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M9 Battery Charger dead


erl

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My M9 (compact) charger just stopped working yesterday, after nearly two years. I applied for a new one under warranty and was told I would have a wait of four or more weeks for it to be supplied from Germany!

 

My inquiries discovered a local dealer has two units in stock, at $250 each!!

 

So why can't the importers, who cover the warranty, carry basic stock for warranty purposes? Meanwhile, it's back to the peddle generator to 'run' my M9. :eek:

 

Apologies for the grouch, but you see my problem.

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My M9 (compact) charger just stopped working yesterday, after nearly two years. I applied for a new one under warranty and was told I would have a wait of four or more weeks for it to be supplied from Germany!

 

My inquiries discovered a local dealer has two units in stock, at $250 each!!

 

So why can't the importers, who cover the warranty, carry basic stock for warranty purposes? Meanwhile, it's back to the peddle generator to 'run' my M9. :eek:

 

Apologies for the grouch, but you see my problem.

I certainly do. There were some threads in the past about third-party universal chargers, but I didn't follow up what came out. Maybe you can get one of those quickly through the Internet. But did you open the thing? It may just be a fuse.

A charger is one part that I will always have a backup for since the first advent of rechargable-battery dependent camers.

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I certainly do. There were some threads in the past about third-party universal chargers, but I didn't follow up what came out. Maybe you can get one of those quickly through the Internet. But did you open the thing? It may just be a fuse.

A charger is one part that I will always have a backup for since the first advent of rechargable-battery dependent cameras.

 

The honest fact is that I actually have a Leica 'brick' belonging to my M8, but that is just my good luck, not good management by Leica or their representatives! Importers or warranty 'guarantors' should be obliged to carry basic spares as a minimum and not rely on 'need to supply' before stocking basic spares. Australia` has long been the distant 'country cousin' as far as supplies from Europe are concerned. This is a pathetic state of affairs and is getting worse, not better.

 

Historically, I have been well looked after with my photographic gear over the years, better than most I suspect. But these days the personality of service that I enjoyed is virtually dead and I am unimpressed!

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Here HC!

 

These chargers use a small switching power supply to accept universal AC in and feed DC to the Li-Ion charge controller; the car batter option bypasses the power supply to connect to the charger directly.

 

Most likely, a fuse has blown internally, as Jaap suggests but it will have blown for a reason, most likely a small high voltage electrolytic capacitor has gone short circuit or else the switching transistor has failed; both will cause the charger to draw too much current and blow the fuse.

 

For the time being, erl can try using the car battery connector - or as an alternative, a power supply supplying 12-15v such as might come with a piece of PC equipment - Linksys and Netgear routers regularly use 12v supplies, for example. If the low voltage feed doesn't work, there's something more seriously wrong with the charger and the fall back to the trusty brick is needed.

 

HC is right, I haven't taken one apart, might do so but will depend on whether the shell splits cleanly when I remove the screws (I assume) under the rubber feet.

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My M9 (compact) charger just stopped working yesterday, after nearly two years. I applied for a new one under warranty and was told I would have a wait of four or more weeks for it to be supplied from Germany!

 

My inquiries discovered a local dealer has two units in stock, at $250 each!!

 

So why can't the importers, who cover the warranty, carry basic stock for warranty purposes?

 

Personally I would contact Solms. Unless they too are out of stock from Ansmann (who makes the chargers), it doesn't take 4 weeks to ship something like a battery charger from Germany to Australia, even with clearing customs. Or perhaps someone at Solms could persuade the Australian importer to release one from the stock they maintain for dealer orders. Or Solms contact (or have the importer contact) your local dealer and arrange for you to get one from their stock. Any of that would constitute what I would call great customer service.

 

I have used the Annsman Universal Charger for M8 Dlux 4 and C lux 2 when travelling with complete sucess.

