Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I used my VB Mini all day this past Sunday doing many full power flashes and didn't have a problem.

Then yesterday I was doing another shoot and about 2 minutes into the shoot, the VB Mini worked for about 4 or 5 flashed and then shut off completely. No power lights at all. I tried turning it on and off. I tried removing the battery from the inverter and re-seating it. Nothing.

I figured it was the fuse and since I didn't have any fuses with me, I just continued without it.

When I got home, I checked the fuse and it was fine. I tried plugging in the charger to the inverter and I got no light on the charger. I tried plugging in the charger directly into the battery pack and still got no lights on the charger.

I then went to a friend's house and put his battery pack on my inverter and teh inverter powered up and worked fine.

So I know I have a bad battery pack.

The question is, has anyone had a VB Mini battery just die completely? I am told that a "worn" out battery will just hold less and less charge, but not completely die like mine did.

Since the battery is out of warranty and PCB does not do repairs on batteries, I guess I just have to buy another battery pack. No big deal, but I am scared that this could happen again on a shoot that really matters like a wedding.

I guess I need to have a backup battery back with me all the time too. Bummer.

Up until yesterday, the VB Mini has been 100% reliable and a total workhorse for me.

-Darin

:o OK, I am the first to admit I made a big mistake...

The short answer is that my battery is fine and it was operator error!

Read on if you want to avoid making the same mistake I did:

So, when I returned from my wedding on Sunday, I knew I had fired a lot of full power flashes, so I knew I had to recharge my VB Mini. I got home and plugged the charging cable into the VB Mini.

The next day, I saw that the green light on the charger was on, so I assumed my battery was fully charged and ready for my shoot yesterday. Then it died on my shoot.

Here's what happened, the power strip that the charger was plugged into had been accidentally knocked by some other gear which turned off the power switch on the strip. The battery was never charging.

Apparently, when the battery is plugged into the charger, the BATTERY will cause the green light on the charger to light up. WTF? That's really bad since it gives you the false assumption that the battery is charged.

So the battery died because it was totally drained.

Yes, I could have noticed that when I started using my battery, but the problem is that the battery level doesn't display until AFTER you wait a while for it to warm up. Once I start using it, I am not paying attention to the battery, I am trying to concentrate on shooting. I guess I need to pay closer attention next time.

Anyway, the battery is charging now that the charger actually has power!

Hopefully this will prevent someone else from making the same mistake I did.

-Darin

Thanks for the update. Many would have just made the statement and moved on, leaving a false impression.

As for the charger, it operates on a voltage comparitor that knows how much voltage is going out, and how much is coming back in. If the voltage coming in is over a certain threshold compared to what is going out, then the light comes on to say that there is no voltage going out, and therefore the battery must be charged. If there is no battery contact on the other end (for whatever reason), then there is no voltage going out, and the light will come on.

I don't know when the strip was tripped, but the proper proceedure to ensure the batter is properly being charged is to have the charger plugged into the wall, wait for the green LED to appear, plug into the VML or its battery, ensure it turns red. Then, assuming the AC interruption does not happen after this point, the green LED will indicate a full charge. If these steps are followed, the lack of a green LED at the beginning would indicate no AC, and the lack of red would indicate no battery contact (or you are charging a full battery).