DssW - Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS)

Remote shutdown

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:23:54 -0500

Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> wrote:

> I have a requirement to remotely shut down my Mac Mini (when the machine
> that's monitoring the UPS decides there's not enough battery left).
>
> Is there any reason why I (or rather, the script) shouldn't ssh to it and
> issue the appropriate "shutdown" command? Or is there a more Mac-ish way
> of doing this?

ARD will let you shut down from the Apple menu.

One way street though,

Jan

Recommended UPS?

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:07:07 -0500

My power has just gone down *again* (third time this week) and I've finally
decided it's time to get myself a UPS.

Unfortunately for me, I know nothing about UPS's so can anyone recommend
something that would support two computers for a minute or so?

TIA

advice on a UPS and surge protector

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 07:39:56 -0500

A recent power outage has convinced me that it would be a good idea to
consider a surge protector and uninterruptible power supply. Does
anyone have recommendations on what to look for? Is there any reason to
buy both a surge protector and UPS?

battery backup units

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:50:21 -0500

I just bought my first-ever battery backup unit (an APC brand 750A
model). The inspection sheet taped to it is dated 11-17-05. Is this
normal? Is the battery as good as new when it's been sitting on a shelf
for two years? (One terminal needed to be connected by me, the consumer,
per the instructions.)

Vibrations, cooler and mac

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 22:51:35 -0500

HI, I've just bought Belkin one-fan cooler to put under my MacBook
Pro (sometimes it heats up a loooot).
It seems to work, but I noticed that the cooler slightly vibrates with
high frequency and those vibrations transmmits onto the Mac. So I was
wondering whether this can bring any kind of micro or macro damage to
the machine? (Yeah I know this may sound stupid - if it does I
apologize) Any sensible opinions on that?

Also when i'm at it, do you think there is a sense in using the
cooler. I mean the bottom case heats up so much that it burns, but
it's been always like that, so maybe that is what is suppose to be?

Thanks,
Michal

UPS

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:50:34 -0500

Hi All,

I am about to buy an APC UPS, can't decide on either a CS 500 or RS 800.
iMac 24, second 20" monitor, external 500GB HD are all I am concerned
about at the mo. Don't really need extended work time, just safe
shutdown execution time; but multiple recovery in the course of the day
is occasionally an issue.

Anyone have experience with these?

regards

Chris

Uninterruptible power supply

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 00:15:38 -0500

Lately, for reasons unknown (and my electrician reckons unknowable
without *major* testing) my earth leakage circuit breaker trips
occasionally and takes out all my power. So I am thinking of getting a
UPS, but finding it quite difficult to get the full details of
connections, etc.

It isn't my computer itself that concerns me, as this is a laptop, but
external hard drives that may be working when the power goes. I am quite
happy to have my machine shut down, so that the hard drives will also
spin down normally.

Things that concern me.

1. APC is well thought of, but its own software seems poor. I gather
that when I have a UPS connected there will be a setting in Energy Saver
inviting me to shut down the machine automatically after a certain time
on battery. I take it that this will automatically save open files. I am
likely to be away from the computer at the time there is a failure. What
happens if some program "cancels shutdown", as has happened to me once
or twice (very rarely) when I wanted to shutdown or restart my machine?

2. I gather the automatic shutdown is governed by a USB connection. Can
this go through a hub? Otherwise one does not have enough USB ports.
Presumably, such a hub if powered (which is what I have) would need to
be connected to the UPS.

3. Annoyingly, the APC model that does NOT have a USB connection will
take British plugs, whereas the better model has the computer/kettle
sockets. All my equipment has British plugs. I am sure there is a
connector easily available, but I am wondering if I can get one
connector and plug in a standard multi-socket into which the other
equipment would fit.

It's really only the external hard drives that worry me (I am expecting
to upgrade from my current PowerBook, but it is more likely to be to a
MacBook(Pro) than an iMac). Everything else should not worry too much
about power suddenly going off.
--
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Send e-mail to the Reply-To address;
mail to the From address is never read

Recommendations for UPS for Mac OS X / Server

Sat, 19 May 2007 12:56:14 -0500

Hi all,

I've decided it's time to bite the bullet and upgrade my UPS (when the
power went out a couple of weeks ago I discovered the battery only had
about 2 minutes worth of charge!).

