BX1300LCD - Repeated battery detach/battery attach events

[dandrzejewski_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 11/19/2011

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I'm using a BX1300LCD, and I keep getting the following messages from apcupsd:


2011-11-19 11:45:43 -0500 Battery disconnected.
2011-11-19 11:45:52 -0500 Battery reattached.
2011-11-19 11:45:56 -0500 Battery disconnected.
2011-11-19 11:49:13 -0500 Battery reattached.
2011-11-19 11:49:29 -0500 Battery disconnected.
2011-11-19 11:49:34 -0500 Battery reattached.
2011-11-19 11:49:38 -0500 Battery disconnected.
2011-11-19 11:49:55 -0500 Battery reattached.
2011-11-19 11:49:59 -0500 Battery disconnected.
2011-11-19 11:50:08 -0500 Battery reattached.
2011-11-19 11:50:12 -0500 Battery disconnected.


Over and over again. Meanwhile, the battery bar will flash and be empty, then go back to being solid and full. When it flashes, it also chirps.

What should I make of this? Is this just as simple as the battery needing to be replaced? The battery date is 10/06/2007, so I'm thinking that's probably it.

But before I drop $75 to replace this thing, I'd like to make sure the UPS itself hasn't gone faulty.

[barryware_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 11/21/2011

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also clean the tabs on the battery pack.. a pencil eraser work well for this. Make sure that the mating connecters in the ups are clean and have not "spread apart" so the battery tabs make good contact.

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Dakota on APC forums on 11/19/2011

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Can You Measure The Battery Voltage

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Jonathan on APC forums on 11/21/2011

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Hi David,

Do you have another UPS that might be using the same battery? We had instances wherein after battery replacement the issue was fixed, if you have a battery to spare it would be best to try that one first. It could also be a faulty battery charger that fails to detect the battery.

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Robert on APC forums on 12/11/2011

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Which version of apcupsd?

I don't think it is a battery error but a comm error. I am seeing the same events in v3.14.8 about every 30 minutes, just enough to be annoying.

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Jonathan on APC forums on 2/27/2012

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John -

If you've been getting this message and your UPS exhibits the battery disconnected behavior, chances are the UPS is at fault.

[hokie21_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/26/2012

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I'm having the same problem. I'm using a backups ES550. I just swapped the ES550 for another unit and I still have the issue. The batteries in both units were replaced less than a year ago. I recently changed from a physical server to a virtualized server under VMware ESXi. I didn't have the issue prior to the change to EXSi. I can see VMware messing things up, but for only one this one message? I'm using apcupsd 3.14.10. on Centos.

[hokie21_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/27/2012

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I've swapped the UPS for another identical unit. I see the same issue with both UPS units. I also looked at the trace file from apcupsd and I can see that other parameters in addition to the battery disconnected parameter also get set to zero and then quickly return to the actual value. I had no problems before I started using apcupsd under VMware ESXi. Neither UPS have any issue when using the APC windows UPS monitoring program. Doesn't seem like a UPS problem to me.

[hokie21_apc · Accepted solution]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 3/11/2012

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With assistance from the program developer, I've resolved the problem.

Apcupsd does have the ability to work via libusb instead of the Linux kernel's hiddev driver. Apcupsd and Vmware EXSi 5.0 seem to be much happier when used with libusb rather than hiddev. I've been running for 24 hours now without a single "Battery disconnected", "Battery reattached" error.

To make this change:
yum install libusb-devel.i386
./configure enable-usb with-generic-usb
make
make install

Also note that running this version of apcupsd will disconnect your UPS from the Linux kernel's hiddev driver so the previous apcupsd build not work again until you reboot.