why is my wireless flash triggerer not working?

[game]

hi everyone,
I recently buoght a wireless radio transmitter that should trigger a off camera flash. (a metz 60ct4).
I made a simple setup:

the flash on a tripod, connected to a receiver.
the camera (minolta x500) in hand, with the transmitter attached to it.

When pressing the TEST button on the transmitter the flash flashes nicely.
But, and here comes the part I do not get, when attaching the transmitter to the x contact of my camera and make a photograph nothing happens.
While as I connect the flash to the x-xontact it does flash...

Am I making a crucial or abvious mistake here?
All comments are more than welcome.

thanks, kind regards Game

 

[Nick Zentena]

Which trigger?

How close/far apart is everything?

If the unit has more then one channel are you using the right one?

If the receiver/sender has batteries are they fresh?

Is the wire to the transmitter good?

 

[Steve Smith]

With the transmitter disconnected from the camera, try shorting out the centre contact to the outer contact with key or somethin similar (small and metallic). If it flashes o.k. try it on another camera.

Steve.

 

[game]

nick, thanks for the reply only the checks you seuggested are not really relevant since it actually works when pushing the test button.
I will try connecting inner and outer contacts of cable. only I do think it won't yield a flash because I already tried on two cameras and both times it did not work.
What other thing could be wrong?
thanks so far! kind regards Sam

 

[Steve Smith]

If the test button works but the lead does not then it can only be a faulty connection in the lead/plug as they are probably just connected in parallel internally.


Steve.

 

[Nick Zentena]

How are you connecting ? Hot shoe or cable to X-sync? I assume it's got both types of connections.

 

[game]

Either way is not working.... a faulty cable seems quitte unlikely since it's such a mass productions and just a simple cable...
thanks for thinking with me in this one! kind regards Game

 

[Nick Zentena]

You'd think they couldn't screw up a cable but -)

 

[fotch]

Either way is not working.... a faulty cable seems quitte unlikely since it's such a mass productions and just a simple cable...
thanks for thinking with me in this one! kind regards Game

Your kidding, right? :rolleyes:

Take a small metal object, like a very small screw driver, or nail, and short out the the cable contacts. If it fires, cable ok. If not, guess what?

If the cable can be removed from the devise, you can short out where the cable plugs in. If it doesn't fire the flash, its defective. If the cable cannot be remove, it is still defective.

 

[John Koehrer]

It's always the simple things that bite you in the ass.
In the repair trade it's always"First,last & Always, CHECK THE BATTERY"
I guess the correlation would be "carry a spare synch cord.

Ahhhh, that's out of my system. As odd as it seems some cameras have a problem with polarity when using gizmos & flash. Why? 'cus it's FM the way this stuff works.