The ebay radio slaves

[grizzz]

I know some people here have used these and some recommend them and some do not. I am going to give it a try but am a little leary of some of the sellers out there. If someone has purchased them and remembers the seller could they post it here? I found this one but I can't tell if he is selling the whole package or just the trigger:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Radio-Wireless-4-Channel-Slave-Strobe-Trigger-2_W0QQitemZ170093091770QQcategoryZ30086QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

They say they are in Dayton but their eBay store is in Chinese???


Better yet is there a product out there somewhere in between the pocket wizards and the eBay stuff?

Thanks, Griz.

[rippo]

i bought one a few weeks ago. they're cheap, and they work some of the time. mine worked initially, and then started giving intermittent results and would only work when the trigger was a couple of feet away or closer. i pulled the battery lid off the slave unit and put it back on (along with some other attempts to get it working), and it was fine again. i think i might have had one misfire over 20 shots, or maybe none.

if it's the same company - and they all look similar - they made the right noises about returning it if unsatisfactory. so i say give it a go, don't rely on it if it's a paid gig, but it's worth what they cost.

[grizzz]

Thanks for the reply, Do you remember the seller (or was it the one I linked)? Someone on this board must be an electrical engineer and could make these. As many sets that are going on eBay I would think if someone could coble something together with good quality they could sell a nice run of them in the $100~$150 range (transmitter and receiver). Pocket wizards are $179 a piece! It seems that the cheap ones work for a period of time so something engineered a little better should hold up. Gotta be a market for it....

[rippo]

seller was "magic_trigger" on ebay.

i'm not going to pay $150 for one until someone actually pays me to take pictures.

[JRJacobs]

I had a set and they were incredibly intermittent and frustrating.  I don't know how many shots I missed.  I tossed them and just used a sync cable and a photo slave until I saved up enough for quality radio triggers.

Some people seem to like them though.

[grizzz]

thanks, I doubt i would spend the $150 either but that is still half of a set of PW's..... I think I'm going to try the ebay ones and just see what they do.

[Alex Hollmann]

I bought one transmitter and two receivers through E-bay: the brand is YHPT Studio Flashlight Remote Control Trigger, http://www.yh21cn.com. Can't find my record of who the E-bay seller was, but I got the name from the Strobist discussion group on Flickr.

This was about 4 months ago - they continue to work well. They always fire when I want them to, and sometimes will fire when I don't (usually when I pick up a light stand and move it). I like them and find them incredibly convenient.

[apocaplops]

I just bought a couple off "Magic_trigger" on the bay. They seem to work best on a couple channel settings. Many channels work not at all, or intermittently. Makes me think they are actually 4-channel units, not 16. Still, they were cheap, and I seem to be able to get them to fire reliably.

[ImageMaker]

Erich, the other thing that may be happening is that you have local interference on some or most of the channels.  If these are like most other license-free radio operated consumer devices, they share a band with literally thousands of other devices, most notably garage door openers and remote light switches, and operate in a band subject to interference from CB radio (which is far from completely gone, even though it's nearly useless for its original function due to illegal modification of the transmitters by a few scofflaws), 27 MHz radio control toys (which is almost all of the cheap ones), and some (generally older) cordless phones.

If they are in fact 27 MHz devices, I'd say you're lucky to have as many as two or three usable channels out of 16, and would suggest that *which* two or three is likely to change if you move your setup to another location (different neighborhood, that is, not so much a different room).

[josphy]

I just got a set from "magic_trigger" also.  The consensus seems to be that the 16-channel ones are more reliable than the 4-channel ones.  Most of the people having problems with them online seem to be using the 4-channel ones.  Anyway magic trigger was nice enough to include a little list of troubleshooting tips.  The #1 issue seems to be making absolutely sure you have fresh, strong AAA batteries in the receiver.  This is the version that doesn't have the built-in hot shoe, but I view that as a good thing as 1) it seems less fragile 2) I've seen more complaints about problems with the hot-shoe version and 3) it uses AAA batteries instead of CR2 batteries.

I also read online that setting the dip switches to 0110 (off,on,on,off) is the best combo.  I just started out with that and didn't even bother trying any other combinations.  They fire 100% of the time for me.  In fact I just used them on my first paying gig, and it was awesome not having to work around a sync cord.

Plus the seller is in NYC and shipped like INSANELY fast, and seems to have a very good return policy.

[apocaplops]

I have found the combo of 0110 to be most reliable as well. Now I just need an umbrella, light stand, and clamps!