Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I was at a shoot yesterday and my Vagabond II gave me only 20 pops before it beeped several times and cut out.

I noticed that I was getting less and less pops with a single light on my Vagabond II in the past couple of months.

I'm going to do a full 24 hour charge and retest at home to see how many pops I get on full power B1600 before it starts to beep.

Is there a proper method to troubleshoot to figure out if the battery is just bad or if it's the inverter?

This Vagabond II was purchased (new) and received back in May of this year, IIRC.

It sounds as though the battery is bad, however, it could be the inverter that is causing to go bad, if it is not supplying enough voltage to the battery. This also assumes proper maintenance of the battery. If you are inclined to do so, you can disconnect the inverter from the battery, plug the charge cord into the wall and inverter and test the output voltage from the inverter (where the battery leads are, not the AC outlet). You should be getting 13.8-ish VDC. Of course, you will need a multimeter to do this.

I'll do the voltage check on the inverter when I get home after work today. Thanks.

I let the battery charge for over 24 hours and did a test last night with a B1600 on full power. I triggered the flash approximately 130 times at full power in a span of 20 minutes before the power system started beeping. 10 more times and it was pretty much dead.

When I first got it back in May, I'm pretty sure I went a whole day (6-8 hours) with about 400 pops (not at full power, though) without any beeps, and often forgetting to turn the system off.

I disconnected the battery and did a voltage check on the inverter and my meter was reading it at 13.91 VDC.

Is 13.91 within the safe operating range for the battery?

The voltage is correct for the charger output. Do you charge the battery after every shoot, as well as top off the charge regularly?

Yup. I make it a point to plug it in when I get home and I've been leaving it plugged in, in the garage all the time. I also make the effort to use the Vagabond to some extent every couple of weeks just to 'flex' the battery a little.

It sounds like it will need to come in for warranty work. The whole unit will need to come in so we can inspect all aspects of it to see if the battery just died prematurely, or if the inverter is causing an issue.