u.p.s.

[Jrik]

When my U.P.S. was working I had 5 ext & 5 internal HDDs & a scanner, I had my PC, 22"WScreen monitor & speakers plugged into a 'Powerware' 5110 - 1500 VA, when the power went off it would run for about 15 minutes before shutting off & saving. Last time nothing & the battery was flat. A friends Powerware had just given up & the battery was good so I tried that but it was making a combination of bleeps & the green light flashed: none of these signals were in the manual, I contacted Eaton Powerware, they said it sounded like it'd had it. Both these U.P.S.s were just out of warranty, it may've just been co-incidence but it's put me off Powerware, has anyone else had problems with them?
I would like any suggestions what brand U.P.S., I'm thinking of trying A.P.C. has anyone experience of them?

[profJim]

Re: u.p.s.

Both of my APC UPS units (Back-UPS 650 and BE750G) have worked fine for the past 2.5 years. I wanted UPS line conditioning and a run time of about five minutes to provide enough time for an orderly system shutdown. At the time I bought my units, APC offered an option to purchase an extended warranty beyond the standard two year warranty.

You will need to do some research to verify that the line conditioning feature won't cause problems with the operation of your power supply. With any new UPS installation, you need to initially give the battery a full initial charge before connecting your system to the UPS.

Some UPS units allow you to monitor the UPS operation with software on your system.
Let us know which UPS system you end up with.

[Jrik]

Re: u.p.s.

I did put the u.p.s. on overnight before plugging in the pc. The Powerware UPS allowed you to monitor it, does APC?

[profJim]

Re: u.p.s.

The APC Back-UPS ES 750 came with a special monitoring cable that connects from the UPS to your system. I didn't use the monitoring cable with my system. There is also a "test" switch on this psu.

You might find some useful information doing a web search using:
ups review

[profJim]

Re: u.p.s.

I found the following information for a CyberPower 1500VA 900W 8 Outlets UPS customer review at Newegg:

Cons: I found out after I had it all set up that because the battery power is delivered as a "simulated sine wave" rather than a "true sine wave", my computer will not function on the battery. Apparently, newer PSUs are very arrogant and refuse to operate on anything but true sine waves. So I'm going to have to see about exchanging it for an alternate unit that can provide True Sine Wave battery power. A warning or caution about this limitation (or a more obvious one if it was hidden somewhere in the fine print) would have saved me quite a hassle.

Other Thoughts: Fine if you're running a computer with a power supply that accommodates simulated sine power. Otherwise, look for a model that provides true sine wave.

Manufacturer Response:

Thank you for your comments. You are correct that systems using a power supply with Active PFC (including ENERGY STAR 5.0 systems) may experience issues with a non-sine wave UPS. As a result, CyberPower introduced the Adaptive Sinewave UPS line to address these issues. The CP1500PFCLCD w/Pure Sine Wave provides the most cost effective UPS solution for systems using power supplies with Active PFC.

To assist customers with purchasing decisions, CyberPower lists detailed specifications on our website (cyberpowersystems.com) where waveform types are listed. As our packaging evolves, we also review the information we place on the box. With Active PFC power supplies becoming more prevalent, we will be reviewing the best way to help customers select the right product for them and addressing it with future packaging as well as on-line information.

If you need additional assistance, please contact CyberPower Technical Support at 877-297-6937 or email [email protected].

[profJim]

Re: u.p.s.

I was hoping to put together a brief UPS 101 tutorial, but....
It's not that simple or straight forward.

Comparing the much more expensive pure sine wave UPS units to the less expensive simulated/square/step sine wave units, it appears that:

• Some power supplies using Active PFC have problems when the UPS kicks in during a power outage or momentary power loss.
• Higher quality power supplies probably don't have as many UPS issues as cheapy power supplies.

Today I emailed Seasonic-USA tech support and asked:

Do Seasonic power supplies have compatibility issues with UPS battery mode operation when the battery output is NOT a pure sine wave?

