Mac friendly Uninterruptable Power Supply

On Apr 2, 2008, at 11:38 AM, Steven Engle wrote:
> What are the candidates for a network enabled UPS that works well
> with OS X
> (and Linux and Windows) across a network?

I have Belkin UPSs. I don't know if they can be controlled over a
network, but when connected to a Mac via a USB cable, a UPS tab shows
in the Energy Saver preference pane. However, I'll note that one of
the three UPSs I have went bad causing a lot of havoc. Belkin did
replace it, but it was a long process.


Kirk

> Any recommendations for a Mac friendly UPS vendor? I looked at APC, but
> their OS X support is poor. MGE has been bought by APC, they use to have
> good Mac support, but not anymore.

Actually, it's the other way around, MGE bought APC. MGE is a European
based company.


Bob Lauterbach
Lauterbachpacbell.net

        There are some notes about UPSs and Mac OS X here:
<http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20051009043816537>

        And <http://www.powerguardian.com/> used to make some software that
worked with a variety of hardware, but no longer seems to sell it.


--
* Johann Beda - contact link: <http://xri.net/=j-beda> *
* Johann's MostlyMac Computer Consulting - <http://mmcc.beda.ca/> *

>MGE has been bought by APC,

I'm fairly certain that acquisition went the other way around.
technically MGE's parent company Schneider Electric bought APC back
in 2006.

<http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid80_gci1226992,00.html>


I don't have any direct data about automated shutdowns from the UPS
as our UPS systems are generator backed and therefore designed to
NEVER shut anything down... not to mention a tad larger than the
average household unit:

<http://www.forest.net/newDC/EPS7000.jpg>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eBW9XsG9d4>


--chuck

Best thing I ever did was buy a server-grade UPS from Boeing Surplus,
here in the
Puget Sound Region. $70 buy + $75 worth of new batteries = SERENITY!

Line hit?
        WHAT line hit?
                Whole neighborhood's dark, and _I'm_ still workin' away happily.

It's bigger than a desktop, but it's UNDER the desk.

  I've had it for 6 yrs now, replaced batteries once.

I've _used_ it about twice a year since I bought it. WELL worth the $$$

-- L

MGE has been bought by APC,

I'm fairly certain that acquisition went the other way around.

technically MGE's parent company Schneider Electric bought APC back

in 2006.

On 2-Apr-2008, at 03:38, Steven Engle wrote:
> Any recommendations for a Mac friendly UPS vendor?

APC

> I looked at APC, but their OS X support is poor.

What support? OS X manages my APC perfectly.

> What are the candidates for a network enabled UPS that works well
> with OS X
> (and Linux and Windows) across a network?

Network enabled? Ah... no clue then.

On Apr 2, 2008, at 2:38 AM, Steven Engle wrote:

> Any recommendations for a Mac friendly UPS vendor?

I used to recommend APC UPS's exclusively. But then they quietly
removed Automatic Voltage Regulation from all of their consumer class
(under $100) UPS's. A UPS without AVR is a waste of money. I've
found Belkin UPS's to be both stone reliable, and to also be an
excellent value.
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatSectionView.process?Section_Id=201476

Randy B. Singer • Mac OS X Routine Maintenance • http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html

Our local electronics chain stocks the MGE line of UPS but I bought mine cheaper through a distributor link. Not long after installing it, we had a power cut that lasted a while so the G5 Power Mac on that MGE UPS was shut down.

When I tried to restart the G5 that Mac's Power Supply was toast. Got the power supply replaced and a few weeks later the same thing happened with the replaced power supply when we got a second power cut. The local Mac service shop replaced the refurbed power supply under the warranty for that repair but I was cautioned not to try my luck for a third experience.

Have not been willing to trust that UPS to look after any electronic equipment so it is now being used to provide emergency lighting -- but it has not actually been called upon to fulfil that task yet!

I must have got an MGE Lemon as others have not reported my experience.

We have several APC UPS that are now up to 10 years old and none have ever yet given us that kind of experience.

Cheers,

John Wolff

Hamilton, New Zealand

Steven Engle:
> I looked at APC, but their OS X support is poor.

Lewis Butler:
> What support? OS X manages my APC perfectly.

