Nice Five Minute Radiopopper Mod
Want to ditch the gaffers tape method of attaching the Radio Popper receiver to your flash? I sure did. Now with the Nice Photo Mag Five Minute Radio Popper Mod you can, too! (Warning: performing this mod will likely void your warranty, it is most definitely NOT a factory approved mod, it could render your cute little Radiopopper inoperable, you just might drill a hole through your hand, and the entire universe could implode, compressed to the size of a peanut – so don’t do it! The legal department makes me say that.)
Now that’s out of the way….
I said in my Radio Popper review that I was going to have to DIY a solution to the gaffers tape application with the popper, and here it is.
Fortunately this mod is super easy.
What you’ll need: Radiopopper receiver. Drill with 1/8″ drill bit. Scissors. Hot glue gun. Nerves of steel.
Plug in that hot glue gun (have your fire extinguisher ready – legal again).
Take the back off of the Radiopopper as if you were going to put in a fresh battery. You will ONLY be altering this plastic part, NOT the part with the electronics.
Drill a 1/8″ hole positioned like the bottom one you see in this photograph (the top hole is already there – that’s where the optic goes in):
Now drill a hole on the bottom like you see in the middle of the image below:
Take the fiber optic cable that came with your popper and cut a piece about 2 inches long.
Put the shortened cable into the popper like normal. Feed the free end through the top hole. Now bend the cable so it goes out the hole in the bottom. You’re going to have to bend the cable quite a bit, but it should be fine. I did this with 3 receivers and though it took a bit of bullying, I didn’t ruin any of the cables on mine, so you should be okay.
Before you glue anything, hold it up to your flash and shoot off some test fires. If you have the transmitter and everything on and you are holding the fiber optic output over the right part of your flash it should go off. If not, double check everything. Make sure your optic is pushed all the way into the receiver, that they are linked up, etc. All good? Good.
Now you can hot glue that bugger down. You don’t need to have the optic stick out through the bottom of the hole. In fact I set mine back just a touch less than flush and filled it up with the hot glue from the outside. The glue cools down to a translucent white and I think it spreads the light out a smidgen, giving you a bit more leeway with the placement over the eye.
Then I filled it up from the inside to hold it from moving around. In this image you can see how the optic cable comes out of the regular hole and goes into the new hole you drilled, taking the optic back into the case, and then out through the hole you drilled in the back.
Once the glue has completely cooled down, screw your friend closed. It should look something like this.
The optic is now flush with the back side. So you can either put velcro on your flash just above the eye so when you press this puppy on it lines up and still keeps out most of the sunlight, or you can use a velcro strap on your flash (lock it down tight) and stick your popper to that. UPDATE: Turn the flash head around 180 so it is not sitting over the popper. Kevin from Radiopoppers commented below that there is a strong electromagnetic whatsit that comes out of the flash head right above and below the light up part thingy. Therefor he strongly recommends spinning the head around 180 to alleviate any problems it might otherwise cause. Thanks Kevin!
There you go. It takes longer to read how to do it than it takes to do it. But you may want to take your time just the same.
I’ve tried the mod with the 580ex II flashes and the old 580 ex. No problems. In fact, the shots in this article were taken using two Radiopoppers that had already been modified. I don’t have any of the Nikon flashes, but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work for those as well since all I did was re rout the light tube.
Now you can use your poppers and just pluck them off when you are done. Isn’t that Nice?
Questions? Comments? Want to lather us with adulation? We don’t mind. Leave a message in the space below.
These images were taken using a
Canon 5D with a Canon 24-105 L
a pair of 580ex II flashes,
and a 12mm extension tube.
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Holy nipple batman !
great idea, but the question is why didn’t the almighty designers at radio-popper HQ do this in the first place . . . . the mind boggles, all I need them to do is to start shipping to the uk and I’ll be a happy chap
Thanks for the explanation….but the images are too small see even see what’s going on.
This is what should have been done in the first place. Either that or a much more open oprical sensor. The fibre-optic route is a bit messy.
My preference would have been for the RP people to have put a standard optical sensor on the back of the unit and supplying a velcro band. This makes the device one part with no trailing cables. I really hope the RP people watch these mods and consider them for the future devices.
this is awesome. but i is stoopid and require more details. bigger photos. measurements. more details. pretty please?
oh and i should add, i have canon 580EX flashes, X 2. can you tell me exactly where i drill the back hole? and that fat plastic end on the fiber optic tube pops out of there?
