Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hi there . . . My Vagabond mini was working just fine , I used it last week

I tried to turn it on tonight and it wouldn't turn on , I figured it was not charged , I plugged it in and in less than 10 minutes the light on the charger was green , I tried to turn the unit on and all I got was an amber light (for less than a second) and then a green light (also for less than a second) and then nothing , I plugged my AB400 and nothing , I plugged my AB800 and still nothing , I mean I am not getting anything from the unit

I tried to charged the battery alone and nothing , no power on my unit , what can I do ??

If I turn the unit on while charging it gives me the three leds blinking rapidly and the power led shows also a blinking green light (not really green but kind of green)

Any help will really really be appreciated , I need my unit for tomorrow please help !!

With the charger unplugged, if you get the LED's in the fuel gauge, then check the fuse. If the fuel gauge is not lighting up, then there is either a contact problem between the battery and inverter, or there is a bad component in the battery. If you do not normally remove the battery (or did not between when it did and did not work) then I suspect a fault in the battery controller itself.

Other than the fuse, there is not really anything that can be done without sending the unit in for service.

Thank YOU for replying , I checked the fuse and it looks just fine , I will later on today buy a fuse and try to change , and nope I had never removed the battery till last night in order to see if that will fix the problem , the gauge is not lighting up @ all , all I get is the "power" Led amber than green for less than a second , and that is it . . . Is this common ??

And there is really nothing else for me to do , right ?? just sent it to you guys , I still puzzled on how could this have happen I mean I take extra care of my stuff , no bangs , no drops , nothing how can this happen ?? how long does it take for me to receive the unit back if I send it to you guys to get serviced it is still under warranty

The in-house turn around time is 3-4 business days at this time. This does not include shipping times or holidays.

If the fuse looks fine, and you do get a momentary light on the power LED, I would really not suspect the fuse. Besides, the LED's on the fuel gauge bypass the fuse, and should come on even if the fuse is blown (assuming everything is functioning otherwise).

As for how this happens, every manufactured product is prone to failure, even under ideal conditions. Unfortunately, there is not a way to know, predict, or test when a component will fail with 100% certainty, without working it to the point of failure (at which point, it is useless to any one). While we do take every measure we can to prevent this, premature failures will happen, which is why the warranty is in place. If the unit is under warranty, we will gladly take a look at it, and repair or replace the parts necessary, as well as cover the shipping back to you (within the U.S.).

Thank you , so how do I get the UPS tag or how does this work ?? so I can send my unit back to you guys for repair ?? hopefully I can get it back fast , Thanks again

Customers are responsible for shipping to us, but we will cover the shipping back. Full details on repairs can be found here: http://www.paulcbuff.com/repair.php

Oh Ok Thank YOU , I will look into that right now