Solid Replace Battery Light

[Anonymous user]

I have a CS-350 and had the battery out. I wanted to connect the battery without putting it back in so I got a couple of wire leads to connect it. While doing this, I accidentally connected the wires backwards and reversed the polarity (positive was connected to negative and negative to positive). It was only connected this way for a split second because when I did it, it sparked and I realized what I had done. So I connected the battery the correct way and now when I turn the unit on, the replace battery light is on solid. Before this happened the unit was working fine. Now if I unplug the unit, everything connected to the battery back-up turns off. I checked the voltage of the battery with a meter and it is fully charged. Did I just kill my unit?

[EZ_Button_apc]

It does sound like it could be damaged. It is normal for small sparks when connecting the battery at the leads, but this doesn't sound like the type of sparking you had.

How old is the UPS?

[BillP]

Did I understand correctly that you are using the UPS with the batteries outside of the unit?

[Anonymous user]

haha Yes, you are correct in thinking I had the battery outside of the unit. I know, it sounds odd. I'm not sure how old the unit is and I can't find a manufacturing date but I'm going to guess it's a few years old. The battery is new though. My understanding is that a solid replace battery light means it thinks the battery isn't connected. The battery is connected though so I'm guessing I might have fried something internally. I basically shorted the battery terminals by accidentally connecting the battery backwards. I just thought maybe there was an easy fix that I didn't know about. I'm an electronics tech and I will probably take a look at the circuit board and check the capacitors and everything but I wanted to know if there was a simple fix before I went to the trouble of taking the unit apart.

[BillP]

So what is the reason why the battery is outside the unit? It doesn't fit the battery compartment?

I was under the impression that a solid replace battery LED indicated that the battery was present but no longer passed self-tests. The flashing replace battery LED would normally indicate battery disconnected. This would also include a chirp noise every 2 seconds or so. At least, that's what the BR800 next to my desk does. It's also the behavior of our latest generation Smart-UPS.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

I had a couple of batteries lying around and needed a new battery for my UPS so I was trying them to see if they would work. They did work and I found my problem. When I opened the case and looked at the circuit board, there are two 40 amp fuses and a fusible link next to them. The fusible link had blown so it thought there was a problem with my battery. I soldered a new fuse on and it fixed it. Thanks for your help.