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M9 Battery Charger dead

erl

By erl
in Leica M9 / M-E

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Ralf

Ralf

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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.

 

To have to wait for a month or more for a charger is unheard of and absolutely ridiculous. Recently, there was a post from a guy travelling in Venice whos M9 died on him and he contacted Solms immediately. "After clarifying some formalities" ,quote unquote, they sent him a new one overnight to Venice, which, if I understood correctly, he was even able to keep until his own camera was repaired.

 

You should contact Solms directly via mail, attach a scanned copy of your bill and warranty. Seriouslyly, if you wish, I am ready to follow this thing up with them for you via phone, just let me know.

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J_Thompson
J_Thompson

Erl, KEH (keh.com) has a used M8 charger, 14463, available for USD $76.00. Hope this helps.

vladik
vladik

My M9 chrger stop charging from the mains supply after about 10 month. BUT, it was working when plugged into a 12V car socket. If you still have your charger try the car option until the replacement a

marknorton
marknorton

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

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erl

erl

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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

 

Mark, you don't say where you are located. This can have a bearing on the service you ultimately get. The best approach is to contact your local dealer or represenative and ask for help. In most cases it is very good, but dependent on regional isolation.

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photolandscape

photolandscape

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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

 

Just back from 10 days in Cuba. A dead charger would have put a quick end to my shooting there. I bought a backup charger to take along just in case--it is actually a modified Pentax charger that a guy made and it has always worked well, tried the Delkin--junk in my opinion--it lasted less than 3 months in light use and was poorly designed.

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shard

shard

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On my recent trip to Paris, my charger died suddenly, charged one battery with no problems, inserted another battery and no lights lit up. Luckily they had a Leica Shop that had a charger in stock. Cost an arm and a leg but I did not have a choice.

 

When I returned home, I brought my dead charger in for an exchange, the tech had to open 5 new chargers to find a working one. He was so irritated that he asked, is this socket even working?

 

Seems like this is happening a lot,

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msap7222

msap7222

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I am located in Australia but travel worldwide for assignments several times a year and interstate quite frequently.

 

I have 2 OEM LEICA Batteries and 8 Aftermarket Leica M8 Batteries which I reckon are about 80% charge capacity and performance of OEM (they were only about $20 each - makes them almost disposable!)

 

New OEM Leica Batteries here are $200 each!

 

If I am travelling somewhere remote, I pre-charge ALL 10 batteries. I do take both the M8 Brick Charger and the slimmer M9 charger with Car Adapters, so I am assuming that I may not have electricity AT ALL in some of the remote locations I work. The 10 pre-charged batteries get me through a few days serious shooting without the need to re-charge.

 

The aftermarket batteries are not fantastic, but certainly good enough as backup until I get to the next place with power (hotel room)

 

BTW, can I ask again (prev. post) - does anybody now what the fuse rating for the M9 **CAR LIGHTER SOCKET ADAPTER ** is? I asked both the retailer AND the Authorised Repairer here and neither could tell me. Sadly, I lost this fuse when I blew it a couple months ago.

 

Thanks In Advance

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Ralf

Ralf

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how can Leica justify a list price of over 200 dollars for an (inexpensive) item that has such a high failure rate- and is obviously not of the greatest quality?

 

As I mentioned previously I had to wait 10 weeks for mine.

 

Because they are Leica! It is ridiculous.:mad:

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  • 4 weeks later...
ljclark

ljclark

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BTW, can I ask again (prev. post) - does anybody now what the fuse rating for the M9 **CAR LIGHTER SOCKET ADAPTER ** is? I asked both the retailer AND the Authorised Repairer here and neither could tell me. Sadly, I lost this fuse when I blew it a couple months ago.

 

Thanks In Advance

 

The reason they might not be able to give you this information is because...(drum roll)...there is no fuse. :eek:

 

Have just had my M9 for a few days and walked downstairs to pull the virgin car adapter from its little plastic bag. Undid the screw and carefully separated the shell.

 

No fuse. Just a goofy looking spring to the tip. Did you manage to smoke the the whole spring? :confused:

 

If you can find a straight 12 VDC (no internal voltage change) at a store, it will probably have a fuse -- which is a better deal than the Leica version. You just need to find a coaxial tip of the right size...or solder your old tip to the new plug. (It is 5.5mm OD, and I think the pin is 2.1mm)

 

I'm not sure the charger that came with the M9 is working properly -- even brand new. Luckily I bought the small charger for my M8 (which will be sold with the brick charger) so I'm not entirely out of luck.

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darylgo

darylgo

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I have a Vivitar Universal charger that I use for all other camera batteries but have been anxious about putting a $120.00 Leica Battery in it, anybody have any experience with this combination? Also, which is the + contact on the battery? I am guessing it is the second contact in from the side (2nd of the 2 adjacent contacts) while the negative is the end contact where no adjacent contact exists. Thanks.

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jaapv

jaapv

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I wish we had that number of flies in summer :rolleyes: Anyway - I guess most will be replaced by Leica under guaranty, unlike the older brick chargers, that, like Mark Norton showed, are rather shoddily made.

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  • 5 years later...
m0n0

m0n0

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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

I'm sorry to hear about this, but the M9 chargers have a record of just dying on schedule. (Just like the CCD sensors, except they're not covered. Oh wait.... I just got an email from Leica..) This hasn't happened to me with any other charger I have used, original or cheapo third party, for other cameras. My chargers for M9 and MM dead within weeks of each other. You'll find other discussions of this. See https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/151529-m9-battery-charger-dead/ for example. You either have to stump up for a new one at the ridiculous price offered or go for a 3rd party alternative. You could also try the reverse of what Mark (above) did. In some cases the charger will  work via the lighter socket when the it won't work from the mains anymore. I found that to be the case with one of my dead chargers. All this steampunk improvisation and know how needed to keep five year old M9's working is more of an experience of 'vintage' and 'classic' photography than I bargained for.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Chuck Albertson

Chuck Albertson

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I recently picked up a Nightcore ULM9 USB charger https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1297987-REG/nitecore_ulm9_usb_travel_charger_for.html, and so far it has worked well. Very small and lightweight, since it only draws power (5V) from any handy USB port. The USB lead is quite short, however. It recharged a MM batt from about 20% left in two hours.

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