Flash fires when attaching to camera, then won't fire

[yt1300]

I've got some weird flash behavior that I don't understand. I'm using an Andoer speedlight on my a6500. This flash has worked in the past, but now, if the flash is on, it automatically fires once when I first attach it to the cameras hot shoe, then it will not trigger again. If I pull it off and put it back on, it will again fire when it first makes contact, then not again. It does this even if the camera is off.

At first, I thought the camera's hot shoe must be broken so that it was constantly in the "closed" position (thus completing the circuit for the flash), but my multi-meter says there there is not a complete circuit between the hotshoe components, and I have 4 other flashes of various brands (including another Andoer) that work just fine.

Even stranger, the flash circuit runs on 4.8V (i.e., if I take the flash off the camera, turn it on, then measure the voltage between the + and - terminal on its hot shoe connection, it reads 4.8V). If, however, I wire it up so that I can measure that voltage while it is attached to the camera, it drops down to 2V, which I'm guessing is not sufficient to fire the flash.

I have no clue what is going on. Any thoughts would be appreciated. thanks

 

[XKAES]

Flashes should always be attached and removed with both the flash and the camera turned OFF.  That might not solve your problem.  Lots of people have lots of problems with lots of non-Sony flashes on lots of Sony cameras -- including me.  My guess is that a lot of it has to do with various electrical tolerances of cameras and flashes. 

There are also plenty of non-Sony a-mount lenses that won't work on Sony cameras due to computer chip incompatibility.

Edited March 4 by XKAES