BE750G and MASTER Controlling error?

[Anonymous user]

Hello: A little late to this thread... Today (Dec 25 2009) I hooked up my new BE750G I bought at Best Buy 3 weeks ago.
First I plugged into an outlet and charged the battery.

After hooking up my iMac 24" Intel Desktop, I used the "Master" Battery outlet for the CPU power.
Then I plugged my HP C6380 All-in-one printer into one of the "Controlled" Surge outlets.

All works EXCEPT The Control part.

After using the Mac and printer for a while (both with power ON, I:
1) Shut down the Mac (all powered off... NOT Sleep)
2) The HP Printer promptly shut down...
3) BUT.... in about 3 secs the printer powered up again.
4) Then the printer shut down after about 3 secs

This cycled ON OFF ON OFF every 3 secs with a very faint "beep" each time

How does one fix this? Could it be the unit? What does the "Threshold Program" have to do with this?

Also I had a BE750BB for 4-5 years and replaced it with this one..
Yet the WEB Site won't let me on... Whom do I email to set this straight?

Thanks for any comments...

Jim B
PS I now have the HP in one of the 'UN-'controlled' surge outlets...
Works fine.. But I have to manually turn ON-OFF the HP.. (Sigh)

[Anonymous user]

Sorry for de;ay...

I plan to try your idea today..

As to other questions:
1) c6380 HP connected to USB on the CPU.
2) Printer shutdowns AFTER the CPU is off. Then starts its on-off cycle.

Don't know if the c6380 does a cool-down or not..

Cheers, Jim B

[Erasmus_apc]

Ok, also see if doing the same procedure for the printer goes any differently if the USB cable is unplugged from the computer.

[Anonymous user]

Erasmus: here is a post I gave to APC PORTAL today:
====================================================
Well now the Master outlet now does this:

1) Works FINE when I shutdown the CPU while the HP printer is in a Controlled plug. CPU powers OFF; and the HP Printer powers OFF as well.

2) However, If i only SLEEP the CPU, the Printer cycles off... BUT in a few secs, the Mac CPU is awakened (by the BE750G??? or the HP Printer????) ... & thus the Printer back ON.
============================================================

+Also I tried a lamp in the Master outlet... System works fine on CPU Power Off AND in SLEEP......

Finally:
I just tried your idea: *'Remove the USB cable from CPU'*
The SLEEP option shut down the Printer and did NOT cause CPU to re-awaken._

Cheers, JIM B

Message was edited by: Jim B

BTW, here is the reason given to me from the APC PORTAL Support:

The issue is with the connected Mac computer. Because Mac will consume more power when in sleep mode and in turn is awakening the Printer connected to the Controlled outlet. Specifically with the macs, that they draw a good amount of wattage while in sleep mode. so what might be happening is, it goes to sleep, the wattage in the power supply jumps up past the threshold and then the UPS thinks the computer is back on so it commands everything back on and then the items in the controlled outlets may start powering on and off while this is happening. I think you might have read some information on APC Discussion forums.

I just don't believe that... do you?

Cheers Jim B

Message was edited by: Jim B

[Erasmus_apc]

I don't know what the APC Portal refers to...e-mail or chat support?

It sounds like *1)* describes proper function. The Mac stays off, and the printer stays off properly. It sounds like *2)* describes the comm port on the printer and/or UPS waking up the Mac. There should be an option somewhere on the Mac to disable a certain port or device from waking up the computer. If you using a lamp works fine with sleep and shutdown, it may just be the UPS doing the wakeup. We generally don't recommend sleep with our UPS' because of this, and also because if the computer can't wake up the port when in sleep, the command/parameters for shutdown won't reach the computer and shutdown will fail. The fact the USB test also seemed to make everything work as intended sort of confirms the line of thinking I was going in. In terms of a solution I would continue testing to verify this or check and see if you can find some settings in the OS to play with.

In terms of the response you got...I have never heard of sleep mode causing a subsequent increase in current draw or any kind of brief inrush current. The computer doesn't have to suddenly engage all components full blast to shut them down and save the system state to memory/RAM. The wattage drawn in sleep is always going to be less than in normal mode...components have been shut down. If this was true then the lamp you tested with which requires NO USB or other communication would have come back on when the Mac went into sleep. The controlled outlets don't care about communication or what kind of device is plugged into them, they only care about the wattage threshold for the master control outlet being reached.

[Anonymous user]

Erasmus: The term "PORTAL" refers to APC's Web site one gets by clicking on "ASK APC". One can pose a question and some APC agent enters into an email-like dialogue via the WEB to try to answer .

I agree... the USB wakes up the CPU. The Lamp idea works fine... At least it shows the BE750G mechanism works as advertised..;o)

I intend to let well-enough alone and not plug the printer into a 'Controlled' slot. While using the Mac I sometimes do not Print anything... so leaving the Printer powered down is a form of Energy saving.

Thank you for your patience and excellent advice.
If I found out any Mac/HP solution to the Sleep problem, I'll report here.

Cheers, Jim B

[Erasmus_apc]

No problem...do you have an incident number of name associated with your "Ask APC" chat? I and several other forum users generally have oversight in a technical respect to the reps who work with that service. It would be nice to clear things up.

[Anonymous user]

Erasmus: here is the ID # of the thread used in APC PORTAL:

No. 100104-000029


I will leave it open till you have a chance to use it..
Thanks again ....

Cheers Jim B
PS BTW I have decided that Sleeping the Mac isn't all that important. So, I will not use it... Use a ScreenSaver instead if I leave the room...I want to make sure that if Power fails, my Mac will be shut down gracefully.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Hello: A little late to this thread... Today (Dec 25 2009) I hooked up my new BE750G I bought at Best Buy 3 weeks ago.
First I plugged into an outlet and charged the battery.

After hooking up my iMac 24" Intel Desktop, I used the "Master" Battery outlet for the CPU power.
Then I plugged my HP C6380 All-in-one printer into one of the "Controlled" Surge outlets.

All works EXCEPT The Control part.

After using the Mac and printer for a while (both with power ON, I:
1) Shut down the Mac (all powered off... NOT Sleep)
2) The HP Printer promptly shut down...
3) BUT.... in about 3 secs the printer powered up again.
4) Then the printer shut down after about 3 secs

This cycled ON OFF ON OFF every 3 secs with a very faint "beep" each time

How does one fix this? Could it be the unit? What does the "Threshold Program" have to do with this?

Also I had a BE750BB for 4-5 years and replaced it with this one..
Yet the WEB Site won't let me on... Whom do I email to set this straight?

Thanks for any comments...

Jim B
PS I now have the HP in one of the 'UN-'controlled' surge outlets...
Works fine.. But I have to manually turn ON-OFF the HP.. (Sigh)