting a refund was I could certainly make one working flash (maybe two) from them. I've ordered a metal shoe from eBay to replace the plastic ones with once it comes in.

At first I thought the foot on the original 285hv was bad, so I desoldered it and tried just tapping the leads together. That works but not consistently. Any ideas?

Thanks

[Ratmagiclady]

I just bought a vivitar 285 hv used from a local camera shop. It worked perfectly in the store, but when I took it home all of a sudden it wouldn't pop. The test button would work maybe once out of 20, and the same thing with the hotshoe. I drove right back to the store, and they couldn't figure out what was going on either.

They gave me another 285hv with a broken foot and in rougher shape but worked perfectly, and I kept the broken flash. My reasoning behind this versus getting a refund was I could certainly make one working flash (maybe two) from them. I've ordered a metal shoe from eBay to replace the plastic ones with once it comes in.

At first I thought the foot on the original 285hv was bad, so I desoldered it and tried just tapping the leads together. That works but not consistently. Any ideas?

Thanks

Sometimes you have to get a little Fonzie with em. I presume that means there's a heavy-ish electronic part (sometimes the capacitor seems to need encouragement) with a connection working loose over time. (My last remaining 285HV I *did* buy new in the 80s, quite a trooper, but, these are good old workhorses, a lot of em. )

The feet do go bad, though, apparently, you may as well wait for the parts and try that first.

[brofkand]

I got the replacement foot in today. I'm going to replace the feet on my old 283, and the two 285HV's that I got. I got 3 of them on eBay for $10. Seems like a great deal.

These feet have a standard PC sync terminal as well as a test button. Seem really solidly built.

Hopefully that will fix the broken one!

[fuent104]

The only time my 285HV has behaved like that is has been when the batteries were low.

[brofkand]

The interesting thing is the same batteries work fine in all my other flashes. But you're right, I should try some fresh out of the package batteries just to rule out a power issue completely.

[jhuerta]

I just bought a vivitar 285 hv used from a local camera shop. It worked perfectly in the store, but when I took it home all of a sudden it wouldn't pop. The test button would work maybe once out of 20, and the same thing with the hotshoe. I drove right back to the store, and they couldn't figure out what was going on either.

They gave me another 285hv with a broken foot and in rougher shape but worked perfectly, and I kept the broken flash. My reasoning behind this versus getting a refund was I could certainly make one working flash (maybe two) from them. I've ordered a metal shoe from eBay to replace the plastic ones with once it comes in.

At first I thought the foot on the original 285hv was bad, so I desoldered it and tried just tapping the leads together. That works but not consistently. Any ideas?

Thanks

I recently had similar issues with my Vivitar 285HV when I attempted to connect via the PC port. Since then the flash did not fire at all from the hot shoe/foot or the PC port.

The test:
I attempted to use all of the wireless triggers I had (yungnuo/cowboy studios) - NO success. Tests with all of the other flashes I had functioned properly (Vivitar 283 & Vivitar 285HV). So I knew it was an issue with the one Vivitar 285HV flash unit.

The fix:
I removed the batteries, fired from the test button, removed the shoe/foot and noticed that the spring on the pc port was not making the proper ¨contact¨. I went ahead and soldered the connection together since I will NOT be using the PC Port and will ONLY be using the hotshoe for the Wireless trigger. I put it back together and it now works fine.

I hope this is is helpful for those of you who have the same issue and ONLY want to use the wireless trigger. See image below of where I soldered.