I am having trouble getting the flash controller to trigger on the light from a laser pointer. What am I doing wrong?
The most sensitive setting will be high gain in a dark room. In this setting, the flash controller is also sensitive to the flickering of flourescent lights. A red laser pointer should work best. The phototransistor is most sensitive at the infra-red end of the spectrum, and least sensitive at the blue end. Many laser pointers are not very bright, actually. Try waving a flashlight past the controller. If that works, you know that the sensor is functioning. The flash controller is only sensitive to relatively high-speed changes in light. Many lights do not turn on or off quickly enough to trigger the controller. Of course you can interrupt a laser beam very quickly, so this should be fast enough.
