[Novalug] Can I test a UPS battery?

[Beartooth]

On Thu, 10 May 2007, Peter Larsen wrote:

> Most management console has an easy way to see predicted 
> uptime. You should set your UPS to do a 'calibrate' test, which 
> does, as people here suggest, a full load and then unload - and 
> it measures how fast the batteries discharge.

 	Console? Console?? It has an on/test button, and an off 
button.

> 2-3 years old batteries are OLD. If you have a management 
> console on the UPS, it should have told you to replace the 
> battery (there's a small parameter in the UPS that holds the 
> age of the battery; when the age is more than 1 year this 
> should start to trigger "time to replace").

 	I tried connecting an XP machine to a UPS with software; 
played merry hell with stuff I wanted a lot worse, like a serial 
port my GPS could talk to the topo map software through.

 	I've wondered about connecting linux. Trouble is, my #1 
and #2 machines dual boot to XP. I'd forget the UPS, sure as 
shootin' -- and XP would detect it, wouldn't it? And foul me up 
royally.

 	I might try connecting a linux-only machine to one -- 
just to try it out, and be ready when I get map software I can 
handle, whereupon I'll have an M$-free house again, instanter.

> APC has a great program; they'll exchange your old battery for 
> a new one and you even get a small discount on the new one when 
> you do it. It's "free" to send the old one back. Saves the 
> nature for a lot of poison that way. For little single PC 
> boxes, the replacement cost is about $50-100. Well worth it, if 
> it's a matter of protecting your personal data from total loss.

 	Somebody here told us last time APC was way overpriced. 
Maybe that's changed. I simply ordered a battery from the shop, 
expecting them to get me a Taiwan import -- but it says APC all 
over it, and I think I paid $30 - 40.

> If you don't run a monthly scheduled calibrate, meaning your 
> batteries constantly hold a charge, that wears them down 
> faster. It's important to drain them regularly. This is what 
> "calibrate" does, and of the APC packs that I've gotten the 
> last year or two, all of them are set to automatically do this 
> once a month. With the management console, you can change that 
> to what-ever schedule you please.

 	That directly contradicts one of the things I did manage 
to grasp on the googled sites I tried to read.

> Bottom line - get your apc daemon running. Run the smartups (I 
> presume it's a smartups?) management console available for 
> Linux on APC, and set the operational parameters for the UPS. I 
> know this goes against the "plug and forget" mentality, but it 
> saves your money as the unit lives longer.

 	Smartups? Probably way out of my class. I have a backups 
pro 650, a backups RS 1500, the backups LS 700 that I just put 
the new battery into (downstairs), and the backups 650 that I was 
asking about. (I was trying to get another backups pro, and 
goofed.)

 	It sounds like I better just go ahead and replace the 
battery in the 700 -- and start fixin' to get one for the pro 
650, which got its second battery last year or the year before 
...

-- 
Beartooth Implacable, Curmudgeon On Line
Know your enemies. They are your leaders.