topic Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery. in General Discussion

LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

LarryL — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 02:19:09 GMT

The LC-E6 battery Charger that came with my new 5D Mk III failed to operate properly right out of the box. Would not charge my new battery, nor any of my other Canon batteries. Amber charging light blinks rapidly.
The old LC-E6 charger that came with my EOS 7D charges these batteries normally.
I junked the charger that came with my 5D Mk III, and bought a new LC-E6 from B&H. This unit has the same issue. It will sometimes charge some of my Canon batteries, but more often the amber light, after about 20 seconds just blinks rapidly, and will not charge the battery. My old LC-E6 charger still charges all these batteries in normal fashion.
I only use Canon Brand LP-E6 batteries in these cameras.

I have followed the battery charging instructions as found in the owner's guide and online at the Canon USA website. The batteries are relatively new, and show good operating status on the camera Battery Info panel of the camera menu.These units (LC-E6) have never operated properly.

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

TCampbell — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 01:03:18 GMT

As there are no menus, nothing configurable, and nothing to reset on the charger, if these two units are failing to charge batteries (but your older charger that came with the 7D can) then it sounds like they're defective and need to be replaced.

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

LarryL — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 01:19:19 GMT

Thanks for the reply, Tim.

I am hesitant to buy another LC-E6 charger from Canon, since two of the three I have purchased have malfunctioned. I have seen a few online entries at various sites, also complaining of the same behavior.

Are there any of you out there who have had experience with third party chargers for Canon LP-E6 batteries?

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

TCampbell — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 01:34:42 GMT

I thought you mentioned these were new? Are you not able to exchange them or contact Canon for replacement?

I have three of these same charges and they're all working fine. I had wondered (but didn't post in the previous reply) if your power was ok.

At one point I was having some electronics problems at my home and, using a meter, I ultimately discovered that the power in part of my house was only running at 95volts instead of the 110v-115v that normal north american utility companies are supposed to provide and it turned out to be a problem with aging wire in the neighborhood (the power company had to perform a repair). I only mention this because it seems suspicious that a two of your chargers aren't performing correctly.

Also... when the "working" charger is being used, is it on the exact same power circuit?

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

LarryL — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 22:00:42 GMT

Tim,

AC power checks out normal at my house. All other high tech devices operate normally.

As to replacement by Canon, I do not have the original receipts for this component, so I'll simply purchase another.

Thanks again for your input.

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

Skirball — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:19:29 GMT

Looks like Canon issued a product advisory for that, along with it some procedure that is supposed to "fix" it when it happens. Pretty chinsy Canon.

http://www.canonrumors.com/2013/10/canon-lp-e6-product-advisory/

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

ZenE — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 21:50:38 GMT

I've got three chargers and all work as expected. Contact Canon for replacement.

Zen

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

JulioR — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 05:09:29 GMT

Did you used non-Canon batteries? It don't work with Canon charger, but with other chargers works well. Even so you obtain an error message when you turn on the Camera. If you continue normaly it works fine, but is not reliable enough because sometime didn't recognise the battery when put the camera on. It only happen to me with my 70D, other Canon reflex work perfect with replacemente batteries. My advise use Canon. Sorry about my english.

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

Marcko — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 13:30:06 GMT

A variation of what is suggested in the advisory worked for me. I unplugged the charger with the battery still in it, waited 10-15 seconds, and plugged it back in.

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

katalin72 — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 09:52:04 GMT

Hey Marcko, thank you for the tip. I had tried all the others and yours was the only one who fixed it for me.

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

TimT — Thu, 05 May 2016 21:35:40 GMT

Having the same issue. If it's blinking twice per second, does that mean it's at 50% as indicated on the icon on the battery charger?

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

RobertTheFat — Fri, 13 May 2016 20:46:36 GMT

@TimT wrote:
Having the same issue. If it's blinking twice per second, does that mean it's at 50% as indicated on the icon on the battery charger?

I wouldn't rely on the percentages, but two flashes means the battery is more nearly chatged than if there was only one flash. Three flashes mean it's even more nearly charged, and a solid light (I think it also changes from orange to green) means it's fully charged.

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

TCampbell — Fri, 13 May 2016 22:08:51 GMT

@TimT wrote:
Having the same issue. If it's blinking twice per second, does that mean it's at 50% as indicated on the icon on the battery charger?

If you're getting "green" flashing lights, then all is well (this just means it is charging normally).

The number of flashes between pauses indicates roughly how much of a charge is on the batteries. Two "green" flashes, then a pause, then two more green flashes, etc. means the charger thinks you are roughly half-charged.

The OP's issue is different... if you get "amber" flashing lights then it means something is wrong.

BTW, if a battery is particularly dead then the charger can be tricked into thinking there is a problem. If this happens, unplug the charger, wait a few seconds, then plug it back in. It will try to charge for a minute before it checks the battery. If it is still too low then you'll get the flashing amber light again... but just repeat... unplug, wait a few seconds, and plug it back in again. Each time you do this it'll get another short charge in before it tests the battery and after a few cycles of this it will get above the minimum voltage and the charger will just keep working.

If, on the other hand, you try this several times and it never corrects the flashing amber light, then that's an indication that you probably have a bad battery.

Re: LC-E6 shows rapidly flashing amber light. Will not charge battery.

Waddizzle — Fri, 13 May 2016 23:11:01 GMT

@RobertTheFat wrote:
@TimT wrote:
Having the same issue. If it's blinking twice per second, does that mean it's at 50% as indicated on the icon on the battery charger?
I wouldn't rely on the percentages, but two flashes means the battery is more nearly chatged than if there was only one flash. Three flashes mean it's even more nearly charged, and a solid light (I think it also changes from orange to green) means it's fully charged.

Right. The charger flashes amber yellow at diffferent rates while charging. It stops blinking and turns a solid green when charged.