SL2 battery drains just sitting there

[vikasmg]

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2 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said:

To be clear - is the SL2 on standby (i.e. asleep, but not switched off), or physically switched off?

Physically switched off.

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[beewee]

8 hours ago, vikasmg said:

Physically switched off.

The physical On/Off switch is not a hard switch. It’s still a ‘soft’ button in that it only sends a command to the camera to go into a low-power state. The camera is never fully off in such a way where power is completely cut, even with the power switch toggled off. Otherwise you’d need to reset the time/date each time. There’s always something running in the background, just at a lower power state. With BLE remote power on enabled, the lowest power state possible is much higher because bluetooth radios use a lot more power than just a clock. By forcing the camera to keep the BLE radio on, you will drain the camera battery much quicker, even when it’s “off”.

[vikasmg]

2 hours ago, beewee said:

The physical On/Off switch is not a hard switch. It’s still a ‘soft’ button in that it only sends a command to the camera to go into a low-power state. The camera is never fully off in such a way where power is completely cut, even with the power switch toggled off. Otherwise you’d need to reset the time/date each time. There’s always something running in the background, just at a lower power state. With BLE remote power on enabled, the lowest power state possible is much higher because bluetooth radios use a lot more power than just a clock. By forcing the camera to keep the BLE radio on, you will drain the camera battery much quicker, even when it’s “off”.

That makes sense.  I've also switched Bluetooth off (I assume that's what you mean) and will try an see if that helps.  But would than not also apply to the Q2?

 

[hillavoider]

Any results or solutions so far? I cannot find any myself. 

my disaster SL2 chews through batteries just sitting there as well 

 

[vikasmg]

6 hours ago, hillavoider said:

Any results or solutions so far? I cannot find any myself. 

my disaster SL2 chews through batteries just sitting there as well 

 

About 5 days ago I picked up my SL2 to take a few pictures and the battery was almost fully drained.  Fortunately I had a spare one charged and ready.  Before putting the camera away after taking a few pictures I checked and noticed that Bluetooth was on under Leica Fotos in the menu - I thought I’d turned it off.  I turned it off and your post prompted me to check.  There has been no reduction in the battery charge over the last 5 days.  So it may well be the Bluetooth running in the background that was causing it.

[digitalfx]

On 8/15/2021 at 5:33 PM, beewee said:

The physical On/Off switch is not a hard switch. It’s still a ‘soft’ button in that it only sends a command to the camera to go into a low-power state. The camera is never fully off in such a way where power is completely cut, even with the power switch toggled off. Otherwise you’d need to reset the time/date each time. There’s always something running in the background, just at a lower power state. With BLE remote power on enabled, the lowest power state possible is much higher because bluetooth radios use a lot more power than just a clock. By forcing the camera to keep the BLE radio on, you will drain the camera battery much quicker, even when it’s “off”.

Most cameras have a internal battery to maintain the clock. My SL2 drains after a few days as well when the power switch is in off position. The spare batteries sitting in the same case do not drain, so it's defiantly the camera. There is no reason that the battery should drain this fast in the off position. Hopefully this will be addressed in the new firmware when it finally shows up.

I have got into the habit of pulling the battery to prevent it from draining, but frankly this shouldn't be required.

But if your theory is correct I would have to reset my clock every time I pull the battery.

[beewee]

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31 minutes ago, digitalfx said:

But if your theory is correct I would have to reset my clock every time I pull the battery.

It depends. There’s still a small internal power source to keep the clock powered between battery swaps. I’m not sure if this is a capacitor, rechargeable battery, or a non-rechargeable cell (and how long that my last).

Do you have Wake from BLE enabled? If so, that would be the likely source of battery drain when the camera is off. The bluetooth radio still uses a sizeable amount of power even when it’s in a lower power state.

[Slender]

No such issue on my copy.... battery stains where it was when left unused in camera for a few days...

[Photoworks]

17 hours ago, digitalfx said:

Most cameras have a internal battery to maintain the clock. My SL2 drains after a few days as well when the power switch is in off position. The spare batteries sitting in the same case do not drain, so it's defiantly the camera. There is no reason that the battery should drain this fast in the off position. Hopefully this will be addressed in the new firmware when it finally shows up.

I have got into the habit of pulling the battery to prevent it from draining, but frankly this shouldn't be required.

But if your theory is correct I would have to reset my clock every time I pull the battery.

the internal battery that keeps all the clock , setting, copyright infos.. goes for weeks. 

When you insert a battery in the camera the internal battery recharges and keep infos again.

[digitalfx]

18 hours ago, beewee said:

 

It depends. There’s still a small internal power source to keep the clock powered between battery swaps. I’m not sure if this is a capacitor, rechargeable battery, or a non-rechargeable cell (and how long that my last).

Do you have Wake from BLE enabled? If so, that would be the likely source of battery drain when the camera is off. The bluetooth radio still uses a sizeable amount of power even when it’s in a lower power state.

I have never owned a camera that lost the date/time because I pulled the battery for a day or even a month. 

Just pulled my camera from case to find a completely dead battery. And yes, wake from BLE was enabled. I have disabled it for now, but this shouldn't drain the battery like this.

 

 

[hirohhhh]

I took my SL2 today to update the firmware, after 3.5 months sitting in the bag, switched off. It still had some power. I was surprised too.

[lanetomlane]

I've not experienced any such problem with either my SL, or SL2. After I use either camera I always charge the battery back up to 100% and when I next use them (certainly I've left them for well over 2 weeks) they're still at 100%.

[vikasmg]

On 9/9/2021 at 2:01 PM, vikasmg said:

About 5 days ago I picked up my SL2 to take a few pictures and the battery was almost fully drained.  Fortunately I had a spare one charged and ready.  Before putting the camera away after taking a few pictures I checked and noticed that Bluetooth was on under Leica Fotos in the menu - I thought I’d turned it off.  I turned it off and your post prompted me to check.  There has been no reduction in the battery charge over the last 5 days.  So it may well be the Bluetooth running in the background that was causing it.

Well after several days no with the Bluetooth off, the battery seems not to loose charge.  So I think that probably was it.

[adan]

1) Any remote-communications capability (GPS, Bluetooth, wi-fi) may continue to "search for signals/networks," and thus use battery power - even if the camera's master switch is off - unless they are individually and specifically disabled through the menu controls. Plus, some cameras are not completely off at any time - this improves startup times.

2) cameras usually have a permanently-installed backup battery (size of a hearing-aid or watch battery, tucked inside somewhere) that keeps the time/date (and user preferences) saved with its own trickle-current, even when the main battery is removed. At least a few days, and sometimes for weeks. Once that runs out of power, the camera resets to default factory settings (time 24:00, date 1/1/(year of introduction?), no user profiles, etc.) - just as it came out of the box. And it will then use a bit of main battery power to recharge the permanent battery, once the main battery is re-installed.

It all depends on which information is stored in ROM (read-only memory - nothing gets written to that except in the factory, or via a specific firmware-upgrade re-programming) or RAM (which can save date, time, profiles and other user settings - but may not retain that information without power).

Caveat: Those are general principles - any given device may be set up to function somewhat differently.