Battery problem, or not

[MJ224]

On the OM1-ii, I use the HLD10 grip, which contains a 2nd battery. When using the battery status page, the HLD battery is not showing any data.

I have now taken both batteries out of the camera, and I am charging them in an external battery charger. According to the charger lights, both batteries are taking a full charge.

So either I have a duff HLD battery, or it is not charging through the camera. The HLD works re using the camera in a vertical plane, ie shutter and focus buttons.

Once charged, I will swap them around, and see what occurs......???

[MJ224]

I have closely looked at the HLD contact pins, and have found one to be depressed.

With tweezers, I have pulled it out to match the length of the other pins, so and hoping that will fix the problem.

But I will allow the external charger to do the biz first...

[Ian]

Some progress at least!

[Bikie John]

If it's still playing up, could you try it with just the battery in the grip and none in the body? Then see if the camera switches on. And if it does, does the battery status show correctly?

John

[MJ224]

Well, its gone back together, both batteries now showing data. But after having tried John's advice above, (which worked), I noticed that depressed pin is depressed again. So may be it is supposed to be depressed?

I have swapped the batteries around now, so will be able to ID if one battery is on its way out...

Thanks for looking...

[blackfox]

perhaps a touch of silicone lubricant ( not w.d 40 ) applied on the pin with a ear bud or tooth pick would ease it up . sounds like its gummed up..

[MJ224]

Thanks Jeff.

[Wreckdiver]

Hi Mark, None of the pins on my HLD-10 are depressed. There are 6 thick pins and the rest are thin. Is the depressed pin on your grip a thick or a thin pin? The thicker pins will be for carrying the power from grip to camera and will be handling high current. The thinner pins will be signal pins. What is often common is that some pins will be connected in parallel to share high currents. I did some continuity checks across the 6 thick pins and confirmed there are three sets of 2 connected in parallel - so these are the power pins. If your depressed pin is a thick one then the grip will likely work OK but there will be one pin carrying twice the amount of current. The pin current ratings will be conservative though by design, so I wouldn't worry too much. If the depressed pin is a thin, signal, pin then there will very likely be more parrallel pins (thin ones) connected for redundancy, if so, there would be very little for you to worry about.

If you could post a photo of the pins I could check on my grip and see what is connected to what for you. Hope that makes so sense and not too nerdy.

Edit: On closer inspection of my grip there is one pin that is ever so slightly lower than the rest, I missed it. With the grip orientated with the OM System logo on the right it is the second pin from left on third row down. Why that would be slightly lower I have no idea unless it was the intention of the designer to make sure that the pin makes contact with the base of the camera after all the others were making contact. Using a pair of tweezers it will not go any higher when attempting to pull it up.

[MJ224]

Thanks Steve for your investigation.

Now that I taken the grip off the camera, I see there is another pin in the front row that has stayed depressed, and yes the third row, one in from the right is slighly depressed. I tried to lift that with tweezers, but it won't come, so as you say it may be that way on purpose....

[blackfox]

without being funny mark ,that appears to be terribly dusty ,and I would suggest possibly a hair or dust bug has entered the receiver end of the probes . I would suggest an initial clean of the pins using a cotton bud and if possible dipped in methylated spirits as that's what we used to use . then as I said before an application of some silicone lubricant . avoid w.d 40 as it may effect the plastic. p.s the pin bottom right front looks bent to ?

[MJ224]

Yes, it does look a little dusty. But the grip has been attached almost non-stop for a year plus, so dust must have got in through the cracks..

I have now cleaned it and wiped with silicon, and reconnected. All working OK, so maybe if it's not broke, don't fix it...Thanks Jeff...

[MJ224]

All working OK today, but this evening there is a little note saying "Use Genuine Battery" under the battery meter. Despite that, I can see data from both batteries...

So maybe the battery has a temperamental glitch.......:??

[blackfox]

when you say wiped with silicone , I use the little spray bottles of silicone lubricant that I have for my caravan awning rail. its probably best to use something like that and work the pins up and down with tweezers to ensure there operating smoothly ,the only one that bothers me is the front far right one i.e tilted

[MJ224]

Yes, it looks tilted a little. But all the pins are solid, no horizontal movement whatsoever......We shall see what happens in the near future...