Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I have accidentally drained my VM battery numerous times by forgetting to switch it off after turning off my strobes. Always overnight. Not sure how long it takes but it will eventually drain itself(obviously) if you walk away with it on. I came across these little 6" extension plugs with LED's(2 for $5) and they work great as a reminder that the VM is still turned on. Much better than the green LED's since the plug is bigger and right there on your stand where you can see it easily from any angle. :geek: It will keep me from walking away without shutting off everything. I just thought I'd share in case anyone has done the same thing as me. :lol:


:?: Paul, these won't affect the rate of drain much... will they? It's just one little LED I think.

I wouldn't think they would draw hardly any current so you should be OK.

Thanks, Paul.

Forgetting to turn off my VM wasn't such a problem that I went looking for a solution. I just came across the plugs while browsing in a store and thought they could help remind me to shut it off. Have you done any tests on how long it takes the VM battery to drain if left on by itself? I would think it would last weeks since it's just a few LEDs on the unit drawing power. It drains much quicker than that though. I assume the inverter is the reason why.

Right. All inverters draw power when left on with no load. I believe the VML will probably run the battery down in somewhere around 15 hours, as will any UPS unit with no load but turned on.

Are you certain the indicator lamp is an LED? Most cords I've seen like that use small neon lamps. Granted, the current draw from these is still quite low - .3ma for a small indicator bulb.

Thanks, Paul.



Not certain at all so you may be right. I just assumed that they are LED's.

I actually did a self drain test on a fully charged mini. It still had about 1/2 charge after 24 hours. I'm guessing it went about 36 hours before it was drained, happened while sleeping.

Now that was with a fully charged battery that wasn't used by flashes before being drained.

Wow! You slept 36 hours? What do you do for a living! LOL! JK :lol: