EV1 battery won't charge

[Carrot]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

So it's been out of the box and on charge for an hour now, but the battery won't charge.  The indicator light on the base is not flashing, and the camera won't turn on. 

Having checked back with the dealer I gather I'm not the first to have this problem.

I've emailed Leica, but no response yet.

I'm not technically minded, but if the battery is supplied 100% flat, could it be that in-camera USB charging isn't enough to get it off the starting line?  I don't have access to a BC-SCL7. 

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[pedaes]

10 minutes ago, Carrot said:

but the battery won't charge.

 What power is your USB charger? Do you have another USB2 charger to try?

[Carrot]

Plugged into the UK 13amp mains via a Leica plug and Leica USB lead, both of which work fine to charge BP-SCL6 batteries in camera or via the BC-SCL6.

[CDodkin]

Power camera on whilst connected to the charger - then off again. That usually kick starts it on my M11. It often fails to charge initially unless I do this! The flashing green light will tell you it's started charging

[Carrot]

Thanks, tried that but still no joy, no flashing light.

I've had an email back from Leica telling me to make sure the menu item USB CHARGE SETTING is ON.  Quite how I'm supposed to check this when the camera is dead is beyond me, but it makes me think that the camera may have left the factory with the setting OFF.

Shame they stopped including the BP-SCL7 in the box, as that would have proved whether the problem was with the battery or the camera.

Edited Friday at 01:55 PM by Carrot

[dkmoore]

2 minutes ago, Carrot said:

Thanks, tried that but still no joy, no flashing light.

I've had an email back from Leica telling me to make sure the menu item USB CHARGE SETTING is ON.  Quite how I'm supposed to check this when the camera is dead is beyond me, but it makes me think that the camera may have left the factory with the setting OFF.

Shame they stopped including the BP-SCL7 in the box, as that would have proved whether the problem was with the battery or the camera.

Are you plugged into a power socket are charging from a computer?

if power socket, double check that you have power live. 

[Carrot]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Yes mains UK 13amp socket, have tried more than one and yes they work

[summicron75]

and so it begins…

I’m so sorry you’re having this issue. It happened to me more than once with the M11 variants (no fix was possible for me but a new unit did work). Hopefully there are no other glitches that have carried over. 

Edited Friday at 02:09 PM by summicron75

[Carrot]

Other customers with same issue are returning to the dealer today to try and sort out the problem.  Can a whole batch be defective, or perhaps the USB CHARGE menu setting is set to OFF when they leave the factory??

[pedaes]

15 minutes ago, Carrot said:

Quite how I'm supposed to check this when the camera is dead is beyond me

I would ask them.

I am sure you are correct about setting.

[kiwidad]

18 minutes ago, Carrot said:

Other customers with same issue are returning to the dealer today to try and sort out the problem.  Can a whole batch be defective, or perhaps the USB CHARGE menu setting is set to OFF when they leave the factory??

More likely the power to charge isn’t being delivered. I know you said it works with a BP-scl6 but that doesn’t suck power like the BP-SCL7 does!

do you have an iPad or iPhone or even a recent usb-c power delivery capable brick you can try with?

[lincoln_m]

Are you guys saying that the M11* cameras can't be turned on with only the USB cable providing power, i.e. when there is no battery inserted? So the camera can only turn on when the battery is in place and providing power to the internal electronics?

I assume the camera can't operate in tethered mode if there is no battery inserted either?

What a mess. I feel sorry for you guys especially if this is your first experience of an M11* camera.

I hope the dealer has a) a proper Leica battery charger block and/or b) a charged M11 battery that you can use to turn on the camera and check the menu settings.

Good Luck.

