Smart UPS 1400, new battery - WORKS but reports zero runtime remaining

[Anonymous user]

Hi all, looks like a helpful community here so hopefully you can help me out too 🙂

I've done some reading, apologies if this is old news but I couldn't find the exact same problem.

I been given a pre-loved 10-year old Smart-UPS 1400, missing the battery. I've just put in new a genuine RBC7 which appears fine.

I'm using apcupsd on linux, and through that the battery reports 100% charge, but zero runtime remaining. All battery LEDs are lit, but flashing - indicating insufficient runtime at current load, I believe.

If I disconnect the serial line and kill the mains, the battery will happily support a 30% load for about 30 minutes, so it appears to actually work. All this time though the battery LEDs are flashing madly empty at me and the unit beeps constantly. I read that this is actually a calibration method, but afterwards nothing was changed unfortunately.

With the serial line connected, the daemon shuts the machine down straight away, as it sees the zero runtime and panics!

If I self-test the unit it straight away reports battery empty on both the LEDs and via serial port, and takes a few hours to "charge".

I've tried apcupsd's EEPROM Runtime Calibration, but the UPS aborts it straight away, because it thinks there's not enough run time to calibrate the run time 😞

Please don't tell me I need to find a Windows box to run something magic on!

Thanks, Tim.

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

Tim,


Call into Tech Support and request a calibration key. The APCUPSD won't be as efficient as this calibration key and should solve the problem for you.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Many thanks for the tip - I've requested info on how to find one through an email Tech Support and will keep you posted.