kinda sounds like the battery power isn't working for some reason. Could be the battery connections or the isolation switch. On some trailers not all the battery power goes thru the isolation sw. so you can still do some things with the isolation sw. off. On my trailer my front landing gear and slides work with the isolation sw. off. So you could try to see if anything at all works on 12 VDC. If it does that would tell you the battery power is there (connections are good, batteries are properly connected, good grounds, etc.) and the problem is the isolation switch or whatever device he has. Also, you mentioned the device had a button on it. Maybe that's a reset button and it has to be pushed to reset the device.