[SethiPhotography]

So I received my Leica M EV1 today from WEX in the UK.  They had only three in stock, they sold two, one to me and one to another customer,  Both myself and the other customer have had this issue.  I drove two hours back to the store ad they plugged in a different battery and the camera powered up.  They then plugged in my battery and tried to charge it,.  It eventually came on.  I was confused, I tried all sorts of cables and power bricks at home and it did not start up.  Apparently you need to you a low wattage 9 v charger to get the battery to boot up.  After that I was able to plug the camera in to my car charger on the way home and it charged up.  Charging is slow and it takes a long time to get to full charge the first time you charge the camera.  It must be a safety thing.  When at the store, they used a different battery to start the camera up and change the setting inside the camera to allow charging via usb c.  I think the issue is that the battery is completely flat when it is shipped for safety reasons. which means you can't power up the camera to change the setting to allow PD charging.  It's odd and Leica probably need to update the firmware to make it easy for people to charge the camera.  I am completely new to Leica and it was the first time I have ever held or operated the camera so it took me a 4 hour round trip and 150 miles of diesel to power on my camera.  Not impressed but at least it's on and working.  Hope you manage to sort it. 

[pedaes]

20 minutes ago, SethiPhotography said:

So I received my Leica M EV1 today

Congratulations and welcome to the Forum. Leica have obviously slipped up here as the battery is the same as all the M11 variants that came before.

A shame none of the testers posting here and the dozen on YouTube didn't find the problem.

 

Edited Friday at 05:44 PM by pedaes

[SrMi]

No issues on mine (UK model). Plugged it into a 67 GAN charger with a USB-C cable that I use for all devices (laptop, cameras, iPhone).

 

[Carrot]

47 minutes ago, SethiPhotography said:

So I received my Leica M EV1 today from WEX in the UK.  They had only three in stock, they sold two, one to me and one to another customer,  Both myself and the other customer have had this issue.  I drove two hours back to the store ad they plugged in a different battery and the camera powered up.  They then plugged in my battery and tried to charge it,.  It eventually came on.  I was confused, I tried all sorts of cables and power bricks at home and it did not start up.  Apparently you need to you a low wattage 9 v charger to get the battery to boot up.  After that I was able to plug the camera in to my car charger on the way home and it charged up.  Charging is slow and it takes a long time to get to full charge the first time you charge the camera.  It must be a safety thing.  When at the store, they used a different battery to start the camera up and change the setting inside the camera to allow charging via usb c.  I think the issue is that the battery is completely flat when it is shipped for safety reasons. which means you can't power up the camera to change the setting to allow PD charging.  It's odd and Leica probably need to update the firmware to make it easy for people to charge the camera.  I am completely new to Leica and it was the first time I have ever held or operated the camera so it took me a 4 hour round trip and 150 miles of diesel to power on my camera.  Not impressed but at least it's on and working.  Hope you manage to sort it. 

I was the second customer at Wex, and they got me going as well. We put a charged SCL7 in my EV1 and it came to life, and confirmed that the USB charging option was ON. Then put my EV1 battery in a used M11 for just a few seconds with my SCL6 charge cable and plug, and the green charging light flashed. Put my battery back into my EV1 with my charge cable and it started charging. It seems the SCL7 supplied with the EV1 had absolute zero charge in it, and it needed a good kick up the xxx for just a few seconds to bring it into life. 

[SrMi]

1 hour ago, Carrot said:

I was the second customer at Wex, and they got me going as well. We put a charged SCL7 in my EV1 and it came to life, and confirmed that the USB charging option was ON. Then put my EV1 battery in a used M11 for just a few seconds with my SCL6 charge cable and plug, and the green charging light flashed. Put my battery back into my EV1 with my charge cable and it started charging. It seems the SCL7 supplied with the EV1 had absolute zero charge in it, and it needed a good kick up the xxx for just a few seconds to bring it into life. 

Interesting. My battery was not empty.

[jaapv]

Sometimes a completely flat  battery needs a bit of time to start charging. Just leave it plugged in for a few minutes (I thought the battery on my cat's GPS tracker had died  this morning- it started charging after being plugged in for about ten minutes. 

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[LocalHero1953]

Yes, strange. I can't remember ever receiving a camera (Leica or other) with a totally flat battery.

[lincoln_m]

The BC-SCL7 charger is £135 from Red Dot. It’s a bit cheap of Leica to not include the charger with the M11* cameras as it is causing customers inconvenience. It sounds like we should get the dealer to charge the battery and check it’s working before leaving the store. 
I can imagine the batteries are shipped to Wetzlar uncharged for safety and they are never charged or tested in the factory because the camera is tested/powered with a battery shaped power plug and never sees the battery until it’s packaged and shipped to the dealers.