Canon rebel t5 battery pack blinks orange

[Hopedorman]

Hi all,

I have a rebel t5 I bought just about 2 years ago. Everything has been working great. I plugged the battery pack in to charge for a trip and went to sleep. When I woke up the charger is blinking orange.

I moved it to a new outlet and didn't blink for about 30 seconds but then it started.

I had almost full battery before I charged and was just charging to be safe. The camera has been used regularly. I have never used another charger or battery combo with this as it's my first and only DSLR.

I put the battery in the camera and it shows 3 bars but that may be from before - I don't remember the battery being low when I took some photos earlier this week.

Any idea what to do? I think it's the lc-e10 but I don't have the manual at my apartment.

I have a 2 year warranty from where I bought it and a Canon repair center in my town - anyone had success getting a battery or charger replaced?

[Hopedorman]

By chance I moved it to another new outlet to time how long it got until the blinking, and it turned green within 30 seconds!

Still wondering if this is normal.

[Stephen]

Hello, Hopedorman!

Thanks for posting on the Canon Community! 

The blinking orange light is a safety measure that prevented any damage to your charger, battery, or property. When you tried in another outlet and it turned green, that means everything is perfectly fine. The following is from page 284 of your manual:

If you encounter any further issues, or have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to our friendly support team at 1-800-OK-CANON (800-652-2666). Our team is available weekdays from 8am to Midnight (ET) and on Saturdays from 10am to 8pm (ET). 

If you're outside of the USA, just click HERE and select your country/region for support options in your area. 

[TCampbell]

This may not be a problem.

If a battery is *particularly* low, it can trick the charger into thinking it wont take a charge.  While I don't have the link handy, one of Canon's trouble-shooting tips was simply to simply re-try a few times until it starts charging.

The idea is that when you first plug in the battery charger, it will begin charging the battery ... then check to see how the battery is doing.  In that short initial charge, it will slightly bring up the charge level of a good battery... but when it checks the battery level, it will be down so low as to appear to be a defective battery, so it gives up and starts blinking the light.

When you re-try, it will manage to get another 30 seconds worth of power into the battery.  Again, a truely bad battery would read dead.  A good battery would have taken on slightly more power ... but might still read too low and trick the charger into giving up and blinking orange.

But usually once you've done this about 3 times... you get just enough power into the battery that it finally makes it above the low voltage threshold and and the battery charger realizes that it is taking a charge.

If you end up having to try more than about 3 times and it still blinks organge... you probably really do have a bad battery and you should replace it and have the old one recycled (never toss batteries in the trash).

This is all avoided if you don't let the batteries sit too long without being used and don't let the batteries go completely flat.

It's not really a defect... it's a safety measure designed to prevent the charger from attempting to force power into a battery that has shorted out.

[Hopedorman]

Tim,

What is considered "too long" for it to go without charging? 

The battery was not flat. At lowest it was 2/3 full when I used the camera just 3 days ago. I knew waiting too long to charge could be an issue, but is that determined by the length of time between charging or the level of battery?

Should I be putting the battery in the charger every few days, weeks, or would it be closer to months? I don't use the camera too often (it's just a hobby) but I use it frequently enough, and don't get the battery get too low.

[RobertTheFat]

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@Hopedormanwrote:

Tim,

What is considered "too long" for it to go without charging? 

The battery was not flat. At lowest it was 2/3 full when I used the camera just 3 days ago. I knew waiting too long to charge could be an issue, but is that determined by the length of time between charging or the level of battery?

Should I be putting the battery in the charger every few days, weeks, or would it be closer to months? I don't use the camera too often (it's just a hobby) but I use it frequently enough, and don't get the battery get too low.

---

Did you try the charger back on the first outlet after it succeeded on the second? If the outlets are on different circuits, I might suspect that the first circuit was overloaded or poorly connected and not delivering enough voltage to the charger. I admit that it's far-fetched, but I don't have anything better to suggest.