choosing a ups

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

i have been suffering from power cuts and am thinking of buying i ups but i
would like to know when and for how long the power is outing (as it may be
my idiot flat mate) is there any way of monitoring this ?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

ben reed wrote:

> i have been suffering from power cuts and am thinking of buying i ups but i
> would like to know when and for how long the power is outing (as it may be
> my idiot flat mate) is there any way of monitoring this ?
>
>

Power line monitors are expensive but there's a simple way.

Get an old style, plain, no battery, straight A.C. clock and sync it with a
reliable clock. The duration of the power outage is current time minus the
time showing on the A.C. clock.

If you get/have one of the 'fancy' A.C. clocks it'll have a resettable 'red
dot' to indicate there was a power failure and that time is 'wrong'. In
your case it means time to calculate outage duration and resync the clocks.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

good idea
thanks
"David Maynard" <dNOTmayn@ev1.net> wrote in message
news:10jr4br3m7arra3@corp.supernews.com...
> ben reed wrote:
>
> > i have been suffering from power cuts and am thinking of buying i ups
but i
> > would like to know when and for how long the power is outing (as it may
be
> > my idiot flat mate) is there any way of monitoring this ?
> >
> >
>
> Power line monitors are expensive but there's a simple way.
>
> Get an old style, plain, no battery, straight A.C. clock and sync it with
a
> reliable clock. The duration of the power outage is current time minus the
> time showing on the A.C. clock.
>
> If you get/have one of the 'fancy' A.C. clocks it'll have a resettable
'red
> dot' to indicate there was a power failure and that time is 'wrong'. In
> your case it means time to calculate outage duration and resync the
clocks.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 05:46:08 -0500, David Maynard <dNOTmayn@ev1.net> wrote:

>Get an old style, plain, no battery, straight A.C. clock

If you can't find one, I'm sure they used to use them on cookers. a visit to the
local dump might be useful.



Chris Pollard

--
CG Internet café, Tagum City, Philippines
http://www.cginternet.net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 15:29:18 +0800, Christopher Pollard
<rubbish@cginternet.net> wrote:

>On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 05:46:08 -0500, David Maynard <dNOTmayn@ev1.net> wrote:
>
>>Get an old style, plain, no battery, straight A.C. clock
>
>If you can't find one, I'm sure they used to use them on cookers. a visit to the
>local dump might be useful.
>
Might find a UPS there too...I got an APC 250, a 400 and a 700 from
the tip!

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 09:46:47 +0100, Stephen Howard <seesigfor@email.uk> wrote:

>>If you can't find one, I'm sure they used to use them on cookers. a visit to the
>>local dump might be useful.
>>
>Might find a UPS there too...I got an APC 250, a 400 and a 700 from
>the tip!

Wow, where do you live?


Chris Pollard

--
CG Internet café, Tagum City, Philippines
http://www.cginternet.net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 10:02:32 +0800, Christopher Pollard
<rubbish@cginternet.net> wrote:

>On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 09:46:47 +0100, Stephen Howard <seesigfor@email.uk> wrote:
>
>>>If you can't find one, I'm sure they used to use them on cookers. a visit to the
>>>local dump might be useful.
>>>
>>Might find a UPS there too...I got an APC 250, a 400 and a 700 from
>>the tip!
>
>Wow, where do you live?
>
>
Hampshire



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 09:04:09 GMT, "ben reed" <ben.reed@remove_mevirgin.net>
wrote:

>i have been suffering from power cuts and am thinking of buying i ups but i
>would like to know when and for how long the power is outing (as it may be
>my idiot flat mate) is there any way of monitoring this ?

One thing which just occurred to me. If the power outage is longer, you don't
need a bigger UPS, just a bigger battery which can keep the system up longer.
Some have terminals for external batteries.



Chris Pollard

--
CG Internet café, Tagum City, Philippines
http://www.cginternet.net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

is there no software that records when the pc has been truned off (or power
cut off)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 15:19:55 +0800, Christopher Pollard
<rubbish@cginternet.net> wrote:

>On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 09:04:09 GMT, "ben reed" <ben.reed@remove_mevirgin.net>
>wrote:
>
>>i have been suffering from power cuts and am thinking of buying i ups but i
>>would like to know when and for how long the power is outing (as it may be
>>my idiot flat mate) is there any way of monitoring this ?
>
>One thing which just occurred to me. If the power outage is longer, you don't
>need a bigger UPS, just a bigger battery which can keep the system up longer.
>Some have terminals for external batteries.
>
Most have software that detect the UPS kicking in and start an
automated shutdown at a point where the battery is about to fail.

Not something I bother with - the machine's only on when I'm around -
but the UPS gives complete protection from the frequent blips,
brown-outs and surges due to lightning strikes that seem to plague
this area.
I've had days when the UPS has kicked in for half a second or so
around a dozen times.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 15:19:55 +0800, Christopher Pollard
<rubbish@cginternet.net> wrote:

>On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 09:04:09 GMT, "ben reed" <ben.reed@remove_mevirgin.net>
>wrote:
>
>>i have been suffering from power cuts and am thinking of buying i ups but i
>>would like to know when and for how long the power is outing (as it may be
>>my idiot flat mate) is there any way of monitoring this ?
>
>One thing which just occurred to me. If the power outage is longer, you don't
>need a bigger UPS, just a bigger battery which can keep the system up longer.
>Some have terminals for external batteries.

Not necessarily true, especially for these consumer-grade
low wattage, compact units. They are not designed to
dissipate heat at same rate it's created, the duty cycle
need only be matched to runtime/rate of battery &
transformer.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 09:02:21 GMT, "ben reed"
<ben.reed@remove_mevirgin.net> wrote:

>is there no software that records when the pc has been truned off (or power
>cut off)
>
Bound to be.
Try a post in alt.comp.freeware - I'm sure I've seen mention of
utilities that can report usage/ontime of a machine.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.homebuilt (More info?)

Christopher Pollard wrote:
> On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 09:04:09 GMT, "ben reed" <ben.reed@remove_mevirgin.net>
> wrote:
>
>
>>i have been suffering from power cuts and am thinking of buying i ups but i
>>would like to know when and for how long the power is outing (as it may be
>>my idiot flat mate) is there any way of monitoring this ?
>
>
> One thing which just occurred to me. If the power outage is longer, you don't
> need a bigger UPS, just a bigger battery which can keep the system up longer.
> Some have terminals for external batteries.
>
>
>
> Chris Pollard
>
Yes, the CDs that came with my 10 APC UPSes does a shutdown, and
monitoring... in XP...

Better, also FREE:
Apcupsd is a program for monitoring UPSes and performing a graceful
computer shutdown in the event of a power failure. It runs on Linux,
Tru64, Mac OS/X, Win32, Solaris as well as other OSes. It can deliver
the UPS status via the network to any browser

* Development Status: 5 - Production/Stable
* Environment: Console (Text Based), No Input/Output (Daemon)
* Intended Audience: Developers, End Users/Desktop, System
Administrators
* License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
* Natural Language: English
* Operating System: MacOS X, Windows 95/98/2000, BSD, Linux,
SunOS/Solaris
* Programming Language: C, Unix Shell
* Topic: Power (UPS), Systems Administration



Project UNIX name: apcupsd
Registered: 2002-05-26 12:37

http://sourceforge.net and enter in the searchbox: apcupsd