Smart UPS 3000 battery meter

[Anonymous user]

Hello,

A smart-ups 3000 was given to me by my company. (DL3000RM)

I plugged it in yesterday at home, it has brand new batteries in it and it's been charging for 8 hours.

Only the first led of the battery meter lights up.

I put some light load on it (One server, a router and a switch) and no load led come on either.

Might it be stuck in some kind of diagnostic led display or something like that?

Is there any way to "reset" the controller board to factory defaults?

Thanks

[BillP]

FAQ FA156611 tells you how to "braindead" and/or cold start the UPS.

This might help:

http://forums.apc.com/forums/post?tid=11741&ReplyPostID=54783&SpaceID=5

Is there a network management card (NMC) installed?

Also, the load you are attaching might not be enough to light even one of the load LEDs.  A similar load on my old SU2200 does not light up a single light.

Good luck!

[Anonymous user]

Thanks for the response!

Unfortunately, the link you provided seems to be to reply to my previous post.

No, it doesn't have a NMC installed 😞

Thanks!

[BillP]

Sorry about the bad cut 'n' paste job.  I'd go to the FAQ section and search on the FAQ that I listed.  Alternately, I used Google to look for "how to braindead an APC UPS".

Also, looking through the menu option in my system via the NMC, I do not see any mechanism to return the UPS to its default settings.

[Anonymous user]

I read the FAQ and it says "The Brain Dead procedure performs a hard reset of the Smart-Ups microprocessor. It does not however reset saved preferences.".

I will try it, but if it's stuck in a "voltage meter" mode or something like that, I'm not sure it'll pull out of it.

Anyway, doesn't hurt to try!

Any other ideas?

[BillP]

Hi Richard.  Oddly, I couldn't find any reference to the DL3000RM on the APC website nor a link to a manual so I am not sure if there's even a "voltage meter" only mode for the display.  The UPS systems that I am familiar with, here in the US, don't have such a mode as far as I know.

CAUTION:  Perform the following check while observing all applicable safety precautions!  The only other suggestion I have is that, if you have access to a digital voltmeter, carefully check the voltage across the battery pack and confirm that it is either good or bad based on what the manual you may have says or by checking the battery pack/s and doing the math yourself.  If the voltages are good, then the voltmeter on the UPS may be defective.

When you had the UPS loaded, did you disconnect the UPS from the mains?  If so, did the UPS appear to hold the load successfully while on battery?

[Anonymous user]

I checked the voltage of each battery before putting them in.

I had around 12.9 volts on every battery. Once the harness is on them, both packs give me a reading of 25.xx volts.

I know there is no reference to the DL3000RM. From my understanding, this is a UPS that is a "Dell OEM" from what I found on the net. Although it's clearly identified as APC on the unit.

Yes, when I disconnect the main, everything holds and the UPS beeps slowly as it should. That's why I'm confused as to why it only shows one led "charge".

Thanks for all the help!

[BillP]

Hi Richard,

Although not entirely out of the ballpark, 12.9 volts across a fully charged lead acid battery is a bit low.  I get about 55.0 VDC across the set of 4 batteries that are series-connected or about 13.75 each battery.  Is there any way you can check the voltage across on of the packs while connected to the UPS with it charging?  Safety, of course, is a must.  If the voltage won't rise to about 13.5 volts per battery, I suspect the charging circuit is defective.

I've got to go fix a fence and will check back later in the day to see where you are.

[Anonymous user]

It wasn't fully charged. I bought it from the store and they said it was "pre-charged". That might be why.

They've been in the UPS for about 14 hours now.

Here is a voltage reading:

Plugged into main (Charging)	1	2	3	4	Pack Total	All batteries
Battery pack 1	13.62	13.67	13.72	13.66	27.31	54.69
Battery pack 2	13.65	13.63	13.72	13.74	27.38

Unplugged from main (Discharging)	1	2	3	4	Pack Total	All batteries
Battery pack 1	12.78	12.72	12.71	12.71	25.38	50.70
Battery pack 2	12.66	12.63	12.66	12.69	25.32

Does that looks about right?

[BillP]

The voltages while charging appear to be about right and should result in a "full charge" indication on the front of the unit.  Does the DL3000RM have a front panel LCD for getting into the setup and configuration functions of the unit?  I suspect not but, if it does, you may be able to do a sanity check on the battery charge indicator via the LCD panel.

Are there any other interfaces, USB or serial, on the unit that you may be able to tap into and access the unit via Power Chute software, etc.?

Other than that, the unit may be usable as a backup without full knowledge of what the battery is really doing.  Does the Dell website offer any documentation on the unit?

I wish I had something more to offer you but am drawing blanks at the  present time.

I found a manual here:

http://excessups.ca/apc-smart-ups-3000-rackmount-3u-su3000rm3u

[Anonymous user]

Unfortunately, no LCD Panel, it's an older unit

There is a DB9 interface at the back, not sure if it's serial or something else. I don't have any cable or software that came with it.

According to what I see in the manual you found, there should be an "online" led? And when it switches to batteries we should see an led indicating that?

There are no other leds lit up on the front panel but that single battery led, even when it's self testing.

It took a while to do the measurements while the grid power was disconnected and it seemed to hold fine.

Not sure what's wrong with this unit hehe

Might have to talk to APC Tech support on monday.

Thanks again!

[BillP]

Richard,

I have a 1999 vintage SU2200 running right beside me and I am sure it's the same innards as your unit but repackaged into a tower configuration and rated for a little less power output.  I've had to dig into it on several occasions to keep it running and it's not going to beat me 🙂  I had to change some resistors on the main board having to do with the charging circuit and the 5-LED volt meter at one time.  There still may be an entry in this forum on what I and several other did with regard to charging issues but I am not sure.

On my unit, there are no lights lit in the first column (indicating very light load), the middle light, the on-line light, is lit in the second column and all five battery lights are lit in the last column on the right hand side of the panel.

I have an NMC-1 installed that allows access to all the configuration items and other important info the UPS can produce.  If you decide to keep your unit and play with it to get it working, I'd suggest investing in one of these.  I believe it is an AP9617 or something like that.

APC tech support isn't much help once the warranty expires on these units.  They are great at replacing units in warranty, but provide no repair capabilities after the warranty expires.  They'll offer you the ability to trade up your old one to a new one but your unit will provide only a marginal reduction in the price of a new unit of the same or larger capacity.  Finally, there is an out of warranty repair facility authorized by APC just outside of Baltimore, MD., that can provide exchange services.

That's about all I can offer at this point.  Good luck!

[Anonymous user]

I might have found the problem!

Upon closer inspection, I found that one of the wires in the ribbon cable that connects the motherboard to the front panel control board has been severed for some reason.

I got my soldering iron, and I'll bypass that wire with another one soldered directly on both boards to re-establish the connection.

Hopefully, that'll fix the problem!

Thank you very much for all your help Joe, I really appreciate it! I found an AP9617 for about 50$ on Ebay, I'll probably buy that.

Once you have that in your UPS, you don't necessarily need a software right? You can web manage it?

Thanks!

[Anonymous user]

That fixed it!

Leds are working fine now 🙂

I'll wait on your feedback before buying that card off Ebay

Thanks again!

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Congratulations!  Well done!  Yes, you can use a web browser to go to the IP address of the NMC card and, with a login and password, control everything from there.  There are downloadable utilities that allow you to configure the NMC if and when you get one.

Have a good weekend!