Hacking yongnou triggers for m43rds camera
Jan 16, 2015 11:54:48 #
I thought I might share with you my little success story
I have a pair of yongnou rf603n (nikon) flash and shutter triggers they also work with pentax but the supplied shutter release cable is wrong (the wiring and connectors is the same as canon as supplied with the rf603c1).
The rf603 triggers are rather basic no ttl just triggering a slave manual flash at a level preset on the flash.
This is good for a cheap studio set up not so good at parties where light and flash subject distance is liable to change between shots.
Anyway an investigation of the pentax and panasonic g5 hot shoe led me to discover that one pin on the hotshoe supplied 3 volts to the trigger and set the trigger in transmit mode. thats how the camera trigger knows its on the camera and not on a lightstand with a flash in its hotshoe. unfortunately canon , nikon/pentax and panasonic supply this 3 volts on different pins. however it is very easy to switch the sense pin to an appropriate pin although there are a number of pins only 2 are connected the sense pin and the central trigger pin.
So by modding 1 trigger i made it work in the g5 hotshoe and if i want to use this with pentax/nikon i swop the 2 triggers around (if i buy a canon camera i'd just need a single rf603c1 or c3 to mount on the camera and work with the existing triggers as apart from the pin difference on the foot they are identical).
well thats slave remote flash sorted out, how do i remotely trigger the g5 shutter.
Panasonic made their shutter release a little strangely where normally your closing a switch to short common to one pole for focus and with a full press closing a switch to short the remaining pole to common to fire the shutter.
They instead use a 4 pole jack in the body but only use 2 poles with a network of resistors. the switch at the other end shorts out resistors within the network so the camera see's 5v 2v 0v or something like. So reads the initial voltage drop to signal focus and the full voltage drop to fire the shutter.
pixel CL-RS1 is a cable from a company called pixel which makes a competing trigger system to yongnou
I figured that it would have the resistor network built in
it uses the same size 2.5mm 3 pole jack at the trigger end as the yongnou triggers use for their remote shutter cables.
So i took a chance and bought the cable i guessed it could have been 50/50 as to the cable being wired so it would focus on half press and fire the shutter on full press (even that wouldn't be too bad i'd get an out of focus shot followed by a focused 1).
As it turns out the wiring is identical and the pixel trigger cable is compatible with the yongnou triggers and the panasonic g5 Which probably means this will work with any panasonic or olympus micro 43rds camera. If you have olympus you should google first to be sure. There may be differences, I think olympus use the hotshoe to connect their optional EVF.
The cable cost around $7 and I have a system that will work with pentax , nikon and panasonic.
The Triggers themselves can be had for around $20 for a pair (not much less for a single unfortunately).
Since I bought my triggers I believe yongnou have made a modified universal version which uses a switch to tell a trigger its on a camera or not. Which makes it easy for anybody.
The flash units they also make are a bargain for the price with the head size being close enough to canon and nikon to allow you to use the same light modifiers. you can even find an adapter so you can use the same modifiers as studio lights. So a really affordable way to get into flash photography, both inside and outside.
hope this was of interest.
I have a pair of yongnou rf603n (nikon) flash and shutter triggers they also work with pentax but the supplied shutter release cable is wrong (the wiring and connectors is the same as canon as supplied with the rf603c1).
The rf603 triggers are rather basic no ttl just triggering a slave manual flash at a level preset on the flash.
This is good for a cheap studio set up not so good at parties where light and flash subject distance is liable to change between shots.
Anyway an investigation of the pentax and panasonic g5 hot shoe led me to discover that one pin on the hotshoe supplied 3 volts to the trigger and set the trigger in transmit mode. thats how the camera trigger knows its on the camera and not on a lightstand with a flash in its hotshoe. unfortunately canon , nikon/pentax and panasonic supply this 3 volts on different pins. however it is very easy to switch the sense pin to an appropriate pin although there are a number of pins only 2 are connected the sense pin and the central trigger pin.
So by modding 1 trigger i made it work in the g5 hotshoe and if i want to use this with pentax/nikon i swop the 2 triggers around (if i buy a canon camera i'd just need a single rf603c1 or c3 to mount on the camera and work with the existing triggers as apart from the pin difference on the foot they are identical).
well thats slave remote flash sorted out, how do i remotely trigger the g5 shutter.
Panasonic made their shutter release a little strangely where normally your closing a switch to short common to one pole for focus and with a full press closing a switch to short the remaining pole to common to fire the shutter.
They instead use a 4 pole jack in the body but only use 2 poles with a network of resistors. the switch at the other end shorts out resistors within the network so the camera see's 5v 2v 0v or something like. So reads the initial voltage drop to signal focus and the full voltage drop to fire the shutter.
pixel CL-RS1 is a cable from a company called pixel which makes a competing trigger system to yongnou
I figured that it would have the resistor network built in
it uses the same size 2.5mm 3 pole jack at the trigger end as the yongnou triggers use for their remote shutter cables.
So i took a chance and bought the cable i guessed it could have been 50/50 as to the cable being wired so it would focus on half press and fire the shutter on full press (even that wouldn't be too bad i'd get an out of focus shot followed by a focused 1).
As it turns out the wiring is identical and the pixel trigger cable is compatible with the yongnou triggers and the panasonic g5 Which probably means this will work with any panasonic or olympus micro 43rds camera. If you have olympus you should google first to be sure. There may be differences, I think olympus use the hotshoe to connect their optional EVF.
The cable cost around $7 and I have a system that will work with pentax , nikon and panasonic.
The Triggers themselves can be had for around $20 for a pair (not much less for a single unfortunately).
Since I bought my triggers I believe yongnou have made a modified universal version which uses a switch to tell a trigger its on a camera or not. Which makes it easy for anybody.
The flash units they also make are a bargain for the price with the head size being close enough to canon and nikon to allow you to use the same light modifiers. you can even find an adapter so you can use the same modifiers as studio lights. So a really affordable way to get into flash photography, both inside and outside.
hope this was of interest.
Jan 17, 2015 08:28:17 #
blackest wrote:
I thought I might share with you my little success story
hope this was of interest.
hope this was of interest.
:thumbup:
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