The email from Radiopopper finally came out tonight. The guys at Leap Devices have made the following announcement:
“The RadioPopper RPCube will be available for purchase Monday, May 3, 2010 at 1pm PST for $29.95.”
The official Radiopopper RPCube from Leap Device
I’ve said it before – I really like what the RadioPopper guys have done with their radio triggers but they tend to over promise delivery dates. They are famous for saying a product will be out in 6 weeks. Yea, maybe, on a planet with a different orbit than the one I happen to live on…I suspect this is the real deal though and it seems to be planed to work with both Nikon and Canon TTL speedlights.
The announcement of the RPCube is particularly good news for Canon speedlight owners. It’s been a long wait for the RPCube functionality to work with Canon speedlights. The Nikon shooters have been luckier – we’ve been using cheap DIY cubes for months now. DIY for Nikon cubes were developed in the Strobist Group on Flickr and the procedure for creating the Nikon cube DIY is posted right here on Light and Pixels.
Nikon DIY Radiopopper cube
If you’re a Canon Shooter the release of the RPCube is a pretty big deal because the DIY method for creating a RPCube is not as simple of a task when compared to the Nikon version. However, one of the most prolific posters in the Flickr Strobist group, Rudy has created a circuit that will handle the job. Rudy and others have discussed the process for creating the circuit in this post over on Flickr.
The schematic looks like this.
Radiopopper DIY Canon circuit schematic from Rudy___
The finished circuit ready for mounting looks like this:
DIY Canon RPCube Circuit from Flickr's Rudy___
Rudy finishes up the post with guidance about how to finish up the circuit and make it ready for real world use. “...I would wire/solder it up and have it mounted in the enclosure. Test & make sure it all works. Then I would use some hot melt glue to hold in place so it can’t get knocked around and short anything out.”
If you’re a DIYer, the DIY options here would seem likely to be a less expensive than the official RPCube. If your not a DIYer the Official Radiopopper RPCube is gonna worth the money for sure. I’ve been burning up the DIY version I built for Nikon and I think that you’ll love the ability to manage speedlight power with the Radiopopper JrX Studio receiver. They add a lot of value and keep your hiking down!
I hope that everyone who was waiting for the RP Cube appreciates me! I ordered my JRX’s a couple of days before the announcement! The way it goes sometimes LOL. I did order all the pieces to make the DIY cubes too….