Flash/pocket wizard issue

Hello all, have a canon 600 ex rt speed light with a pocket wizard connected and randomly fires every 10 seconds or so. Have any of you had this issue and how did you resolve it? Is it on a wrong setting? Thanks in advance!

You may simply be experiencing interference from some nearby source. Try changing channel

mgnike1 wrote in post #19235061
Hello all, have a canon 600 ex rt speed light with a pocket wizard connected and randomly fires every 10 seconds or so. Have any of you had this issue and how did you resolve it? Is it on a wrong setting? Thanks in advance!

May I ask why you are using a Canon 600 EX-RT with a Pocket Wizard Connected? What is triggering the Pocket Wizard, another PW on Camera?

Yes, pocket wizard on my camera. I'm trying off camera flash photography.

Have you tried changing Channel of the receiver, to eliminate outside interference signal?

MG.
Since you have the 600 EX-RT why not unload the two Pocket Wizards and invest in the Canon ST-E3 RT Transmitter and take full advantage of the 600 RT Radio Transmission. No need to walk over to to Off Camera Speedlite to adjust power. Take advantage of E-TTL. Eliminate extra batteries in Pocket Wizards and cords. Eliminate additional points of failure.
You bought the expensive sports car, you don’t want to put in regular gas. Take advantage of full performance.

If not the batteries nearly out of charge, your issues may be due to poor/imperfect/unconsi​stant contact between the center contact of the transmitter PW and the center contact of the Canon camera's hot shoe.

(= Pressing the test button of the on-camera PW does trigger the distant flash 100% of the time while pressing the camera's shutter release doesn't or does randomly...)

Nick5 wrote in post #19235873
MG.
Since you have the 600 EX-RT why not unload the two Pocket Wizards and invest in the Canon ST-E3 RT Transmitter and take full advantage of the 600 RT Radio Transmission. No need to walk over to to Off Camera Speedlite to adjust power. Take advantage of E-TTL. Eliminate extra batteries in Pocket Wizards and cords. Eliminate additional points of failure.
You bought the expensive sports car, you don’t want to put in regular gas. Take advantage of full performance.

There are versions of PW products which are fully capable of allowing wireless eTTL compatible control of Canon flash.
The standard range of PW is 500m (vs. Canon 30m), and some are capable of 5 miles!

OP doesn't say *which* PW he is using. If it's a set of Plus/Multi units, then there's range and reliability. However, the MiniTT/FlexTT are the buggiest pieces of junk ever made. You'll get misfires if you have the antennas just right, but a 5° rotation will make it fire again. The range is much less than the non-TTL PWs also. At one time, I had a dozen TT units and got rid of all of them for 600EX-RTs + ST-E3-RT when out and about. For studio, it's Plus III units all the way.

My TT units, when testing and firing in studio would randomly get stuck in patterns where they'd not fire, or repeatedly fire after a successful shot. Changed the contact time to a hair longer and that went away, but the misfiring still occurred. Used the PW sanctioned "socks" and shields intended for the 430ex-II to clean up any noise that my present and it still misfired. All of this was under 10' in distance from transmitter to receiver. There was a range of around 20-40' that was decently reliable, but below or above that, they were useless.

The pure Canon solution is very reliable, plus has the capability to fire the camera from one of the remote flashes - that's a great feature as it prevents adding another transmitter throwing RF noise into the environment. The Plus III (PW non-ttl transmitters) solution is dead reliable in studio, as they have always been. Since I'm firing all packs (2400-3200 w/s range), I have no need to change power remotely so that feature doesn't do anything for me.

docholliday_sc001 wrote in post #19236038
OP doesn't say *which* PW he is using. If it's a set of Plus/Multi units, then there's range and reliability. However, the MiniTT/FlexTT are the buggiest pieces of junk ever made. You'll get misfires if you have the antennas just right, but a 5° rotation will make it fire again. The range is much less than the non-TTL PWs also. At one time, I had a dozen TT units and got rid of all of them for 600EX-RTs + ST-E3-RT when out and about. For studio, it's Plus III units all the way.

My TT units, when testing and firing in studio would randomly get stuck in patterns where they'd not fire, or repeatedly fire after a successful shot. Changed the contact time to a hair longer and that went away, but the misfiring still occurred. Used the PW sanctioned "socks" and shields intended for the 430ex-II to clean up any noise that my present and it still misfired. All of this was under 10' in distance from transmitter to receiver. There was a range of around 20-40' that was decently reliable, but below or above that, they were useless.

The pure Canon solution is very reliable, plus has the capability to fire the camera from one of the remote flashes - that's a great feature as it prevents adding another transmitter throwing RF noise into the environment. The Plus III (PW non-ttl transmitters) solution is dead reliable in studio, as they have always been. Since I'm firing all packs (2400-3200 w/s range), I have no need to change power remotely so that feature doesn't do anything for me.

Hmmm...that reminds me of something...IIRC, wasn't there some interaction between a PW and the Canon 580EX flash unit?!
I know that currently, there are compatability issues with older Canon cameras (pre-2004) and some recent Canon models pf cameras. And they note, "Canon 580EX/580EX II: Range limited due to RF interference from flash only when connected to a remote FlexTT5."

Wilt wrote in post #19236066
Hmmm...that reminds me of something...IIRC, wasn't there some interaction between a PW and the Canon 580EX flash unit?!
I know that currently, there are compatability issues with older Canon cameras (pre-2004) and some recent Canon models pf cameras. And they note, "Canon 580EX/580EX II: Range limited due to RF interference from flash only when connected to a remote FlexTT5."

The 580EX-II was the reason the AC5 "socks" and AC7 shield was created. The side effect of those was that reliable range was increased on other flashes not affected by the interference issue.

Nick5, I am considering your suggestion on the Canon Transmitter. I understand there's a new version of the ST-E3 RT Transmitter in the near future, do you know what the updates are as far as improvements/features? Thanks!

mgnike1 wrote in post #19237177
Nick5, I am considering your suggestion on the Canon Transmitter. I understand there's a new version of the ST-E3 RT Transmitter in the near future, do you know what the updates are as far as improvements/features? Thanks!

Have you treid to change Channel of the receiver? And what was the finding?

mgnike1 wrote in post #19237177
Nick5, I am considering your suggestion on the Canon Transmitter. I understand there's a new version of the ST-E3 RT Transmitter in the near future, do you know what the updates are as far as improvements/features? Thanks!

Canon says the ST-E3-RT v2 allows for wireless 2nd curtain sync, 1/8192 minimum power setting, and "FE memory so you can store an E-TTL flash exposure and continue to use that same exposure when subjects and scenes remain unchanged." I'm guessing that's their version of TTL locking.

So I purchased the Canon speedlite transmitter and tried it with my Canon 600 ex-rt flash. I set transmiter/flash on same channel, synced and fired several times that I tried it, then it stopped firing? Could it be because the flash base is making contact with the stand I have it set on or the flash metal mount?