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Terence Eden Jun 25, 2021

Gadget Review: SMT1500i UPS + Linux Instructions

I never get power cuts. But, we've had two in the last week. They've both been fixed quickly, but it takes an age for my cable modem to reboot - and then an age for my smarthome to reconnect to the WiFi. So it was time to invest in an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).

My friend Paul Curry recommended the APC

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/06/gadget-review-smt1500i-ups-linux-instructions/

#/etc/ #battery #electricity #gadget #power

Gadget Review: SMT1500i UPS + Linux Instructions

I never get power cuts. But, we've had two in the last week. They've both been fixed quickly, but it takes an age for my cable modem to reboot - and then an age for my smarthome to reconnect to the WiFi. So it was time to invest in an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). My friend Paul Curry recommended the APC SMT1500i. It usually retails for around £700, but I found a refurbished one for £200 L…

Terence Eden’s Blog

After 5 years of service, I woke up to this delightful message:

> Emergency! Batteries have failed on UPS SMT1500i. Change them NOW

What's the go-to UPS these days? Or should I just stick some new batteries in there?

Just needed for a small home-lab. Nothing excessive needed - but USB or Ethernet connectivity would be useful.

What do you personally recommend?

Terence Eden Apr 23

Right, new batteries ordered. Thanks for the advice all.

Anyone want some did cells before I try to recycle them?

Terence Eden Apr 27

I mean, this probably wasn't helping matters! 🥲

Terence Eden Apr 27

After a little open-heart surgery, IT LIVES!

Thanks to the lovely folk at https://secure.ups-trader.co.uk/
The 2nd hand battery they originally supplied gave 5 years dutiful service. This new one should give me a few more.

Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸)Apr 27

@Edent Lead/acid?

Fazal Majid Apr 27

@Edent keep an eye out on those electrolytic capacitors on the motherboard.

Michael Horne Apr 27

@Edent Yuck!

Martin Hamilton 🔜 EMF Apr 27

@Edent Load bearing fluff

Fazal Majid Apr 23

@Edent your local council should be able to take them off your hands. In Barnet, at least, they will come and collect hazardous chemicals by appointment.

@Edent
When I had some dead lead-acid batteries my local scrap metal place gave me money for them.

Not a huge amount compared to the cost of replacements, admittedly, but tens of quids (I had accumulated quite a lot of batteries).

Also, good choice on the APC UPS. I've got a couple and so long as I feed them new batteries every so often, they've been trouble-free.

James Harrison Apr 23

@Edent New batteries in existing unit is almost always the way to go. UPS Trader and Critical Power Supplies I'd recommend for batteries/packs.

Alan Jeskins-Powell Apr 23

@james @Edent
Second for Critical Power Supplies, recently used them for replacement batteries for my UPS. Batteries replaced with no downtime.

Charlie O’Hara Apr 23

@Edent Not my experience (I’m still stuck with an old crappy lead acid UPS) but I’ve heard @jimsalter talking about using a lithium ion powerbank very successfully as a UPS. The switchover times on some models are allegedly as good as instant.

Fazal Majid Apr 23

@awfulwoman @Edent @jimsalter I'd be very careful with lithium batteries in a quantity sufficient for UPS use, due to fire risk, and would probably skip them and instead wait until sodium batteries replace them Real Soon Now.

Jim Salter Apr 23

@fazalmajid @awfulwoman @Edent I deploy both professionally, and so far my count of lead acid UPS battery fires is two and my count of lithium phosphate UPS battery fires is zero.

Alex Hudson Apr 23

@Edent hate answering a question with a question - but with new plugin solar rules presumably plug in batteries are a thing shortly too?

I’m in a similar boat - but need an ups rather than a replacement - and I’m wondering if a plugin makes more sense now? Some seem to come with sockets on them for the ups case…

Terence Eden Apr 23

@alexhudson I have a 5kWh home battery - but that doesn't work in a power cut.
My UPS is just designed to keep my home server and cable modem running.

Alex Hudson Apr 23

@Edent what I mean is cut-down versions of something like this: https://solarpowersupply.eu/plug-in-home-batteries/anker-solix-solarbank-max-ac-35-kw-7-kwh

It can plug into a wall socket or be plumbed in as a dedicated battery as your is. Wall socket mode AIUI allows you to charge when cheap and discharge when expensive.

