UPS question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Longfellow
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Longfellow

Dunno whether or not this is the place to ask a question about an
Uninterrupted Power Supply. If not, please point me to the proper
place.

I've got a Belkin F6C650-SER-SB with a Bulldog Monitor running on Linux
(Slackware 10.0). The battery has been replace in the last year. Up to
today, all worked fine.

We've recently experience several power outages and power flickers occur
regularly. The UPS has performed properly each time.

Today I got an overtemperature warning. I opened the Bulldog monitor
and found that indeed it was registering an overtemperature indicator,
and that the battery voltage was 0.0VDC. The schematic showed that the
battery was being charged. Battery indicator showed the battery in a
fully charged state and also showed the load at 100%. The incoming line
voltage was 114-5 VAC.

Normally, the load average is about 30% and the battery voltage @ 12.0
VDC. So I've removed the UPS from service, have removed and replaced
the battery. It was warm to the touch but not overly so.

Anyone have any knowledge of these devices? If not, can anyone point me
to where I need to ask these questions?

Thanks,

Longfellow
 
Longfellow said:
Dunno whether or not this is the place to ask a question about an
Uninterrupted Power Supply. If not, please point me to the proper
place.

I've got a Belkin F6C650-SER-SB with a Bulldog Monitor running on Linux
(Slackware 10.0). The battery has been replace in the last year. Up to
today, all worked fine.

We've recently experience several power outages and power flickers occur
regularly. The UPS has performed properly each time.

Today I got an overtemperature warning. I opened the Bulldog monitor
and found that indeed it was registering an overtemperature indicator,
and that the battery voltage was 0.0VDC. The schematic showed that the
battery was being charged. Battery indicator showed the battery in a
fully charged state and also showed the load at 100%. The incoming line
voltage was 114-5 VAC.

Normally, the load average is about 30% and the battery voltage @ 12.0
VDC. So I've removed the UPS from service, have removed and replaced
the battery. It was warm to the touch but not overly so.

Anyone have any knowledge of these devices? If not, can anyone point me
to where I need to ask these questions?

Thanks,

Longfellow
Click to expand...
You "removed and replaced the battery": do you mean you just took it out
and then put the same one back ... or you installed a new battery? And
then what happened? Still overtemp alarm? Does the UPS function when
you disconnect line power? The suspense is killing me.

Warm to the touch is OK. Zero volts is not. Test the battery voltage
with a multimeter to rule out electronic failure in the monitor. An
automobile headlamp makes a dandy load to test UPS batteries.
 
You "removed and replaced the battery": do you mean you just took it out
and then put the same one back ... or you installed a new battery? And
then what happened? Still overtemp alarm? Does the UPS function when
you disconnect line power? The suspense is killing me.

Warm to the touch is OK. Zero volts is not. Test the battery voltage
with a multimeter to rule out electronic failure in the monitor. An
automobile headlamp makes a dandy load to test UPS batteries.
Click to expand...

Removed and re-installed, not replaced. The battery is not that old,
actually.

So I brought the system back up without the UPS, which sat on the table
overnight. This morning I plugged it in and reconnected the monitor
plug, and brought up the monitor.

Under no load, it reads nominal. Battery is now at 13.8 VDC, and UPS
health is normal. The next thing I intend to do is to plug the CRT
monitor into the UPS and see what it does under that light load.

If removal and reinstallation has done the trick, which if often does, I
should be good to go. What I figure is that the battery connection
failed, which left the monitor with no battery to read, hence 0.0VDC.
Overheating would be the result of a step-down transformer feeding a
rectifier connected to an open circuit, IIRC.

OTOH, if this happens again, I'll be back...

Thanks for the timely response!

Longfellow
 
Removed and re-installed, not replaced. The battery is not that old,
actually.

So I brought the system back up without the UPS, which sat on the table
overnight. This morning I plugged it in and reconnected the monitor
plug, and brought up the monitor.

Under no load, it reads nominal. Battery is now at 13.8 VDC, and UPS
health is normal. The next thing I intend to do is to plug the CRT
monitor into the UPS and see what it does under that light load.
Click to expand...

Load was 17%.
If removal and reinstallation has done the trick, which if often does, I
should be good to go. What I figure is that the battery connection
failed, which left the monitor with no battery to read, hence 0.0VDC.
Overheating would be the result of a step-down transformer feeding a
rectifier connected to an open circuit, IIRC.

OTOH, if this happens again, I'll be back...

Thanks for the timely response!

Longfellow
Click to expand...
Update:

Got impatient and returned the system to normal. That means a power
center, with computer and monitor and sound stuff, plugged into the UPS,
which is plugged into the wall.

