UPS 650 - beeping every 5 seconds, power is OK

[Anonymous user]

A few months ago I put in a new battery in my old APC 650. Battery is 12v 12AH SLA from batteries.com. Supposedly a direct replacement. UPS works fine, no problems whatsoever.

Yesterday, I hooked up a 12v DC radio directly up to the UPS battery. The device hooked up to it uses a TINY amount of power (400mA) and was only running for maybe 1 hour. Is this going to screw up the UPS ? My theory was that when I use the radio, its just going to drain the battery a little, and the charger is going to keep it topped off, as I was/am pretty sure the charging on a Back UPS is non-intelligent.

All seemed fine, keep in mind I was checking the voltage all throughout this time, and noticed it hovered right around 13.6 volts (seems a bit high for a SLA battery???????? I have read you can adjust a POT in the UPS to turn this voltage down? Thoughts?)

All was fine all night, came home today to the UPS beeping at me intermittently (not constant) - battery voltage at this point is around 12.6v. LINE voltage is 119V. Any thoughts? What does the UPS deem low voltage?
The overload protector on my UPS seems to be broken off, so I can't really tell if that popped out. I pushed it in with a screwdriver (??).

I unplugged my computers and now I am letting the UPS charge the battery. After a while of charging, and back up to 13.0 volts, when I switch the UPS back on, it is (without a load at least) not beeping. What is going on here? Did the UPS freak out because I put a load on the battery... and if so, why didn't it freak out until today?

Message was edited by: pjcampbell

Message was edited by: pjcampbell

Message was edited by: pjcampbell

[BillP]

can you confirm the EXACT model of the UPS from the little white sticker on it? it sounds like an older 650, maybe like a BK650MC or something. depending on the model, the beep may mean something different.

i believe the max float voltage on this is around 13v so that doesnt seem wrong to me.

[Anonymous user]

It is a BK650M - there is no C. It is very old, but with a new battery. 12AH 12V SLA.

Unfortunately, I woke up today and my computer was off. Now I am a bit concerned, as I really need for my computer to be available 24/7 - in the middle of the night if something goes down @ work I can't wait 3-5 minutes for it to boot back up.

I have no way to tell whether or not at any point the UPS dropped power, or if it was solely the computer, as the other items hooked up to the UPS are monitor and phone. My thought was maybe the computer overheated, or dying power supply? This could also have caused the spike the other day??????????

I also decided to turn my printer off. It is not hooked up to the UPS BACKUP portion, however it IS hooked up to the non-backed up power plug on the UPS.

[BillP]

i will attach the manual here for reference.

the C in the part number just means different packaging so it is the same unit i was thinking of.

according to the manual, beeps every 5 seconds indicate the UPS is on battery...hmm.how often was it beeping every 5 seconds?

its hard to guess and I am on the same page as you. the computer went off..the UPS may have just went off or maybe just the computer itself, not sure.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

I am not sure what happened, these are 2 separate incidents which happens as soon as I started trying to run a 400 mA 12V radio off of the UPS battery. Otherwise the UPS has been dead reliable for me, for the past 10+ years(!) minus 2 new batteries.

The other day, it seems like something caused the AC power protector thing to pop, causing it to go to DC power. That hasn't happened since.

Today, my PC was just off when I woke up. A few issues I have changed (I do not have the serial cable)

1) Changed the clock battery, so that I can get a better idea as to what is going on in terms of log files
2) Vacuumed out the computer, and pulled it away from the wall for more air flow
3) Finally I took my radio off of the UPS battery. I am guessing it is really screwing with the UPS due to too much current draw on the charger. Maybe the UPS is overheating - I don't know.

we'll see what happens...