Help! A Mystery... Different LCD Panels in Back-UPS BX13000LCD-CN?

[ShyHermit_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/17/2013

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I bought a Back-UPS XS 1300 BX1300LCD-CN years ago. Recently, I bought another BX1300LCD-CN unit from a private seller on Kijiji (like Craigslist). The unit looks identical on the outside, including all of the plugs and connectors on the back.

After I bought it home, I notice that the only difference between the two units is the LCD Panel. In particular, the icons and their imprints look different. I searched everywhere and had not been able to find out the vintage of these machines, particularly related to HOW MANY DIFFERENT VERSIONS of this unit have been released in the market.

Can someone please help me? Were there multiple versions of this UPC released, each with slight revisions such as the LCD panel?

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Chris on APC forums on 2/18/2013

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Depending on the age of the UPS, there may have been differences. Can you provide the serial #'s of the UPS'?

[ShyHermit_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/18/2013

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Yes, I can, but I prefer to do this in private. It is more of a curiousity than anything else. Both my own and the one I bought from private sale are working fine, but the warning icons in the LCD panels are very different.

Can you provide me with an email address or telephone number to contact you?

Better yet, if you can tell me how to "read" the serial number to deduce the manufacturing year, that would be sufficient. My biggest question is the age of the UPS.

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Jonathan on APC forums on 2/20/2013

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To give you an example on how to read the S/N of the APC unit, let us say it starts with 3B0612xxxxxx. Taking off the first two characters it tells us that the unit was manufactured on the 12th week of 2006. Is the e-mail address on your profile a good way to reach you?

[ShyHermit_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/20/2013

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Chrisri30, Can you help?

[ShyHermit_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/20/2013

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That was very helpful, JonPro. Thank you!

One unit (the one I purchased brand new in retail) was XX0719, implying that it was manufactured in Week 19 2007.

The other unit (the one I purchased used) was XX0839, implying that it was manufactured in Week 39 2008.

Can you tell me if there were indeed DIFFERENT HARDWARE REVISIONS of the SAME model in 2007 and 2008 that could account for the different LCD panels in the two units?

Oddly, the LCD panel in the 2007 model actually has "words" (such as "LOAD" and "ONLINE") that are missing from the LCD panel is the 2008 model.

Can you clarify?

PS: If needed, yes, the email address in my profile is the correct one. If you intend to contact me by email, please let me know and I will keep an eye out for your email in case it gets filtered to the spam folder.

Message was edited by: ShyHermit

Message was edited by: ShyHermit

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Jonathan on APC forums on 2/21/2013

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Here is the information that I was able to get.

The older red LCDs were different. The LCD-CN had icons only as it needed to meet Canadian language requirements. Now all units having LCDs, meet the Canadian requirements.

[ShyHermit_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/21/2013

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JonPro, thank you again. I think we are close to closing this mystery!

Both of my 2007 and 2008 units were of the "CN" models. But the 2007 unit is the only one with the words. Are you implying that even the "CN" models had hardware revisions of the LCD so that all of the ones produced in 2008 and onward no longer had the words on the LCD?

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Jonathan on APC forums on 2/21/2013

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You are correct. The size of the LCD screen is not enough to display both the English and French text so we opted to just display the icons.

[ShyHermit_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/21/2013

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Thank you, JonPro.

I am very impressed by your support of APC customers on this forum.

If there is an opportunity for feedback, please pass on a words of thanks but also a suggestion to put such information about hardware revisions on the APC website for reference. I came to the forum because I was unable to locate this information anywhere. Such basic information should be readily available to customers, particularly those (like me) who purchase multiple APC units and want to know explicitly the revisions and upgrades of the same "model" unit, most of which were entirely unannounced.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

This reply was originally posted by Jonathan on APC forums on 2/22/2013

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You are very much welcome. I would let the Product Management know about your feedback.