If you plug a power bank into a Z8 with a low or dead battery, does the PB charge the battery and allow the camera to work normally as the battery charges?
Power bank question
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John Navitsky
Well-known member
it can charge or power, not both at the same time
power bank must have power delivery
camera must have pd toggled on
there’s also another setting controlling usb power behavior which i can’t remember atm
power bank must have power delivery
camera must have pd toggled on
there’s also another setting controlling usb power behavior which i can’t remember atm
ajrmd
Well-known member
According to Nikon, the PD must be capable of delivering at least 15w. Although they endorse a particular model, I’ve found any reliable power bank which provides the required output works fine as long as the other parameters are dialed in.
I've been having an issue with my Z8 as well in getting the PD to work. When I plug the USB cable (including the one supplied by Nikon) from either a battery or from a wall charger I get:
1) A green light next to the i button which flashes twice.
2) The charge light next to the upper left hand lug doesn't light
3) Neither of the battery symbols, display back nor the upper display, change to indicate outside power being recognized.
I've tried multiple battery packs, multiple cables and multiple wall chargers. Nothing seems to work. In the tools menu, I have "USB power delivery" set to "ON". All of my batteries are EN-EL15c.
Is this a camera destined for Nikon service center or am I missing something?
Steve
1) A green light next to the i button which flashes twice.
2) The charge light next to the upper left hand lug doesn't light
3) Neither of the battery symbols, display back nor the upper display, change to indicate outside power being recognized.
I've tried multiple battery packs, multiple cables and multiple wall chargers. Nothing seems to work. In the tools menu, I have "USB power delivery" set to "ON". All of my batteries are EN-EL15c.
Is this a camera destined for Nikon service center or am I missing something?
Steve
Have exactly the same issues as you! I end up giving up and charge the batteries with the charger and using the grip, so I can put two batteries at the same time even it charges one after one.
Yes, I think you should have your camera serviced. When the camera is turned off, using a PD charger & cable with the cable inserted in the PD USB port (the lower port), if the orange charge light doesn’t turn on, it’s an indication that the battery isn’t being charged.
That's the way I've been charging as well, but I was hoping to be able to charge the camera in the field with a battery pack. I don't own the grip. In John Navitsky's post above he mentioned that there was another setting that needs to be set as well. I was hoping that someone would remember what that setting was.
In the Setup menu there’s USB Power Delivery. When set to ON, you can power the camera via USB when the camera is turned on, but this will not charge the battery.
What I suggest is, 1) turn off the camera. 2) power the camera via USB in the PD USB port. 3) you should see the green light (next to the i button) flash twice, then the orange charging light should turn on. If this isn’t happening, I suggest having your camera serviced.
I get the green light flash twice but the orange light doesn't come on. Bummer as the camera is a month over the warranty period. I'll most likely will wait until something more problematic comes up before going to the expense of a service call.
John Navitsky
Well-known member
i would check your settings first. the other setting i mentioned changes the usb behavior
I finally resolved this issue. I had tried over a half dozen cables trying to get this to work, including going into the original Nikon box and trying their cable. None of them worked. This PD system seems to be particularly specific. I found another cable in my bunch of extra cables and it was especially thick around 3/16 inch. It worked!. Works on battery packs and wall chargers. I hadn't realized that this was such a picky specification.
Glad you worked it out.
I was just writing a suggestion to try another cable. Yeah, the PD system is very picky about cable type and many if not most USB-C cables are not PD compatible. I don't know about the cable Nikon supplies but I've had the best results using a heavy gauge after market USB-C PD cable or using the USB-C cable that came with my PD compatible power bank.
Cable issue for sure. I had pd issues with the z8. My Hasselblad shipped with a pd / data cable which worked for the z8. Since I upgraded my network, all my cables are thunderbolt 4 now
The cable has to support the PD specification.
John Navitsky
Well-known member
yah, i’ve been going through and replacing cables as well
I've got a drawer full of cables going back a couple of dozen years. It may be time to start replacing them and starting over.
Exactly what I did. I followed Hudson Henry’s video on upgrading my NAS from the standard 1Gbps to 10Gbps and realised I had loads of old, useless, cables.