APC Back-UPS XS 1500 (model: BX1500G) newbie questions...

[ant_apc]

Hello.

I just bought a new APC Back-UPS XS 1500 (model: BX1500G) to replace my seven years old APC Back-UPS XS BX1500 (drained/dead battery).

1. Is there a way to keep its cool digital screen, with real-time data, on at all time? Yeah, I am such a nerd/geek. 😉
2. Is there a way to graph/record this in Linux/Debian?
3. Is it me or does it take a while to manually turn off this UPS with its power button? I had to hold down its power button for a few seconds. Is this by design or is there a problem? Turning it on was quick.
4. Is there a way to have UPS control two computers for monitoring and shut downs in case I am not around to manually shut them down? And in Linux/Debian stable?
5. Not related to my UPS, but all of them. Don't APC boxes tell you their dates like when their UPSes were made especially UPSes' battery dates? Mine was 5/17/2012. The only way to get that was to open the box and read is QA test results. 😮

Thank you in advance. 🙂

[BillP]

Not bad at all, that's what it's there for. 🙂 I just have mine at home set to dim because otherwise I would be watching the numbers all the time!

[BillP]

yes, the UPS will activate its fan for the following conditions (on most units)

• UPS is running on battery
• UPS is charging
• UPS has a load above ~75%
• UPS is above a certain internal temperature, depending on model

yes, the UPS has an internal temp sensor which i think on most larger units, or maybe apcupsd, you can see the value for.

[ant_apc]

i picKed a winna wrote:
yes, the UPS will activate its fan for the following conditions (on most units)

• UPS is running on battery
• UPS is charging
• UPS has a load above ~75%
• UPS is above a certain internal temperature, depending on model

yes, the UPS has an internal temp sensor which i think on most larger units, or maybe apcupsd, you can see the value for.

Thanks. Is there a way to read the numbers on LED screen? Apcupsd, in Linux/Debian, doesn't seem to show them.

[BillP]

no i dont believe there is for UPS internal temperature only the load percentage, voltage, frequency, etc and stuff like that.

P.S. - I am on the apcupsd list and saw your email to them as well 😉

[ant_apc]

i picKed a winna wrote:
no i dont believe there is for UPS internal temperature only the load percentage, voltage, frequency, etc and stuff like that.

P.S. - I am on the apcupsd list and saw your email to them as well 😉

Ah OK. 😉

[BillP]

ant wrote:
So no one knows? Is there a way to disable/change this self test feature? I wasn't able to change it with apcupsd program:

Yes, you can change this schedule using the PowerChute software that came with the UPS. However it is not recommended to turn the self-test off completely as then the unit has no method of checking the health of the battery.

[ant_apc]

buzz wrote:

ant wrote:
So no one knows? Is there a way to disable/change this self test feature? I wasn't able to change it with apcupsd program:

Yes, you can change this schedule using the PowerChute software that came with the UPS. However it is not recommended to turn the self-test off completely as then the unit has no method of checking the health of the battery.

Ah thanks. I just wanted to extend the times. I will leave them alone since I don't use Windows with this UPS.

So are the self tests supposed to reset my LED status display?

[BillP]

I believe upon completion of a self-test, the display illuminates to show the current voltage (which is the default screen), yes. I'm guessing you have your display set to always on rather than dimming after 60 seconds?

[ant_apc]

buzz wrote:
I believe upon completion of a self-test, the display illuminates to show the current voltage (which is the default screen), yes. I'm guessing you have your display set to always on rather than dimming after 60 seconds?

Yep. I love watching the real-time power usage numbers. 🙂 Is it bad to have it on all the time?

[ant_apc]

buzz wrote:
Not bad at all, that's what it's there for. 🙂 I just have mine at home set to dim because otherwise I would be watching the numbers all the time!

Haha. It reminds me of KITT from the original Knight Rider series.

[BillP]

I'm kind of glad it doesn't talk though - in concept it would be cool, but I think in practice, my UPS talking to me would be pretty creepy... Also, I had no idea they did a remake of Knight Rider till I noticed you said "original." Blasphemy!

