Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 21:10:10 -0500 From: Mike Tancsa <mike@sentex.net> To: Peter <petermatulis@yahoo.ca> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: choosing a UPS Message-ID: <d128u19oa3r586g0c97n85odh0cdo932g1@4ax.com> In-Reply-To: <20060203224457.3701.qmail@web60013.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20060203224457.3701.qmail@web60013.mail.yahoo.com>
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On Fri, 3 Feb 2006 17:44:57 -0500 (EST), in sentex.lists.freebsd.questions you wrote: >I am in the market for a UPS to effect automatic shutdown (via DB9) of a >file server (which will run FreeBSD 6.0). I have noticed some large = price >fluctuations and I don't understand why. I am comparing units of equal >strength, say 750 VA. Any comments on what I should be looking for? The APC RS series work pretty well with /usr/ports/sysutils/apcupsd and are a decent price. Most use USB, but it works well with FreeBSD. Not all UPSes are created equal. In the "low end" consumer grade stuff, they are essentially fast "switches". The UPS detects power loss, and it will quickly switch to the battery. On higher end ones, the utility power will feed the battery and you will get power directly from the battery. AC - DC - AC. They can also clean up noisy power and put out a constant voltage. These are much more expensive and are not really found in units under $750. Some units provide a middle ground by providing some voltage regulation / adjustment. APC calls it AVR and the UPS can kick in a few extra volts when street power drops below a certain point. The RS series does that to a limited degree but provide decent value and protection for the price. Also check to see what the max watts it can put out. If you have a big power supply, the draw might be too big. Another nice thing about the RS, you can slap on an external battery pack to get longer runtime. Here is some sample output. For this box, it will shutdown automatically when there is 5% charge left in the battery. At that point, it initiates a system shutdown and after 60 seconds cuts power to all the outlets on the UPS and stays off until street power comes back # apcaccess=20 APC : 001,039,1002 DATE : Fri Feb 03 20:59:34 EST 2006 HOSTNAME : xxx.sentex.ca RELEASE : 3.10.18 VERSION : 3.10.18 (21 July 2005) freebsd UPSNAME : PM6 CABLE : USB Cable MODEL : Smart-UPS 1500 RM UPSMODE : Stand Alone STARTTIME: Mon Dec 12 11:07:43 EST 2005 STATUS : ONLINE=20 LINEV : 123.1 Volts LOADPCT : 43.5 Percent Load Capacity BCHARGE : 100.0 Percent TIMELEFT : 28.0 Minutes MBATTCHG : 5 Percent MINTIMEL : -1 Minutes MAXTIME : 0 Seconds OUTPUTV : 123.1 Volts DWAKE : -01 Seconds DSHUTD : 090 Seconds LOTRANS : 106.0 Volts HITRANS : 127.0 Volts ITEMP : 24.7 C Internal ALARMDEL : Always BATTV : 27.4 Volts LINEFREQ : 60.0 Hz NUMXFERS : 4 XONBATT : Thu Jan 19 12:03:03 EST 2006 TONBATT : 0 seconds CUMONBATT: 15 seconds XOFFBATT : Thu Jan 19 12:03:04 EST 2006 SELFTEST : NO STATFLAG : 0x02000008 Status Flag SERIALNO : AS0308210854 BATTDATE : 1980-01-01 NOMBATTV : 24.0 =46IRMWARE : 17.3.D USB FW:1.5 APCMODEL : Smart-UPS 1500 RM END APC : Fri Feb 03 20:59:35 EST 2006 ---Mike -------------------------------------------------------- Mike Tancsa, Sentex communications http://www.sentex.net Providing Internet Access since 1994 mike@sentex.net, (http://www.tancsa.com)
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