Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Ok I made an earlier thread that received no attention, but I have more detail about the situation of my Vagabond II. I can't quite tell if it's charging now or not. When I plug it in to charge it blinks back and forth between the green and red LED about every 2-3 seconds (no lights or anything plugged into it).

I thought it might just be that it's charged up because when I unplug the charging cord it displays the green LED (according to the manual that means the battery is charged 75% or more), but when I plug a strobe in and fire it off a few times it gives me 1 short audible beep followed by 1 long audible beep.

Anyone else experiencing this with their Vagabond II units?

It sounds as though there is a bad battery in the unit, one that is likely sulfated.

The audible sound is indicative of a low battery (or a battery that is not providing enough power to the inverter). The LED is indicating a 75% charge, however, that is a percentage for the available charge, not necessarily the original charge.

The sulfation of the battery is likely from improper charging. This could be from bad charging practices, or from a bad charging system in the VII.

Either way, your unit is under warranty, and can be sent in for repair. We reccomend sending the whole unit in, as all components will likely need service.

TS

Also, double check to make sure all connections are tight.

Ah, splendid.
I'll get an RMA, then.

Thanks for such incredible products at such fantastic prices.

Paul Lara
LARA images
San Antonio, TX

What is the recommended charging routine?


Paul

The main thing is to keep the VII (or V150 or V300) fully charged at all times. If stored with no charge, or a partial charge, a chemical reaction (sulfation) occurs very rapidly. This take place in the uncharged portion of the battery and cannot be undone (at least for all practical purposes, it cannot be undone). Once the battery sulfates, it cannot hold a charge, thus reducing the amount of energy it can hold. Once charged and left to sit, all batteries will self discharge. This has the same effect as using the battery, and can result in lowered capacity due to sulfation.

Once you use it, regardless of the amount, charge it as soon as possible. Once fully charged, you can store it for about a month or so. If the unit will not be used for longer periods, be sure to top the charge off every month or so. If you go without using it for very long periods of time, plug a light with model lamps, or a fan, or a lamp in to it to deplete the battery some, then fully recharge it again immediately. Do this every six months or so. If you regularly use the VII, simply keeping the battery fully charged will suffice. We have recently started to suggest to not keep it plugged in at all times when not in use, which may vary from older manuals.

TS

Would it be advisable to just stick a reminder in my calendar then to 'top off Vagabond' once every month and then unplug it when the green light comes back on?

Thanks for that clarification!

Paul

That sounds like a good idea!

TS

How long can the batteries site before they start to corrode at lower than full charge. I am only looking at a day or two because I do a lot of photography in the mountains and desert and some times camp where I shoot so I dont have anything to charge off of. I have two AB800's not sure if that makes a difference.

Lead acid batteries have a finite life. Sometimes it is a mystery as to how long that life really is, but with sealed batteries of the type used in the Vagabond, you can usually expect a couple of years out of them before it's time for a new one. As Tech pointed out, a major key to full battery life is to keep your batteries charged, so as to minimize their self destructive tendencies that come into play as they go flat. Stressing the battery by running it until it's dead before topping it off also reduces the number of times a battery will take a charge in it's lifetime. Running it hard, which is to say loading it down with so much load that you run it flat from a full charge in a short period of time, is another way to reduce the life of your sealed lead acid batteries.

It is better to tote the extra weight of two batteries wired in parallel in an effort to better match a high battery load with the rate that batteries prefer to discharge at, than to go light, and kill a battery in one season (your two AB800's are not that heavy a load, so don't sweat this point).

The easiest way to kill a battery is to store it flat, or let it self-discharge over time without topping it off. You can kill a battery in a year or so that way without ever really using it. Death by non reversible chemical change begins in a battery when it is less than fully charged. In reality though, the speed of that death spiral doesn't become a real problem until the level of charge falls quite a bit below full, and/or lots of time passes before the battery is brought up to full charge again.

I wouldn't lose sleep over letting a fully charged battery sit idle for a couple of weeks. If you top off an idle battery every week or two, you are in good shape, and even if you slip up for a Month every now and then, it probably won't ruin your day in terms of life expectancy of the battery.

Just don't ignore it altogether. Your sealed lead acid battery is an always active, sealed chemical lab in a sense. It demands a certain max discharge rate, a certain max charge rate, a reasonable working climate, and a chemical state that represents a full charge when it is not being used. You don't have to be perfect in your desire to meet those needs, as you can bend the rules from time to time, and even flat out break them once in awhile without serious consequence. Just make it your goal to "try" to meet those needs, and your sealed lead acid battery might beat the odds and give you three or four years of good service.

Voyager