Can't remote control flash w/ ST-E3-RT (ver 1)

[polaris8030]

I don't use my 600ex-rt mk2 very often and I have successfully used the st-e3-rt to remote control the 600ex in the past, but yesterday it would just not work. Setup: R5 + ST-E3-RT + 600ex-2
- 600ex-rt works just fine directly off the R5 shoe
- not related to body or firmware. I thought it might have been the recent firmware update on my R5 but I tried my older 5D body and had the same issue
- link light stays red on both devices
- reset the flash menu settings on both bodies to default
- made sure 600ex is set as a) linked shot b) slave
- and same ch (1) and id (0000) for both master and slave, this is the reset default
- transmitter and speedlite are less than a couple of feet away

I have threads in this forum about speedllies losing their link - in my case, the link is not getting established.

thanks in advance
-PoL

[rs-eos]

Just curious if you were outdoors? A few weeks ago, I had the link drop issue when outdoors. I had to recycle power on the flashes as well as the ST-E3-RT though that didn’t always work to establish the link. Sometimes had to cycle the power 2 or 3 times.

I got this to happen indoors, but just once. At that time I also noticed that I had to power on the flashes before the transmitter for the link to be re-established. 

[polaris8030]

Hi Rs-eos .. yes I was outdoors. I power cycled the speedlite and the transmitter multiple times. What I did not do (as has been suggested in this forum) is to change the channel / id of both devices.

I have now read through some of the posts talking about RF interference. I think it has some validity to it - although in my outdoors location (backyard) I have a weak house wifi signal and I don't think there is anything else interfering - when the sender / receiver are literally next to each other. Also -- I have used this successfully in the past albeit not very frequently. So, no I don't have a good theory for what's going on.

[rs-eos]

We're theorizing it may be newer cellular interferance rather than WiFi.  In my office, there's a massive amount of WiFi traffic (over 10 devices) and the issue only happened once.  In my back yard, it happened repeatedly and in that specific area, WiFi would have been incredibly weak.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

"made sure 600ex is set as a) linked shot b) slave"

Are you setting it up for slave Linked Shot? You don't want that mode for the flash, you want radio slave mode.

Linked Shot mode is for one camera to remotely fire another camera via two camera mounted flashes.

[polaris8030]

thanks 5div .. that was quite silly of me to use linked shot, as I wrote above, its been a while since I used speedlites. I was able to use it just fine today (in the backyard). i will keep an eye for the reported link drops and report them in this forum.

thanks !

[Anonymous]

You're welcome. Glad it is resolved.