The joy(?) of batteries
Dec. 17th, 2016 04:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengrOk, I've been doing without a working UPS ever since the movers lost my big one back in September of 2014. Mostly because I can't spare the cash.
It gets annoying having system reboot after a minor power glitch, but I've been living with it. The other day the power was doing a lot of "flickers due to an ice storm.
Of course the newest and fastest box was the one that decided to reboot. I gritched about it to Fay (who was visting since it was one of our TV nights).
She offered me here old UPS (an APC BK500MC). She hasn't been using it since she currently only has a couple of laptops and a Kindle. And her roommate doesn't want to use it because she can hear some high pitched noise from it or something.
She brought it up on Monday, and I plugged it in to charge figuring I'd install it after the monthly MS update since that was almost certain to require a reboot anyway.
When I shut off the computer after the updates, I checked out the UPS. Had to do a bit of digging online to find the manual. And discovered by using the test button that the battery hadn't charged up. Drat.
So I re-arranged the power cords so I'll know which are for the computer and monitor when I *do* get a working UPS and started hunting batteries.
Turns out it uses 12V 7.5Ah battery. Which the local batteries Plus would cheerfully charge me $40 for. Online, I found someone offering a battery for the same UPS for $24 with free shipping. Gee hard decision. Just gotta save up the cash.
While I was at it I dug out the other UPSes that needed batteries and started checking them out too. I had to take the oldest (a Durant BPS300) apart to get the battery info. The batteries for it seemed to be the same as what one of the others (a Tripp Lite BC600LAN) used. And they were about as spendy as the batteries for the APC.
And the Belkin Regulator Pro F6C525 looks to use the same sort of battery as the APC. Great.
But then I got to thinking. The Durant unit used *two* batteries. Lovely. Twice the price, bleah. I decided I'd better open *all* of them to see what they needed.
Fortunately, the APC and Belkin both use 12V batteries of the same size, one 7.0Ah, the other 7.5Ah.
As already mentioned, the Durant uses *two* 6v 10Ah batteries. The joker was the Tripp Lite. When I got it open I discovered it used *three* batteries. But they *were* also 6V 10Ah. Oh my aching wallet.
I've got two UPSes in my storage locker ones an old one like the movers lost, except it needs more than a new battery, seems to have other problems (probably the MOVs are bad)
The other is an APC units that doubles as a power strip. I know it has two batteries in it because I opened it up shortly after I got it when one side got really hot as it was charging (I got it used). So one of the batteries probably has an internal short. and the other is probably bad by now anyway. But I want it for the cluster of items in the bedroom, router, switch, and an NAS drive (I'll put the other NAS drive in there when I get a gigabit router). Those are mostly things that aren't set up to recognize a "power about to fail:" warning from a UPS anyway, so the power strip UPS would be good in there anyway.
I don't need a UPS for the cable modem as the one they had me upgrade to a year or two back has built in battery backup.
The old Durant will do for the switch in the living room and things like external hard drives.
If/when I get them all working again, I'll have one for the bluray player and media box, one for the newest computer, one for the "secondary" computer. And I'll either have the monitors hooked to the same UPS as the computer or I'll stick them on the Durant (as it looks to be the one that can handle the least load.
But it's gonna be another long slog.
It gets annoying having system reboot after a minor power glitch, but I've been living with it. The other day the power was doing a lot of "flickers due to an ice storm.
Of course the newest and fastest box was the one that decided to reboot. I gritched about it to Fay (who was visting since it was one of our TV nights).
She offered me here old UPS (an APC BK500MC). She hasn't been using it since she currently only has a couple of laptops and a Kindle. And her roommate doesn't want to use it because she can hear some high pitched noise from it or something.
She brought it up on Monday, and I plugged it in to charge figuring I'd install it after the monthly MS update since that was almost certain to require a reboot anyway.
When I shut off the computer after the updates, I checked out the UPS. Had to do a bit of digging online to find the manual. And discovered by using the test button that the battery hadn't charged up. Drat.
So I re-arranged the power cords so I'll know which are for the computer and monitor when I *do* get a working UPS and started hunting batteries.
Turns out it uses 12V 7.5Ah battery. Which the local batteries Plus would cheerfully charge me $40 for. Online, I found someone offering a battery for the same UPS for $24 with free shipping. Gee hard decision. Just gotta save up the cash.
While I was at it I dug out the other UPSes that needed batteries and started checking them out too. I had to take the oldest (a Durant BPS300) apart to get the battery info. The batteries for it seemed to be the same as what one of the others (a Tripp Lite BC600LAN) used. And they were about as spendy as the batteries for the APC.
And the Belkin Regulator Pro F6C525 looks to use the same sort of battery as the APC. Great.
But then I got to thinking. The Durant unit used *two* batteries. Lovely. Twice the price, bleah. I decided I'd better open *all* of them to see what they needed.
Fortunately, the APC and Belkin both use 12V batteries of the same size, one 7.0Ah, the other 7.5Ah.
As already mentioned, the Durant uses *two* 6v 10Ah batteries. The joker was the Tripp Lite. When I got it open I discovered it used *three* batteries. But they *were* also 6V 10Ah. Oh my aching wallet.
I've got two UPSes in my storage locker ones an old one like the movers lost, except it needs more than a new battery, seems to have other problems (probably the MOVs are bad)
The other is an APC units that doubles as a power strip. I know it has two batteries in it because I opened it up shortly after I got it when one side got really hot as it was charging (I got it used). So one of the batteries probably has an internal short. and the other is probably bad by now anyway. But I want it for the cluster of items in the bedroom, router, switch, and an NAS drive (I'll put the other NAS drive in there when I get a gigabit router). Those are mostly things that aren't set up to recognize a "power about to fail:" warning from a UPS anyway, so the power strip UPS would be good in there anyway.
I don't need a UPS for the cable modem as the one they had me upgrade to a year or two back has built in battery backup.
The old Durant will do for the switch in the living room and things like external hard drives.
If/when I get them all working again, I'll have one for the bluray player and media box, one for the newest computer, one for the "secondary" computer. And I'll either have the monitors hooked to the same UPS as the computer or I'll stick them on the Durant (as it looks to be the one that can handle the least load.
But it's gonna be another long slog.
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no subject
Date: 2016-12-17 03:35 pm (UTC)My neighborhood used to have significant power outages several times a year, so I had multiple UPSes, including one big one for my home entertainment system. However, about five years ago the city started upgrading the utilities here. Power outages are now rare and brief (except for the three-county, five hour one three years ago, on the coldest night of the year).
So, I have accumulated a few dead UPSes, most of which only need a replacement battery. I don't need so many, now, with the improved utilities. I think the biggest, most expensive one (naturally) also has something other than the battery gone bad.
I keep them around because occasionally one of those I use does go bad in a non-battery way. Then I refurbish one of those which just needs a new battery.
no subject
Date: 2016-12-17 08:24 pm (UTC)I declined, mostl;y because of space concerns, but also because I wasn't sure we'd be able to get it into my apartment.
At some point need to get a couple of deep cycle marine battries and a trickle charger. Then dig out the inverter I have in storage.
Y'see I can't sleep without my CPAP, and I want something that'd run it for at least 12 hours. Actually, I was shooting for 36-48 back when I still went camping.
What's *really* annoying is that the power brick for it puts ut 12 VDC. But there isn't an approved "car" adapter for it. Instead, the "recommended" battery backup for it is a $1000 lithium ion "brick".