Hi I have a couple of inverter-type UPCs which have been giving me the “time to change the batteries” alert for perhaps 6 months. I have the new batteries for the main units (not for the battery expansion unit which is connected to the SRT1000XLA)
I always say that if you delay your haircut by an extra 2 weeks that is money in the bank
So the question is… until when is advisable to run these units on the old batteries… I thought at some point the units were going to tell me “no mas” but they keep going.
Also, should I change the battery of the expansion unit at the same time?
You got to ask yourself what function you want these units to perform in case of a power failure.
If the answer is “provide backup power” then you should change the batteries asap.
If there is any other answer you should ask yourself why exactly you have these units…
Mostly for power stability / clean power / brownouts – that is the inverter function. How long the power remains on, say beyond 5 mins, is kind of secondary. Meaning if I’m not home to shutdown things I will not have enough battery power to keep it up till I’m back.
I should probably look up on how to shutdown things automatically. I did have a power failure last month and I forgot to shutdown the NASes
EDIT: Right now runtime is 2.5 hours for the unit with expansion and 40 mins for the unit without, though the threadripper is off and my main computer is mostly chilling.
Not unreasonable if that’s a real issue in your place.
I bet you read that off the screen/webpage and didn’t try it out. My hunch is that the whole thing turns off in <5mins (expansion included).
Most UPSs have a mode where they simulate a power outage and run down the battery to like 5% capacity. Only this provides a realistic estimate for runtime.
I read it from the unit display… That said, I do not know how well it takes into account the state of the batteries, meaning if it knows how quickly they will discharge.
That is a great idea! I’ll unplug it and see if it matches
The one that had said 40 mins took around 8 or 9 min to get depleted. I guess it is time to replace the batteries
The other is still running
EDIT: after the calibration the other unit runtime projection went up and it shows 3 hours. The external battery pack is probably still good. Though it takes 2 batteries! So that is 4 batteries in total. Like close to $2k to replace them all
Doesn’t have to be that expensive These are just standard batteries and if you can open the tray, it’s trivial swapping out each cell for new ones. This Dutch company offers a set (8 battery cells =1 replacement unit) for 180€ plus shipping (in EU-land all taxes must be included in the final sale price). I don’t know if they ship to the US, but at least you have an idea of what battery cells to look for when sourcing them locally.
(page in Dutch, obviously, use google translate or similar)
Jeff Geerling did a video (plus later follow-up) on this:
Keep in mind APC really, really doesn’t want you to do this so opening the enclosure is quite the task. It can be done, but be smart, not strong-hand stuff
Also, be aware that making a mistake is very easy to do but very costly/dangerous to the extend it may cause a fire. Given that you’re obviously new to this, replace each cell individually to prevent accidentally mis-wiring the batteries.
When I was 10 our old fashioned mechanical alarm clock started running late, 5 mins a day. I did not tell any of the adults, just took a screwdriver and went to work… that clock was never late again
Coming in at some random time and finding the rooms smelling of sulfur from swelling batteries can mess up your day. They can get hard to extract. I don’t know that model, but I have had that issue with some larger lead acid battery APC’s.
Shop around now and try to get good shipping, rather than waiting for the emergency and paying extra.
Many years ago I did have some batteries swell up in those largish home/office units. I don’t remember how I got them out of the case. A hammer might have been involved – though probably not… don’t remember at all.
I have a 3D print going on… need to remember to swap the batteries out before starting another one… I also want to move the units 4-5 feet.
Took me 4-5 hours to reconfigure the utility closet, clean everything and replace the batteries. There was so much dust inside the units that I could probably grow a potted plant with it .
They seem a bit louder now… maybe the dust was acting as sound absorption barrier
The batteries were not swollen, I guess they still had some life in them!
Now I have to figure out if I’m going to send the old cartridges back or keep them so that next time I can rebuild the batteries and swap cartridges. I should have gotten bigger units. One is 2200 and the other is only 1000. They use different battery packs… 48V and 72V if I remember right. Looking back I should have gotten two 2200. But the 1000 was the first one, and then I had to get the second one, the one which is 2200. Oh well. Not the first time, not the last time.
Technically, the network card will not shut down anything.
The network card allows a tool to receive a signal from the UPS that it is running low on battery capacity, which in turn makes that tool shut down computers, VMs, or anything else.
The benefit of this network card is that a tool can query your UPS over the network as opposed to query it using a USB cable.
The most common open source “tool” is NUT (“Network UPS Tools”), but most UPS manufacturers have their own tools.
These are just standard batteries and if you can open the tray, it’s trivial swapping out each cell for new ones. This Dutch company offers a set (8 battery cells =1 replacement unit) for 180€ plus shipping (in EU-land all taxes must be included in the final sale price). I don’t know if they ship to the US, but at least you have an idea of what battery cells to look for when sourcing them locally.
started running late, 5 mins a day. I did not tell any of the adults, just took a screwdriver and went to work… that clock was never late again 
with it 