SU3000 Flashing Lights

[Anonymous user]

I've got a Smart UPS 3000 that has all of the lights on the charge indicator flashing green. All of the other lights seem normal. Any ideas?

[Anonymous user]

there is a calibration key that APC has come out with. It plugs into the USB port on the unit. Call APC for a key.

[Anonymous user]

Hello,

We do have a calibration key that will recalibrate the battery signal inside the UPS. It hooks to the serial port. If you call 800-890-4272 and listen to the phone menu for Smart-UPS Technically Support, we can send you this key to resolve the flashing battery charge graph lights.
It is recommended to follow the Knowledge Base steps first, but if they do not resolve the issue, the calibration key will.

Thank you.

[Anonymous user]

I've got a Smart UPS 3000 that has all of the lights on the charge indicator flashing green. All of the other lights seem normal. Any ideas?

[Anonymous user]

Hello I have a smart ups apc ups 3000XL 4 batteries to replace, but to cut the electrical supply the full charge indicator LEDs very quickly down to minimum, and occasionally blink led the two center columns. -

Would appreciate can help

regards

Federico

[Anonymous user]

from left to charge for 24 hours. They are third and the same characteristics.

But the use anterirormente and were very good. You do not get the original in my market

[Anonymous user]

the problem started after many power outages.

So the batteries are changed

but the problem persists

[Anonymous user]

What exactly does it reset? The key looks like a miniature version of SCSI terminator, with a red lamp on the end that seems to do nothing. The UPS goes tick, tick, tick then all the LEDs on the front comes on for a few seconds with a beep.

It fixes the issue mentioned here, but at the same time, it sets the battery change date to June 4th, 2003 for some reason. Why does it do this?

[Anonymous user]

I just want to add that the cal Key is definately not the answer to every flashing battery bar graph alarm. The
cause of a flashing battery bar graph, as explained in the link that Sgt. provided earlier, is that the actual
runtime remaining is within 2 minutes of the configured low battery signal time. In other words, if your UPS
were to go to battery, a low battery (graceful shutdown) signal would be sent to any configured servers within
2 minutes.

ONLY in a case where a UPSs battery has just been replaced with the correct APC replacement battery,
and the UPS is not showing the correct runtime (e.g. it has not fully recognized that its battery is brand new,
and is using the degraded values from the old battery in its runtime calculations) is the CalKey appropriate.
The Cal Key essentially tells the UPS that its battery is new, and to calculate runtime based on that specific
UPS's new battery values.


If a Cal Key were used in an inappropriate situation, it could potentially cause the UPS to think it has more
runtime than it really has, and this could cause problems with graceful shutdowns.




An couple example of innapropriate situations to use the calibration key:



1. The battery is not new, and does not need to be replaced, but the load is very high, and its causing the
amount of runtime to drop to within 2 minutes of a low battery signal. The solution here would be to lower the
load to increase the runtime, and get out of the 2 minute warning period.

2. The battery is not new, and does not need to be replaced, but the low battery signal time is set too high,
and is within 2 minutes of the actual runtime. The solution here would be to lower the low battery signal time.

Each of these scenerios is explained in more detial in the K-Base link from Sgt's earlier post.

Message was edited by: dirtfoot

[Anonymous user]

On 5/2/2007 4:40 PM, Jeremy said:

Hello,

Please see the following Knowledge Base document about the battery charge leds flashing in unison:

http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1497&p_created=1010390400&p...

Thank you very much.

What is the actual knowledge base article? This link does not come up with anything.

[BillP]

http://www.schneider-electric.us/support/index?page=content&country=US〈=en&locale=en_US&id=FA156538 

That link is 8 years old now and is invalid. The above link is today's URL to the same document.

[ITServiceDesk_apc]

I've read the document about manually calibrating runtime and have exception to the method. The UPS I have an issue with is in a rack connected to 16 servers (74% load, about 22 minutes actual runtime, tested with a major power failure). These are business critical servers that have better than 5 nines uptime. What your document suggests as a solution doesn't take into account this type of environment. I would have to shutdown all the servers. Try and create a load of atleast 30% (how does APC suggest I do this), completely discharge the SM3000RMXL with SU48RMXL battery pack whick should take about 2 hours and then charge the UPS without connecting the servers for another 4 hours? Just too much time offline.

In another thread there was mention of the "unofficial fix" through the serial connection.  If this method would reset the runtime calibration without using the manual method it makes much more sense. I don't know why you are no longer allowed to distribute this information but perhaps releasing the instructions should be reviewed. Having just spent over $1200CAD on three APCRBC105 batteries it would be very nice to have the UPS reporting properly.

[BillP]

I understand where you're coming from. Because of what you just said and the decision to release instructions to modify things through the serial port, then the new decision to not release the instructions, (blah blah blah), I requested the creation of our original solution from years ago called a Calibration Key (AKA Cal key). These were made recently and can be requested through tech support and basically do the serial fix in an automated fashion, ruling out the possibility of human error when entering some lower level modes on the UPS.

You can ask for APC part # 940-0260 for this key. We just made a new version 940-0260A to include some newer SUA models. If you have an SU model, the non-A version will work.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Good Morning.....So I have the Cal Key, but no instructions were sent with it.  I know it's a plug it in and let it do it's thing, but my question is.....can it be done with a load attached?  I have servers I can't take down and would like to know if it can be done with out affecting them?