Battery Constant for Smart UPS

[Anonymous user]

 Hi

I have two UPSes one is Smart-UPS 1500 (Serial#: AS0229112295) and the other is Smart-UPS 700 (Serial#: QS1107012349). Both are 220 V in black color. I replaced their batteries and now both are giving much lesser time as expected. Battery LED lights are flashing / blinking with a little load even when UPS is online (using main power). Moreover, UPS wrongly shows battery as full in just few minutes 

I have done manual calibration and calibration using PowerChute Business Edition but no success. 

I want to set the value of "Battery Constant" using HyperTerminal, I know its method but I don't know the exact values for battery constants for each UPS. 

PLEASE let me know the battery constant for Smart-UPS 1500 and Smart-UPS 700 

Thanks 

Shakeel

[BillP]

Hi Shakeel,

I am sorry for your issue with the run time of your unit.  I would advise calling into your local support team because this is an international model and I am unable to provide that constant.

You may find the number to your local support using this link:

http://www.apc.com/support/contact/

[Anonymous user]

Hi Jordan

Could you please try to know these constants by asking some one else in APC team. There might be some one who know about it in your team.

I have read through many many discussions on APC forum to solve this issue and applied all the possible methods but FAILED. I have wasted so much time on it and really impacting my business since several months.

The only option I am left with is "Changing the battery constant via HyperTerminal". Please send me the exact battery constants for both UPSes. I am not going to use it for any commercial purpose, I will apply it only to my UPSes.

Looking for a favorable response.

Thanks

Shakeel

[BillP]

Shakeel,

I do apologize but I am unable to provide this constant on the forums as inappropriate use by other customers could damage their unit.  However, if you have done all the possible troubleshooting and have narrowed it down to requiring the constant, telephone support for your area can provide that constant in confidentiality.

Regards,

[Anonymous user]

Hi Jordan

Could you please send these constants on my email address?

Or please send privately, if its possible to send a private message here?

I have got these constants but I want to confirm these by APC !

Thanks

Shakeel

[Anonymous user]

Jordan, you seem to know about these things so maybe you can explain, or point me in the direction of further information about this "Battery Constant."

I have a SmartUPS   SUA 1500, Serial # AS0345132330.  After replacing the battery it constantly blinks all of the "Battery Charge" lights. It also shows a reasonable battery percentage, but the  "time left" always shows 0.0 minutes. 

It actually works well - I have left it on with about  a 35% load and it keeps going for over an hour, so I assume the 100% battery charge reported by the apcupsd  software is pretty accurate. After a discharge I can also watch the percentage increasing over several hours back up to 100%.

I've tried  every suggestion I can find, but nothing changes the zero minutes, and the lights are always blinking. So the suggestion seems to be to contact APC  to request a "dongle" that will reset the "constant." 

Today (Jan 13, 2015)  APC  support told me "Unfortunately, the battery constant values are no more available." Then they suggested a calibration of the battery by letting it completely drain and recharge over night. I have already done that and it didn't help.

 Can you tell me more about this mysterious "Battery Constant"  and how to get it reset? I don't have any Windows systems.  My computers are all  Mac OS X and Ubuntu   Linux.  The cables I'm using are USB  and the software is apcupsd.

