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In-body charging only while M11 is on

wdahab

By wdahab
in Leica M11

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wdahab

wdahab

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So after some experimentation I solved what might be the most unobvious quirk of the M11. I noticed that it wasn’t charging overnight while plugged in. Finally I played around enough to realize that the M11 has to be on in order to charge via USB-C. This isn’t documented anywhere, and the battery life is so amazingly good that it hasn’t mattered until recently. I don’t have any other electronic devices that have to be physically on in order to charge, I’m not sure what inspired this decision.

 

Sure I have the battery charger, but this was more about solving this one question. Thought it might be helpful to have this out there on the forum for people trying to figure out why their camera isn’t charging in a more time critical situation. 

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mon10a

mon10a

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15 minutes ago, elmars said:

I reported this in the betatester forum. Please try to turn the camera off after charging has started. Charging should go on then (so it is with my M11). So the camera has only to be on to recognize the charging.

Yes, this method works for me too: Plug the camera in; turn it on; verify that the green LED on the bottom of the camera (by the battery release switch) is on; turn the camera off. The LED should come back on in a few seconds. 

m

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scott kirkpatrick

scott kirkpatrick

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My battery is currently rather fully charged. In the charger it shows steady orange but still blinking green. In the camera the battery state indicated as 100%.  I plugged  my USB charger cable, saw green when the camera was on, switched off but did not see green again.  I'll try it again with a more discharged battery before I call that a bug.  

Next try, I turned the camera on, plugged the charger into the USB port, saw green, let it run for a while, switched off, and after a while the green came back on.  But this time I had an ammeter in the path.  When the camera is switched on, it indicated about 1 to 1.5 amps current (live view on).  When the camera is switched off, the current was just as I have seen monitoring the charger, in its final, Orange stages, with a slowly decreasing voltage of .4 then .3 then .2 something, then a few flickers at 0.1 am, then zero.  And the green light went out.  So the charging is working, but the green light is a bit flaky.

 

 

Edited by scott kirkpatrick
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orcinus

orcinus

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On 2/21/2022 at 3:17 PM, mon10a said:

verify that the green LED on the bottom of the camera (by the battery release switch) is on;

Very hard to do with the handgrip on the camera, as i’ve recently realized.
They kinda forgot about that when they designed it.

Charging status should really be mirrored by the back LED as an option…

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  • 9 months later...
geotrupede

geotrupede

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thanks all, I had the same issue as above and could figure out how to charge by reading messages which was great as in the middle of an event with 20% left 😉

however more recently I found another odd thing, which is as follows.

I have a USBC cable and use it to charge a lamp, power and charge the SL2s. This cable  DOES NOT work on the M11... really odd.

Luckily a colleague has another USBC cable and that works. Cable is not by any brand. Incidentally he has a Nikon Z7II and he is having the same issue with cables.  Perhaps same components in the power compartment between the two cameras?

I wish the SL2S/panasonic parts were used in this case as they seem more tolerant and reliable.

G>

 

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jakontil

jakontil

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weird when in ON mode, i plugged the cable, i wont start charging at all, it has to be, i maen normal OFF then plug the cable before it started charging with green LED confirmation

my case is there's no way it's going to charge when it is on and plug the cable, no green light confirmation, however the battery indicator in liveview mode seems charging icon, or plugged cable, i might be wrong

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  • 4 months later...
marchyman

marchyman

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, jaapv said:

It has nothing to do with the cameras. Buy a fully wired cable.  

Yeah.  Sure.  Uh huh.  Except even when using a fully wired cable sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  The problem may be the cable.  Or it may be the camera and/or camera firmware.  Or some combination thereof.  I don't know.  Recommending a good cable is good advise.  But it might not resolve the issue.

Today I plugged a USB-C cable into my M11.  It is the Apple cable I've used in the past to charge this camera. The same cable is used to charge my iPad.  Anyway, no green charge indicator.   Again.  I started a thread about this a while back.   At that time tests showed that no green charge light meant camera not charging.  Remembering something I'd read here I turned the camera on -- the green charge light started slowly blinking, e.g. the camera battery was charging.  I turned the camera off -- the green charge light continued it's slow blink.  It's still charging as I type this.

The first time this happened I had to reset the camera to get the battery to charge in body, again.

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SrMi

SrMi

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4 hours ago, marchyman said:

Yeah.  Sure.  Uh huh.  Except even when using a fully wired cable sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  The problem may be the cable.  Or it may be the camera and/or camera firmware.  Or some combination thereof.  I don't know.  Recommending a good cable is good advise.  But it might not resolve the issue.

Today I plugged a USB-C cable into my M11.  It is the Apple cable I've used in the past to charge this camera. The same cable is used to charge my iPad.  Anyway, no green charge indicator.   Again.  I started a thread about this a while back.   At that time tests showed that no green charge light meant camera not charging.  Remembering something I'd read here I turned the camera on -- the green charge light started slowly blinking, e.g. the camera battery was charging.  I turned the camera off -- the green charge light continued it's slow blink.  It's still charging as I type this.

The first time this happened I had to reset the camera to get the battery to charge in body, again.

I suggest getting a USB-C cable with a built-in power meter. That way, you will see whether the camera is charging or not. I have found the green light an unreliable indicator.

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elmars

elmars

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vor 5 Stunden schrieb marchyman:

Today I plugged a USB-C cable into my M11.  It is the Apple cable I've used in the past to charge this camera. The same cable is used to charge my iPad.  Anyway, no green charge indicator.   Again.  I started a thread about this a while back.   At that time tests showed that no green charge light meant camera not charging.  Remembering something I'd read here I turned the camera on -- the green charge light started slowly blinking, e.g. the camera battery was charging.  I turned the camera off -- the green charge light continued it's slow blink.  It's still charging as I type this.

As I wrote somwhere above: This is a known bug but Leica never fixed it. If the camera does not charge after plugging in the cable, turn it on, wait for the blinking greent light and turn it of. Charging will go on.

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jonthewizard

jonthewizard

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I'm also having this issue with no luck. I've tried a few cables and different chargers. Tried turning the camear on and waiting for the green light but never comes on. Waited a while to see if the battery level increased but just keeps getting lower. On a trip and dont have my external charger with me. 

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scott kirkpatrick

scott kirkpatrick

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Actually, with the latest firmware, my M11 seems to charge 

thru the USB-C port both ON or OFF.  When the camera is off and I plug the Leica charger cable into the port, everyting is as above.  Slow pulsing green light (I'm above 80%).  When the camera is ON and I plug in the charging cable, with the menu page showing, the battery icon turns a bright green with a power plug shown in its center.  After a few seconds, the LCD goes dark and charging continues as before.

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algrove

algrove

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On 2/27/2022 at 11:51 PM, orcinus said:

Very hard to do with the handgrip on the camera, as i’ve recently realized.
They kinda forgot about that when they designed it.

Charging status should really be mirrored by the back LED as an option…

There is a slot on the handgrip allowing access to the bottom plug and I have no trouble plugging and unplugging when handgrip in place.

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mboerma

mboerma

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I used to charge with the battery in camera, but I noticed that the LCD protector (original Leica and applied on a brand new M11) would start to come loos at the edges. I think the camera started to get hot when charging which causes the protector to come loose. I will only use this function when really needed. The M11 charger is nice and small and probably much faster. 

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HRJ

HRJ

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On 4/16/2023 at 3:51 PM, jaapv said:

It has nothing to do with the cameras. Buy a fully wired cable.  

It has everything to do with the camera. 

It has never worked correctly from day 1.

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