I made the images larger and added a few more words of explanation. But I really don’t know how better to explain it. It’s a really simple mod. Drill two holes, cable goes in one out the other. Add glue.
I wish I knew how to explain it better. Perhaps there are specific questions I could answer.
This looks like an interesting mod. My only comments are:
1. I’m guessing the reason the “Radiopopper people” didn’t design the receiver with this mod is because they wanted the RP to be able to work with as many flash units as possible. Using a long flexible optical cable allows this since different flashes have their sensor located at different places. See pg. 15 of the RP Users Manual for some examples.
2. Another consideration may be that this mod may block the focus assist lamp, depending on where you velcro the RP.
3. I’m just speculating here but this mod may reduce the maximum range of the unit because the antenna may not always be pointing straight up. See pg. 22 of the RP Users Manual:
“The radio signal emits outward in the shape of a doughnut from the sides of the antenna. The signal is therefore strongest 360 degrees to the sides of the antenna when the antenna is pointed straight up. The weakest signal is emitted out the very point of the antenna, as well as straight downward out the bottom of the antenna.”
This is probably not a big deal when using this mod indoors with lots of stuff for the signal to bounce off of.
Clever mod. Thanks for sharing it. Keep up the good work!
Great thinking Zeke – this really is a pretty sweet mod. We’d planned to build the units this way from the start except Nikon flashes have the IR sensor on the side, so it wouldn’t have worked – using the flexible optic insured unlimited mounting positions regardless of make of flash.
*** I do have one concern with your mount though, and you may want to add this for anyone else reading. ***
You really should turn the flash head away from the RP Receiver in this type of mount.
When your flash fires it creates a very strong magnetic pulse which is strongest right above and right below the flash head. The way you have it pictured (where the RP is “under” the head) – the antenna is directly in this very strong field. The P1 Transmitter is intended to stand up to this as it’s putting energy out – but the receiver on the other hand is tuned to be super sensitive, and hitting the sensitive input stage with this jolt time after time could possibly damage the unit.
Measured on the side (the normal mounting location) the magnetic jolt is almost zero, but right up under the head – it’s very strong. There is a bypass built into the receiver that should conduct occasional static electricity around the radio – but with repeated use… you get the idea.
Long story short – turn the head the other way and you should be just fine. Being it’s wireless anyway, positioning for your intended shot should be easy enough.
Cheers!
Hi Mr K,
do you think it could be possible to fire two flashes simultaneosly with just one RadioPopper receiver? For example, with two optic fiber cables coming out of a single RadioPopper?
Just wondering if I could fire 2 attached Nikon Sb-600 flashes with just one RadioPopper receiver attached to them…
Hi Andres,
I think you could trigger two with just one popper. You’d have to split the optic. There was a post on Radiopopper’s blog where they speculated about a way to do it.
http://radiopopper.com/blog/?p=28
Let me know if you get it to work.
Thanks a lot Mr K! I do not have any Radiopopper yet, I am asking myself what could be better / cheaper / more effective in terms of flash power / recicle time:
Nikon SB-800 + SD-80 = full power / recicle time of 1 sec (US 450)
Two Nikon Sb-600 = full power / recicle time of 3 sec (US 360)
… and wanted to know if one Radiopopper could fire 2 Sb-600.
Your link answered my question, thanks a lot!
I really like the idea of the Radio Popper mod because I’m concerned about the fiber optic cable being a weak link in the system. However, having a glob of glue between the flash and the RP doesn’t seem like an optimal way to transfer important data. What do you think ?
Rex
This is a great idea. This question may or may not be for this particular post. But I’ll go ahead, anyway in hopes that someone will have more insight…
Question: Has anyone used the radio popper with the ST-2 580ex and the Quantum Qd-5? Does it work? Radio Popper told me that they have not tested it, yet, but have heard on the web that is does work. Is this true and if so where is the thread? Thanks!!
“2. Another consideration may be that this mod may block the focus assist lamp, depending on where you velcro the RP.”
Why would you need focus assist on a slave?
Just modded two of my newly arrived RP Rxers. No problem, almost, second fiber I cut 2 inches but it was a bit short, my advise better be a bit longer then 2 inches. I recut a little longer and second worked fine. Another thing: it is a little flimsy, 580 is not flush, it rocks left right. I’m considering a velcro belt around or maybe to use same scotch tape to hold the top part steady.
Thanks a lot for the info.
Where can you buy the radio popper, is the only place at radiopopper.com? Sure would like to find it locally!
As of now I’m pretty sure you can only get it direct.