EOS Rebel T3 How to use USB connection and power adaptor simultaneously (Help!)

[Magicmind]

Hello, I hope someone may have an answer for me,  I have a rebel T3  and I would like to connect it to my computer and a power adaptor at the same time, to do so I have connected the USB to the computer and have the ACK-10 power adaptor in place of my battery.  When the adaptor is connected my camera works fine and is powered up, however when I plug in the USB to my computer the camera acts like it has a loose connection and powers on and off with the computer connection sound connecting and disconnecting over and over until it just stops and does nothing until I disconnect the usb cable and it works fine again. On the other end of the scale It also works fine on the computer if I have the Battery in use instead of the adaptor.  I have turned off the auto power in the camera menu to try to fix it but to no avail.  Any ideas?  Thanks in advance.

[Waddizzle]

What you are describing are classic symptoms of a ground loop.  The fault lies with either the USB port on the computer, or the power adapter.  Are using all Canon gear for the power adapter?

If you are using a laptop, then unplug its power adapter.

[kvbarkley]

Does your ACK-10 plug into a USB port? That might not provide enough power to the camera.

[Magicmind]

Its a wall socket adaptor, I was going to switch to a usb to see if it made any difference.

[kvbarkley]

Then you have a ground loop. Try reversing the plug in the socket.

[Magicmind]

A ground loop seems unlikely as such a thing as far as I understand pertains mostly to acoustic and sound devices.  But... I reversed the plug, I tried different sockets and grounded space bars.  So i ordered and recieved another power cord with a USB plug instead of a socket, to no avail, same issue...then I thought perhaps the usb to the computer was powering and/or charging the battery so I put the regular battery back in but nope...the battery died.   I am at a loss.

[Magicmind]

So it looks like the issue was that the Camera was confused by trying to draw power from 2 different sources.  I put a small piece of tape over one of the USB pins connecting it to my computer so it only transmits data and not power.  That did the trick.  🙂

[Puko]

Hi. I hope you still see this. I have the same problem and tried your solution. But when I tried putting tape on the 5V+ pin the computer doesn't recognize the device. Can you help me if I've done something wrong?