APC : 001,044,1091
DATE : 2015-01-13 13:39:09 -0800
HOSTNAME : AirHead-2.local
VERSION : 3.14.12 (29 March 2014) darwin
UPSNAME : SmartUPS1500
CABLE : USB Cable
DRIVER : USB UPS Driver
UPSMODE : Stand Alone
STARTTIME: 2015-01-09 19:55:18 -0800
MODEL : Smart-UPS 1500
STATUS : SHUTTING DOWN
LINEV : 120.2 Volts
LOADPCT : 21.4 Percent
BCHARGE : 100.0 Percent
TIMELEFT : 0.0 Minutes
MBATTCHG : 5 Percent
MINTIMEL : 3 Minutes
MAXTIME : 0 Seconds
OUTPUTV : 120.2 Volts
SENSE : Medium
DWAKE : -1 Seconds
DSHUTD : 630 Seconds
LOTRANS : 106.0 Volts
HITRANS : 127.0 Volts
RETPCT : 30.0 Percent
ITEMP : 27.9 C
ALARMDEL : No alarm
BATTV : 27.5 Volts
LINEFREQ : 60.0 Hz
LASTXFER : No transfers since turnon
NUMXFERS : 1
XONBATT : 2015-01-13 08:30:08 -0800
TONBATT : 0 Seconds
CUMONBATT: 84 Seconds
XOFFBATT : 2015-01-13 08:31:32 -0800
SELFTEST : NO
STESTI : 7 days
STATFLAG : 0x05200248
MANDATE : 2003-11-07
SERIALNO : AS0345132330
BATTDATE : 2014-05-12
NOMOUTV : 120 Volts
NOMBATTV : 24.0 Volts
FIRMWARE : 601.3.D USB FW:1.5
END APC : 2015-01-13 13:39:40 -0800

[Anonymous user]

So, I've been having to do a bit of research on this issue for company reasons. If you want a quick fix with out having to worry about knowing the constants see what you can find related to "APC-FIX.exe" a google search should get you what you need. You will need the serial cable for it to work. Yes, it is safe, I've done the fix on 20+ units. Hope it helps.

[BillP]

We are also in the process of ordering more "calibration keys" for customers and hope to have them available through technical support (at least in the US for now) within a few months.

[Anonymous user]

Thanks Angela,

I will test APC-Fix

[Anonymous user]

On 1/28/2015 8:58 AM, Angela said:

We are also in the process of ordering more "calibration keys" for customers and hope to have them available through technical support (at least in the US for now) within a few months.

Should they have them in stock now? (Are they different for each model, or is there a universal one that knows the proper details for every model?)

Chat support didn't really seem to know about battery constant or any dongle, is it just phone support that would know about it?

My model is SUA2200RM2U.

[BillP]

It is one universal calkey for all SU and SUA models. They were being ordered in February and then stocked so I will have to check on the status. 

I don't think tech support has been told yet until we have them available in stock which as I check right this second, we don't. It was literally me and one other person who requested we order additional calkeys so it wasn't something everyone will know about yet. We haven't had them in stock for some time that include SUA models.

What we do have in stock is the original version of the calkey, part # 940-0260 but I don't think that will include SUA models. The new version on order will be 940-0260A which include SUA models.

Your model's value is '81' if you want to proceed on your own and you have indeed just replaced your batteries and are having a problem with the runtime reported updating properly.

[Anonymous user]

Thank you for the reply.  Yeah, I tried chat support and at first they said no such thing existed, and then when I pointed to this forum they said 'well, it doesn't exist for the SUA series, only SU series needs it.'  I contacted the place I bought the RBC43 from, and they sent me a new one.  Just did a runtime calibration on the new one and it lasted much longer than it did on the other battery (at nearly 70% load it lasted around 5 to 6 minutes) so I'm hopeful that once it's 100% charged the 'discharged battery' alert will go away on the NMC's browser interface.

[rajil.s_apc]

Angela,

I need a calibration key for my UPS SUA1000XL. Where can i get thiskey?,

Thanks,

Rajil

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You should contact local support to see if the key is available in your region. If not you could search for apcfix.exe. Other forum members have posted stating that the apcfix.exe has helped them with calibration.

Please note that this product is not associated with Schneider Electric in any way and you will use it at your own risk. 

[Anonymous user]

Yes I can confirm that this worked for me on 2 units....... APC so could not be bothered to help me officially that I had to spend 4 hours searching for this fix so that I could use my APC UPSs..... Shame really. APC are normally pretty good. I appreciate there is a risk altering the internal settings, but the risk is worth taking on out of warranty units vs totally unusable broken units. Other brands are available.