There are loads of UPSes on the market, of course. Can anyone
recommend a model that will allow for graceful shutdown in the event
of a power cut? I've read a range of opinions about the APC Powerchute
software. I've also read a couple of posts about "Apple's support for
UPS in the Energy Saver preferences" but can't see anything on either
Mac OS X or Server on my network.

Anyway, any pointers welcome as usual.

Thanks,

Ian.
--

UPS for MAC Pro?

Mon, 07 May 2007 20:21:12 -0500

I will be purchasing a MAC Pro as soon as the release of Leopard comes out,
so I am currently focusing on all the software and hardware that I want to
get for my new MAC. I am currently a PC user and I have seen the light. I
have been converted.

I have been looking at a Belkin UPS to use with the MAC Pro but from the
tech specs I noticed that the MAC Pro has a max rating of 6A on 240V (what
we have here in the Aus & in the UK). That's 1440watts. I can't seem to find
a UPS that is that big, besides massive cabinets used in the corp. world.

Has anyone else found and is using a UPS for their MAC Pro?

UPSes again

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 20:49:57 -0500

Having been primed by the chat out these just recently, we had a power
outage tonight.

So there I was, being slowly driven mad by the plaintive cheeping of
the (mains) smoke detector system for two bloody hours while the local
electricity monkeys tried to fix the local substation multiple times,
not to mention protectively switching _off_ the house mains loops
while they bounced the power up and down... and the grilfiend charges
downstairs about 40 minutes in saying "If you don't disconnect this
bloody alarm so I can get to sleep I'll rip it off the ceiling and
throw it out the window". At this point I decided I needed a nice
sturdy UPS for a computer or two, routers, network kit and the
damnable alarm system.

Since I hang around in uk.comp.sys.homebuilt with the sort of folks
who build racks, I had an old saved message from a trustworthy poster
recommending a few sellers on eBay. Off I toddle, to find that one of
them - "ups-trader" - had a 1400VA 2U APS lump available for �84 all
in (�65+p&p). Extra cheap due to missing fascia.
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SU1400R2IBX120

So I've bought two, since a battery set would cost at least �45+p&p.
Sod those nPower muppets, I shall be fully mains independent for at
least half an hour!

Now I just need somewhere to put them... 30 kilos each. Nice.

Cheers - Jaimie
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UPS now installed.

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 23:47:25 -0500

Righto, the shiny new Belkin UPS arrived today. Gave it the full charge
up, and it's now installed an working fine.

I initially installed it using the built in OSX UPS support, and it
worked as soon as I plugged in the USB lead. However, the menubar info
is useless, it just says "unknown time until full". I can set the
shutdown details OK in all the sliders too.

However, I have also now installed the BullDog software from Belkin, and
that gives so much more control. Again, it just seems to 'work'. I like
the Input/Output display, and the ability to shedule battery tests, as
well as the 'loading graph. None of which OSX handles.

I have the G5 (with Formac 17" on the ADC port), the external drive box,
and my HP widescreen 20" TFT plugged into the Battery Backup sockets,
and it's showing 49% loading. I plugged the remaining peripherals,
scanner, printer, USB hub and speakers, into the Surge Protect socket,
using a plain 5 way block (These are generally only used one at a time,
and the scanner and printer are off most of the time).

My only concern is the possible conflict between the two shutdown
softwares, so I'll have to have a play with that I think. I might try
setting them so that one just never operates.

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.mac.com/andrewhewitt1/>

Do I need a UPS?

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:03:28 -0500

Following my recent panic over my failed system after a recent power
outage, I'm wondering about getting a UPS.

We do suffer with a lot of 'brown outs' here, and the occasional flash
power cut (like the recent one).

I'm presuming a UPS will alleviate this issue, but I've never needed to
look into these before, so have a couple of queries.

I'm assuming that I'll need to more or less match the maximum power
consumption of my Mac - the dual G5 1.8 rates at 605W. Looking around
this would suggest I need at least a 1000VA UPS, possibly may be better
at 1200VA (going by the published ratings).

