Battery drainage

[MadD57]

My 600ex-rt flash has worked perfectly from the start until my last event shoot when the flash on my camera drained my batteries with super speed.  I worked 2 ocf and my on camera was on low power (1/64) and also triggering the other two.  This has worked well before and I can get through a whole reception without changing batteries. This time I went through one set in about 20 images and then the battery flashed empty. I use eneloop re-rechargeable batteries. I ended up having to hook my external battery pack onto my flash to get through the night.  The only change I did to my settings from previous shoots is that in c-fn 01 I told it to not go to sleep but that doesn't explain why my other two did fine (they also had a setting mostly of 1/64 power) and lasted through the night. 3 set of battery changes and they all stopped working.  When I got home I checked the "drained" batteries but they are fully charged and when I put the flash on camera and trigger it (no linking with the other two flashes this time) it works fine.  I have another function coming up soon and don't want to run into this problem again. I didn't "turn off" the flash before opening the battery door. Would that have had anything to do with it? Did it maybe not reset to detect the new batteries. In the past, opening the battery door without turning the flash off hasn't seemed to affect anything. Any help or input highly appreciated.

[Tim]

Hello MadD57, 

We understand that the batteries drained quickly in your 600EX RT.  We recommend testing the flash with a different set of batteries to see if the issue persists.  

[MadD57]

Hi Tim, thanks for getting back to me. I went through 3 different sets of batteries and they all did the same thing.  It was only the master flash that drained them so fast. The slaves were fine. I think this is something aside from faulty batteries. When I came home and tested again with the same batteries, one set was drained (my Watson rechargeable) but my eneloop was not drained even though the flash unit had told me it was. Would the combination of using master/slave (total of 3 units) possible have had anything to do with it? The battery indicator literally started to blink red 15 minutes after putting in new batteries. I got maybe 20 images out of it.

[Tim]

Hello MadD57, 

I do not think the issue would have been caused by that particular aspect.  If the issue persists, we advise sending it in for evaluation.  

You may fill out an online repair request form at the following link to setup your repair using our online service.

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/service-repair