allbest build a710is - battery dies within less than 2 minutes - General Help and Assistance on using CHDK stable releases

njay22

4

allbest build a710is - battery dies within less than 2 minutes

« on: 22 / June / 2008, 10:37:19 »

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Hi,

I have installed the latest allbest build for a710is - but as soon as I switch to record mode (I am loading via SD card) the battery goes from 100% to 0% within two minutes (the battery is fully charged) - and the camera shuts down. If I switch to playback mode quickly enough then the battery indicator climbs back to 100%.

If I just use the default Canon firmware the battery is fine (its 2000mah nimh rechargable). If I try standard batteries then i get the same problem with the allbest firmware.

Any ideas what could be wrong and how i can fix it?

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wontolla

413
S3 & G9 & A720

Re: allbest build a710is - battery dies within less than 2 minutes

« Reply #1 on: 22 / June / 2008, 11:50:57 »

The weird thing here is that your camera shuts down.

Otherwise, the explanation would be that your MAX and MIN voltage settings are wrong. Did you change them?

Go to "OSD parameters" -> "Battery" and post your Battery MAX & MIN voltages. In my A720 they are 1.8 and 2.9, yours should be similar.

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fudgey

1705
a570is

Re: allbest build a710is - battery dies within less than 2 minutes

« Reply #2 on: 22 / June / 2008, 14:36:18 »

Quote from: njay22 on 22 / June / 2008, 10:37:19

I have installed the latest allbest build for a710is - but as soon as I switch to record mode (I am loading via SD card) the battery goes from 100% to 0% within two minutes (the battery is fully charged) - and the camera shuts down. If I switch to playback mode quickly enough then the battery indicator climbs back to 100%.

If I just use the default Canon firmware the battery is fine (its 2000mah nimh rechargable). If I try standard batteries then i get the same problem with the allbest firmware.

Rec mode power consumption is much higher than in play mode. Battery voltage is greatly dependent on power consumption (but with a bit of a delay), which is why the voltage (and the percentage) rise as you change back to play mode.

Does your camera actually discharge your batteries or is it just the indicator that goes down? If it does discharge them this fast, something (including the batteries themselves, typical NiMH cells shouldn't be discharged in less than 30 minutes or the heat may damage them) must either be running pretty hot or you have a bad set of batteries and/or a bad charger.

You could enable battery voltage indication instead of the percentage to really see what's happening. The percentage reading and battrery indicators (both CHDK and Canon ones) are only rude guesses, greatly affected by battery chemistry, temperature, loading etc. and in the end they are all based on the voltage reading.

If your problem persist with alkalines (I'm assuming your "standard" batteries are alkalines? Zinc-Carbon batteries are probably useless in cameras), and you've double checked, I guess there really is a problem. My advice is to try the oldest build you can find for your camera and see if it does the same thing. Apart from that, It's very common to have a bad set of NiMH cells and a bad charger. And to have dirty battery contacts or batteries draining fast in cold climates...

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njay22

4

Re: allbest build a710is - battery dies within less than 2 minutes

« Reply #3 on: 23 / June / 2008, 08:52:09 »

I will check the battery min and max and get back to you and also if it is ACTUALLY discharging

there is NO WAY there is anything wrong with the battery nor the charger - as I indicated in my original post, the battery works fine at all times with the standard canon firmware but with the allbest firmware the battrery percentage reduces from 100% to 0% @ a rate of about 1% per second. If I switch to playback (or switch off the camera) and then back to recording mode the battery meter has gone up to 100% again - but then starts to descend to 0%.

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ewavr

1057
A710IS

Re: allbest build a710is - battery dies within less than 2 minutes

« Reply #4 on: 23 / June / 2008, 10:10:50 »

I have a710 and cannot confirm this behavior on latest Allbest build.
Do you have another battery/charger set?
How about old GrAnd, Fingalo, Allbest builds?
Can you measure camera's current consumption? 2 Ah batteries discharges for 2 minutes -> consumption current must be more than 10A (if batteries are really good). Camera and batteries must be very hot

« Last Edit: 23 / June / 2008, 10:19:14 by ewavr »

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fudgey

1705
a570is

Re: allbest build a710is - battery dies within less than 2 minutes

« Reply #5 on: 23 / June / 2008, 14:06:25 »

There's nothing strange about the percentage falling quickly if the thresholds don't fit your camera model & batteries. Any set of thresholds can't be optimal for both alkalines and for NiMH at the same time. Monitor the voltage instead, at least until you figure out what's wrong. For reference, my a570is uses its two AA NiMH cells down to about 2*1V = 2 V and then shuts down.

The weird thing here is that your camera shuts down. Are you sure it's due to battery low indication and for instance not due to Canon's auto-shutdown feature (note that the camera may not know you're doing stuff if you're in alt mode) or some bug we aren't familiar with? Have you tried changing the auto shutdown periods from Canon menus to find if they have an effect on the time your camera stays on in rec mode?

AFAIK, CHDK will never shut down the camera due to lack of power, it's the camera that does this. My a570is always tells me to replace the batteries if it dies due to lack of power, does the a710is (and most importantly, does yours when it shuts down the way you've described)?

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njay22

4

Re: allbest build a710is - battery dies within less than 2 minutes

« Reply #6 on: 26 / June / 2008, 18:22:39 »

Quote from: wontolla on 22 / June / 2008, 11:50:57

The weird thing here is that your camera shuts down.

Otherwise, the explanation would be that your MAX and MIN voltage settings are wrong. Did you change them?

Go to "OSD parameters" -> "Battery" and post your Battery MAX & MIN voltages. In my A720 they are 1.8 and 2.9, yours should be similar.

Yep this was the reason - thanks for everyone's help.

I haven't changed anything - infact - I 'reset to default paramters'. The max and min values are 2550 and 2300 respectively - I guess these are wrong? what should they be - considerring these are 2000mah 1.2v batteries x 2. I set it to 2400 and 1900 - and it seems a lot more stable.

Also, I changed to displaying the voltage and its at around 2.343 Volts in recording mode. But the red battery indicator (canon's?) is flashing eventho I just recharged them - which is weird - it just keeps flashing - any idea why?

I am not able to replicate the camera shutting down - maybe that time it did shutdown the battery was genuinely low

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fudgey

1705
a570is

Re: allbest build a710is - battery dies within less than 2 minutes

« Reply #7 on: 30 / June / 2008, 13:52:39 »

Quote from: njay22 on 26 / June / 2008, 18:22:39

I haven't changed anything - infact - I 'reset to default paramters'. The max and min values are 2550 and 2300 respectively - I guess these are wrong? what should they be - considerring these are 2000mah 1.2v batteries x 2. I set it to 2400 and 1900 - and it seems a lot more stable.

Also, I changed to displaying the voltage and its at around 2.343 Volts in recording mode. But the red battery indicator (canon's?) is flashing eventho I just recharged them - which is weird - it just keeps flashing - any idea why?

I don't use the icon or percentages so I don't really know what the thresholds do, but at least my camera seems to shut down at about 2 volts, so 1900 is probably too low.

My a570is likes to blink its battery warning icon half the battery life as well (especially on 2100 mAh Varta ReadyToUse, which may be OEM Sanyo Eneloops but that's only a guess), and I find it extremely annoying since it overwrites my precious CHDK displays.

Nothing you can do about it other than use alkalines or some other set of NiMH (my 2700 mAh NiMH cells seem to perform a bit better in this respect) unless someone finds a way to disable Canon's battery warning for good...

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