Is it essential to have a Mac compatible one? Again, I'm assuming that
this will only matter if I want it to shut down the Mac properly in the
event of a sustained power outage.

A little browse around various sites had found a couple of reasonably
priced possibilities - one from Unitek (Misco are doing a 1600VA one for
just under �90), and there seems to be a 100VA Trust jobby around too.
There's also a company on eBay doing refurbed (i.e fitted with new
batteries and 12month wrty) APC 1200VA units.

Any advice?

--
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.mac.com/andrewhewitt1/>

UPS Energy Saver control pane

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:48:01 -0500

I've always had a UPS connected to my Mac, and now want to use it.

I replaced my APC unit with one from TrippLite since it was advertised as
being controllable from the built-in Energy Saver control panel.

Sure enough, a UPS menu item and associated control pane show up, but the
controls are disabled. Energy Saver apparently sees the device and its
charge, but I can't control the actions (like shut down five minutes before
it runs out of juice).

Anyone know how to enable these controls?

-- Thanks, Verne

UPS + 10.4

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:39:17 -0500

Hi, Can anyone recommend a brand of Uninterruptible power supply that
works well with OSX 10.4?
I'm thinking of the ones that have a usb port and software to shut down
the mac cleanly if the UPS kicks in.
Arthur

PowerMac deadness following power cut

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:55:27 -0500

We had a power cut here for a couple of minutes this morning. Most of
our machines are on UPS or surge suppressors, but sod's law dictated
that this one PowerMac wasn't.

It doesn't boot. At all. The power light is on on the monitor (17"
Cinema Display, TFT - the one with the power light and switch at
bottom right).
When I touch this, the light comes on brightly and then fades again to
normal brightness. Pressing the power switch on the computer makes the
light come on for a second and then off again. So power is clearly
getting to the computer and there is some response to trying to start.

But there is no sound of anything happening in the computer - no fan,
no disk startup, nothing.

Any thoughts, anyone?

macfizz.
--

End of Miseries in sight, Whee!

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:59:07 -0500

After weeks of searching for a viable way to run a Mac on 208 vac, there
seems to be a breakthrough.

Gadd, I hope no other Mac user has to go through this.

What a circus.

I am in the final stages of negotiating with a custom transformer
builder for the step-down xfmr I need.

Gotta knock down my raw 250 vac to what the UPS needs, 208 vac input.

My UPS will grind out 208 vac to the Mac, with a beefy 13.0 amps rms
behind that 208 vac.

The Mac Pro itself will only use 6.63 amps, but I have a bunch of big
printers and other stuff that will use the rest of the 208 vac juice.

Most other custom xfmr builders wanted $2000, so I had to do a heck of a
lot of shopping to get the price down to something semi-reasonable, in
this case about $700. (negotiation still in progress on price)

Mark-

Battery recall cockup

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 09:37:30 -0500

Called up UPS today to collect my old battery. They turns up, and hand
over another new battery. Yes, Apple, in their infinite wisdom, has now
sent me TWO batteries to replace the one 'dodgy' one.

Now I'm pondering, dare I hang on to this 'spare' one and keep quiet
about their error, or be a fine unstanding citizen and send it back?

Decisions decisions... ;)

I wonder how long it'll take before they start chasing up non-returned
'dodgy' batteries. It's not as if they've indicated a time limit or
anything.

--
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UPS that works well with Tiger

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 03:50:39 -0500

Any recommendations on an affordable (750 VA or so) that works perfectly
well on tiger (i.e. can shot that mac down smoothly)?

Thanks.

G5 and Belkin battery backup ... trouble?

Tue, 30 May 2006 19:40:57 -0500

I bought a Belkin 375VA battery backup unit to give me time to
gracefully shut down the G5 the next time PG&E has one of their
momentary power failures -- something that seems to happen at least once
a month where I live.

Belkin's software no longer supports OS X ... and I've found a number of
reports on the Net regarding general trouble using this unit with Macs.

When I plug in the USB connection, the Energy Saver panel recognizes the
unit, and gives me an option to shut down when the unit's running off
the battery.

