Vivitar 283 inconsistent behavior

[ctron]

Hi,

I've been using several Vivitar 283's for a macro set up I recently designed. The 283's have been in storage from a couple of years back when I used them for hummingbird photography. They performed flawlessly then when using my Pentax KX flash to trigger each flash with Wein peanut slaves, but this time I'm having problems. This time, with the same set up as slaves, I'm finding that sometimes one or all flashes will fire and sometimes not. If I press the ready light on the flashes themselves, same thing, sometimes firing and not. Now if I turn the flashes off and then come back in a few hours or next day, they generally start working as slaves and then will start not firing after a while, but this isn't always the case. Any idea what's causing the inconsistent behavior? It's a real pain to get the flashes all in place and then having them decide to stop working properly for whatever reason. At first I thought maybe the batteries were weakening, but I have one flash on an AC adapter and it will show the same behavior. The only thing different with the ready light is that it's flashing instead of steady, but all that means is saving battery power, so not sure if that has to do with not firing. Thanks in advance for any help. These were good flashes up until recently and all are manually set at 1/16th power to better "freeze" insect motion. Would hate to have to ditch them.

[DrTang]

are the sensors getting a good shot of flash from the master? maybe the sensors are being partially blocked in this set up

[ctron]

are the sensors getting a good shot of flash from the master? maybe the sensors are being partially blocked in this set up

Yes, they all start of firing fine as slaves, then showing erratic firing as described above

[LabRat]

Sometimes the slave sensors get funky/erratic over time... They work fine, then sometimes forget what they are made to do... Then remember, then not...

Studios often end up with a drawer full of them...

Steve K

[ctron]

Sometimes the slave sensors get funky/erratic over time... They work fine, then sometimes forget what they are made to do... Then remember, then not...

Studios often end up with a drawer full of them...

Steve K

Maybe, but these won't trigger even if trying to do so manually by pressing the ready light button.

[John Olsen]

Sometimes the slave sensors get funky/erratic over time... They work fine, then sometimes forget what they are made to do... Then remember, then not...

Studios often end up with a drawer full of them...

Steve K
Ditto on that. I also use various (up to 5) small flashes with slaves and end up doing lots of switching slaves around to see which one will work today with which flash. I end up retiring slaves too. Especially as you're firing at low power, both the slaves and the power controls get erratic at the low end. The good news is that none of it's very expensive to replace. Good luck!

[Harold_4074]

If all of the units are of similar age, use, and storage history, it is possible that the storage environment affected an electrical contact in much the same way that a flashlight stored in the glove compartment of a car can become erratic---it starts working if you shake it to break up the corrosion. The circuitry before the trigger transformer is low-voltage, so your peanut trigger could be pretty sensitive to tarnished contacts.

It is also possible that the high-voltage side of the trigger is suffering from leakage--moisture could definitely kill it, but it seems possible that other things which could condense inside (think of the plasticizer from upholstery that fogs up the inside of your car windows) and be conductive enough to cause a problem. I would think that 283s are modern enough to have decent trigger capacitors, but electrolytics have a finite life due to electrolyte evaporation. (This is in reference to the trigger capacitor, not the main flash capacitor).

If it is a matter of tarnished contacts, you could probably repair them, but unless you are quite knowledgeable about electrical hazards and photoflash circuitry it would probably be better to replace the units.

[Pierre 2]

Did successfully replaced one or two defective capacitors on a 285 and still have a couple of 285s to do. They are due, even with no corrosion. This does require some skills and knowledge.


If all of the units are of similar age, use, and storage history, it is possible that the storage environment affected an electrical contact in much the same way that a flashlight stored in the glove compartment of a car can become erratic---it starts working if you shake it to break up the corrosion. The circuitry before the trigger transformer is low-voltage, so your peanut trigger could be pretty sensitive to tarnished contacts.

It is also possible that the high-voltage side of the trigger is suffering from leakage--moisture could definitely kill it, but it seems possible that other things which could condense inside (think of the plasticizer from upholstery that fogs up the inside of your car windows) and be conductive enough to cause a problem. I would think that 283s are modern enough to have decent trigger capacitors, but electrolytics have a finite life due to electrolyte evaporation. (This is in reference to the trigger capacitor, not the main flash capacitor).

If it is a matter of tarnished contacts, you could probably repair them, but unless you are quite knowledgeable about electrical hazards and photoflash circuitry it would probably be better to replace the units.

[ctron]

As suggested here and elsewhere, I took a closer look at the contact between the Wein slave and the Vivitar input. After fiddling here by unplugging and plugging in the Wein a few times and wiggling the area, flash operation as slave was fully restored. So it is a connection issue where the Wein plugs into the Vivitar, probably corrosion causing the intermittent behavior. Question is: how do I clean this? My first thought was contact cleaner spray, but I don't think I can just shoot some into the slave connection on the Vivitar.

[LabRat]

A good contact cleaner that won't harm plastics/finishes is Ronsonol lighter fluid... Wet the contact surfaces with it and insert/rotate/click switches etc and repeat possibly rubbing the contact point with a toothpick, then repeat... The fluid will "float" the oxides off the surfaces, and will dry fairly soon... And will leave a very, very slight film over the contact that will protect and slightly lubricate (but still conduct well as contacts move over it)...

Steve K

[Bob Salomon]

A good contact cleaner that won't harm plastics/finishes is Ronsonol lighter fluid... Wet the contact surfaces with it and insert/rotate/click switches etc and repeat possibly rubbing the contact point with a toothpick, then repeat... The fluid will "float" the oxides off the surfaces, and will dry fairly soon... And will leave a very, very slight film over the contact that will protect and slightly lubricate (but still conduct well as contacts move over it)...

Steve K

Just don't light a match! And have ventilation.

[MrFujicaman]

If you're using the Wein Peanut slave, you must have them plugged into a PC to Vivitar sync cord. It could be sync cords going bad. I do hummingbird photography using Vivitar 283's also and I just use the cheap little hotshoe slaves from Ebay with a cold shoe on the bottom and a 1/4-20 thread in the cold shoe. They generally sell for under $7 and I've yet to have one go bad.