still getting "battery power too low..." with new batteries

[scottmlew_apc]

I installed new batteries in my extended runtime SU3000 (4 RBC11's in total) but am still getting "battery power is too low to support the load" messages. After allowing the batteries to charge fully, I ran a runtime calibration but the messages persist. My load is at 39.5% and I'm seeing an indicated 10 minute runtime. This seems too short. I have verified that all 4 batteries are securely connected. Any ideas what is going on?

[scottmlew_apc]

I've done a couple of 7 minute power outages, and the runtime estimate hasn't really changed, BUT if I assume a linear correlation between reported battery capacity and runtime, the estimate is actually pretty close.

However, I am having a problem that I haven't seen before...after 2 mins on battery power, the management card is initiating a graceful shutdown, even though the web interface reports 1+ hour of remaining runtime. Low battery duration is set to 7 min, fwiw. Any ideas why this would be happening? The old behavior (that I admittedly haven't tested in awhile) is that graceful shutdown would only be initiated when the battery was nearing its "low" threshold.

[BillP]

i can't really post this directly here but what you may need to do is outlined here. http://www.conetrix.com/Blog/post/Manually-esetting-an-APC-Smart-UPS-battery-constant-after-new-batt...

the value you need for the procedure is '96' but always write down what it is currently incase something goes wrong and you can change it back.

[scottmlew_apc]

That's sort of what I thought re: runtime calibration.

I will try to do some testing using short power outages like you suggested to see what happens.

Thanks again so much for your speedy replies!

[scottmlew_apc]

Thank you so much for this info. I performed this procedure and now the unit is reporting 1hr33min which seems too long (this is 100% battery capacity and 39% load). Are you sure 0x96 is the right constant? Do I need to do another runtime calibration? (I already did one after replacing the batteries)

p.s. the starting value was 0x33

Message was edited by: scottmlew

[BillP]

the reported runtime battery while the UPS is online is just an estimate. it gets more accurate when you put the UPS on battery. so, if it were me, i'd put the UPS on battery if you can for 5-10 minutes and see if it balances out. after a couple of power outages it also may re-calculate. i don't think you should do a runtime calibration and keep discharging the battery completely unnecessarily.

[BillP]

can you provide to me the logs - are you using powerchute business edition or a network management card?

if its a network management card, refer to these instructions-> search for FA156131 @ http://www.apc.com/site/support/index.cfm/faq/

data.txt, data.txt, and config.ini are what i need

if its business edition, then you may just need to copy and paste them. and there is just an event log and data log.

[scottmlew_apc]

Yes, that was exactly it, the PCNS is set to shutdown the OS and then the UPS after 2 minutes...I will increase that time. Thank you! I am not sure why it was set so low, and I don't recall everything shutting down so soon in the past, but I could be mistaken. Perhaps I changed it in the past for some kind of testing and forgot to change it back.

re: the firmware, I typically follow the rule of not upgrading firmware as long as everything is working OK, unless there is a specific issue applicable to me that will be addressed or a key feature added. Do you recommend upgrading, or sticking with what I know to work in my environment? I am not sure what changes are included in the update (haven't reviewed a change log yet)

[BillP]

if everything is working fine, then stick with it. i just know if it was my card i'd upgrade it so i am up to date but i cannot think of a major new feature we provided since besides a bunch of bug fixes. maybe know its out there and if you start seeing an issue with anything, consider upgrading at that time? i would say its at least 6 years old out of date so there are several change logs we'd need to check between then and now with the version i provided.

[scottmlew_apc · Accepted solution]

Thanks again for all of your help...things are now working about as I expected. I will schedule a firmware upgrade for sometime when there isn't much else going on.