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Harald · 03-09-2018, 07:05 PM

My 1000cx drains the batteries in a couple of days. I suspect (but have to verify) this is due to the sandisk flash drive I am using.
Does anyone know if the 1000cx supplies power to the card when turned off? Are there other cards that don't draw any current and are better suited?

Cheers,
Harald

Raymond Del Tondo · 03-10-2018, 06:48 PM

(03-09-2018 07:05 PM)Harald Wrote: My 1000cx drains the batteries in a couple of days. I suspect (but have to verify) this is due to the sandisk flash drive I am using.
Does anyone know if the 1000cx supplies power to the card when turned off? Are there other cards that don't draw any current and are better suited?

Cheers,
Harald

First thing would be to operate the unit without the suspicious flash card.
Battery drain also depends on usage, so if the unit is running most of the time, batteries will drain pretty fast;-)

Dieter · (This post was last modified: 03-10-2018 10:04 PM by Dieter.)

(03-09-2018 07:05 PM)Harald Wrote: My 1000cx drains the batteries in a couple of days. I suspect (but have to verify) this is due to the sandisk flash drive I am using.

Please excuse my ignorance, but you are using a flash drive here?
What kind of drive is this exactly? Or do you mean a flash memory card, e.g. a compact flash card (with an adapter) in the PCMCIA slot?

(03-09-2018 07:05 PM)Harald Wrote: Does anyone know if the 1000cx supplies power to the card when turned off? Are there other cards that don't draw any current and are better suited?

Flash memory does not require any power supply (except when the card is accessed/read/written). The memory card in your camera doesn't run down the battery even if you leave there for a longer period.

So I still wonder what hardware exactly we are talking about here.

Dieter

Harald · 03-11-2018, 12:20 PM

(03-10-2018 06:48 PM)Raymond Del Tondo Wrote:
(03-09-2018 07:05 PM)Harald Wrote: My 1000cx drains the batteries in a couple of days. I suspect (but have to verify) this is due to the sandisk flash drive I am using.
Does anyone know if the 1000cx supplies power to the card when turned off? Are there other cards that don't draw any current and are better suited?

Cheers,
Harald
First thing would be to operate the unit without the suspicious flash card.
Battery drain also depends on usage, so if the unit is running most of the time, batteries will drain pretty fast;-)

I hardly used it at all and after three days it wouldn't power up anymore.
With the flash drive removed it has now lasted 5.
When I get a chance (i.e. not to buy at work) I'll measure current consumption in off state with and without the flash drive installed.

Cheers,
Harald

Harald · 03-11-2018, 12:28 PM

(03-10-2018 10:00 PM)Dieter Wrote:
(03-09-2018 07:05 PM)Harald Wrote: My 1000cx drains the batteries in a couple of days. I suspect (but have to verify) this is due to the sandisk flash drive I am using.

Please excuse my ignorance, but you are using a flash drive here?
What kind of drive is this exactly? Or do you mean a flash memory card, e.g. a compact flash card (with an adapter) in the PCMCIA slot?

(03-09-2018 07:05 PM)Harald Wrote: Does anyone know if the 1000cx supplies power to the card when turned off? Are there other cards that don't draw any current and are better suited?

Flash memory does not require any power supply (except when the card is accessed/read/written). The memory card in your camera doesn't run down the battery even if you leave there for a longer period.

So I still wonder what hardware exactly we are talking about here.

Dieter

Hi Dieter,
The flash drive is a PCMCIA flash card, rather than a compact flash card and a PCMCIA adapter.

Of course the flash drive does not require any power in the off state, but I am wondering if the 1000CX supplies power anyway. It might do this because RAM cards would need it.

In my 200lx I used a CF card and a PCMCIA adapter and I don't remember having that issue. I am just not sure if the issue is the flash drive vs CF card, or the 1000CX vs 200LX. Unfortunately I have lent the 200LX and CF card to my dad who can't remember where he has last seen it ...

Cheers,
Harald

Ken S · 03-11-2018, 05:01 PM

Post a picture of the card you are using. Sandisk made some hard drives in the PCMCIA format which would take a fair amount of power to run

Harald · 03-11-2018, 07:06 PM

(03-11-2018 05:01 PM)Ken S Wrote: Post a picture of the card you are using. Sandisk made some hard drives in the PCMCIA format which would take a fair amount of power to run

I can do that later, but it definately is a flash drive. I have a PCMCIA hard drive some where as well, but have not used that with the lx and cx yet.

Dave Britten · 03-12-2018, 03:18 PM

I think the 95LX had issues with needlessly supplying standby power to CF cards, but using the proper card driver may have fixed that (I haven't experimented with CF in a 95LX). But I do know my 200LX lasts a really long time with extensive use of a 64 MB SanDisk card.

Harald · (This post was last modified: 03-14-2018 04:50 PM by Harald.)

I now measured current consumtion with the calculator in standby. With and without flash card it is 400µA. I am not sure what drained the batteries before.
Maybe it was a capacitor, the unit had been upowered for a couple of years.

Does anyone know what would be considered "normal" off state current?

Cheers,
Harald