# 600EX-RT as remote trigger for Paul C. Buff White Lightning



## chrisdeckard (Aug 7, 2012)

I ordered PocketWizards to do use as remote triggers for a White Lightning X1600 that I just ordered, but I'm wondering if I could have saved some money by using the 600EX-RT as a remote trigger for the strobe? Can I just use a flash sync cable for this?

-Chris


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## neuroanatomist (Aug 7, 2012)

If you mean sync cable from the 600EX to the WL monolight, no - the PC port on the speedlite is input only. 

I suppose you could optically slave the monolight.


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## chrisdeckard (Aug 7, 2012)

That's the answer I needed. Too bad it wasn't the answer I wanted. haha.

Thanks a bunch!

-Chris


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## FunPhotons (Aug 8, 2012)

neuroanatomist said:


> If you mean sync cable from the 600EX to the WL monolight, no - the PC port on the speedlite is input only.
> 
> I suppose you could optically slave the monolight.



The 600 has a 3.5mm socket that can be used to trigger other devices, including a non 2012 camera via the 3 pin connector using this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FH1LCW cable. 

So if you can go from the 3.5mm jack to whatever then yeah.


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## neuroanatomist (Aug 8, 2012)

FunPhotons said:


> The 600 has a 3.5mm socket that can be used to trigger other devices, including a non 2012 camera via the 3 pin connector using this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FH1LCW cable.
> 
> So if you can go from the 3.5mm jack to whatever then yeah.



Sure, you can 'go from the 3.5mm jack to whatever'. But, have you empirically confirmed that a signal is transmitted through that port at any time other than when the manual states, i.e. other than when a 600EX-RT flash (or ST-E3 RT) set as master is signaled by a 600EX-RT set as slave, then selecting Menu 2 on the slave and pressing the Function Button 1, which causes the master to fire a trigger signal?? Because if you haven't, you're suggesting that the OP handhold a flash and manually press a button on that flash to perfectly synchronize with the shutter (allowing for a few millisecond transmission lag). 

Is that what you're suggesting as a realistic option? Or, have you connected a 3.5mm plug to the remote trigger port on a slave flash (note: the manual states the master is the trigger, not the slave, and you'd need the slave to fire the trigger signal with a shutter button press of an on-camera master), cut the wire and attached the leads to a Fluke meter, and shown that a current is passed when the slave is triggered? If so, please let us know. 

The mere existence of a port labeled 'remote triggering' doesn't mean it can trigger everything all the time.


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## FunPhotons (Aug 8, 2012)

neuroanatomist said:


> FunPhotons said:
> 
> 
> > The 600 has a 3.5mm socket that can be used to trigger other devices, including a non 2012 camera via the 3 pin connector using this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FH1LCW cable.
> ...



No need to be snotty. 

Syl Arena has verified that optically slaving works too, http://pixsylated.com/blog/canon-speedlites-optical-slaves/ (and he has an article on CPN using them with the 600)


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## neuroanatomist (Aug 8, 2012)

FunPhotons said:


> No need to be snotty.



Sorry, but I didn't think I was - I was asking if you'd confirmed that the advice you offered, indicating a 600EX-RT could be used to remotely trigger a monolight, or if you were making an untested assumption (if I was going to be snotty, I'd have asked if you were talking out of your ass-umptions... ).

I have not tested what you're suggesting, so I don't know that it _won't_ work. So, I'm making an assumption, as well. But, I think it's pretty likely that Canon will, at some point, release a standalone RF receiver for their new RT system, to allow compatibility with older flashes (probably a hotshoe attachment, it may or may not have a cable output port, but if not a FlashZebra hotshoe pass-through adapter would solve that for less than $20). 

To maximize their profit (and the goal of any publically held company is just that), they likely will not release such a receiver until after the 430-type RF flash is released and sales of both 600 and 430-replacement have slowed down a bit. In the meantime, I assume that Canon will have taken steps to ensure that a simple cable attachment to the 600EX-RT with some splitters cannot be used to radio trigger a bunch of 580's from a single slaved 600 - Canon wants you to buy a bunch of 600's, of course, or failing that, wait and buy a bunch of 430-replacements, since those solutions mean more profit for them...


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## TrumpetPower! (Aug 8, 2012)

The Paul C. Buff CyberSync is an awesome and inexpensive radio remote trigger system. You get complete control of any Buff light (including modeling lights) plus triggering of any other light. Multiple channels, multiple groups, anything you can think of, you've got it. Plenty of range, too...I can be in the bathroom on the other side of the house and still trigger the lights.

If you're wanting to remotely trigger a Buff light, nothing else makes sense.

Cheers,

b&


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## FunPhotons (Aug 8, 2012)

neuroanatomist said:


> FunPhotons said:
> 
> 
> > No need to be snotty.
> ...



No problem. I'm an engineer with access to a full labstock and test equipment and could solder up a delay circuit easily enough, but at any rate I didn't think through the problem through with my off the cuff answer.

Actually though I doubt Canon actively did anything to actually prevent people from trying creative solutions. I work in an industry that, while different (test and measurement) parallels what they do (a camera is a measurement device after all, a custom hardware with specialized firmware). And both companies are big, old and staid as well. Anyhow it costs too much engineering and requires too much creativity to try to do those kinds of technology lockouts, especially since they know that only a small number of people would try it. I hear people on this board often ascribe more intelligence to Canon then I think they deserve. Companies like this don't get interested in something until it is in the ranges of tens of millions of dollars. Doing something that might earn them an extra million here or there is nothing, since it would cost at least that much to implement it. 

So anyhow I suspect an enterprising individual could possibly make a cheap device which triggered external devices off that port. However it can be done now with the optical triggers Syl Arena talks about. The only caveat being that the flashes have to be in manual mode as the ETTL pre test flashes would throw it off.


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## victorwol (Aug 18, 2012)

TrumpetPower! said:


> The Paul C. Buff CyberSync is an awesome and inexpensive radio remote trigger system. You get complete control of any Buff light (including modeling lights) plus triggering of any other light. Multiple channels, multiple groups, anything you can think of, you've got it. Plenty of range, too...I can be in the bathroom on the other side of the house and still trigger the lights.
> 
> If you're wanting to remotely trigger a Buff light, nothing else makes sense.
> 
> ...



They are great! Bi directional data, cheap, cheap, and awesome. The little remote with the LCD to control the Einsteins is fabulous.


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## jgunduck (Aug 18, 2012)

What would be really cool, and inexpensive+easy, would be for canon to come out with a hotshoe receiver (like a pocket wizard) that could use the signal that the 600ex transmits to use older 580ex's and 430's. also having a port on the side to plug into stobes . FunPhotons
, get on that lol. getting advanced they could also make a trigger that could plug into one of the einseins like the PowerMC2 that could control flash compensation and trigger it.

I would like my cut of the royalties canon. lol


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