 

Ditto. Neat thing is no adapters are needed because it has sliding contacts and spring-loaded jaws that can be fit to just about any battery configuration.

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Erl: my charger died after only 9 months... Just dead. Luckily, like you, I also had an M8 charger. It was really lucky as it actually took Adeal over three months to get me a replacement under warranty from Leica! I really feel Australian Leica users are hard done by- every time Jaap mentions the incredible service he gets I feel a sense of injustice.... I have a feeling though that Jaap gets extra special Gold treatment- and no doubt deserves it also :-) But it does worry me wondering what will happen if I have an M9 breakdown- and after the warranty has expired I will be even more concerned.

 

Adeal didn't know I already had a spare either...they didn't ask.

 

Not very encouraging for a $250 item? An item like that shouldn't cost more than $50 if you ask me. Hopefully someone will/has knock it off?

Edited by jaques
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There is a simple solution - talk to Leica CS about your problems and use Fedex. I bypass our Dutch importer as I am convinced I would get the same cr@p you guys are getting. Not that they are bad people, but they are huge, importing everything from Hasselblad to Holga and Leica is just another small segment of their business to them.

Edited by jaapv
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I agree that one should have a backup charger available, especially when traveling. Question: has anybody tried the Delkin Devices charger? It seems to be reasonably priced and has the advantage of being able to charge two M8-M9 batteries at the same time. Dual Universal Battery Charger with county-specific plugs and car adapters

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I agree Jaap- and in the future I won't deal with the Australia reps- but direct with Solms.

 

When I had the LCD on my M8 repaired Adeal added an extra 600 dollar handling fee onto the bill. Using them just meant more expense, worse communication and delayed delivery. In the end the camera went to Europe twice and even then the work was not done correctly. They repaired the de-laminated LCD but didn't replace the scratched cover despite a written promise that they would. I wish there was a service center for Leica in the Southern hemisphere... but there isn't so that's that.

Edited by jaques
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I have one - I've used it with M8/M9 and also with Canon 5D1 and 5D2. Clunky but useful - n.b. it has a big power brick which makes it much more bulky overall than the Leica charger - but I'm glad I've got the backup. I had a charger die on me when I was travelling in China last year - got a replacement via Leica Solms and Leica's importer in Guagzhou (nice people :)), but it was a hassle.

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I agree Jaap- and in the future I won't deal with the Australia reps- but direct with Solms.

 

When I had the LCD on my M8 repaired Adeal added an extra 600 dollar handling fee onto the bill. Using them just meant more expense, worse communication and delayed delivery. In the end the camera went to Europe twice and even then the work was not done correctly. They repaired the de-laminated LCD but didn't replace the scratched cover despite a written promise that they would. I wish there was a service center for Leica in the Southern hemisphere... but there isn't so that's that.

 

Jaques, there is a Leica repair facitiy in Melbourne. They have been appointed for about a year now. I have been dealing with them for over 40 years (Hasselblad & Nikon). They are very good. Problem is, Leica limit what they will allow them to do, despite their capability. They are also dependent on Adeal for suplies. That is the weak link.

 

They are: Camera Clinic, Easy St., Collingwood, Melbourne.

 

They recenty repaired a shutter on an M8 for me. Fine job.

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  • 8 months later...

erl, marknorton,

 

just prior to Christmas, I plugged my M9 Car Charger lead into my vehicle and pop, smoke, etc - the fuse in the LEICA M9 lighter socket plug blew. Unable to deal with this issue, quickly I later opened up the lighter socket plug and confirmed the fuse had blown. I have lost the blown fuse and cannot find a ref from LEICA, web or the user manual as to that fuse rating/type to use (I'm pretty sure that it is a standard glass fuse with the chromed caps either end)

 

BTW, the charger works fine on mains power and the incident above occurred on the first use of the car adapter. I am happy to send away under warranty, but it seems like such an effort when I can simply pop a new fuse in.

 

Any help appreciated... Mark

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