[Olympus] Master FL-50R on TX module does not fire in V6 power control mode

ragnar_jensen

I have recently bought four V6 to use with my Olympus cameras; E-1, E-3 and OM-D E-M1. I use four Olympus FL-50R flashes, three as slaves on V6s in RX mode and one on-camera on top of the TX V6. All four V6's have FW version 1.1.019.

In RX mode with slave flashes, they all work OK. The slave flashes all trigger and power control works.

When used on-camera as a TX module, with a master FL-50R set to TTL on top of the V6, it doesn't work.
The master flash is not triggered when the V6 is set to control it. The LED on the TX V6 blinks when I take a shot or test it by just shorting the trigger pin on the V6 to ground, but the flash does not fire.
The flash is triggered, however, when I press the test button on the TX module it is mounted on.

If I set the TX module to TTL pass-through, everything works, the flash fires and can be controlled by the camera.

If I set the TX module to PROFILE MANUAL and set the flash mounted on it to manual too, the flash is triggered by the V6 on-camera, but now the test button doesn't trigger it.

All four of the V6s behave the same. I have tested all of them on all three cameras and also by manually shorting the trigger pin on the V6s hot foot.

TL;DR
Olympus FL-50R mounted on top of on-camera V6 TX module does not fire when V6 is set to control its power. TTL pass-through works.




Suggestions?

Best regards,
Ragnar

ragnar_jensen

Just some more data...

I have now tested with a variety of Canon, Nikon and Pentax profiles. While the power control (of course) doesn't work, the flash does fire.

None of the Olympus profiles fire the flash. The Panasonic FL360 and FL500 profiles behave the same as the Olympus profiles, i.e. the flash does not fire. Not unexpected since they are essentially the same as the Olympus FL-36 and FL-50.

Antonio

Hello Ragnar,

So you have already:

1. Set your FL-50R to TTL mode
2. Select the Olympus FL-50R flash profile on V6 TX

Then to control your on-camera (master) flash on the V6 TX, press + hold the MENU button while you scroll the Adjustment Dial.  As you do that you will see on the LCD displaying the flash model and the power output level of the flash.

Note that without holding the MENU button, adjustments made by the Adjustment Dial only apply to off-camera flash Groups A to D, but not to the on-camera flash.

Hope this helps!

ragnar_jensen

Hi Antonio!

Yes, I have done all that.
1. Flash is in TTL mode.
2. The FL-50R profile is selected.
I press and hold the Menu button and I can see the flash model and the power level changing when I turn the dial. I am aware that turning the dial without holding the Menu button will change the power level on the slaves.

Still, when the TX V6 is triggered by the camera, the flash on top of it does not fire.
The V6's test button does fire the flash.

All the Olympus and Panasonic profiles behave the same.

Thanks for your interest, but it actually didn't help ;-)

Best,
Ragnar

Antonio

Hi Ragnar,

I tried it on our FL-36R and FL-50R with the same result!
This is probably a bug. We will fix it ASAP and update you here on the forum.
Thank you!

ragnar_jensen

Thank you, too :-)
It is good news that you have been able to reproduce the fault.

If you need a beta tester, I'll be happy to help out. I have more than 30 years of experience in hardware and software testing on all kinds of systems, big and small.

/Ragnar

DaveNash54321

Hi, interesting, is the problem sorted ?
Dave
OmD Em1+fl50r and hopefully x2 fl40's

Antonio

Yes, problem solved.

Not sure about the FL-40 as that's an older model and we have not tested it before.

Thank you!