Mixing RF 602 with Pocket Wizards, Skyports & Cybersyncs

Has anybody tried using a set of RF 602s to trigger Pocket Wizards, Skyports and/or Cybersyncs?

I have two Elinchrom RX 600s and I use Skyport triggers. I have a friend that uses Alien Bees lights and he uses Cybersync triggers. He has a friend that uses Norman packs/heads with Pocket Wizard IIs. We are planning on getting together some time in the near future for a shoot that will involve all of the lights.

If it works, the least expensive solution to trigger all the lights appears to be purchasing a set of RF 602s with 3 receivers. Then, place the transmitters from the Skyport, Pocket Wizard II and Cybersync into the three RF 602 receiver hotshoes. Place the RF 602 transmitter into the camera hotshoe, and make sure the RF 602 Tx & Rx are all on the same frequency. --- Then start firing away.

It seems that as long as the RF 602 fires on first curtain, and shutter speed remains below max sync of 1/250th, all the radio gear should be fast enough. (The specs from all 4 seem to indicate that their individual response is all in the 1/1000ths range).

If anybody has mixed RF 602s with the other triggers, can you confirm for me please? If it works, I'll purchase the RF 602s, but if it doesn't, I won't. As an added benefit, the RF 602s are far less expensive than my skyports were, and if they work "in serial" as I described they would effectively add more receivers to my current set-up.

Thanks in advance for any info.

If you are going to be using just one camera and it's on a tripod, you can just as easily connect all three transmitters to the camera without the need to add a 4th RF system. Mount the PW Tx unit, set to Both, in the hotshoe, and plug the Skyport into Port 2/Flash of the PW. And plug the CyberSync Tx unit into the PC terminal of the camera. It won't look very pretty but it'll do the job. And you won't need to worry about RF propagation delays either.

PacAce wrote in post #9607412
It won't look very pretty but it'll do the job. And you won't need to worry about RF propagation delays either.

Hi Leo,
I was trying to figure that out, and my head started to hurt. Then my friend reminded me that he (and his friend) will also be taking turns shooting with their cameras, and it will be easier to just slide the single transmitter off the hotshoe and take turns. Finally, we will be shooting hand-held, moving around quite a bit.

Holy cow. ... Would this really work? I've never heard of this "signal propagation" as PacAce refers to it. I don't think I'd ever need to mix multiple types of RF triggers as the OP has described, but it would solve a problem that annoys a friend of mine.

He uses a Cyber Commander system, and he hates fiddling with it to adjust power to his ABs while it is mounted in the hotshoe of his camera. If what the OP has described works, my friend could just purchase an inexpensive RF-602 set (they're $ 28 on ebay)and keep his Cyber Commander on the RF 602 receiver in his pocket. That would make adjusting power and "popping" his strobes for test exposure pretty easy.

But I'm still interested in hearing the answer to the OP's question as well. --- Would it really work to fire a bunch of other trigger sets properly?

PictureDisk wrote in post #9613230
Holy cow. ... Would this really work? I've never heard of this "signal propagation" as PacAce refers to it. I don't think I'd ever need to mix multiple types of RF triggers as the OP has described, but it would solve a problem that annoys a friend of mine.

He uses a Cyber Commander system, and he hates fiddling with it to adjust power to his ABs while it is mounted in the hotshoe of his camera. If what the OP has described works, my friend could just purchase an inexpensive RF-602 set (they're $ 28 on ebay)and keep his Cyber Commander on the RF 602 receiver in his pocket. That would make adjusting power and "popping" his strobes for test exposure pretty easy.

But I'm still interested in hearing the answer to the OP's question as well. --- Would it really work to fire a bunch of other trigger sets properly?

I've triggered strobes with both PW receivers and strobes with Skyport receivers connected to them without a problem. The PW transmitter was mounted in the camera hotshoe and the Skyport transmitter either connected to the camera PC port or to the PW flash port. I've also had a PW Rx unit connected to a Skyport Tx unit so that I can also trigger all the lights with my Sekonic light meter. So, yes, the use of multiple RF remote systems during the same shooting session is possible. The only real concern might be the possibility of the different RF units interfering with each other and the propagation delay if the use of max sync speed is essential.

Thanks for the info PacAce.

Is there anybody out there who has actually used the RF602s to trigger the Cyber Commander? Or if there's anybody out there that has both, can you give it a try to let me know whether it works?

... Sorry to hijack this thread, but it's actually part of the OP's question anyway, and the idea of using the RF602 to trigger a Cyber Commander would be very useful!!

Bump.

Reiterating PictureDisks' question: Is it possible to use RF602 receivers with pocketwizards or cybersyncs (triggers)?

Alienbees strobes have light sensor, unless it's far away from other stobes and outside under mid day sun, you may not need to use radio triggers for them.
I have no idea if the other two brands can be done the same way.

Rather than buying the RF602 to trigger the CC buy a CST. Its not expensive and part of the same system.
I happen to have PW ConrolTL, Cyber Syncs and RF-602s. I may give the chaining a try to see what the propagation delay impact will be in a chain.

I'd be more inclined to use them in parallel.

@Vincent_su: I understand what you're mentioning is optical triggering. I'm wondering if the RF602 receivers can be triggered by other brand triggers (at least the ones that operate at 2.4GHz).

The OP posted the answer in two other threads. I found one of them here but I can't seem to find the other thread. He has confirmed that it works for Pocket Wizards, Cybersyncs and Skyports.

I have also confirmed that it works for Pocket Wizards. ... I hate the huge transmitter on top of my camera, so after reading Silver's post, I just use a RF-602 to trigger the Pocket Wizard transmitter. ... Not a single misfire in at least a thousand pops !!! The little RF-602 transmitter is so small it doesn't get in my way, and since the receiver also has a built in hot shoe, it fires the Pocket Wizard (and apparently Cybersync and Skyport) no problem.

Thanks Silver - I never would have tried this if I hadn't come across your post a few months back.