Smart UPS 3000 XL

BillP · ‎2021-06-29

At our company we have a smart ups 3000 xl. The device is bought in 2004. In 2008 the batteries where changed.
Since a few days we keep getting warm-starts. I upgraded the firmware but no luck.
If i want to calibrate the batteries are empty right away and the ups shut down.
If i look at the logs the batteries are always (full and empty) on 55.05 vdc.

What do you think? Do I have to buy a new ups or could it be something else.

Kind regards, Martijn

BillP · ‎2021-06-29

ok, well based on the info you provided, i tend to think that there is an issue with the batteries themselves. they are 2+ years old now and if they have been used heavily and affected by heat from the UPS, they could be failing a little earlier than the 3 year mark.

if it were me, i would try replacing the batteries first. if you don't want to do that, you can look into trading the UPS in for a discount on a new one and having a new UPS with new 2 year warranty on both the batteries and UPS but again, i am making an educated decision here in suggesting to replace the batteries first. it could be something else that is not obvious but to me, that would be the first step. or, if you have another unit that uses the same batteries, you could try to swap them and see if the issue follows the batteries.

hope that helps.

after the battery issue is resolved, i'd like to see if the warmstart issue clears up. i see no reasons for the warmstarts except that you are getting spammed with battery related UPS issues. this is rare to see this cause a warmstart but i see no other reasons in the log.

See Answer In Context

BillP · ‎2021-06-29

hi

a warmstart is related to the installed network management card only. it generally does not have anything to do with the UPS or its function.

i'd suggest reading [this article|http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2572/] that explains what it means.

first course of action i would suggest is posting your event.txt here for us using [these instructions|http://nam-en.apc.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9321/] so we can see if the warmstarts are being caused by something. pending review of the event.txt, we may suggest a network management card firmware upgrade or different course of action.

anyway, there is no immediate cause for concern with these messages.

thanks!

BillP · ‎2021-06-29

It is not only the warm start but the ups isn't possible to do a self test any more.

I turned the ups manually off but it took me 30min or so to turn it on again.
When i pressed the on button it blinks en turns off. Sometimes the ups turns on the net led is blinking and when it turns on the led the ups fails.
Then is disconnected everything and tried again eventually the ups turned on.

I have also added the data.txt. There you can see that even when the batteries are empty there is always 55.05 vdc??

Message was edited by: ict@paswerk.nl

BillP · ‎2021-06-29

ok, i took a look at the logs.

how much runtime does the UPS report via the network management card interface? it seems to be that the UPS thinks it does not have a lot of runtime left - either by mistake or because the battery is indeed a couple of years old and has been used fairly often.

these messages are spamming the log that point me towards that:

12/28/2010 10:04:41 UPS: A discharged battery condition no longer exists. 0x0108
12/28/2010 10:04:32 UPS: The battery power is too low to support the load; if power fails, the UPS will be shut down immediately. 0x0107
12/28/2010 10:04:31 UPS: A discharged battery condition no longer exists. 0x0108

thus, i would need to know the runtime reported by the UPS versus the amount of on battery time you have observed during a recent discharge. i want to fix that and then look into the warmstarts. the NMC might be getting spammed by all of the error messages coming from the UPS about the runtime and batteries so it may keep rebooting.

let me know what you see in the interface for runtime and how much time the UPS actually runs on battery and we'll go from there.

BillP · ‎2021-06-29

With a load of 40% at the moment the runtime is 13min according to the NMC.
But when I run a battery test they are depleted immediately.

I just measured the batteries with a multi meter and they are about 54 volts. When I unplug the connection to de ups it drops to 53.8 v. But the ups keeps reporting 55.05v.

Message was edited by: ict@paswerk.nl

Message was edited by: ict@paswerk.nl

BillP · ‎2021-06-29

one last thing, in the NMC, what is the "low battery duration" value set to? this is under UPS tab->Configuration->Shutdown.

the default is two minutes but did you raise this value for some reason? is it close to the total runtime of 13 mins?

BillP · ‎2021-06-29

ok, well based on the info you provided, i tend to think that there is an issue with the batteries themselves. they are 2+ years old now and if they have been used heavily and affected by heat from the UPS, they could be failing a little earlier than the 3 year mark.

if it were me, i would try replacing the batteries first. if you don't want to do that, you can look into trading the UPS in for a discount on a new one and having a new UPS with new 2 year warranty on both the batteries and UPS but again, i am making an educated decision here in suggesting to replace the batteries first. it could be something else that is not obvious but to me, that would be the first step. or, if you have another unit that uses the same batteries, you could try to swap them and see if the issue follows the batteries.

hope that helps.

after the battery issue is resolved, i'd like to see if the warmstart issue clears up. i see no reasons for the warmstarts except that you are getting spammed with battery related UPS issues. this is rare to see this cause a warmstart but i see no other reasons in the log.

BillP · ‎2021-06-29

No it's the default 2 min.

BillP · ‎2021-06-29

Indded, it where the batteries. I changed them with another 3000xl and the problem is over.
So we have bought new batteries. Thanks

faziog · ‎2024-03-25

Can i add a network card to my Smart UPS 3000 XL?