Pocket Wizard TT5 broken hotshoe and foot fix!

I have several of the new Pocket Wizard TT5 units. First thing that crossed my mind when I received them…”Is this going to last in the field???” A heavy flash stuck on top of a TT5. Ok, metal hotshoe with a metal foot on the 580exII. Seems secure. Then a plastic foot on the TT5??? I feel safer using the threads when working with stands. Some products like the Lastolite EzyBox use the foot as an attachment. Several months passed and so far so good. Then the other day I broke the feet off two separate units! Two of them in less than an hour! Not happy! I don’t have time to send two of these in for repairs. I called up PW tech support and they directed me to the parts department. PW has awesome support. (yeah yeah, please resist the urge to joke about the range thing…) The people I dealt with were knowledgeable and very helpful. They explained how I can change the hotshoe myself if I didn’t have time to send in my units. Sounds good to me. $20 per unit was the cost. They arrived within two days. Swapping these in was a piece of cake!

So lets begin!
First you need a pocket wizard. Your own, or a friend in need’s unit will do. A small Philips screwdriver and a new hotshoe are all you need.

Next, Turn the TT5 over and remove the 4 screws surrounding the foot. That are located at each corner around the foot. You may have to rotate the foot lock in order to see or access them.

The hotshoe and foot are a combined unit that will pop out from the bottom of the TT5. If they don’t, just push down on the hotshoe and it will come right out. Careful because there is a cable attached.

Pull the cable out from the board located between the hotshoe and foot. A gentle tug is all that is required.

Carefully attach the cable to the new hotshot unit. The cable slides into the connector. It is easy to line it up and then ease it in with your finger. It does not go very far to make a connection. Be careful not to over do it. You wouldn’t want to damage the cable end or the hotshoe connector.

Carefully push the cable back into the body of the TT5 as you reinsert the hotshoe unit into its proper place. It should fit perfectly back in place. If it doesn’t you may have pinched the cable between the hotshoe unit and the body of the TT5. Once the hotshoe is in place, screw it back together with the four screws that were removed. Add batteries and double check everything works. You are all done! Five minutes is all it takes to replace your hotshoe or broken foot on a TT5!

Here is a comparison of a new foot and one of my broken ones.

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12 responses on "Pocket Wizard TT5 broken hotshoe and foot fix!"

  1. Thanks for taking the time to do this, its just what I needed.

  2. Thanks for the how-to. Also, we have almost exactly the same break on the feet in the above shot.

    Cheers,
    Scott

  3. One question, where abouts did you order the replacement hotshoe? I have searched Amazon and B&H, as well as Google and come up with nada.

    Thanks,
    Scott

    • I actually called up the Pocket Wizard tech support directly. They transferred me to the parts department. The people I spoke with were very helpful and knowledgeable. I ordered the parts directly from them. The parts were sent out immediately and I had them in 2 or 3 days.

  4. Thanks so so much! This seriously makes me so happy… I thought I was just going to have to deal with it being broken.

  5. Good post. You write very well. Do you have an RSS feed?

  6. Thank you so much for the tutorial! I had a tough time seeing the slot where the cable went, but luckily my husband’s eyes are better than mine. I appreciate you taking the time to post the fix! Thanks!

    W

  7. I spoke with a rep from the MAC Group who makes PW’s at a guild meeting last night and he mentioned there was a blog post on how to replace this part.

    I was just sitting here trying to figure out how the ribbon cable came out of the hot shoe block. So I found & read your post, with greater confidence I pulled an it popped out, gently placed in the new one. Working fine!

    Thanks
    Bob

  8. That was very helpful. Thanks so much. I was really dreading having to send my units to New York and go through all that hassle. I have a TT1 and a TT5. The foot on both units have broken off. I hate that the plastic on these things are so brittle. Anyway, thanks for putting this post up. Very much appreciated.

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