Is there a universal Yongnuo flash trigger?

Question

I have two Yongnuo speed lites. One is the YN560 III while the other is a YN600EX-RT II. Is there a universal trigger that will connect to both of these or some other way to get them both firing at the same time?

Answer 1

Yongnuo has a number of different incompatible radio triggering systems, and there is no transmitter unit that rules them all.

The two flashes you have are not in the same system. The only way to get them to work together would be if you added a receiver unit for one of the systems onto the other flash's foot.

The YN-560 III is in the 560/603 manual triggering system. While you can fire and remotely control the power on it with a YN-560-TX or YN-560-TX Pro, or YN-622 II transceiver or YN-622-TX transmitter in 603 mode, none of those transmitter units work with the built-in trigger in the YN-600EX-RT, which uses a clone of the Canon RT radio system.

To fire the 600EX-RT with a 560/603 transmitter unit, you'd have to add a Yongnuo RF-603 II or RF-605 transceiver to the foot of the YN-600EX-RT to act as a receiver. And you'd only be able to fire it in sync. You would have no way to remotely adjust any settings (such as power level) on the YN-600EX-RT, or to use TTL or HSS with it.

Similarly, to get the YN-560 III to fire along with a YN-E3-RT transmitter (which can remotely control the YN-600EX-RT and communicate TTL and HSS with it), you'd have to add a YN-E3-RX receiver unit to the foot of the flash. And because that flash's foot only has the sync pin on it, you'd only be able to fire it and not adjust its power or any settings.

Yongnuo attempted to combine the 560/603 and 622 systems together in the YN-560-TX Pro, but this combining only works with newer units, and does not include any of the Yongnuo RT gear. Frankly it's one big mess, and it's why a lot of folks moved away from Yongnuo and into the Godox system.

Godox only uses one single integrated 2.4 GHz radio system these days. Their TT600 is similar to a YN-560 IV, and their TT685 and TT685 II is similar to a YN-986 or YN-600EX-RT, only in the Godox radio system. And both of the flashes can work together with the Godox XPro, X2T, and XPro II transmitters. You'd not only be able to fire both flashes in sync, but to also have remote power control (by group), group on/off, and HSS. And the TTL-capable unit (TT685/TT685 II) would still retain TTL capability.

see: What are the Yongnuo flash naming conventions?

Answer 2

There are a lot of wireless flash trigger/receiver available that feature a trigger unit which is usually connected to the camera and a receiver which is attached to the hot shoe of the flash. It shouldn't be a problem to get a second receiver such that you can trigger both flashes at the same time.

All receivers I know feature multiple channels for the wireless transmission. This is to prohibit the inadvertent trigger of multiple flashes at the same time in the case where multiple people are around using the same receiver system. By setting both receivers to the same channel you should be able to achieve that both flashes are triggered simultaneously. Make sure that both receivers are of the same type to ensure they share the same bandwidth.

EDIT: A quick google search brought up many systems like the Neewer CT-16 16CH Wireless Flash Trigger Set for example which already comes with multiple receivers.