Canon 600EX II-RT drops link- HELP!

[Phillyphoto]

Scenarios I have tried: 

Using Canon Transmitter ST-E3-RT as the master and (2) 600 EX II-RTs as slaves.

Using A 600EX as master and B 600EX as slave.

Using B 600EX as master and A 600EX as slave. 

I get the same result of the slave dropping link. The time varies. Sometimes it drops link in 4 mins, sometimes 10mins, sometimes 20 or more minutes. The only way to relink them is by turning everything off and back on.

All channels are the same. Yes, I have scanned for the best connection as well as every other channel and AUTO.

All IDs are the same. 

Not near a wifi-router or airport, I'm in a row home in Philadelphia. 

Using NiMh rechargeables and using freshly charged batteries for every test. Batteries are about 2 years old. 

I have spoken to 2 Canon service reps and neither of them has any idea what the problem is. I really don't have the money to spend on sending everything in for "repair". 

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

[kristieschram]

I am even more  disappointed now to know Canon is aware of this, sold an expensive faulty product and not taking responsibility or care of it's amazing customers.  Not good!

[kristieschram]

I actually started this conversation, but somehow I'm now a spectator instead a contributor. 

[Alexsey]

No! The problem doesn't resolve. Canon, Where are you?

[JimOsdale]

It's quite the problem for Canon at this point. I have two of the brand new EL-1 flashes, and one of the older 600EX-RT flashes, and they all have a problem staying connected. Upon further investigation, it's not the ST-E3-RT with the problem because I turned off this transmitter, and turned it back on several times to see if the LEDs were still green, and within about 10 minutes, one of the EL-1s dropped the connection, so how can this be the transmitter problem? Based on my tests, it's the flashes that are dropping the connection, and we all know it's RF interference, could it be the new WiFi-6 wireless access points around the house and commercial venues? There are other posts that suggest Apple HomePods are the issue, but these items are not in my house, so I cannot confirm or deny these are the conflicting hardware. I do have the new WiFi-6 access points from UniFi as my "MESH" Wi-Fi system in the house.

I made some other tests by purchasing the "sock" that covers the flash and sort of shields it from the RF interference, but this causes more grief because you are essentially now limiting the ability for the transmitters to communicate to the flashes. These are not the solution either, as the link was still dropping. Ugg...

So I did some other tests, and I bought the ($80 USD) Godox transmitter X-Pro II C, and purchased two of the ($40 USD) Godox X1RC receivers for mounting to the Canon EL-1 flashes. Using this configuration, I NEVER lost the link from the Godox transmitter to the Godox receivers, EVER. I let this run for hours, made several tests, used my Canon R5 in different configurations, manual mode, ETTL, and the connection stayed solid, I never lost the link to the flashes.

That being said, there are plenty of posts throughout the Canon forums where this is a huge problem for Canon, and you hear suggestions from Canon support: "Try changing the batteries". Are you kidding me, that is ridiculous, they have nothing else to suggest because deep down they know that interference with all of the "Internet of Things" on WiFi-6, and the 2.4 GHZ band is full of traffic. So why does the Godox (Chinese made) hardware stay connected?

Unfortunately, this means a few more dollars for additional hardware, more AA batteries, but at least the connection is NEVER dropped, and I do not have to power cycle the Canon flash and Canon transmitter. The other downside to Godox transmitters & receivers, you don't get all of the features that Canon has to offer, but in reality, do you really need to have the flash at less than 1/128 power? I say this because the Canon transmitter and EL-1 flash can be set to 1/8192 power, and the Godox can only be set to as low as 1/128 power, which is not a big deal in my opinion. You do however get some pretty cool features in the Godox transmitter, you can turn off any single flash by double tapping one of the 5 group buttons, a useful feature that is super fast.

Deep down, I really think Canon has a problem that may not even be fixable though firmware, it's most likely the frequency that Canon uses that is conflicting with nearby RF devices. In my opinion, why Canon does not reconnect automatically instead of power cycling the hardware is beyond me.

[garmanmd]

I have found a workaround that is back to the future.  When the RT doesn't work I can use my old ST-E2 transmitter to trigger the new flashes in the optical mode.  Of course has all the limitation of the old setup which is why we all moved to RT, but at least the flashes will work for basic function.  It does seem there is no fix since it's a basic design problem that conflicts with something that is new in the wifi world.  Pretty disappointing Canon won't acknowledge it, and that we all spent thousands of $ on equip that no longer works.

[tseager]

Disappointing that the EL-1 has the same issue. The problem is the frequency and protocol. I verified this using a combination of third party flashes, strobes and transmitters that use the Canon protocol. Nothing works on the Canon protocol, unless removed from interference. The Godox and Westcott units work on their own protocols, likely due to lessons learned or freewheeling with the spectrum.

[garmanmd]

I think your suspicion about WIFI6 might be correct.  The only change in my house was replacing the router with the newest version which has wifi6.  I could always go backwards at home, but can't control all the public spaces.  That makes sense in why some public spaces are just fine (probably have older technology), and others are not.

[Nick55]

I have had the same router here for two years in location with issue of “Link Drop”. 
Nothing  new added here. 

[JimOsdale]

Really unfortunate, trying to figure this out for everyone, while Canon continues to ask if the hot shoe is clean, and are the batteries fully charged! While I spent thousands of dollars with Canon on their high-end radio controlled flashes, I had to buy cheap Chinese transmitters/receivers to use wireless flash triggering with my Canon flashes. Using Godox hardware with Canon flashes at least they stay connected with no disconnects at all.

[Nick55]

They are aware of issue. Do they care to find the solution….