User's Manual
Trouble Shooting
Page 27Page 26
RadioPopper PX Radio Wireless System
As the RadioPopper PX system simply repeats the signal with a high degree of accuracy, these mis-res attributable
solely to the ash system itself will still happen and are not an indication of malfunction of your PX system.
3. Your camera’s metering system must be able to observe the amount of light being emitted by the wireless Slave
during the Pre-Flash. If it doesn’t see this light, it will not command the ash to emit a Main Flash. If you’re shooting at
long ranges (and we know you’ll try it - right?), remember you’re shooting much beyond the range your camera’s meter-
ing system was intended to be able to measure this Pre-Flash.
If you’re shooting with anything other than a tight telephoto lens at these longer ranges, or if the Slave ash is hidden
to such an extent that it contributes very little light, reliability will be reduced. In these situations, you should set your
Slave ash to operate in Manual mode. Some Master ash devices allow you to remotely adjust the setting of the wire-
less Slave from the Master device. This (with most hardware) eliminates the whole pre-ash logic which should greatly
improve reliability in these longer range situations.
4. Consider the Recycle Time of your remote ashes. When shooting wireless, you tend to shoot faster than usual
without waiting for a full recycle. You probably also have that ash placed some distance away from the subject which
means it’s ring at a higher power, causing further delay to recycle. This also applies with High Speed Sync - which tends
to make your Slave ash cycle more deeply.
A ash that is not completely recycled will often still emit a pre-ash but won’t have enough ‘charge’ to re the main
ash. Also note the red blinking “beacon” light on the front of the ash (on Canon hardware) often starts blinking before
the ash is actually fully recycled. You may need to wait a couple seconds after this beacon starts blinking before actu-
ally taking the next shot.
Sidenote: We HIGHLY recommend PowerEx rechargeable NiMH batteries for your ashes. They cycle way faster than
anything else we’ve tried o the shelf, even with the external battery pack. They haven’t paid us to say that, we just
think they’re awesome. Get them at www.mahaenergy.com.
5. Sometimes a Slave ash may get confused and stop responding correctly. No kidding. This happens without the PX
Radio system also - many people have had the experience of a Slave ash acting “funny” when using the ‘line of sight’
system even without the RadioPopper PX system.
This “getting confused” seems to have more to do with the Slave ash than the PX Radio. To “un-confuse” it, try pressing
the Pilot button on the back of your Master Flash or IR Commander. This should cause all slave ashes to emit a short
pop of light indicating they are alive. This also seems to “clear” any confusion. Do this Pilot operation a couple times to
be sure.
6. Try changing the ETTL channel on your ashes. This sounds strange, but even before the RadioPopper system came
along, many photographers have found greater reliability on certain ETTL channels. If you’re using a SpeedLite 550EX as
your master, set it to ETTL channel 4, or 3 as an alternate as it won’t work on ETTL channels 1 or 2.
7. Check your batteries. All of them. There is no “auto cut o” when the batteries in your PX Transmitter and PX Receivers
start to die. You will start seeing increased numbers of mis-res when either unit begins to run low. As the drain is
similar on both units, it’s a good idea to always replace batteries in all units at the same time. Also note the battery in
your Master Flash or IR Commander may be getting low.
8. Mis-res will increase with greater range. In normal shooting situations, activation and operation should be pretty
reliable. As you begin to put objects, walls, or buildings between PX units, you will at some point notice an increase in
the number of mis-res.
9. Some mis-res are unavoidable. Unfortunately, the ash manufacturers chose to time the visual pulses of light ex-
tremely close together. Due to the extreme speed at which the PX system must operate, there is no time error checking
or repeating of the radio signal as with other radio based ash triggering products. The PX system reads these pulses of
light and does it’s best to relay them accurately and generally does a very good job of it.
No Flash at All
The second mis-re event you may observe is the Slave ash not emitting any light at all. This is likely caused by
incorrect conguration of the ash system itself (aside from the RadioPopper PX system) or a problem with system
installation.
1. Uncover the infrared sensor on your Slave ash (if you’ve used tape to attach the PX Receiver optic). Power o the
PX Transmitter and Receiver and attempt to re the Slave ash at short range using the normal line of sight system. It
must operate correctly using the line of sight system at short range before it will operate using the PX System as the PX
is simply repeating the visible signal.
See the owner’s manual that came with your ash and camera body to ensure you’ve congured your existing hardware
correctly. Check that the the ash on the hot-shoe is set to “Master” and the remote ash is set to “Slave”. Also ensure
the Master and Slave units are set to the same ETTL channels.
Once your ashes are operating correctly using the line of sight system, power up your PX Transmitter and PX Receivers
and continue....
2. When the radio is activated on the PX Transmitter (see Operating Instructions earlier in this manual), observe the Link
LED (orange) is lit on the PX Transmitter. This should also cause the Link LED to light on the PX Receiver indicating there
is a good radio link established between the two units.
If the Link LED is lit on your PX Transmitter, but the Link LED does not light on your PX Receiver(s), the receiver(s) may be
out of range, there may exist some background radio interference in your environment preventing a good link (including
another PX Transmitter being used by another photographer near by), or one of your units may be damaged. Move to
another location and try it again to eliminate the possibility of some source of radio interference operating near to you.
3. When a good link is established (the Link LED lights and remains lit solid on the PX Receiver), tap the Link Button on
the PX Transmitter one time quickly. This should cause the Link LED on the PX Transmitter to strobe. It will also send a
test message to all active PX Receivers. If this message is received correctly, the receiver(s) will blink both LED’s together
several times.