[ant_apc]

buzz wrote:
I'm kind of glad it doesn't talk though - in concept it would be cool, but I think in practice, my UPS talking to me would be pretty creepy... Also, I had no idea they did a remake of Knight Rider till I noticed you said "original." Blasphemy!

"Michael, you need to replace my battery soon since I won't be able to handle a power outage." 😉

Yeah, they sucked.

[ant_apc]

Chrisri30 wrote:
1. Continuous Illumination mode: Press and hold DISPLAY button for two seconds. The display will
illuminate and the
Back-UPS will beep to confirm Continuous Illumination mode is activated.

2. Unfortunately not

3.You should only need to hold the power button for 2 seconds to shut it off. If you hold it down longer, it will not shut it down as it will attempt a self test after 6 seconds.

4.Unfortunately not

5. Our serial #'s show when they were made. For example, AB1234xxxx means the UPS was made the 34th week of 2012.

Thanks.

Also, is it normal to hear loud fans spin up when using the batteries? I was testing my battery of a fake power outage by pulling its power cord.

And does LED use a bit of power and make a lot of heat? Does UPS have a temperature sensor?

Message was edited by: ant

[BillP]

1. Continuous Illumination mode: Press and hold DISPLAY button for two seconds. The display will
illuminate and the
Back-UPS will beep to confirm Continuous Illumination mode is activated.

2. Unfortunately not

3.You should only need to hold the power button for 2 seconds to shut it off. If you hold it down longer, it will not shut it down as it will attempt a self test after 6 seconds.

4.Unfortunately not

5. Our serial #'s show when they were made. For example, AB1234xxxx means the UPS was made the 34th week of 2012.

[ant_apc]

Hi again.

It seems almost every two weeks, my new APC UPS will do a quick self test as shown in my apcupsd v3.14.8 (16 January 2010) log like this:

$ cat /var/log/apcupsd.events
...
2012-10-05 08:26:41 -0700 UPS Self Test switch to battery.
2012-10-05 08:26:43 -0700 UPS Self Test completed: Battery OK
2012-10-19 07:42:53 -0700 Communications with UPS restored.
2012-10-19 07:42:54 -0700 UPS Self Test switch to battery.
2012-10-19 07:42:56 -0700 UPS Self Test completed: Battery OK
2012-11-02 06:59:05 -0700 Communications with UPS restored.
2012-11-02 06:59:06 -0700 UPS Self Test switch to battery.
2012-11-02 06:59:08 -0700 UPS Self Test completed: Battery OK
...
2012-11-16 05:15:06 -0800 UPS Self Test switch to battery.
2012-11-16 05:15:15 -0800 UPS Self Test completed: Battery OK
2012-11-30 04:31:25 -0800 Communications with UPS restored.
2012-11-30 04:31:25 -0800 UPS Self Test switch to battery.
2012-11-30 04:31:27 -0800 UPS Self Test completed: Battery OK

My dmesg showed for the latest specific times for this morning's, but not previous dates within its 25 days of uptime:
[2012-11-30 04:31:19] hub 5-0:1.0: port 2 disabled by hub (EMI?), re-enabling...
[2012-11-30 04:31:19] usb 5-2: USB disconnect, address 2
[2012-11-30 04:31:19] usb 5-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
[2012-11-30 04:31:19] usb 5-2: New USB device found, idVendor=051d, idProduct=0002
[2012-11-30 04:31:19] usb 5-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[2012-11-30 04:31:19] usb 5-2: Product: Back-UPS XS 1500G FW:866.L6 .D USB FW:L6
[2012-11-30 04:31:19] usb 5-2: Manufacturer: American Power Conversion
[2012-11-30 04:31:19] usb 5-2: SerialNumber: 4B1220...deleted the rest of it...
[2012-11-30 04:31:19] usb 5-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[2012-11-30 04:31:19] generic-usb 0003:051D:0002.0002: hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.00 Device American Power Conversion Back-UPS XS 1500G FW:866.L6 .D USB FW:L6 on usb-0000:00:1a.2-2/input0

Is this normal? I also noticed other things:
1. Isn't it supposed to be almost every two weeks (note the times aren't exactly and less than two weeks)?
2 Is it normal for my UPS to revert back to showing voltage usages (e.g., 116-117) when I had it showing the real-time watts usages (under 100-400 depending on what is on and off) that I prefer it always show?

