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It looks like my Canon SX720-HS camera cannot be charged by my standard USB chargers: I have to use the external battery charger provided with the camera. But Canon states the battery can also be charged while inside the camera, using its proprietary USB charging cable:

They say:

A USB cable can be used to charge the camera's battery.

Insert the included battery into the camera for charging. You can use the compact power adapter, or a computer to charge the battery.

So question is:

which is the specific pinout of the Canon IFC-600PCU cable?

or

How can I enable my standard USB cable to charge my Canon camera?

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  • why do you think that that post is related to my question?
    – jumpjack
    Apr 30, 2018 at 16:16
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    For < $13 I'd purchase the correct cable and not worry about it: bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1189236-REG/… - If the plug fits and it says it's "USB" it should be USB, otherwise they can't use the word USB. -- USB, short for Universal Serial Bus, is an industry standard that was developed to define cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication, and power supply between personal computers and their peripheral devices.
    – Rob
    Apr 30, 2018 at 16:37
  • Your question was "which is the specific pinout of the Canon IFC-600PCU cable?". I googled it for you... that came up. I think @Rob has hit the nail on the head though, to be honest.
    – wally
    Apr 30, 2018 at 16:54
  • What are you using as a charger? I believe you can use a generic USB cable but you must use a Canon CA-DC30 charger.
    – Mike Sowsun
    Apr 30, 2018 at 20:54
  • @jumpjack On what basis do you believe, "It looks like my Canon SX720-HS camera cannot be charged by my standard USB chargers?"
    – Michael C
    May 1, 2018 at 0:45

4 Answers 4

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Any USB cable with low enough resistance and a micro-usb end that fits your camera's usb port should work. Very thin cables probably can't handle the current demands of your camera's charging circuit. But there's nothing proprietary about the pinout of the official Canon cable. The wires are just of sufficient gauge and low enough resistance to allow enough power through them.

You need to insure that the other end is plugged into a USB port that supplies 5V/2A power. USB ports that only supply 5V/0.5A, 5V/1A or 5V/1.5A won't be able to charge your camera's battery.

USB ports that supply more than 5V/1A are known as 'High Power' USB ports. The internal insulator for a 'High Power' USB port is usually red (or sometimes blue on motherboards made before USB 3.0 was introduced) instead of the standard black on computers that have them. Since USB 3 is now blue, most of them made since USB 3 came out are red.

Even with a high power USB source, the battery can only be charged in the camera when the camera is powered down.

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A bit late to the party, but I found for my Canon SX720 HS:

  • I can charge it with a random USB cable and an Anker 5V/3A charger, charging light on the camera goes on, and it also really charged up.
  • I can also charge it with a no-brand powerbank, that has 5V/2.1A output. This is important to me, because now I can charge it on the go! Charging light again goes on properly and off when fully charged.
  • I could not charge it (or at least not get a charge light) with a random 5V/1A charger ('standard' charger). The camera does recognize a charger because I could not take photos with the charger attached. But it really does not charge, I let it attached for 3 hours but nothing happened.
  • But I also failed to get a charge light with an Apple 10W charger (which is rated for 5.1V/2.1A). Maybe an apple charger specific issue?

So you don't need special Canon accessoiries, and can use any cable, but the charger has to be quite capable.

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    Different manufacturers use different methods to communicate the ability to charge at higher amperages.
    – xiota
    Feb 22, 2020 at 20:58
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First question: Do you use that proprietary USB cable?

Since the USB standard, as far as I see on your link it's micro USB, has some system using resistors between different lines to handle some basic power negotiation. Simple said, the device says the charger, using some resistors, how much power it needs.

(Mis)using this system, a company could also detect if the used cable is on of theirs, if not it can just deny charging. Canon does probably something like this.

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  • I have a dozen of USB cables around, who in the world can remember if one of them was by Canon?... :-)
    – jumpjack
    Jul 3, 2018 at 14:42
  • it could be funny to use a digital potentiometer such as MCP4131-103 to test "all" possible resistor values and see if one of them enables charging.
    – jumpjack
    Mar 18, 2020 at 14:16
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I have had the same issues with usb powered camcorders, like the small cx440 sony camcorders, which are charged and powered up by attaching the included USB cable (attached to the camera) to a USB port. Well, it works with some cables (notably passive USB cables), but when I use it with "active" cables, it doesn't charge the battery, and it won't power up. I've learned that not all USB cables are the same, but only after thoroughly searching the internet. Try using a passive USB cable and see if that works.

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    Hi @emandavi, glad to see you want to contribute to the this question. Can you maybe add a link that describe what active and passive USB cables are?
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Mar 16, 2020 at 10:27

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