But then it also has a dedicated circuit for off-grid when the mains AC is off, giving it that UPS-like use case?

I've seen ads for a variety of these things at ~£400 price point. Obvs not legal yet and some may well be vapourware :(

Anker SOLIX Solarbank Max AC | 3,5 kW - 7 kWh

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Erik Ableson Apr 23

@Edent I’ve had good luck using https://www.battery-direct.com. That said, I’ve also added some test power banks to the mix and they are a game changer.

I’m testing in series with socket->power bank->UPS. Even if it takes the bank a couple of seconds to failover, the UPS handles that nicely. On a W/$ basis the power banks go a *lot* further so you’re looking at hours of uptime, not minutes.

Bonus: schedule charging in off-peak hours & draw down on peak for savings on power bill

UPS Batteries and Sealed Lead-acid batteries

Stephen Borrill Apr 23

@Edent I would personally recommend replacing the batteries. You should reset the battery date after doing so. I had variable success doing this with apctest (from apcupsd which your blog suggests you use) with recent battery changes. For one model (but not the SMT1500), I ended having to use the Windows tools to do it.

theothertom Apr 23

@Edent I'd probably suggest replacing the batteries, assuming you're happy with the UPS itself - devil you know and all that.
Aside from the weight of everything, it was pretty easy to swap them when I did it (in a CyberPower UPS).

Iain Wallace Apr 23

@Edent https://secure.ups-trader.co.uk/ for new batteries. Yes the website looks like it’s made by a man trapped in a warehouse with 1000s of UPS for 20 years… cos I think it is. But that’s what you want.

UPS, New Batteries - UPS Trader

Supplier of Refurbished UPS, New Batteries and UPS associated hardware. 12 Month RTB warranty and new batteries as standard.

@Edent I'd lean to just throwing out the bathwater, UPS batteries are a consumable.

@Edent Might not be relevant as you already have home solar but I've got an EcoFlow River 3 Plus as a UPS. Have a single 200W solar panel attached so when it's sunny we're not pulling from the grid. Also automated to charge up before and run on battery during agile price peaks. Works really well but maybe a bit expensive if you don't need the solar bit.

@Edent Oh and I also have a cyberpower one which is fine 🤷‍♂️

@Edent When my lead acid UPS batteries die next, I'm seriously considering something like this: https://www.ankersolix.com/products/c1000-gen2 as the battery life is a lot longer, and they are now good enough to use as a UPS. This podcast I like talked about using them as UPSes recently: https://2.5admins.com/2-5-admins-291/

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Iain Cuthbertson Apr 23

@Edent still happy with the APC Back UPS series. Currently have 3 in use (two at home, one with my parents).
Occasionally (many multiple years) have to replace the sealed lead acid battery.

Lots of 3rd party sellers for the batteries.

Initially chosen for Linux compatibility. They all continue to work without fuss.

@bigcalm @Edent Same here, two APC Back UPS units that are at least 10 years old at this point, and I only replaced the previous ones because I wanted USB rather than a serial port. Batteries are easy to buy at the local battery store.

@Edent I have a DC UPS which a friend gave to me. It makes so much sense, thinking about it. It has 12V, 9V and 5V outputs and it's much smaller and more efficient than regular UPSes, which convert DC to AC just to be converted to DC again for my NAS and other things.

Jim Salter Apr 25

@Edent Anker Solix C300 or up, depending on your needs. Switchover time is about the same as the APC and Cyberpower 1500s I used to use, waveform is clean and there are no ugly spikes at switchover when viewed through an oscilloscope (yes, I really did) and capacity is UNREAL.

A roughly $200 C300 only supports 300W continuous draw... But it's got 288Wh of capacity. That translated to 3.5 HOURS of uptime on an i7 6th Gen box and 24" monitor running a 50MiB/sec random I/O workload.

Jim Salter Apr 25

@Edent if you need more power handling or longer uptime, the C1000 Gen2 offers triple the power handling and four times the capacity, still pretty damn affordable at under $500.

Oh... And the batteries won't be shit on only a couple or three years like lead acid batteries, either!