Maybe THIS is the problem!

Okay, I posted a couple of days ago about my G1 not holding a charge, even after I popped in a brand new battery. After quite a few lengthy phone calls to Canon, I may have figured out what's wrong. Apparently the Compact Power Adapter (CA-560) has burned out. I am out of warranty, so I'm going to run the adapter over to my local Radio Shack to see if they can test it. If it has indeed burned out, then I'll have to order a new one. Canon will sell me one for $125 plus shipping, or I can possibly beat that price by going through B&H Camera in New York (the only authorized dealer for their accessories, according to the Canon rep. I spoke with). Maybe their price will be cheaper. Anyway, I'll post again if I find out anything worth posting about.

The Canon rep. told me that I should NEVER charge my battery for more than 130 minutes; any longer than that and I'm overcharging the battery, as well as letting the power adapter get too hot. For the past year I've been plugging in my camera and charging it overnight (sometimes for weeks on end!) with no previous problems, but maybe the camera demons have finally caught me. Then again, maybe this is not actually the problem. I'll let y'all know what I find out!

Anyone else had a similar problem/solution? When I was speaking with the first Canon rep. and she suggested the camera needed a new power supply, I assumed it was something INSIDE the camera and I'd absolutely HAVE to send it in to them for repair. Maybe it's just the stupid cord that plugs into the house current that needs to be replaced. Like I said, I'll let you know what I find out.

Update: I went to Radio Shack (per the Canon rep's suggestion) to have the adapter tested. Unfortunately, Radio Shack can't test it because it has "3 little holes" in the cord and they can't test it unless it only has "2 little holes." Plus, the Radio Shack guy said that if the light is blinking in the camera (which it is .. it goes from yellow to green), then the adapter must be working. Now I'm REALLY confused. Okay, back to the drawing board ...

If I knew someone who lived close to me who would let me try to power up my camera on their G1 adapter, then I could figure this out by process of elimination. Maybe I'll call a local camera store and see if they have one I can try. Geez, what a saga!

Mimi,

On pages 18 & 19 of the manual, the recommended charging to 90% is 80 minutes, then to bring it to a full charge is another 2 hours. By my calculation, that makes Canon's 130 minute recommendation of maximum 130 minutes all wet, since their manual indicates at least 200 minutes!

If you didn't charge it for at least 3 1/2 hours, try the longer interval & see if you get any better results. Like you, I've left my camera on charge for a day or more for over 2 years, and never had a problem

BTW, I live in northern NJ, so if you're in the local area & want to try my charger, I'd be happy to let you give it a go. Contact my e-mail at dicky109@juno.com .

Good luck

Well, now I'm just even more befuddled! I'm taking the adapter down to a local camera store tomorrow - their repair guy said he'd try to test it to see if it's fried or not. I've searched previous posts to see if anyone has had to replace their external AC adapter, but I haven't seen this come up before. Is there an INTERNAL power supply inside the camera that could be messed up?

Forgot to mention -- I asked the Canon rep. if they thought uprgrading the firmware would help, and they were quite adamant that this would be a bad idea if I attempted to do this myself. She said I could wipe out my camera's memory, rendering it completely useless. She did say, however, that if I sent it in for repair, I should request that the firmware be updated by them. She explained that the firmware had nothing to do with the problem I was having.

Dicky109, although my brother lives in Hackettstown, I'm in Colorado. Thanks so much for the offer anyway! I'm waiting for my neighbor to get home because I realized that she has a Canon digital camera, although not the G1. If she has the same adapter, I'll test it out on hers.

Battery Barn is sending me a brand new battery to replace the one I just bought just in case I received a "dud" battery (which I doubt). Battery Barn rocks!

Re:Maybe THIS is the problem

Hi Mimi.

1. you don't mention where you are, it would make it easier to offer help....

2. You can get a charger for $49 (less a rebate) from this place: http://www.batterybarn​.com/dbp511.htm
I haven't dealt with them personally but people seem to be endorsing them in other threads.

3. If you or a friend have a canon camcorder (I have the ZR-50) the charger will work for both. The batteries are slightly different (BP-511 versus BP-512) but the charger isn't.

Good luck!

I live in Boulder, Colorado.

Yowza! Great price on that charger from Battery Barn! Thanks for mentioning it -- I was quoted $125 from Canon, and B&H sells it for $89. I had no idea Battery Born sold a generic power adapter. I bought the AC-511 battery from them recently, and that's the one they're sending a replacement for just in case it's the battery, not the adapter or camera that's on the fritz.

