7hi high current draw when OFF!

[videobruce]

I measured the current draw of the batteries when the camera is OFF and it shows .1 amp!
That seems excessive. Has anyone else found this?
The method I used was to open the battery compartment, strip a pair of wires and tape them to a positive and negitive end of 2 joining cells, close the door holding it close with a DVM in the current setting and read the meter.

What is happeneing is the cells are dying after 8 or 12 hours of just sitting in the camera.

[slipe]

Charged cells shouldn’t die in the camera. NiMH cells loose 2% or more a day just left on a table, but they shouldn’t drain in a few hours with the camera off. My D7i will sit for a week and still have good power.

I’ve been a regular lurker on the Minolta forum over on dpreview for well over a year and have not heard of the D7Hi draining like that. It would surely be a regular topic if it were a design problem.

If it is still under guarantee I would contact Minolta for service.

[videobruce]

If there is someone else out there that could do the same test which isn't hard oif you have a DVM with current measuring capibilites.
Just cut a 22 guage pair of wires a foot long, tape each bare end to a adjoining pair of cells, tape them to the cells, connect them to the meter (with the test leads) close and hold the compartment closed and measure the current draw when the camera is off.

I contacted Minolta, but they couldn't give me what the camera should draw. I'm sure there is something somewhere on this, but I guess not here.

[voxmagna]

There were a lot of posts like yours on dpreview about similar problems on Fuji's 602. It appears the culprit was a faulty (or rather leaky) memory capacitor. From memory, good 602's like mine consume about 35 micro amp.

If I want to leave it a long time and make sure I keep the stored user settings, I replace the Nimh with Alkalines until I next use the camera. I think 100mA drain is far too high, have you tried it with the media out, in case it's that? they have capacitors on their supply rails as well. VOX

[KCan]

FYI: on my D7i, curent drain when camera off is .18 mA ( 180 μA) , with or without CF card makes no difference

[videobruce]

Originally Posted by KCan

FYI: on my D7i, curent drain when camera off is .18 mA ( 180 ?A) , with or without CF card makes no difference

Exactly how did you measure it since it will make a difference and isn't easy to do?

I re-measured it without the card and it is the same thing; .1 amp!
There is a workaround by inserting a dummy coaxial plug into the dc in jack, but that shouldn't be necessary.

BTW, the memory backup for the clock/date is via a internal battery non user replaceable. I asked Minolta about this and they couldn't give me a answer except to tell me the 4 cells are for clock backup! So much for tech support, it's on page 150 of the manual!

[KCan]

Originally Posted by videobruce

Exactly how did you measure it since it will make a difference and isn't easy to do?

I re-measured it without the card and it is the same thing; .1 amp!
There is a workaround by inserting a dummy coaxial plug into the dc in jack, but that shouldn't be necessary.

BTW, the memory backup for the clock/date is via a internal battery non user replaceable. I asked Minolta about this and they couldn't give me a answer except to tell me the 4 cells are for clock backup! So much for tech support, it's on page 150 of the manual!

Videobruce,
Nothing complicated, I open the door, short the 2 first batteries ends with a scissors (practical) with one of my hands, insert the meter to connect the 2 last batteries to complete the normal circuit, with my other hand, that’s all.

BTW, I often left my cam without battery for weeks (or even months) without loosing the date.

[NHL]

Although I haven't used my D7 for several weeks... I turn the camera on just to try and it still powers up and the cells definetly last more than 8 or 12 hours.

I also remember testing the camera by leaving it on and waking it up from the sleep-mode by pressing the shutter release over a week @ time... something must be wrong with your camera

... Also measuring through the DC jack might not be the most accurate since they might have some other regulating circuits or short/static protection!

[videobruce]

Originally Posted by NHL

... Also measuring through the DC jack might not be the most accurate since they might have some other regulating circuits or short/static protection!

That's why I measured it through the batteries, though a little harder to do (with or without scissors).

Related question:
Is there a voltage regulator on the battery input and if so would it be the same one used on the dc in??

[NHL]

Related question:
Is there a voltage regulator on the battery input and if so would it be the same one used on the dc in??

I'm sure there is... no self-respecting designer would ever try to run high speed processor off a decaying battery capacity as it wears down!

I don't know if it's the same one though since the external jack is rated somewhat @ a higher voltage... and also KCAN has measured it before as well, below which the camera won't come out of reset!