Why won't my Godox TT685n work from the hotshoe?

Question

I have a new Godox speedlight, and I can't get it to trigger from the hotshoe of a D5600. It seems to work fine with a wireless flash trigger, though.

When I have it in the hot shoe, in iTTL mode, with auto zoom, and the camera in Aperture priority, it seems to think the camera is at F1 (it isn't), and doesn't seem to read the zoom. I get low light indicator in the viewfinder, and no flash. Hitting the flash button pops up the built in.

Do I have a defective unit? Any tests to do?

To reply to some of the comments, and give current staus: The hot shoe works "properly" with some other flash units-- the godox X1 transmitter, and a Zenith ring flash -- with "works" meaning "triggers a flash". That said, I'm not sure how to get confirmation that TTL is working at all. I wouldn't expect it to with the Zenith, and would with the transmitter -- but I don't know how to verify this with the X1, as the TTL numbers don't come up on the screen.

I moved the flash around on the shoe until it felt like the pin dropped in and I could no longer move it. No change.

I read somewhere that shorting the big center pin to the plate on the flash should trigger a flash. It does not. Is this a real test?

Answer 1

I had a similar issue with mine - the flash would not communicate with my Lumix GH5 after I had set it up in SLAVE mode. When mounting it back on the camera, the V860ii would not communicate with my GH5 at all. Resetting it several times did nothing. The trick is to turn on your camera first, then mount your V860ii and then turn it on. This way it sync's your lens type and focus information in TTL Auto mode and will also flash when triggered. And if you have a zoom lens, the V860ii responds perfectly, reflecting the zoom setting and focus distance in the flash display.

Answer 2

Check that your TT685N is in on-camera mode. It sounds as if it's in radio slave mode.

If the camera is in either the "smart" optical or radio master/slave modes, it will ignore signals coming in on the flash's foot. You can also run through the basics, like checking that all your batteries are good, that the contacts are clean, that the flash is seated fully forward in the hotshoe, etc. But the mode confusion is a very common error for new non-Canon Godox users (the TT685/V860II UI is semi-cloned off the Canon 600EX-RT UI, so Canon users are used to cycling through these five modes).

The TT685N can easily be put into the following five triggering modes with the horizontal lightning bolt button on the right. The triggering mode cycle is:

• On-camera
• "Smart" optical (CLS) master
• "Smart optical (CLS) slave
• Radio master
• Radio slave

There are two indications that show the mode that's set: the color of the backlight, and what's displayed in the upper left corner of the LCD.

The backlight is green for the on-camera and master modes, and orange for the slave modes.

The on-camera mode displays M or i-TTL or RPT in the upper left, without any accompanying icon. The optical modes display a lightning bolt icon; the radio modes display an antenna/lollipop icon.

Answer 3

This sounds fairly basic. Since you've already made sure you are using the latest firmware and checked that the contacts are clean, it's probably one of four things:

• Although you ordered a TT685N, confirm that the contacts on the bottom of the flash's hot foot aren't in a pattern for another camera system (Canon, Fuji, SOny, etc). The various versions of the TT685 will work wirelessly with any of the above, but will only work on camera with the one for which they are made.
• Please check to be sure the flash's hot foot is properly seated all the way in the camera's hot shoe. Sometimes new flashes feel like they are all the way in before they actually are. This is particularly the case if the hot shoe has not been used before. There have also been reports that some of the newer Nikon camera models (particularly the D750)¹, such as your D5600, have slightly modified the dimension of their hot shoes and more care must be taken to properly seat the flash over the contacts.

I have a YN-622N-TX on top of my D750 and it works fine(¹)!!!

(¹) Nikon made a slight change to the flash shoe on the D750. It is a bit deeper, so pins don't align quite as easily, however, this is simple to get around. Mount the yn622 on the camera, then lightly tighten the locking wheel. This will extend the alignment pin on the bottom of the yn622. GENTLY pull back on the unit until you hear and/or feel the pin pop into place. Lock it down the rest of the way now. - Rick Moncello

• The flash is set in optical "slave" mode and the contacts in the hot foot are turned off. Thus the camera is not detecting the presence of the flash on the hot shoe. Take the flash out of slave mode.
• The flash is defective and needs to be returned for replacement or repair.

_{¹ Please see the following links for more:
The comment by Rick Moncello left September 10, 2015 at the amazon review section for this set of two Yongnuo YN622N transceivers .
This Nikon Rumors post: Phottix: the Nikon D750 hot shoe has different dimensions than previous camera models
This Nikonites thread, which also mentions the D5500.}

Answer 4

I have a Godox TT685 that will sync from the hot shoe on the camera when the camera is titled up, but not when it is held upright or tilted down. Even when try resetting it and tightening it onto the hot shoe, it continues to baffle. Sometimes it will sync no matter which way I hold the camera, but usually not for long. Camera is a Canon R6. My old Ynungnou flash works fine on this camera.