batteries depleted during travel

[greg_richmond]

I have a Canon Powershot G6 with two Canon BP-511A Lithium-Ion

rechargeable batteries, one of which was in my case, the other in

the camera. I made sure I had two fully charged batteries before my

trip to the US (from UK). When I came to use my camera, it would

only stay on for a few seconds and displayed the 'change battery'

alert. I thought maybe I had forgotten to charge the one already in

the camera, so i switched to my reserve and the same thing

happened. I thought something was wrong with the camera itself so i

waited until after my trip (didn't bring charger with me) and when i

got back to UK i recharged my batteries (first clue that it was

indeed my batteries), and then placed them in the camera which is

working fine. So, somewhere along the line my batteries were

drained by something. Interestingly, I made a trip to the east

coast of the US in march without problems, this time was to

midwest. Has anyone else had these problems?

[marvt]

Ah...you have uncovered our dirty little secret. The midwest is desperately short of Lithium_Ion power. Knowing your destination the scanners at the airport depleted your power sources and forwarded the power to needy midwestern digital shooters, as a midwestern shooter I thank you by the way. Unfortunately the scanner must have had the wrong setting and ruined the battery. I am not sure if there is any recourse with the government, this may just be a learning session for everyone.

[Ed_Ingold]

If they work now, then you charged them incorrectly before. Li-ion batteries are sensitive to temperature and shock, and are easily damaged by overcharging. Like all rechargible batteries, they have a limited life.

[Jochen_S]

Sorry, Greg, I can't deliver a waterproof scientific explanation. But Murphys Law says battery trouble usually occurs when you have no charger with you. I had some with primitive equipment by switching it on by accident. - I remember my Phillishave humming in the backpack or the expensive dryfit accu of my Metz 60 killing itself at the same place. Read the manual of the Canon charger, many of these buggers can be adjusted to 110 US-Volts today; the better ones are foolproof and do it even by themself.

[jcuknz]

The moral of the story is "Don't leave home without the charger"

My son learnt this after someone in the family forgot to pack the charger ... but he was lucky in that he had a father who could make up a charger for him out of an old cellphone charger and a couple of resistors and spring clothes pegs to secure bare wires to battery.

 

http://www.geocities.com/nikon5700itee/charger.html

 

tells you how, on your own head .. since home made devices do not have auto cut-outs and temperature sensing devices to make charging these very sensitive modern batteries safe.

[jcuknz]

While a little knowledge can be dangerous if mis-applied you need to appreciate that while a camera has a battery rated at say 7.2 volts and is likely made up of six little cells inside the black casing we see, when it is fully charged is likely to have a voltage of 8.2volts.

 

There is a voltage level below which it is not possible to restore a battery to normal operating performance. Depending on the authority you believe this ranges from 1 to 1.2 volts per cell. So possibily if that camera battery voltage drops below 7.2 volts it is in serious danger of malfunction, certainly if below 6 volts.

 

The Li-ion battery starts to discharge itself from the moment you stop charging it without being connected to anything.

 

Bearing the above in mind you can appreciate that you need to keep your batteries charged and unlike the older Ni-cads it is possible to 'top-up' a Li-ion. So once I have downloaded files from my camera my batteries immediately go on charge. The nice thing about proper chargers is that you can go off to bed and leave them on charge and the charge will be stopped when 'full charge' is achieved some time during the night depending on how depleted they were.

 

So it is unlikely that the alleged Lithium shortage in the mid west has anything to do with your problems but rather lack of attention to basic maintenance of the battery's good health due to your not being told all this when you bought your camera.

 

I was in the mid-west recently for a couple of months and had no problem with my batteries.

 

Since I had two cameras with different chargers I made the gadget by cutting an old single three-pin plug until I had just the phase and neutral wires which are individually placed in either angled [my home country] or vertical [uSA] plug holes. Goy a cheap two-way distributor, cut off metal prongs and covered with plastic. soldered wire inside and I now can charge both kinds of batteries at the same time.<div></div>

[ron_goodenow]

Greg:

 

Hmmmm, exact same thing happened with me going from US to UK last year. Two lithium ion batteries (in this case rechargeable CRV3's) fully charged up the day before I left, both dead as doornails after going over the pond. Recharged them and they were fine and have been splendid for over a year. There must be gremlins on the wings out there in the mid-Atlantic....Was a very odd experience.

[john kissane]

JC, thanks for vindicating the Mid-west.

 

Ron, thanks for pointing to the damn gremlins on the wings, those b.......

 

Greg, you said you didn't take the recharger not that you forgot it. How could you on an international trip?