I currently own two Seasonic made power supplies:

• Antec EarthWatts 500W (not the newer D-model)
• Antec TP-750 TruePower New 750W

My new Seasonic X-650 power supply is arriving in three days.

Thank you for your help,

They replied 8 minutes later that their power supplies are fully compatible with UPS battery backup devices.
I'm going to put this to a test with both of my APC UPS units that are about three years old, where I will boot to the bios main screen and then unplug the UPS from the wall plug to simulate a power failure, wait two minutes and then reconnect the power to the UPS. I've never had my computers on when a power outage occurred, but there have been at least 15 times when there was a momentary loss of power and my systems never had so much as a hiccup. Both of my UPS units were relatively inexpensive ($50 & $75 on sale).

As you can tell from my signature, I'm a firm believer in using high quality power supplies. Using a cheapy PSU is like building a nice house on a crappy foundation. It would be great have a high quality UPS, but for most of us it's just not practical to spend $200 - $500 on a very high quality UPS.

For those who are interested, here are some good links:

• Uninterruptible power supply - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• CyberPower UPS Battery Backup for PCs | Test,Review, Run-Time Performance Test Intelligent-LCD Product Review
• Enthusiast Power Protection: Four-Way 900 W UPS Roundup : Power Protection Or Rage Prevention?
• Active PFC Power Supply and NON true sine wave UPS. - jonnyGURU Forums
• Adaptive Sinewave Series | CyberPower Systems, Inc.

I don't have personal experience with CyberPower UPS units, but they appear to be a quality outfit based in Minnesota that offers a cost effective solution.

A couple of web searches you can try:

• active pfc psu sine wave ups
• ups sine wave computer psu problem

Happy reading....

[Jrik]

Re: u.p.s.

Chief Munchkin said about 'The CP1500PFCLCD w/Pure Sine Wave provides the most cost effective UPS solution for systems using power supplies with Active PFC.', I've been looking it up on the net. it seems really good but I live in Australia & I couldn't find one that uses Australian voltage or plugs. Have they got one, an Australian branch or are they only America?

[profJim]

Re: u.p.s.

Check out CyberPower Systems [AU] for model availability in Australia. You can contact CyberPower for more information by using the online "contact us" submission form.

I hooked up my APC UPS to PC usb cable and win7 x64 recognized the UPS. I downloaded and manually installed the v3.0 APC software. The UPS software shows that I have about 27 minutes of battery run time available. My monitor is currently connected to my other UPS unit. After I've connected my monitor to the same UPS as my computer, I'm going to unplug the UPS from the wall outlet and see how long my system runs on battery power before it automatically shuts down when the remaining battery time drops to 5 minutes. I'll post my results after the test.

Good luck, let us know how you make out with your search for a new UPS.

**edit** The UPS software now shows that I have 17 minutes of battery run time available with my 24" Asus LCD monitor connected to the APC Back-UPS ES 750.

[profJim]

Re: u.p.s.

UPS Test Results = Flawless!!

1. I unplugged the UPS from the wall socket.
2. Windows task bar notified me that I was now running on battery power.
3. I was able to continue running my system for 18 minutes until the UPS software put my system to sleep.
4. UPS battery capacity was at 35% (remaining) when the system went to sleep.
5. I waited for 15 additional minutes before I plugged in the UPS to the wall socket.
6. When I started my system, windows said that it was resuming and everything was just as it was before the system was put to sleep.

Note: The UPS software is configured to power down the system when there is only 5 minutes of battery power remaining.
As I type this, the software shows that the UPS battery's charge is now at 47% after restarting the system.

System information:

• P35-DS3L mobo, E6300 (R0) running at 3.60GHz
• PSU = Seasonic made Antec TP-750 Truepower New (750 watts)
• APC Back-UPS ES 750 (BE750G) 750VA, 450 watts using step-approximated sine wave
• Normal system power load is approximately 105 watts
• LCD monitor power requirement is rated at less than 55 watts

minor quibble: The UPS didn't sound an alarm, but this might be due to software configuration error or omission on my part.

