Proper APC monitoring software for Back UPS Pro 1400

[Anonymous user]

I've recently resurrected an APC Back-UPS Pro 1400 (BP1400). (This is a large white UPS from the early 2000s, sharing the same form factor as a 3rd generation Smart UPS of that time. The control panel is simplified and so to is its implementation of the APC "Smart" protocol.)

I may at some point want to use it with monitoring software, and I'm wondering which APC software is appropriate. PowerChute Plus indicates in its documentation that the Back-UPS Pro line is supported. However, when the BP1400 is attached, it's incorrectly indicated as being a Smart-UPS 2200XL.

This is certainly an interesting UPS. It has no cooling fan unlike its identically rated Smart-UPS brethren, and the dialect of APC "Smart" protocol that it speaks is oddly cut down. It seems to have no concept of battery state of charge, any parameter that would be stored in an EEPROM (calibration constant, beeper on/off, UPS name, battery replacement date, etc.) and (unsurprisingly) it doesn't have an internal temperature sensor. It's also claimed on the back panel that the output is not sinusoidal, and yet it very clearly is. Considering that the lower capacity Back-UPS Pro models do seem to implement the full APC "smart" command set, the BP1400's cut down command set is even more surprising.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The BP1400 is a Simple Signalling UPS. It would work with PowerChute Plus and should work with PowerChute Business Edition in simple signalling mode. The comm cables would be 940-0020 for Windows, and 940-0023 AKA AP9823 for Linux/Unix.