Canon a570IS battery usage - Feature Requests - CHDK Forum
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Canon a570IS battery usage

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Offline slobjones

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Canon a570IS battery usage
« on: 20 / December / 2012, 14:23:33 »
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The main problem with my Canon a570IS has always been battery life. This pretty much renders the camera (which uses two AA batteries) unusable after about 20 shots with alkaline batteries and almost completely unusable with rechargeables.

There's nothing wrong with these batteries. They have plenty of juice left when I check them with a battery tester. The a570 just won't use them.

Others have mentioned this problem on camera forums, but no useful solution has been produced.

I see CHDK now has a battery meter. That's great but wouldn't help here. Is there any way to program the camera so it properly reads battery life?

Thanks.
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Offline nafraf

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Re: Canon a570IS battery usage
« Reply #1 on: 20 / December / 2012, 16:13:58 »
Did you check battery contacts?
There are some threads about it:
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=9024.msg93846#msg93846
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Offline slobjones

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Re: Canon a570IS battery usage
« Reply #2 on: 20 / December / 2012, 19:50:28 »
Quote from: nafraf on 20 / December / 2012, 16:13:58
Did you check battery contacts?
There are some threads about it:
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=9024.msg93846#msg93846


Thanks for the suggestion, nafraf. I cleaned the contacts with electronics switch cleaner and then swabbed with alcohol, and am actually getting a bit of use with the rechargeables (Chiacago Electric 2200 mAh Ni-MH) that were giving me nothing before. (Low-battery light is still blinking, though).

I'll give the batteries a full recharge and test further.
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Offline ahull

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Re: Canon a570IS battery usage
« Reply #3 on: 21 / December / 2012, 03:59:52 »
I found with ,my A560, that the spring contacts were a little on the soft/loose side, I presume this is a result of age and use, so I added a thin shim of plastic underneath to increase the pressure.

Also worth checking is that the battery door closes nice and tight, and that the batteries themselves have good clean shiny contacts.



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Offline slobjones

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Re: Canon a570IS battery usage
« Reply #4 on: 21 / December / 2012, 12:36:31 »
On analysis, I see no benefit from cleaning the contacts (not that it hurt to try!) or bending them.

The problem with this camera is simple: It doesn't read battery life properly, and it mistakenly thinks battery power is low or depleted and consequently shuts the camera down. This is a problem with software and electronics, not with whether you've bent a contact one way or another.

The camera, despite its other admirable qualities, is a turkey.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Canon a570IS battery usage
« Reply #5 on: 21 / December / 2012, 12:48:42 »
Quote from: slobjones on 21 / December / 2012, 12:36:31
On analysis, I see no benefit from cleaning the contacts (not that it hurt to try!) or bending them.
Not sure what analysis you did.  But if your battery contacts are dirty or corroded and not making a good connection,  you will have a series resistance through the contacts which will produce a voltage drop when the camera draws current from the battery.  If the resistance is large enough (5 ohms would be enough to give you a 1V drop) then the camera will think the batteries are exhausted (it measures battery voltage after the series resistance of the contacts).

Typically, rechargable batteries start at a lower voltage so you would see the effect sooner than with disposable batteries.
« Last Edit: 21 / December / 2012, 12:50:24 by waterwingz »
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Offline slobjones

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Re: Canon a570IS battery usage
« Reply #6 on: 21 / December / 2012, 13:38:12 »
Quote from: waterwingz on 21 / December / 2012, 12:48:42
Quote from: slobjones on 21 / December / 2012, 12:36:31
On analysis, I see no benefit from cleaning the contacts (not that it hurt to try!) or bending them.
Not sure what analysis you did.  But if your battery contacts are dirty or corroded and not making a good connection,  you will have a series resistance through the contacts which will produce a voltage drop when the camera draws current from the battery.  If the resistance is large enough (5 ohms would be enough to give you a 1V drop) then the camera will think the batteries are exhausted (it measures battery voltage after the series resistance of the contacts).

Typically, rechargable batteries start at a lower voltage so you would see the effect sooner than with disposable batteries.


Again, this is a red herring. My contacts are clean; my contacts are making contact.

My original question related to CHDK and whether a solution had been found to the a570's actual problem, which is that it reads fully charged batteries as low-power or discharged batteries.

I'm satisfied the a570 is a lemon, and not worth further wasted energy. I'll replace it.
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Canon a570IS battery usage
« Reply #7 on: 21 / December / 2012, 21:44:53 »
Quote from: slobjones on 21 / December / 2012, 13:38:12
Again, this is a red herring. My contacts are clean; my contacts are making contact.

My original question related to CHDK and whether a solution had been found to the a570's actual problem, which is that it reads fully charged batteries as low-power or discharged batteries.
FWIW, CHDK can display the voltage reported by the camera own monitoring system (change your battery display to volts).

It's highly unlikely that the camera software somehow went bad and started doing something different than it did when it was new. Far more likely there is an electrical issue like the contacts or a battery issue. Less likely but possible is some other electrical fault in the camera.
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Offline zeno

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Re: Canon a570IS battery usage
« Reply #8 on: 22 / December / 2012, 07:15:10 »
While your A570 may indeed be a lemon, I assure you that many of us have used A570's with CHDK/SDM to take thousands of photos, including time-lapses lasting more than an hour. I'm a kite aerial photographer and my A570's (I've had 3) have managed to take photos while aloft for lengthy periods.

I've tended to use Sanyo ENELOOPS, but have used other rechargeables without problems.
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Offline ahull

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Re: Canon a570IS battery usage
« Reply #9 on: 22 / December / 2012, 08:55:20 »
Measure the voltage of each your fully charged cells with a multimeter, add the two voltages together. You will have a figure somewhere in the 2.4V to  3.1V range. Anything other and your cells are duff.

Next,  fit them to the camera, and check what CHDK reports, you will see, either the voltage measured by the camera matches (in which case your cells may be suspect, with a high internal resistance), or you will see  the voltage measured by the camera differs.

If the camera suggests the voltage is lower than your measurements, then there is some voltage drop caused by dirty contacts in the camera as previously suggested. The contacts may look perfectly clean to the eye, and still have a film of oil or oxide on them, and has has been pointed out before, this is the most likely cause of your issue.

... also check out this possible fix... Canon Powershot - Low Battery Icon Fix


If the measurements from the multimeter and the camera match, and are within the range allowed by the camera, and you are certain the cells are good, (i.e. new Genuine quality named brand cells), and your particular camera reads exactly  the same voltage, but still suggests they are flat, then you do indeed have a lemon on your hands.



If you see some other result, post it here and we will analyse it.  :blink:
« Last Edit: 22 / December / 2012, 09:10:33 by ahull »
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