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Speedlite 500EX turns on – but not firing
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Hi all,
Not quite sure where to post this, but will try it here for now..
Bought a second hand Speedlite 550EX from one of our PI members around a year ago. It worked perfectly, no problems at all. Used it for two weddings, no problems. I haven’t used it for a few months, and took it out to use it yesterday. Put newly charged batteries in. The LCD screen lights up, and all the info is there on the screen. When I first turn it on, it sounds like the flash is firing up, but the pilot light never comes on, and the flash never fires. I tried charging up other batteries, but still no joy.
Does anyone have an idea what could be wrong? Anyone else had this problem or similar?
Any help appreciated!
Nicola
Hi Nicola. You say that you put in freshly charged batteries and you tried to charge other batteries. It could be a problem with the charger rather than the flash unit. Rechargable batteries also hold a lower voltage than standard batteries which might be the cause of the pilot light not coming on. It sounds like it’s not receiving the required voltage to fire.
Thanks! I will try to put in some non-rechargeable fresh batteries to see if it works. Will let you know what happens :-)
It worked!!
So it could be the charger itself – I was recommended to buy top quality batteries, which I did, so maybe its the charger. Will investigate!
Thanks again.Glad it worked. Rechargable batteries normally are 1.2volts whereas standard batteries operate on 1.5volts, which in a normal set of 4 batteries is 1.2volts short. (= 1 rechargable battery). This voltage drop normally doesn’t matter too much in low power appliances such as radios, iPods etc, but when a high charge is required, the batteries cannot deliver the required charge. It’s important to note that, the lower the available voltage, the higher the current (miliamps). Too much current can damage your equipment (ie burn out components). I would stick to using the standard batteries for something like a flash unit.
A long shot but there’s no chance your charger is set to charge 2 batteries instead of 4? My old charger had a little switch that would charge two batteries or four depending on the setting but only had one ‘charging’ light, I once drove from Drogheda to Kerry charging four sets of four batteries (or so I thought) only to find when I got there that the switch was set to two batteries and I hadn’t noticed!
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