M8 charger not charging

[ibogost]

Suddenly, when I plug in my charger, the "power" light illuminates but not the "charge" light. And indeed the battery does not charge.

Any suggestions?

[vikasmg]

Originally Posted by ibogost

Suddenly, when I plug in my charger, the "power" light illuminates but not the "charge" light. And indeed the battery does not charge.

Any suggestions?

My first guess would be that the battery does not need a charge. When I charge my battery the charge light goes off after the battery is fully charged. However even when I put in a fully charged battery, the charge light does come on momentarily before going off again.

- Vikas

[ibogost]

Originally Posted by vikasmg

My first guess would be that the battery does not need a charge. When I charge my battery the charge light goes off after the battery is fully charged. However even when I put in a fully charged battery, the charge light does come on momentarily before going off again.

Well, except the battery shows that it is depleted to one bar when in the camera.

[Eoin]

Bent / broken pin where the battery slips in to the charger?. Perhaps dirt or grease on one of the pins preventing good electrical contact?. I suppose the most obvious answer is try a 2nd battery and I'm sure if you had one you'd have done that, you do have a spare battery?.

[WPalank]

I had a similar problem and started a thread a couple of months ago.
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-...8-charger.html
In review (I couldn't remember the specifics), none of the lights would come on. Also, the 12 V charger adapter would work, so I would leave it in my car (garaged) overnight for a trickle charge until the new charger arrived (quite promptly from Leica NJ).

[ibogost]

Eoin: I have a second battery but of course I can't find it right now... that would be too convenient wouldn't it, . I like how these things happen at the least convenient time.

William: Thanks for the tip. The main difference between our situations seem to be the fact that my green Power light does come on. Then again, who knows what's going on inside. I called Leica NJ to find out if there was anything unusual, but it sounds like I just need a new charger.

[jfolmes]

Originally Posted by ibogost

Suddenly, when I plug in my charger, the "power" light illuminates but not the "charge" light. And indeed the battery does not charge.

Any suggestions?

I had this problem as described above, twice in the last few months.

The M8 is build like a tank (I had dropped it on pavement twice already - no damage! I think) but the charger is a cheap plastic junk... I wish that Leica would build and sell heavy duty charger.

If you dare to open up the charger (I asked electronics engineer to do it / using very specialized screwdriver bit - why would they do that?) you will see that the charger consists of two electronic boards that are connected by two thin wires to each other. The first fault was that the two wires broke off so there was no connection. Still the charger worked when using the 12V adapter cable.

(Using the 12V adapter is great when you have your own car but try to charge the batter by "renting" for couple of hours a taxi in Cameroon so that you can charge your batteries.)

The second time the charger stopped working this time both AC and DC charge. One of the resistors or transistors (whatever they are called) "fried" when I plugged it into AC at my home. Why that happened I have no idea.

In both cases I asked friendly engineers (that fix pro-video cameras) to fix the charger for me. Thanks guys... cost to me was a round of beer...

The lesson learned:

1. Now I have 3 batteries for my M8.
2. I always take 12V cable with me.
3. Soon I'll buy another charger and keep it/take it as spare whenever I travel.