Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have looked through the forums and hope I am not asking a questions previously asked. I have a Canon 50D and have been using the CST transmitter and one received to trigger two aline bees flashes. I want to be able to also trigger a Canon 430EX but can't seem to figure out how it fits into this scheme. I am fairly new to using flash. I set up everything else then set the 430EX on it's tiny plastic stand, set it to the same channel and hoped it worked...it didn't. Any thoughts??/ Thanks

Not very familiar with the Canon 430EX, but it looks like it doesn't have (1) a built-ion sync-plug or (2) a mode that sets it to auto-fire when it sees another flash. If both of those are true, then you need a hotshoe adapter that can plug into the CSRB. In addition, the flash will also have to be set to "manual" mode.

Hope I'm not telling you stuff you already know.

Thanks. I know it works with other speedlites..just set one to master and the others to slave. This is a different setup and nothing I've tried works. Might be something simply but it's beyond me at this point.

You mention a CST and 430EX, but you do not mention a CSRB, which is required as well.
The wireless settings in the flash rely on optical triggers from a master flash, like a 580EX or ST-E2. The CST produces a radio signal, and is not compatabile with the built in wireless system of the flash. The Channels of each are more or less arbitrary, and do not correlate in any way to each other. The remote setting on the 430 should be set to off. You should also have the 430 in "M" mode, as you will not have TTL communication.

Incidentally, the 430 does not have a means of connecting directly to the CSRB, so we recommend getting the SLFA (speedlite foot adapter) in our hardware=>parts and acessories page

http://www.alienbees.com/remotes.html
http://www.alienbees.com/parts.html

Other than the SLFA, the above is true with any speedlite (actually any flash, even ours, will need a reciver of some sort to work with the CST). Any radio remote system will require a seperate reciever on any speedlite, and the same holds true with most studio lights as well (though some studio lights have a radio reciever in them, but there are pros and cons to that set up).

Thanks to all for the feedback. Since I considered using the speedlite just as a backlight/hair light I am just going to invest in another light and put it on a shorter light stand.