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Pretty much all of the Canon OEM batteries don't have enough current to drive any new(er) back properly. That includes the IQ2-3-4. At least 2500-2900mah min is recommended. Those old BP-915s are not only low at 1950-2250mah, but they have a different drain profile in the cells and are known for causing some backs to have issues.Would authentic Canon BP-915 batteries work in the IQ4? They are only 2200mAh compared to the Phase One 3400mAh, but I'm assuming the form factor is the same?
Sadly, of the good, reliable chargers, the Dolgin is one of the cheapest. If you watch EBay, you can find the tc200 with Canon BP9xx plates sometimes for cheap. If you can solder, you can also get any of the models and order a set of Canon plates from Dolgin to solder yourself. It's easy, just a few screws and two wires per plate. They sell the plates so that the units can be "serviced" by the user quickly of a plate gets broken.Wow, thanks for this excellent deep dive. This explains a lot of possible mysteries with digital backs acting up. I'm a small time guy and not a big studio, and definitely can't justify the price for the tc400-i or tc200-i. I only have 3 PhaseOne batteries, one at 3400~mah and the rest are lower. Are there comparable chargers to the Dolgin that can properly charge the batteries at a reasonable price?
I can see Canon doing that with the new batteries in lieu of all the new paranoia about lithium cells catching fire. However, I don't/won't/can't use the OEM BP batteries as they are too low of a capacity to work with the new(er) backs. What most likely actually happened with your batteries is the semiconductor fuse between cells tripped. The Canon OEM batteries use a lower capacity cell, which have to charge at a lower rate (the "C" of chargers) than the higher capacity cells. Too high of a charge rate and it generates excessive heat, which in turn raises the current consumption of the cell and pops the protection fuse. Ideally, batteries want to be charged at .5C or so. The higher the rate, the faster the charge, but the more wear on the cell. So a modern 3200mah 18650 should ideally charge around 1600-1700mah. That same 1700mah on the older design 1950mah cells (even if they are new), would nuke the cells in a 1/3 of the time. It also would generate a massive amount of charge heat and the thermal fuse is usually taped between the cells, which would pop from the heat.Doc,
Great write up and diagnosis. I have multiple Hahnel chargers for my Phase batteries with adaptors for Canon. I have both the older Twin chargers and the newer Cube chargers.
Last year I purchased 5 brand new OEM canon BP900 batteries and after using them a few times with a new Hahnel Cube charger it bricked all of them. Yes, bricked as in it fried the IC dead man switch...$400. in batteries caput after 3 cycles. I've charged Canon batteries on the older Hahnel Twin charger for more than 7 years. This of course led to a dialog with Hanel and eventually with the CEO of the company. Their anwer: CANON has changed the threshold charge voltage in their IC and not told anyone...older batteries are fine newer ones should not be charged on the Hahnel chargers...Twin or Cube unless you are short on expensive paperweights. Hahnels solution: sent me 5 of the Hahnel orange BP900 look alikes for free. So far all is well. When I travel I like to take one charge with multiple plates...smaller, lighter, less overlap.
The other issues as has been mentioned with the new Cube charger is the contacts below the plates. Great idea, poor execution. Now we no longer have the cable to the battery adapters, we have spring loaded ball bearings. When one inserts a battery there is enough play to get that battery adaptor off kilter a fraction and now one side of the charge stops working. Solution? Tiny amount of Dielectric grease on those contacts under the plate....a very tiny amount be careful not to bridge contact with an adjacent one.
Robert
Don't feel bad...there's a lot of people that confuse dielectric grease for conductive grease. It's more common than you'd think! I know a guy that slathered a bunch on to a wirewound pot (high power variable resistor) that was scratchy. He couldn't figure out why there was no volume afterwards. The most common is still the heavy loading of grease onto ignition coils and plug boots then experiencing rough idle, misfires, and even loss of ignition.I've been educated...all this time I thought that Dielectric grease was a conduction enhancer! Thanks for info.
R