That's not necessarily a contradiction - it depends on what your
expectations are. I have four APC UPS units of different capacities,
each supporting a different desktop machine. For my OS X machine,
the APC control software gives me the choice of shutting down after
running on battery power for N minutes or shutting down when there's
only N minutes of battery left (N being variable in both cases).
That's far more management capability than I have on the other three
machines, which do not run OS X. (One is actually - gasp! - a PC,
though it's run with DOS, not Windoze.)

On the other hand, the APC software does not provide me with any
means of inquiring about the status of the UPS unit. At a minimum,
I'd like to be able to find out how many minutes of battery support
are available now, when presumably it's fully charged. It would be
better if it could tell me how the number of available minutes is
affected by load, ranging from sleep to heavy computation with steady
disk I/O. It would be really nice if it could give me some
measurement of its own health - how does a full charge now compare
with when it was brand new? etc., &c. I suspect that big commercial
UPS systems can do these things and more, so it's disappointing not
to have at least some of them available in a home office sized UPS
unit.

Aside from this, all of my UPS units have functioned perfectly, and
none has ever let a damaging power surge through to the connected
hardware.

At 3:51 AM -0700 4/7/08, Carl S Zimmerman wrote:
>On the other hand, the APC software does not provide me with any
>means of inquiring about the status of the UPS unit. At a minimum,
>I'd like to be able to find out how many minutes of battery support
>are available now, when presumably it's fully charged. It would be
>better if it could tell me how the number of available minutes is
>affected by load, ranging from sleep to heavy computation with steady
>disk I/O. It would be really nice if it could give me some
>measurement of its own health - how does a full charge now compare
>with when it was brand new? etc., &c. I suspect that big commercial
>UPS systems can do these things and more, so it's disappointing not
>to have at least some of them available in a home office sized UPS
>unit.

        SlimBatteryMonitor seems to be able to do this for attached APC
units I am familiar with.

<http://www.orange-carb.org/SBM/>



--
* Johann Beda - contact link: <http://xri.net/=j-beda> *
* Johann's MostlyMac Computer Consulting - <http://mmcc.beda.ca/> *

I am using several smaller (500-750 VA) APC UPS, their PowerChute works fine under MacOS X (10.4x and 10.5x). In System Prefs you can make some settings and even see the status in % or time. However - and quite annoying - under Windows (XP SP2) you have a few more settings to make, for example turning off the sound alarm. But these appliances seems to be a good purchase for smth between 60-90 USD. However, be sure not to overcharge the battery-outlets, it burns out the logic card. //Lasse

On Apr 7, 2008, at 6:51 AM, Carl S Zimmerman wrote:
> That's not necessarily a contradiction - it depends on what your
> expectations are. I have four APC UPS units of different capacities,
> each supporting a different desktop machine. For my OS X machine,
> the APC control software gives me the choice of shutting down after
> running on battery power for N minutes or shutting down when there's
> only N minutes of battery left (N being variable in both cases).

One question I had regarding using the Energy Saver Prefs Pane to
manage APC UPS units is this:

If I check "Restart automatically after power failure", I am assuming
that the restart only happens after mains power actually returns and
not when the UPS is still running off of battery power.

Is this assumption correct? Apple's help pages do not shed any light
on how the behavior differs between when the Mac is connected directly
to mains, and via UPS.

Tn

I have an 8 kW Generac standby generator that operates off the same propane tank that feeds my house heating. It comes on automatically a few seconds after the main power fails, so the UPS's that protect my Macs don't have to function for more than half a minute. It's something like wearing a belt and suspenders at the same time.

Some of these cryptic settings, in combination with other pieces of
software or equipment, can only be deciphered by trying one setting
after another and cutting the power to see how it works out on
repowering. That is a science. Perhaps some reviewers have tried?

George

On 8-Apr-2008, at 08:42, doneck wrote:
> I have an 8 kW Generac standby generator that operates off the same
> propane tank that feeds my house heating. It comes on automatically
> a few seconds after the main power fails, so the UPS's that protect
> my Macs don't have to function for more than half a minute. It's
> something like wearing a belt and suspenders at the same time.

“How can you trust a man who wears a belt and suspenders? Man can’t
even trust his own pants.” Henry Fonda as Frank in OUATITW

But no, running a Generator and a UPS is not at all like that. It's
practical and sensible.