Pocket Wizard TT1/TT5 and Bowens problem?

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Chris
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Are there any Bowens owners using the BW5180 Pocket Wizard internal card to trigger their lights?

I have 2 Bowens Gemini 500R. One head has the PW card above installed and has worked pretty well, (though not quite 100%) while I have had Pocket Wizard Plus II on the other lights & camera.

I have just bought the Nikon version of the PW TT1 & TT5 and the BW5180 internal card has a delay on receiving the signal causing that particular light to fire a fraction of a second after the other lights (which are triggered with PWII). Sometimes the lights DO fire together but 50-60% of the time they are either slightly out of sync, or the flash doesn't fire at all!

I have swapped the card into the other Bowens head with the same result so my guess is an incompatability issue between the BW5180, which is a Bowens product, and with the new Pocket Wizard technology.

The card is going back to Bowens, but just wondered if anyone else has experienced problems?
 
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Are you using mains supply or Travelpak? I've heard some people have had problems with the PW card when using a Travelpak albeit not with the new Nikon TT1 units. I use PWII's myself and have had no problems so far.
 
I am using mains supply. I haven't actually tried the TT1/Travel Pack combination yet.

The TT1/TT5 all work perfectly with my PWII.

The Bowens/PW internal card works fine if I am sending the signal using PWII (powered by either mains or travel pack) which is why I assume the problem is unique to the 'card and TT1/TT5 combination'.

I wondered if this was a 'known' problem that I hadn't heard about.
 
If you power up any of your gear before the TT5's they show these symptoms, so I wonder if there may be a general incompatibility, as presumably the internal card takes it's power from the flash, therefore the receiver isn't announcing it's presence until after the flash is powered on.
 
Phil V said:
If you power up any of your gear before the TT5's they show these symptoms, so I wonder if there may be a general incompatibility, as presumably the internal card takes it's power from the flash, therefore the receiver isn't announcing it's presence until after the flash is powered on.
Click to expand...

I'm not quite sure if I understand what you mean, but I have tried turning on the TT5 first, then the light....... or the light, and then the TT5, but the problem is the same either way.

I'm wondering what Bowens will make of it, but suspect they might say it is not THEIR fault if newer PockeWizard technology is incompatible with their product which worked with the PW's currently available at the time I bought it.
 
Not sure if you solved this problem and I know its an old thread but for anyone else...

I had the same issue with the TT1/TT5 & BW5180 today and here's what worked for me:

Immediately after turning on your lights press the test/learn button on your PW until its transmits, I had to press it about 5 five times and they now sync fine.

You don't have to do this every time.

Steve
 
Chip,
I'm having the same problems with my new TT1+Bowens. Have you managed to find out what the problem was?
 
Ela said:
Chip,
I'm having the same problems with my new TT1+Bowens. Have you managed to find out what the problem was?
Click to expand...

Sadly not. I tried all the suggestions but still had the same problem.

I have now removed the BW5180 Pocket Wizard trigger from my Bowens light and plugged a PWII in instead and have TT1/TT5 transmitting from cameras.

Works perfectly..... but wasn't really my plan as I intended to sell the PWII's when I bought the new system.

Anyone want to buy a Bowens BW5180 card for Pocket Wizard? :D It works absolutely fine if you are using PWII's it just doesn't seem to like my TT1/TT5.
 
chip said:
Sadly not. I tried all the suggestions but still had the same problem.

I have now removed the BW5180 Pocket Wizard trigger from my Bowens light and plugged a PWII in instead and have TT1/TT5 transmitting from cameras.

Works perfectly..... but wasn't really my plan as I intended to sell the PWII's when I bought the new system.

Anyone want to buy a Bowens B5W180 card for Pocket Wizard? :D It works absolutely fine if you are using PWII's it just doesn't seem to like my TT1/TT5.
Click to expand...

Many thanks for your advice. Anyone want to buy another B5W180 card :)
 
mike weeks said:
Are you using the pocket wizard programming utility? It allows the changing of delay settings as I expect the card and TT5 have different default settings.

Mike
Click to expand...

I'm not using TT5, just the TT1 + Bowens PW plug-in radio trigger card inserted into Bowens 750Pro. Any ideas what the problem might be?
 
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