Elinchrom Skyport and Sigma EF-530 DG Super compatibility fix June 21, 2009
I recently bought Elinchrom Skyport universal trigger set. Unfortunately it wasn’t fully compatible with my Sigma EF-530 DG Super flash. I got on average about 50% success rate and that’s really unusable for shooting anything that moves. I finally managed to find a solution: a single capacitor short circuiting the trigger. This same fix might also help with other flashes that are having trouble with skyports.
After a long search I found this forum post: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/575094/4:
dookie: flashzebra.com sells a special cable to use 285hv with the skyports. for the DIY’ers, basically, the trigger duration for the skyport is very short that it can’t trigger the 285hv’s. to fix this, you can short the terminals with a 22nf capacitor and this will delay the duration enough to trigger the 285hv. hope this helps.
I have long ago forgotten all the electronics stuff I needed in school, but after some thought I could see that it might work (it’s actually very common “fix” to add capacitors here and there…). The skyport receiver acts like a switch, letting current flow when flash needs to be triggered. The flash itself acts as power source. When skyport closes the switch current runs through the circuit (from Sigma to Skyport and back) and this tells Sigma that it’s time to pop the flash. The problem seems to be too short duration of Skyport trigger signal (closing the switch). Sigma simply isn’t fast enough to react to it before it’s over.
Capacitor is used for making the trigger signal longer. It’s basically a storage tank for electrons. It starts to fill when the Skyport closes the circuit. If the capacitor can suck in electrons faster than the Sigma then we basically create a mini battery out of the capacitor and it will have some stored energy when the trigger signal ends. This energy (voltage) then extends the trigger signal.
One feature of added capacitor is added delay. It takes some time to fill the capacitor enough to make the flash see the circuit as closed. This can be a good and bad thing. If the delay is just right for our shutter speed we get 2nd curtain sync for free. If the delay is too long the flash will happen too late.
Capacitor size defines the delay (assuming no added resistors). So, what is the best size? I have no idea.. original poster used 22nF. My dad happened to have 47nF closest to his hand and it works too.
Have to admit that I am a bit fuzzy about some of the electronics stuff, so please feel free to comment! Also, please comment if you encounter problems with some capacitor sizes.
Tuomas Oct 14
I have the exact same setup and exact same problem. Very frustrating.
So you soldered a capacitor (47 micro farads) to the plug of your hotshoe-flash -wire?
Do you know whether or not the flashzebras vivitar-cable would work directly with the Sigma 530 DG Super as well? Probably yes I would guess.
Best,
Tuomas
Juha Oct 15
Sorry, I have no knowledge about flashzebra cables
Vocational schools in Finland used to do small jobs for people cheaply, so asking from schools with electronics department might be one option.
Paul Kremer Jul 8
Juha, did you actually purchase this cable and find it a solution to the problem? I just experienced this same frustrating problem at my last wedding. The Sigma EF-530 DG (which I LOVE on the camera) would only fire a percentage of the time. I got maybe a 33% success rate. I put my Pentax flash back in and went right back to reliable performance.
Did you actually find the answer to the problem? Or was this just something you thought ‘might’ solve the problem?
Juha Jul 8
My dad did the cable
. It’s very easy to do if you can solder and have about the right size capacitor at hand. It’s working in 99.9% of shots . The only problem I have experienced is that in some shots I have had to use 1/160 shutter (instead of 1/200). Using a smaller capacitor might fix this. Happy shooting 