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Small 3rd Party M8 Battery Charger


kenn

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Working third party charger! Was traveling and had more problems with my Leica M8 charger. A local camera store offered the "ANSMANN DIGI-CHARGER VARIO" for about $50.00. It works * PERFECTLY * with the Leica M8 batteries (and the Canon 5D, and the flash(s)). Excellent product, small, both plug and car adapters and is now my default charger both home and abroad. Here is a link here:

 

ANSMANN AG: Digicharger Vario

 

I've given up on replacing the Leica chargers, and this was a random, lucky find that others having problems might wish to investigate. I did a quick search on the net and you can get these from pretty much everywhere.

 

To Use: With both the ANSMANN DIGI-CHARGER VARIO and the Leica M8 Battery straight up (label), the 2 pins that are required for charging are the 2nd and 6th. That is the 2nd from the top and the 6th (last) pin. In this orientation, the battery arrow ">" is facing the right.

 

2800848262_fa0ca31be4_o.jpg

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Ok I have one of these chargers coming, should be here today.

When you hold the battery with the bumpout toward you and the slots that hold the cantacts facing up there are six slots. Going from right to left there are contacts in the first, second, forth and sixth slot (going the normal way left to right there are contacts in the first, third, fifth and sixth slot.

You are saying to use the last slot on the left, which happens to have a longer slot then all the rest, and the second slot from the right as the connection points.

 

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Is this correct.

 

Someone else posted they used to two outer most contacts and it worked.

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In this image, the left hand slot is negative, the rightmost but one slot is positive. The extreme right slot is used by the Leica charger for temperature sensing. See my post on the other thread.

 

Thanks Mark, I got it. I looked at the other threead.

My diagram is correct.

 

Mark what you are saying is the 2 slots I have the lines pointing to are the correct slots for charging and the farthest right slot is temp sensing. Correct?

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Mark what you are saying is the 2 slots I have the lines pointing to are the correct slots for charging and the farthest right slot is temp sensing. Correct?

 

Yes, the chamfer on the left is next to what I call "Pin 1". That's negative, Pin 5 is postive and Pin 6 is used only for temperature sensing on the Leica charger.

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Guest DuquesneG

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As long as you use those 2 battery slots it doesn't matter which contact on the charger is in which slot, as the charger senses and adjusts polarity. If you accidentally put the charger on one of the other slots it won't destroy anything, the charger just won't operate. It's a very clever design and works perfectly as the gentleman said. I don't know why the Leica charger has a temperature sensor and this one doesn't, but they're both made my Ansmann and this one is a newer design so maybe it doesn't need a separate temperature sensor pin.

 

With the sliding part closed (it's open in the picture) the charger is a little smaller than the Leica charger in length and width, but a lot thinner (i.e., it's not shaped like a brick). Also, as a travel charger it has a distinct advantage because it does away with several chargers if you have more than one type of camera.

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What is the size of the charger and how long to fully charge the battery

The Leica charger is too big and takes too long to charge for travel purposes.

 

Kenn, thanks very much for letting us know about this.

 

The ANSMANN DIGI-CHARGER VARIO is pictured in the post, but in terms of numeric dimensions it's (roughly) 11cm x 6cm x 2cm (4.5in x 2.5in x 1in) or about 1/2 the size of the Leica M8 "Brick" charger.

 

It's also able to charge every other battery too, so if you travel with multiple camera types and portable flashes, it becomes an even better weight to value ratio for the frequent flyer.

 

I had two of the Leica Bricks die on me during trips when this solution was found. Needless to say it was a trip saver and would recommend it to any Leica M8 user, especially one who travels frequently.

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As far as I can see both this and the Belkin can be connected only via the mains or a vehicle cigarette lighter, so could not be powered up via my Power Monkey. Is that right?

 

No, I don't think so. Even though you could make a connector to the unit, the voltages are off. The Ansmann needs 12V DC, 700mA and the Power Monkey generates 5V, 200mA.

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You are all saying this charger is much smaller, which I am sure it is. But isn't that a power brick that I see in the image? The Leica charger has the transformer integrated. Is the total bulk still less? It'd be great if someone could compare total volume and weight.

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Guest DuquesneG

There's the possibility of leaving the Leica charger behind in a hotel if it's plugged in under a desk or behind a chair, so I've had to cart an extension cord along too.

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You are all saying this charger is much smaller, which I am sure it is. But isn't that a power brick that I see in the image? The Leica charger has the transformer integrated. Is the total bulk still less? It'd be great if someone could compare total volume and weight.

Why bother, just keep using the supplied Leica charger.

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You are all saying this charger is much smaller, which I am sure it is. But isn't that a power brick that I see in the image? The Leica charger has the transformer integrated. Is the total bulk still less? It'd be great if someone could compare total volume and weight.

 

It's still smaller with the plug-in and easier to pack. I have 3 Leica Chargers (2 dead), and for what it's worth, a no-brainer to use the Ansmann Vario when traveling as it can charge more than just the Leica M8 battery.

 

I like the cord because I can keep the charger up on the desk vs. down at the floor level, but more importantly, it's been 100% reliable which is the reason for moving to it in the first place.

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Guest DuquesneG

I don't get why the Leica charger should be so prone to failure...after all Ansmann makes it too. You almost never hear of any other charger failing. I've got a drawer full of chargers that work fine even though whatever it was they charged is long gone to the landfill.

 

Is it that the Leica M8 chargers fry electronically, or the removable prongs break off, or both? So far mine (two because I have two M8s) have been ok, so I really don't know.

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You are all saying this charger is much smaller, which I am sure it is. But isn't that a power brick that I see in the image? The Leica charger has the transformer integrated. Is the total bulk still less? It'd be great if someone could compare total volume and weight.

 

Just came by UPS. Opened it, moved the connectors, slid a battery into it (making sure I had moved the connectors to the right places) and plugged it in.

 

This thing is about half as long as the Leica charger and about 1/4 or less in thickness. It is small. The power supply is 1 5/8" wide by 2 1/4" long by 1 1/2" high.

Why Leica didn't opt for something like this to begin with is beyond me.

 

Charge started at 1:25 on a completely drained battery. I'm checking it out on one of my aftermarket batteries first. I'll let you know how long it takes to charge up the battery.

 

I'll look at the Delkin charger also when the plates become available.

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Well it has bee 2 hours and 15+ minutes since the start of the charge and the carger is still blinking, meaning the battery isn't full charged yet.

So I'd say this charger doesn't charge the M8 batteries any faster then the Leica charger. This could be because the M8 batteries don't allow a fast charge.

It's got until 4:30 then I'll be unplugging it and going home.

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Well at 4:30 the green light was still flashing. So I unplugged the charger and packed it up.

Getting home and puttinig the battery that was in it into my chrome M8 the battery was just as dead as it was when the charge started.

So I either didn't do something right or the battery id bad or the charger is bad.

I've set it up at home and will see what happen this time.

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As I said I set it up at home and made sure I had the contacts in the right place and the battery fully inserted in the charger. That was just before I typed out the above post, around 5:00. It's now 6:55 and I looked at it about ten minutes ago and the charge was complete, that's about 1:45 +/-. So it does seem this little charger does charge the Leica batteries faster then the original charger.

Hopefully the Delkin charger will also be faster.

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