Friday, June 18, 2010 - 2:39PM CDT   
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Canon LC-E5 battery charger contact problem
Since there doesn't appear to be any information on the web about this, I'm just putting this post up here to get it into search engines and see if anyone else is having this problem. The LC-E5 battery charger for my Canon Rebel XSi stopped working sometime last year. The charger is a small single unit with 'flip-out' plug prongs (no cord). When my charger stopped working, I'd plug it into the wall and the charging light would come on for a second, then turn off.
Jiggling the prongs made it work (for a couple more weeks at least), which indicated that the problem was with the electrical contacts inside that were supposed to connect with the plug prongs. After that temporary solution didn't work anymore, I ended up opening the casing to see what was wrong. The contacts are two small metal fins that use weak spring tension to keep in electrical contact with the prongs. Over time, these fins had bent back far enough that they weren't making contact. Once I had the case open, I could re-bend the fins back into shape so that they resumed proper contact. But eventually, the problem would come back after one or two chargings.
Since being without a charger is not an option (I use my camera almost daily), and new ones from Canon cost about $60, I had to come up with a solution. I ended up permanently cutting the charger's casing partially open, so that I could adjust the fins whenever they stopped making contact with the prongs (do this when the unit is unplugged, of course!) - which was invariably every time I needed to use it. I eventually got tired of this, so my final solution was to remove the prongs altogether, hard-wiring an old lamp cord and plug to the contacts. A pretty extreme measure, but one that works. In the above photo, I just twisted the stripped wire ends securely around the metal fins - but this connection will need to be soldered at some point to make it permanent.
I was surprised a charger could fail so miserably at such a simple point. I'm curious if other Canon DSLR users have had LC-E5 battery chargers fail. If you're here from a search query, maybe you could try my solution of hardwiring a cord (like a lamp cord or an extension cord with a standard plug) to the contacts. Let me know if it solved the problem!
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I had the same issue and open it and fix it in the way you described. You saved me $60. Thanks for posting it and shame on Cannon for such crapy job. Then they complain about cheap copies of the charger...
- Posted by Jose from Vancouver, BC |
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Owesome, dude! Thanks! Mine had the exact same problem. I jiggled it but nothing changed. As I'm not the most indicated person to mess with wires and stuff, I'll ask my brother to try your solution! Thank you, for real!
- Posted by Bela from Brazil |
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Thanks for the feedback! Yes this does look like a mechanical defect. It took mine over a year to fail, but it looks like this is a design flaw. They should have not used the metal fins, which are prone to bending out of shape over time. They probably should have used small wires permanently connected to the plugs. Curious to see how many others have had this problem too.
- Posted by Dan R. from New Baden, IL |
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I just recently had the same problem with my charger and was not sure if it was the battery or the charger. I had a bit of trouble finding any information online. Thanks for your post! I will definitely give this a try!
- Posted by Brandon from Atlanta, GA |
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