Pocket Wizard Plus II problem

[dmcantrell]

Tonight I was out on a shoot and one of my off-camera speedlights stopped working. I narrowed the problem down to the pocket wizard transmitter that sits in the hot-shoe.

Now that I'm home and have some time to investigate, I see that the problem is due to the little spring-loaded metal nib on the hot-shoe adapter. It seems that it doesn't stick down far enough any more to make contact -- possibly from use. I can rock the pocket wizard back in the hotshoe and this is enough to make contact and it works, but I can't see doing this on a live session.

Has anyone had this happen? If so, how do you fix it? I suppose I could crack the thing open and fix whatever the spring mechanism is...

[KdLaneJr]

Try tightening up your camera hotshoe. It's not always obvious when it has loosened up.

[swjim]

I'm sure you've checked this already but the only time mine occasionally act strangely is when the batteries get low...

[Abel]

Originally Posted by KdLaneJr

Try tightening up your camera hotshoe. It's not always obvious when it has loosened up.

i had this problem on my canon... i had to pop the shield off and tighten the screws. all worked fine after that...

http://neilvn.com/tangents/2007/08/0...non-1d-series/

not sure how it is on your nikon but i'd start there for sure.

[dmcantrell]

Ken - Thanks for the advice. See below.
Jim - The first thing I checked was the batteries. I have this problem isolated to the hotshoe "nib" that sticks down out of the little foot on the Pocket Wizard. It doesn't stick down as far as my other Pocket Wizards do.
Abel - Thanks for the link.

Let me explain one level further. I have a wedding bracket to which I've affixed a standalone hotshoe that is triggered via PC cord by my SB-800 (connected to the SC-29). In this way, I can use the SB-800 on the top of the camera for a fill light while simultaneously triggering the Pocket Wizard that controls my off-camera SB-800 (with another pocket wizard).

The hotshoe that I'm talking about is a little third-party standalone hotshoe that I picked up from a camera store, and it is noticeably "loose". However, 2 of my 3 Pocket Wizards work just fine in this hotshoe, and the one that doesn't has a shorter connection nib.

Anyway, you guys have given me some alternate ideas to think about. Thanks!