Smart-UPS 3000: on-line LED flashing; power off/on button problems

[Anonymous user]

Hello forum,

I have an old Smart-UPS 3000 rackmount, model SU3000RM3U.  It had apparently been in disuse for a long time, and the completely dead batteries have just been replaced.  I have little experience with this model UPS, but it seems to be acting strange.  So far, I have not tried to establish communications with the UPS serial port.

1)  On-line LED flashing:

• When the unit is powered on, the on-line LED flashes.  From reading this forum, I believe that indicates a self-test is in progress.  Three of five LEDs are lit on the battery charge graph (60%), and other LEDs are off.

The strange thing here is the on-line LED never stops flashing.  Does this mean the UPS is stuck in the self-test?

1.1)  After power failure and restore, on-line LED turns off, on-battery LED remains on:

• If the UPS is unplugged, simulating a power failure, the UPS switches to battery power.  The on-battery LED turns on, and all 5 LEDs in the battery charge graph turn off.  The on-line LED continues flashing.
• After plugging the UPS back in, the on-line LED stops flashing and turns off, and the on-battery LED remains on, indicating that the UPS remains on battery power.

This is also strange, right?  Should the UPS switch back on-line after power is restored?

2)  Power-off button is momentary only:

• The power-off button switches off the loads, but only while it is being pressed in.  As soon as it is released, the loads are switched back on again.  The UPS manual says, "press and release the small, lower off button to turn off power to the loads."

This sounds broken, right?

3)  UPS cannot be cold-started:

• The manual states that with no line power, the UPS may be cold-started by pressing and holding the on/test button until the UPS begins beeping.  This does not work even after pressing the button for 15 seconds.

Should cold-starting work with this model UPS?  Could it be that this problem is related to the other problems, above?

  Thanks for any tips!  I'd love for this thing to keep my rack running during our frequent power blips.

[Anonymous user]

Update:

Spent the evening playing with NUT.  While many of the management features worked fine, oddly, some of the above problems seem to permeate the serial management interface, as well.

1)  On-line LED flashing:

On-line LED continues to flash.  Maybe this is normal?

2)  Power-off commands:

Power-off commands don't work while utility power is applied.  This includes commands listed as 'dangerous' in the documentation that can turn off loads in any circumstances.

The same power-off commands *do* work if utility power is removed.

When power is re-applied, the UPS comes back on-battery and powers up the loads, as hoped.  However,

1.1)  After power failure and restore, on-line LED turns off, on-battery LED remains on:

The UPS does not come on-line by itself.  Manually issuing a NUT 'load.on' command does cause the UPS to switch back to utility power.

3)  UPS cannot be cold-started:

Again, the UPS refuses to be cold-started from the serial interface, replying with "NO".  Ha!

Sheesh!  Can anyone shed some light on 1.1) above?  I'm just mystified.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

This does not sound right in any sense. If the UPS is in self test mode, you should have on battery solid and online LED flashing. From what you say, you only see an online LED flashing.

What command are you issuing to cold start the UPS? In my mind, cold start is when you remove the UPS from AC power and hold down the power button to start the UPS off it's own battery. Typically, the UPS beeps twice and you hold the power button down until the second beep where you let go/release.

This UPS also does not have bypass functionality.

Do you get any UPS status information during these conditions? Like when the online LED is flashing - does it report on battery, etc?

Can you do an alarm test with NUT? To verify all the front panel LEDs work properly?