UPS Backup Power Supply
It’s hard to believe how many power outages occur in my neighborhood. If it weren’t for the UPS Back Up Power Supply I’d be offline constantly.
From /var/log/apcupsd.events:
- 2018-02-04 09:57:52 – Shutdown
- 2018-02-14 13:17:10
- 2018-02-14 13:20:37
- 2018-02-16 10:18:36
- 2018-02-16 14:57:37
- 2018-02-24 07:41:01
- 2018-02-24 07:40:56
- 2018-02-27 10:40:40
- 2018-03-02 17:41:14
- 2018-03-02 17:41:17
- 2018-03-02 10:27:48
- 2018-03-02 10:27:50
- 2018-03-03 07:40:16
- 2018-04-05 12:42:52
- 2018-04-05 19:07:48 – Shutdown
- 2018-04-20 17:11:04 – Shutdown
- 2018-05-02 17:40:41
- 2018-05-02 17:48:44
- 2018-05-11 05:04:17
Finding replacements
Every time the power goes out we’re told that they are “replacing some old equipment in the area”. Needless to say, that excuse is getting pretty old itself. Luckily, these events usually don’t last long, and the UPS successfully keeps everything alive. Of the 19 events since February 2018, three resulted in shutdowns when the UPS battery ran out. Of course, we’re never notified in advance of any of these ‘repairs’ so a UPS Backup Power Supply (or two) are required.
That being said, amateur radio station K6HR currently employs two Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS). The most recent outage revealed that my older UPS, an APC LS 700 is in need of replacement. A quick look at ‘apcaccess’ quickly confirmed it:
APC : 001,036,0870
DATE : 2018-05-13 21:23:30 -0700
HOSTNAME : gw.k6hr.ampr.org
VERSION : 3.14.14 (31 May 2016) debian
UPSNAME : apc700
CABLE : USB Cable
DRIVER : USB UPS Driver
UPSMODE : Stand Alone
STARTTIME: 2018-05-12 11:10:33 -0700
MODEL : Back-UPS LS 700
STATUS : LOWBATT
LINEV : 114.0 Volts
LOADPCT : 0.0 Percent
BCHARGE : 0.0 Percent
TIMELEFT : 0.0 Minutes
MBATTCHG : 5 Percent
MINTIMEL : 3 Minutes
MAXTIME : 0 Seconds
SENSE : Medium
LOTRANS : 106.0 Volts
HITRANS : 133.0 Volts
ALARMDEL : 30 Seconds
BATTV : 11.7 Volts
LASTXFER : No transfers since turnon
NUMXFERS : 0
TONBATT : 0 Seconds
CUMONBATT: 0 Seconds
XOFFBATT : N/A
SELFTEST : NO
STATFLAG : 0x05000040
SERIALNO : 3B0726X84715
BATTDATE : 2007-06-30
NOMINV : 120 Volts
NOMBATTV : 12.0 Volts
NOMPOWER : 410 Watts
FIRMWARE : 19.b5 .D USB FW:b5
END APC : 2018-05-13 21:23:56 -0700
I could replace the battery in the LS 700, but after 11 years in service, it’s time to upgrade to a more up to date piece of hardware. I will likely relegate the LS 700 to a lower priority application. (i.e. the home entertainment center) since it is still in working condition other than the depleted battery.
CyberPower LX1500GU
I purchased the CyberPower LX1500GU to replace an old APC BackUPS RS 1000 that was also retired due to old age. This CyberPower model met or exceeded the spec, and was within budget. The LX1500GU is rated for 900 Watts, and is currently supporting a 225 Watt load with an estimated runtime of 50 minutes. This UPS supports the main Windows PC and the Astron RS70A that powers all the 12 volt radio equipment.
APC BX1500M
Why not another CyberPower LX1500GU? Logical question. The simple answer is ‘apcupsd’ is currently running on my Ubuntu server, and I prefer to install another APC unit rather than have to research and reconfigure for something else. This new APC BX1500M will be plug and play with my current configuration once I change the ‘UPSNAME parameter.
This UPS device will support the Ubuntu Server, Router, switch, and one monitor.
There are some fine tutorials available for apcupsd, so I won’t go into it here. This is a quick and dirty version of my current apcupsd config:
apcupsd.conf v1.1
# for apcupsd release 3.14.14 (31 May 2016) – debian
UPSNAME apc700
UPSCABLE usb
UPSTYPE usb DEVICE /dev/usb/hiddev[0-15]
POLLTIME 60
LOCKFILE /var/lock
SCRIPTDIR /etc/apcupsd
PWRFAILDIR /etc/apcupsd
NOLOGINDIR /etc
#
# ======== Configuration parameters used during power failures ==========
#
ONBATTERYDELAY 6
BATTERYLEVEL 5
MINUTES 3
TIMEOUT 0
ANNOY 300
ANNOYDELAY 60
NOLOGON disable
KILLDELAY 0
#
# ==== Configuration statements for Network Information Server ====
#
NETSERVER on
NISIP 0.0.0.0
NISPORT 3551
EVENTSFILE /var/log/apcupsd.events
EVENTSFILEMAX 10
#
# ========== Configuration statements used if sharing =============
# a UPS with more than one machine
#
UPSCLASS standalone
UPSMODE disable
#
# ===== Configuration statements to control apcupsd system logging ========
#
STATTIME 0
STATFILE /var/log/apcupsd.status
LOGSTATS off
DATATIME 0