Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I've bought Vagabond Mini Lithium in January this year and have used it on occasion (maybe 10 or 15 times) and it's been working great. Two days ago I had a photo shoot and used it again and it worked like a charm, the battery lasted as long as I expected. After the shoot I packed everything up and only today I decided to recharge it. However as soon as I plug in the charger, the red light comes on for a second or so and then turns green. However powering on the inverter does nothing - no LEDs come on. I tried to charge the battery alone (without the inverter) - same results. Red LED comes on and turns into green almost immediately.

If I turn the inverter while the charger is plugged in, the red LED comes on and the green LED on the inverter by the USB port turns on and then the battery power LEDs light up one after the other to indicate the full charge. This happens even with the battery disconnected.

Connecting and disconnecting the battery while the charger is on does trigger the red LED on the charger for a second, so I figure there is electrical connection.

What could be wrong? I presume it's the battery but what's weird that it worked fine till the last shot of the last photo session. I never noticed any problems until I decided to recharge. Any ideas?

It does sound like the battery. Lithium batteries of this type (camera, laptop, VML, etc) have micro controllers in them. This may be the problem. Customer service will be able to assist you with a warranty resolution on Monday morning.

However, did you run the battery down completely? If not, does the battery still work to run the VML?

Also, be sure you are connecting the charger to the wall, then to the battery. Doing this out of order can cause undesirable results.

Well, it appears totally dead. The VML shows no signs of life if I turn the power on with the battery attached... I'll call the tech support on Monday then. Thanks.