Unfortunately, whenever I have the USB cable connected, I get a popup
saying I'm running off battery backup ... then the Energy Saver shuts
the machine down.

Has anyone gotten the Belkin to work with Energy Saver properly?

Or should I return this unit and if so, what battery plays well with OS
X?

Surge Protectors

Tue, 23 May 2006 18:13:04 -0500

I was recently told by an "expert" that surge protectors deteriorate
over time and the protection is lost.

Is this true? At what interval should one get a new protector? Is it
any help to connect two in series (ie, more protection, longer life)?

TIA

Help needed please. Mac mini doesn't power up

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 17:18:43 -0500

Hi,

This I bought an APC usb 2.0 hub, plugged it in in the mini usb port and
inserted 2 usb printers, 1 external hd and a wireless keyboard and mouse in
the hub. Everything worked fine and instead of shutting down the Mac mini I
used the sleep mode.
After dinner I wanted to wake it up but couldn't. I tried to force shut it
by holding the power button for 10 seconds but nothing happened. I removed
the power supply adapter and noticed that therre still seemed to be some
current as the sleep mode light continued flasing for another 20 seconds.
Once it was off I let it stand for over a minute and then reconnected the
power supply and pressed the power button but nothing happens.
Unfortunately the warranty expired 2 months ago.

I would appreciate it if anyone has an idea as to what could have happened.

Thanks a lot,

Bernard

APC UPS logging/monitoring supply/battery voltage

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 13:25:55 -0500

I just purchased an APC UPS which I will probably have to send back.
Despite my best efforts, quizzing the supplier, it appears the UPS and
its supplied software has no options to monitor and log the supply side
voltage.

A few years ago I interfaced several APC UPS' to Sun Solaris servers.
The powerchute software had a quite useful logging function.

Is anybody able to advise which UPS and software combination offers the
best logging.monitoring solution for Mac OS.

--
Fergus McMenemie Email:fergus@twig.demon.co.uk.
Techmore Ltd Phone:(UK) 07721 376021

Unix/Mac/Intranets Analyst Programmer

Belkin F6C1500-TW-RK UPS

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 22:34:15 -0500

I've been looking for a UPS that works natively with OS X's UPS
software. I'm rather partial to Belkin, I've had good luck with their
products in the past.

I have my eye on the Belkin 1500va UPS, model number F6C1500-TW-RK.
Is anyone here using this device? What are your impressions? Does it
work with the built-in OS X controls?

UPS monitoring software built in to OS X?

Sat, 25 Jun 2005 16:56:52 -0500

Sorry to hijack this thread but I just gotta know :-)

David C. wrote:

> The one I use (an APC SmartUPS) reports these events (and many others)
> via USB and a serial interface to any computer that's connected.
> Software in the computer watches for these reports and acts
> appropriately. Appropriate action is usually to write an entry to the
> syslog and perform a shutdown when the battery runs too low.
>
> MacOS 10.3 has built-in software to handle these events. (At least
> 10.3.9 does. A straight 10.3 install from my CD doesn't show the UPS
> page of the EnergeySaver control panel, so I assume the feature was
> added in an update somewhere.)

Are you saying that the stock OS X software includes a tab for
UPSs in the Energy saver panel?

You didn't install any software that came with the UPS, etc?

What does this control panel window look like (i.e., what
functions does it support)?

If this is really true, it would imply that these functions are
contained in the
/System/Library/PreferencePanes/EnergySaver.prefPane files
wouldn't it?

--
Jeff Wiseman
to reply, just remove ALLTHESPAM

UPS recommendations

Thu, 09 Jun 2005 07:34:05 -0500

Neill Massello <neillmassello@earthlink.net> wrote:
> lusol <lusol@iMac-C.CC.lehigh.EDU> wrote:
>
> > I'm looking for opinions on good quality UPS devices for a dual G5
> > with dual Cinema displays and a bunch of Firewire disks. I only want
> > this to ride through momentary outages, so just a few minutes of
> > running time is all that is required. What are good vendors/devices,
> > and what vendors/devices might I want to avoid.
>
> My dual 2.0 G5 with (single) Cinema 20 loads my Belkin 1100VA model to
> about 25% of its capacity under normal CPU operation. I've never tested
> its battery runtime, but it has performed flawlessly during brief
> outages. I've only used APC and Belkin UPS models, and I prefer Belkin.
> I think they've got better configuration options and generally provide
> more for the money.
>

Just make sure there's "0 ms transfer time",
AKA on-line, double conversion.

