So I've been wanting battery backups for a while, particularly for my wife who relies on her computer heavily for her work. Yesterday, I bought an APC backup unit rated at 725 VA. The very poorly written directions say to turn the unit over, remove the battery cover, and reconnect one lead to the battery terminal. Then plug in devices to be protected, plug in the unit's power cord, and press the power button to turn it on.
The power on light would not go on. I called APC, and we went through a diagnostic ritual which ended with the support tech agreeing the unit is no good. I exchanged it for a Belkin model F6C800-UNV Universal UPS.
The Belkin device comes with marginally better directions (but still not great) that stress the unit has to be charged at least 6 hours before use. It also offers Unix software. There is software on the CD specific to SCO, Linux, a couple other flavors. I didn't have time to check whether it is GPLed or not. I charged the unit and then pushed the power switch to start a self-test. The unit passed. The power cord that comes with it is a little short, but still reached the power outlet. I then set up my wife's hardware with the unit and all is well so far. (She is a Microsoft user, so I wasn't able to trial the Linux software.)
That just leaves adding 2 more UPS devices: one for my network closet and one for my small personal lab with a bunch of hand-me-down boxes.
Bob
Tom Diehl wrote:
On Mon, 13 Oct 2003, Robert L Cochran wrote:
How do I get an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to speak to my Red Hat firewall machine?
Look at the nut package. I have never used it for usb but others have. I use it for my serial ups's. It is kind of a pita to get going but once setup it seems solid. Besides it has pretty bar graphs you can view with a web browser. :-)
-- Bob Cochran Greenbelt, Maryland, USA http://greenbeltcomputer.biz/
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