Smart UPS RT 3000 beeping and switching between online and battery

[Anonymous user]

See the video below. Our UPS is doing this on a daily basis for about an hour then it's fine for the rest of the day.. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous user]

Hi, what time of the day is this happening ?  Its not uncommon for there to be noisy power in buildings for brief periods of time on a cyclical basis - Eg, many buildings have BMS systems which turn down fans and heating hardware overnight then promptly turn them on again at 7:00 or 8:00 AM prior to human occupancy. These types of inductive loads when kicking in can cause brief voltage sags that will cause your ups to react this way. Same thing can happen if there are elevators in a building and in the morning they are heavily used while everyone arrives then afterwards there is sporadic usage....

[BillP]

Can you let me know how you have this set up - what's connected to it for load, communication cables, etc? Also, can you visually verify if you have a serial cable attached to the rear of this UPS? A picture will also help (since you were able to do a video which was nice). This could be due to a faulty serial cable potentially that has just began to start failing. We've identified an older batch of serial cables we saw this with once before that caused this type of symptom and it typically happens over time and maybe is just starting to develop.

Secondly, if this UPS has a UPS Network Management Card installed, the logs from it would be extremely useful to see what the UPS is logging. PowerChute Business edition would also provide logs - let me know what you have and I can tell you how to get the logs if you're unsure.

[Anonymous user]

Hi and thanks for your reply. Sorry for the delay getting back to you, I've only just managed to install the network management card in order to get to the logs.

There's no indication that there is anything wrong with the battery.. but it seems to be doing a lot of self tests.

event log attached.

Many Thanks

Dan

[Anonymous user]

Hi and thanks for the reply. Sorry for the delay getting back to you, I've only just managed to install the network management card in order to get to the logs.

I was in the building yesterday afternoon and no one else was in the building and it started doing this. Seems to be doing lots of self tests...

Thanks

Dan

[BillP]

Yes - are any of those front panel buttons stuck? Or I don't know if you can fiddle with them to see if they are stuck and if the self tests stop. Also, could you visually verify whether or not a serial cable is attached to the rear of the UPS in the DB-9 port? (And we'd eventually want to remove it once we know what the other end is connected to.)

[Anonymous user]

Hi

i'll check for struck buttons but don't think so. No serial cable is connected.

thanks

dan

[BillP · Accepted solution]

I would start by braindeading the UPS and then connecting things one by one back to the UPS, including the NMC.

To braindead, you'll need to turn off the UPS and again, just double check for any communication cables. (The only time I've honestly seen this is when a faulty serial cable was connected.) Once the UPS is off, remove AC power (or flip the input breaker). Then, hold down the UPS off button and ensure the LEDs flash and/or you hear an audible click. Re-apply AC power or restore the breaker and close it and then power the UPS again and observe.