Thank you in advance. 🙂

Message was edited by: ant

[ant_apc · Accepted solution]

ant wrote:

It seems almost every two weeks, my new APC UPS will do a quick self test as shown in my apcupsd v3.14.8 (16 January 2010) log like this:
...
Is this normal? I also noticed other things:
1. Isn't it supposed to be almost every two weeks (note the times aren't exactly and less than two weeks)?
2 Is it normal for my UPS to revert back to showing voltage usages (e.g., 116-117) when I had it showing the real-time watts usages (under 100-400 depending on what is on and off) that I prefer it always show?

So no one knows? Is there a way to disable/change this self test feature? I wasn't able to change it with apcupsd program:

It also changes my LED status screen back to its default 117 volts out
display. I usually have it showing how much powers/watts currently
using.

So I stopped apcupsd daemon and ran apctest to poke around:
1) Test kill UPS power
2) Perform self-test
3) Read last self-test result
4) View/Change battery date
5) View manufacturing date
6) View/Change alarm behavior
7) View/Change sensitivity
8) View/Change low transfer voltage
9) View/Change high transfer voltage
10) Perform battery calibration
11) Test alarm
12) View/Change self-test interval
Q) Quit

Select function number: 12
I don't know how to access the self-test interval on your UPS
or your UPS does not support the self-test interval feature.

Select function number: 3
Result of last self test: NO TEST PERFORMED

Select function number: 5
Manufacturing date: 05/17/2012

Select function number: 4
Current battery date: 05/17/2012
Enter new battery date (MM/DD/YYYY), blank to quit:
Invalid format.

Select function number: 2
This test instructs the UPS to perform a self-test
operation and reports the result when the test completes.
Clearing previous self test result...CLEARED
Initiating self test...INITIATED
Waiting for test to complete...TEST DID NOT COMPLETE


# /sbin/apcaccess
APC : 001,037,0925
DATE : 2012-12-15 18:40:46 -0800
HOSTNAME : MyBox
VERSION : 3.14.8 (16 January 2010) debian
UPSNAME : MyBox
CABLE : USB Cable
MODEL : Back-UPS XS 1500G
UPSMODE : Stand Alone
STARTTIME: 2012-12-15 18:38:43 -0800
STATUS : ONLINE
LINEV : 117.0 Volts
LOADPCT : 39.0 Percent Load Capacity
BCHARGE : 100.0 Percent
TIMELEFT : 15.8 Minutes
MBATTCHG : 5 Percent
MINTIMEL : 3 Minutes
MAXTIME : 0 Seconds
SENSE : Medium
LOTRANS : 088.0 Volts
HITRANS : 139.0 Volts
ALARMDEL : Always
BATTV : 27.0 Volts
LASTXFER : Automatic or explicit self test
NUMXFERS : 0
TONBATT : 0 seconds
CUMONBATT: 0 seconds
XOFFBATT : N/A
SELFTEST : NO
STATFLAG : 0x07000008 Status Flag
MANDATE : 2012-05-17
SERIALNO : 4B1220[deleted]
BATTDATE : 2012-05-17
NOMINV : 120 Volts
NOMBATTV : 24.0 Volts
NOMPOWER : 865 Watts
FIRMWARE : 866.L6 .D USB FW:L6
APCMODEL : Back-UPS XS 1500G
END APC : 2012-12-15 18:41:31 -0800

/var/log/apcupsd.events shows these more recent logs:
...
2012-12-14 03:47:32 -0800 UPS Self Test switch to battery.
2012-12-14 03:47:41 -0800 UPS Self Test completed: Battery OK
...

:(

Message was edited by: ant