[CLUE-Tech] UPS Recommendations?

[bill ehlert]

**  hello, jed - -

        i use the apc smartups 700.  i'm
    no electrical engineer (good GOD no)
    but the manual asserts

        on battery          low distortion
        waveshape           sine wave

    i don't remember what it cost me (have
    had it 3 or 4 yrs) but it can't have
    been all that much, or i wouldn't have
    paid it.
                         

    couple of other things i like:

    a few weeks ago i noticed a red light
    on the front panel along with the various
    greens.

    checking out the manual i found that it
    was the "replace battery" light.

    reading further i found the 800 number
    for t.s.  calling it and making selections
    from the menus i found myself connected to
    a company called   insight   which asserts
    it is the official replacement-battery
    vendor for apc.  they were happy to sell
    me a set of replacement batteries for about
    $80.

    when they got here i was able to open up
    the box [had never done this before] and
    replace the batteries with little trouble.

    after a few hours with no computer while
    the new batteries charged, i am again
    humming along smoothly.

    did a google search on    smartups    .
    got about 6,100 hits  (some of which,
    however, appear to be in  Old Finnish ).

    some are articles.  some are willing to
    sell you a smartups right on the spot.
    some mention   suse   and   debian  , so
    presumably the  "smart" feature (tells
    the computer to shut itself down if there's
    a prolonged power outage and the batteries
    are in danger of running out of gas) is
    linux-aware.


                     h t h,

                             bill




--- "Jed S. Baer" <thag at frii.com> wrote:
> After two power outages in a week, one of which
> cost me a motherboard,
> I've decided I need an UPS. Does anyone have
> any particular
> recommendations? The UPS-HOWTO seems hopelessly
> out-of-date for web
> links, anyway. And I suspect for capabilities
> of powerd as well. (Yeah,
> I'll read the powerd man page too. ;-)
> 
> Seems if I want true sinusoidal output, it's
> gonna really cost me. I
> don't suppose that's a necessity.
> 
> A few of places I've looked so far:
> 
> http://www.4ups.com/ (refurbed Deltec, unknown
> VA rating)
>
http://www.fentonups.com/Products/PowerPal/powerpal.html
> http://www.jetta-tech.com/Products_main.htm
>
http://www.baber.com/baber/products/powersupplies.htm
> (Optiquest?)
> http://www.tripplite.com/
> http://www.bestpower.com/ (Useless website,
> AFAICT)
> 
> One thing I find curious is the extreme
> variance in the "recommended"
> units given by 3 different web-based estimation
> programs -- in terms of
> the VA rating. My (admittedly lots of headroom
> here) PC has a 300W power
> supply. I haven't stuck my head behind my
> moniter yet to see what it
> wants (it's a 19" Sony). I'd like to put my
> alarm clock on it as well.
> 
> According to the UPS-HOWTO, APC and TrippLite
> aren't Free-Software
> friendly. Anyone know if this is still true?
> 
> TIA.
> Regards,
> jed
> -- 
> "Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering
> if they've made a
>  difference. Free Software developers don't
> have that problem."







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