I have two of these for everything:

http://tripplite.com/products/product.cfm?productID=2665

A Sad UPS story

Fri, 06 May 2005 11:27:10 -0500

We have a APC UPS which is dead.

So we thought we'd better fix it.
So we 'phone APC:

US: Can we have a circuit diagram please?
APC: No, because it's proprietary information
US: So is there somewhere we can send it for repair?
APC: No
US: Do you have an in house repair facility then?
APC: No
US: So what are we supposed to do then?
APC: Throw it away and buy a new one

I think that's VERY poor. I'd expect cheap kit to be disposable. But a
few hundred quid's worth of UPS should not, IMHO, be disposable. The
whole philosophy is obviously deigned to make you buy more UPSs. But
for me, next time round it won't be an APC one.

Thought y'all would like to know.....

Bozo Engineering -- The "Power Brick"

Wed, 04 May 2005 04:25:50 -0500

Matthew Russotto wrote:

> In article <1gv34fn.1fj92mc73sdqkN%neillmassello@earthlink.net>,
> Neill Massello <neillmassello@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>>I'd like a UPS with a DC tap and a system of cables, T connectors, and
>>plugs that would provide a backed-up 12V for my brick-loving peripherals
>
>>from a single daisy-chained cable.
>
> Yes. Not just peripherals; anything which uses DC power including the
> computers and LCD monitors. A nice big 48V (nominal) bus, with efficient
> DC<->DC converters to feed everything.
>
> Why 48V (nominal)? Because that's the top end of what's considered
> "low voltage", there's a lot of stuff (such as the aforementioned
> DC<->DC converters) already built for it because of its telco use, and
> it's high enough that you can put a reasonable amount of power through
> a reasonably-sized cable.

I'd prefer a 12 V (13.8 V) bus. Battery back up could then be as simple
as a car battery. Many devices are designed to run from 12V anyway, and
power bricks tend to be 6V, 9V or 12V.

Paul

UPS recommendations wanted

Mon, 14 Mar 2005 06:14:08 -0500

I recently had a problem caused by a power outage and I would like ot
aviod a repeat of it. It seems that we had a power failure and my iMac
G5 had to be coaxed back to life. Luckely I had DiskWarrior all set to
go for just a contengeny, and I was able to recover **most** of my info,
fortunatley what was lost was not too important. I now have a bootable
backup of my drive (bought a new FW HD just for this) and (as is my
custom) I backup important stuff whenever Imake a change.

What I would like is a UPS at would operate just long enough to allow my
iMacG5 time to do an ordely shutdown... Which brings me to my
question...

I have heard thatere are some UPS (s) that have a USB out to signal the
compuer that a power failure has occurred, and seems to me that the
indication could be used issue a "Shutdown" command so the computer
would have time to do an orderly shutdown. I read some info on the APC
site, and it seems that maybe some of their UPS (s) would do it, but I
can't tell from the available info.

So... I'm asking for recommendations on devices, model numbers or places
where I can research the info for myself, hopefully the info will be a
little more descriptive than what I found on the APC site.

Thanks ever so much,

AndyD

Mac Mini typical power draw ?

Sat, 05 Mar 2005 13:27:51 -0500

Anyone know what the typical real-world power draw of a Mac Mini is?

I'm putting together a medium performance, low power server that can
handle power failures. I'm debating between a iBook or PowerBook, vs a
Mac Mini on a UPS.

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G5 and UPS

Wed, 23 Feb 2005 16:58:57 -0500

Just got my new G5 and have hooked it up to an APC UPS backup. Although
the G5 will show the percentage of power left in the UPS the time left
is marked as "unknown". Is this typical? Will this work correctly with
the energy saver settings when they are in time only?