Faulty battery charger?. D200

[stephen_lilley]

Hi , I posted a question earlier in the week about my problems with a dead battery (EN-EL3e) for my Nikon D200.

After taking a previously, perfectly healthy battery out of my charger it was dead, not even " the number of shots

left" was illuminated. Nothing wrong with the camera as a second battery worked fine. I ordered a replacement

battery, on recieving it, placed it in the charger to top up and would you believe the same thing happend again. I dare

not put my third (original spare ) in the charger for obvious reasons. Anybody any idea what is going on. Could a

faulty charger drain the battery so low that "NOTHING" is illuminated on my D200. Is there any way that the charger

as terminated my batteries. The charger has worked fine for 18 months.

 

Regards Stephen

[hans_janssen]

That something worked for 18 months, doesn't it mean it cvan be wrong, most broken things worked fine before.

 

Does the led blink and is let constantly when you charge and when you finished?

[Matt Laur]

My D200's charger continues to work well, but the one EN-EL3e that I've had die appeared (on the charger) to be normal... blinking light during a period of charging, and then a solid light after a while, as though it were done charging... but no sign of life at all when used in the camera. I continue to use the same charger with other batteries, no problem. Remember: there are chips in these batteries that help the camera to understand the charging/use history, and to keep track of which battery to use first/second when there are multiple batteries installed in the optional battery grip.

 

It's quite possible for the "brains" of the battery to become damaged without the actual lithium ion battery itself being damaged. The charger doesn't appear to talk to the brains, it's just voltage-based, in terms of how it relaxes into trickle-charging mode after topping off a battery. But I suppose it's also possible for a failing charger to kill the brains in a battery, or to have a damaged voltmeter, and get confused over whether or not a battery is actually charged enough to run the camera. A new charger isn't very expensive, and it's good to have a backup... that might be a good place to start, at this point.

[joe_a2]

Stephen.... Do you have a multimeter? Check the connectors on the charger and see if the output matches the specs on the back of your charger.

[jim_foley4]

Hi Stephen, I have a working MH-18a charger and I checked with a multi-meter. I don't know if this will help as I'm

sure this charger senses whether there is a battery installed or not. So it did not match the output listed on the back

of the charger (8.4V) without a battery installed. There are three pins for the battery. The right most is marked +,

the next is marked - and the third (left most) is unmarked. The voltage between + and - is 0.25VDC w/o battery. The

voltage between - and the third pin is 5VDC w/o battery. I kept the negative lead of the meter on the - pin. If that 5V

is for the logic in the battery and it is above 6V or so, it probably fried the logic in the battery. I hope this helps.