60Da won't turn on

[rondog99]

I was doing time lapse with my 60Da. I noticed that I was getting en error message. I turned it off.  I could not get it to turn on. Not with battery or with the adaptor. This is the weird part, I have a crappy non-Canon battery that does not charge anymore. When I put that in it it comes on for second then goes out, but only when the battery is first put in, not if I turn it on and off. I have tried taking off the lens with just the cap. I have tried pushing thw mico switch.

Any ideas? 

Thanks

Ron

[TCampbell]

Do you recall what error code was displayed?

It's unlikely to be a microswitch issue (those don't throw error codes... they just turn off the camera.)

[rondog99]

Just said ERR. The would not start.

Thanks

Ron

[TCampbell · Accepted solution]

The camera should power up -- even without a lens attached. I typically only attach my 60Da to a telescope (camera is connected to the EOS t-ring, nosepiece, and then telescope). If you suspect the lens could possibly be the issue, just remove the lens and see if it can power up.

It suprising that the camera is not powering up with the AC adapter or Canon battery -- but will power up (if only for a moment) with a 3rd party battery. Is it possible your AC adapter is bad and your Canon battery is dead? Have you tried putting the battery into a charger to see if it will take a charge?

Are there any accessories attached to this camera (if so, please remove them to see if the camera will power up without them. It's a stretch.... but I've seen accessories that cause problems that prevent the camera from powering on (usually 3rd party battery grips, but I have heard of lenses causeing this problem.)

If you've removed all accessories and you are confident your camera has power -- yet it still wont switch on for you... contact Canon service. Normally I suggest checking the micro-switches but since you saw an error message it's not likely to be related to a micro-switch.

[TTMartin]

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@rondog99 wrote:

I was doing time lapse with my 60Da. I noticed that I was getting en error message. I turned it off.  I could not get it to turn on. Not with battery or with the adaptor. This is the weird part, I have a crappy non-Canon battery that does not charge anymore. When I put that in it it comes on for second then goes out, but only when the battery is first put in, not if I turn it on and off. I have tried taking off the lens with just the cap. I have tried pushing thw mico switch.

Any ideas? 

Thanks

Ron

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You didn't happen to be using Backyard EOS at the time the camera stopped working?

I know of several 60Da's that were turned into bricks because of that program.

[tsarra]

Did anyone ever get to root cause of 'bricked' 60D(a)'s using BackyardEOS or the similar APT (Astro Photography Tool) software? I have a 60Da bought new in late 2012 working fine for 'daytime' standalone use for years. Last week after using APT for first time, worked fine for an hour,  then had APT throw USB disconnect messages and at the point 60Da would not power back on - camera totally 'bricked' - Sent to Cannon for service - told needs a new main board at a cost of almost $400 parts and labor.  Canon service folks claim no knowledge of cameras getting killed using USB to remotely operate them.

[TCampbell]

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@tsarra wrote:

Did anyone ever get to root cause of 'bricked' 60D(a)'s using BackyardEOS or the similar APT (Astro Photography Tool) software? I have a 60Da bought new in late 2012 working fine for 'daytime' standalone use for years. Last week after using APT for first time, worked fine for an hour,  then had APT throw USB disconnect messages and at the point 60Da would not power back on - camera totally 'bricked' - Sent to Cannon for service - told needs a new main board at a cost of almost $400 parts and labor.  Canon service folks claim no knowledge of cameras getting killed using USB to remotely operate them.

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I've never used APT.  I've used BackYard EOS (quite a lot), occasionally Nebulosity, and on the Mac I use AstroDSLR.  I've had an issue with any of them.

I usually use a long tethering cable (I bought a MonoPrice brand cable) 15' USB A male (computer side) to USB Mini-B male (camera side).  Occasionally I have also use a USB hub and that's a "powered" hub (although the camera only uses USB for data -- it doesn't require USB power as it gets power only from either the battery or the AC battery adapter (dummy battery).

I use my own 60Da.  My astronomy club also owns a 60Da in our loaner equipment pool.  Neither of them have had an issue.

The trickiest bit is that I typically do frame & focus in "Manual" mode but and have to remember to switch over to Bulb mode to let BackYard EOS (or whatever software I happen to be using) run the camera to take long exposures.