The readout is now as before, with the load level at 41%.

That should be good to go, I think.

Thanks again,

Longfellow
 
Longfellow said:
I've got a Belkin F6C650-SER-SB with a Bulldog Monitor running on Linux
(Slackware 10.0). The battery has been replace in the last year. Up to
today, all worked fine.

Today I got an overtemperature warning. I opened the Bulldog monitor
and found that indeed it was registering an overtemperature indicator,
and that the battery voltage was 0.0VDC. The schematic showed that the
battery was being charged. Battery indicator showed the battery in a
fully charged state and also showed the load at 100%. The incoming line
voltage was 114-5 VAC.

Normally, the load average is about 30% and the battery voltage @ 12.0
VDC. So I've removed the UPS from service, have removed and replaced
the battery. It was warm to the touch but not overly so.

Anyone have any knowledge of these devices?
Click to expand...

I just got rid of one. The battery failed 3 times in 2 years. First 2
replaced under warranty; last one was just recently. I don't think it's
worth buying another battery. Buy a new APC UPS instead, for about the same
$$.

I was not impressed with the Bulldog software or the battery performance on
the Belkin. OTOH, the price was right when I bought it...
 
John Weiss said:
I just got rid of one. The battery failed 3 times in 2 years. First 2
replaced under warranty; last one was just recently. I don't think it's
worth buying another battery. Buy a new APC UPS instead, for about the
same $$.

I was not impressed with the Bulldog software or the battery performance
on the Belkin. OTOH, the price was right when I bought it...
Click to expand...

I have to agree with John. I am on about my 3rd year with my APC 1500s. It
has not needed a battery yet and still works great. I live in a very rural
area with a lot of intermitten power problems. We also have a lot of power
outages during storms etc. IOW, without UPS's we used to lose a lot of
electronic equipment with all the brownouts and failures. I have two, one
for my computer room and another for my home entertainment center. Both have
worked flawlessly for several years. When set upright, the footprint is
small and easy to hide out of the way. I am probably looking at a couple of
batteries soon, but 3yrs is just fine for me as far as battery life is
concerned, especially with the amount of time they have had to kick in. They
still test fine, so who knows, they may go another year or more.

Ed
 
I have had good luck with APC also. I hope the product line
remains first-class now that APC has been bought out by a
French company ... APC -> FPC?
 
Mine lasted a bit longer than three years.
I have to agree with John. I am on about my 3rd year with my APC 1500s. It
has not needed a battery yet and still works great. I live in a very rural
area with a lot of intermitten power problems. We also have a lot of power
outages during storms etc. IOW, without UPS's we used to lose a lot of
electronic equipment with all the brownouts and failures. I have two, one
for my computer room and another for my home entertainment center. Both have
worked flawlessly for several years. When set upright, the footprint is
small and easy to hide out of the way. I am probably looking at a couple of
batteries soon, but 3yrs is just fine for me as far as battery life is
concerned, especially with the amount of time they have had to kick in. They
still test fine, so who knows, they may go another year or more.

Ed
Click to expand...

I'm aware that APC is a better unit, but for the money the Belkin does
the job. It runs at about 40% of capacity, and I have the shutdown time
trimmed to two minutes. If storms are on the horizon, I also turn off
the monitor before going to bed, else it stays on standby. The real
value is that power blinks don't put the system down while I'm working,
and we do get those regularly all winter long.

All that said, I'm either going to upgrade, probably to an APC, or to a
RV battery stack with HD charger and a decent size converter. That
would keep the systems up for days even with the monitors running; also
keep us online as well (the DSLAM down the block has a battery backup,
thanks to my complaints...). The battery stack and gear would go in the
garage with a line into the house, and would be an on-line system as
well.

Ahh... I'll probably settle for a larger APC; the other sounds like too
much work. ;)

Thanks all for the input!

Longfellow
 
Longfellow said:
I'm aware that APC is a better unit, but for the money the Belkin
does the job. It runs at about 40% of capacity, and I have the
shutdown time trimmed to two minutes. If storms are on the
horizon, I also turn off the monitor before going to bed, else it
stays on standby. The real value is that power blinks don't put
the system down while I'm working, and we do get those regularly
all winter long.
Click to expand...

I replaced a UPS with a cheap but large (1200) watt line/voltage
regulator. It stopped my computer from restarting spontaneously
without using a battery.

Good luck.
 
I replaced a UPS with a cheap but large (1200) watt line/voltage
regulator. It stopped my computer from restarting spontaneously
without using a battery.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Aha. Thanks.

Longfellow
 
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