**edit** The default alarm notification setting was set to "disable battery backup alarms between the hours of 8:00 PM and 8:00 AM."
Never mind, ignore my minor quibble statement.

Update: It took about 2.5 hours for the UPS battery to be fully recharged to 100% after the UPS was plugged back in to the wall socket.

[Jrik]

Re: u.p.s.

A good inexpensive way would be a battery charger a battery & an inverter (you can get pure sine wave inverters) but it wouldn't be able to talk to the pc or monitor how much voltage, amps, etc. So I was wondering if it is possible to get a monitor, that plugs into the u.s.b. to do this, save & shut down the computer??

[profJim]

Re: u.p.s.

It will be difficult to build your own setup, even if you could write a program that would access your custom UPS unit:

• "smart" 12 volt battery charger -- $30 - $75
• deep cycle AGM battery -- $40 - $75 or more
• 12 volt to 120 volt inverter, at least 150 continuous watt output -- $90 - $200 or more
• usb or serial data cable -- $5

Keep in mind that units that use a simulated or step-approximated sine wave output will have problems with some/many power supplies.

The ideal setup would also provide:

• surge protection
• automatic voltage regulation (AVR)
• 120 volt line conditioning
• additional connections for network/phone cable protection

CyberPower makes some reasonably priced units. Their "PFC" models should work with all power supplies. Their products are available world wide.

[Jrik]

Re: u.p.s.

Thanks profJim, I definitely couldn't write a program to do it, I was hoping there might be one available with hardware that could monitor power etc. but it appears that it's not that easy so I'm looking at Cyber Power, the Value 1500ELCD looks good, I've just asked them if it's a PFC model. By the way in Australia we have 230 volt not 120 but the Cyber Power can switch to that.

[profJim]

Re: u.p.s.

I didn't see any AU "PFC" models available so you might need to check with your psu manufacturer to see if their power supplies require a true or pure sine wave output from a UPS when there is a power outage.

I just checked CyberPower Systems - VALUE1100E-GP [AU] and the specs state: "Simulated Sine Wave at 230Vac +/- 10%." You should contact them to verify if their simulated sine wave is compatible with all newer PFC power supplies.

My APC UPS with it's "step-approximated sine wave" worked perfectly with my Seasonic made psu, but this same UPS model would probably fail to properly power some other psu brands when the power failed.

UPS monitoring software needs to communicate with the physical unit, specifically the chps and sensors. I have no idea how many different UPS chips and sensors are used by various manufacturers.

In a somewhat related vein, my sound card uses a C-Media sound chip and these chips are used by several different name brand sound card manufacturers. One of the reasons that I bought an HT|Omega sound card is that I found that some software drivers for many other C-Media based cards were buggy and didn't work properly. The common recommendation for problematic brand X C-Media drivers was to download and install the HT|Omega drivers.

Looking at Newegg's USA CyberPower UPS models and prices, their pure/adaptive sine wave "PFC" models are about 15 - 20% more expensive than their comparable "AVR" models.

Check out several models at the AU site and click on the Documents tab to download the user manual and data sheets for each model.
Good luck, let us know what you find out.

**edit**
I just finished checking all of the AU model specs. Their The Professional Rackmount LCD Series model specs list "Pure Sine Wave at 230Vac +/- 5%. The specs for all models in the other four product categories are "simulated sine wave". I'm pretty sure that worldwide 230 VAC systems use 50Hz while our 120 VAC uses 60Hz. Maybe (hopefully?) this PFC compatibility issue with 120 VAC isn't an issue with your 230/50 power system.

[arviescoot]

Re: u.p.s.

My ups working well,I have been using it for 2years and nothing problems occur.