I do have a camcorder, but it's not a Canon and it's over 8 years old. Dang!

Someone just told me that it's quite possible to overcharge a battery and kill it, but it doesn't happen very often with the newer batteries on the market. When I solve this mystery, I'll share the answer and maybe it will help someone else down the road. ( But hopefully no one else will have to go through this nonsense!)

Mimi,

These Canon tech reps seem to want to get their hands on your camera really badly (of course at a hefty price).

I downloaded and installed the firmware update for the G-1 quite some time ago from the following link with absolutely no problem (no guarantees). I do remember that it had something to do with the ability of the battery to be charged.

http://www.canon.co.jp …PSG1/PSG1_Firmw​are-e.html

Good luck

I can't believe that I asked the Canon rep. about upgrading my firmware and she emphatically insisted that it wouldn't be a good idea to attempt something like this myself, nor would it affect the camera's ability to hold a charge! Thank you for listing that site - great information! I guess it just depends on who answers the phone when you call Canon as to what kind of information you'll get. I have spoken with four different reps on two separate days, and they all seem to have different opinions. The one thing they all agree on is that I should just send the camera in to the repair facility, and they really don't know what's going on, nor is it a problem they've ever heard about before, because (don't ya know) they aren't Canon repair techs.

Oh, by the way, don't bother leaving telephone messages for the repair facility either - they apparently don't feel the need to return calls.

I just received a new replacement battery from Battery Barn, and I'm just a couple of hours away from my next attempt to get my camera going again. If this new battery doesn't work, I guess I'll attempt to upgrade the firmware next. I'm going to offer up some sacrifices to the Camera Gods in hopes they have mercy on me and my camera. Perhaps I'll throw some rolls of fresh film into a fiery volcano!

Okay, now I'm a little embarrassed to post this, but it would appear that my problem was a bad battery, of all things. I just charged up the replacement battery that Battery Barn sent me and it took a full charge. I fired off about 25 pictures and the camera seems to be working just fine. Who would have ever suspected that a brand new (expensive) battery fresh out of the package would be defective?

I think (hope) my problem is now solved. I'm still going to upgrade my firmware in the very near future. And at least now I know it's not my AC power adapter. I must have lost at least 6 hours trying to figure out what the problem was, but on the bright side, I didn't have to hand Canon $155. (Not yet, at least!) Thanks to everyone for all of your help!

Congrats on finding a relatively inexpensive solution, Mimi.

Like you, I tend to leave the battery plugged in too long when recharging it, and haven't yet had a problem ... but now after reading your post I will try to be a little more diligent.

This question was asked many times in the DPReview CTF. ( I have over a thousand posts there most of which are 2-4 years old!) The consensus was that there is no danger in leaving your battery plugged in overnight. It takes several hours to fully recharge. The Lenmar charger is fine, and as you have found Batterybarn you have discovered there are many sources of BP511 replacements. These include VidPro, Lenmar, Maha, Greenbattery and others. They generally go for about $40 or a bit less and work fine.
Mike K

That is funny... the guy can tell you that if the light is on on the camera it must be working, but he can't look at the charger itself to see that it only uses two of the three holes and tells you which ones are which!

There is a little diagram right above where the cord to the camera is on the label of the charger.
Good to hear it was only the battery in your case.

As far as doing the firmware yourself... Not a big deal.

You put in the card with the update files on it and hit a couple of buttons and wait 90 seconds with lights blinking all the way. The camera powers itself off and restarts and you are done. I have done this more than once and I can't see why they tell you not to do it yourself.

Chargers and battery chemistries are much, much smarter than they used to be. Yes, a NiCd battery will cook out from being left "forever", but this lithium ion should not have the problem. Reason: Li ion batteries will literally blow up if they get more than about .1v over their termination voltage, so the chargers have to be made very carefully! Secondly, the power unit is just that: the charging intelligence is built into the camera, not the power pack. You'll see that it is a plain vanilla power supply; anything of the right voltage and connector that has enough current rating will work; the camera doesn't know the difference. So the charger stops at the right point, and I doubt if they allow it to continue to monitor the battery and top it off if it bleeds off a bit. That is, once it reaches termination, it is likely disconnected from the power supply, which is another reason we all leave them on for days with no problem, because they are actually no longer connected to the battery. That being said, after a few hours you might as well disconnect it, 'cause it's not doing anything anyway.