I disconnected the batteries with the intent of selecting the batteries with the highest measured voltage to "fool" the UPS into thinking it had a decent battery pack and make it stop beeping until I got around to replacing them, but I neglected to note how they were internally connected. It appears to be parallel connection of two banks of seriesed batteries (4 batteries altogether). I connected the two batteries that appeared to have the best charge in series and plugged them in, but this does not seem to have convinced the UPS.

So, few questions to anyone who has replaced batteries in a 2U Smart-UPS 1500 or similar UPS:

1. If it's not series/parallel, how are the batteries in the battery pack supposed to be connected?

2. If it is series/parallel, how in the world does it know the battery pack isn't good? It'd have to measure the bank's internal resistance or something to realize it's only got half the bank connected, wouldn't it?

3. How similar will replacement batteries need to be to the original for it to actually use them? If I find a couple car batteries or ATV batteries that have a low enough internal resistance and high enough voltage, will they work? If I attach larger batteries to it, will it charge them and accurately estimate the runtime?

11/17/2008 11:59:34 AM

this happened to my alarm system, the battery voltage fell below the threshold and it would beep for 1 second every 5

holy hell, i thought that i was going to rip the damn thing off the wall

11/17/2008 1:01:07 PM

How about just bite the bullet and get real replacements (and by real, i mean 3rd party)

http://www.batteryspec.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?action=link&product=182&sub2=1820480

70 bucks aint bad, and surely is better than the amount of time and materials it'll take to rig some crazy alternative

11/17/2008 1:01:54 PM

It gets even cheaper than that

I found 20$/battery for equivalent replacements of the original manufacturer's part, after scraping off the APC label which seemed strategically placed to conceal said manufacturer's information. Tricksy bastards.

I'm still not absolutely sure how they were banked in the battery module, though, and at this point I'm kinda curious about the logic they're using to identify the battery as acceptable.

11/17/2008 5:23:01 PM

it is a voltage measurement, because i havent seen an internal resistance measurement in the output

[Edited on November 17, 2008 at 5:29 PM. Reason : 

11/17/2008 5:28:34 PM

where did you find the batteries? I have a spare smart ups 1500VA out front I want to setup for my tv and dvr.

11/20/2008 2:03:21 AM

they will discharge the battery into a really low resistance load pulsed so they dont burn out the cheap through hole resistors they used. initially will just check charge current versus terminal voltage.


im assuming youre talking about a really cheap ups

11/20/2008 11:14:10 PM

this will get rid of the beeping:

11/20/2008 11:31:10 PM

Quote :

"im assuming youre talking about a really cheap ups"

clearly they're talking about this.

I had a cheap APC 1000VA UPS whose battery went bad. After a couple of days of chirping driving me crazy I bought a battery for $25 off some website that worked fine. I can't remember the website, but I'll see if I can't dig it up in Quicken.

11/21/2008 7:41:13 AM

related question:

after a recent power outage, my APC brand UPS has made a few beeps (randomly, followed by days of silence) and my PC randomly resets nearly every day at random times. I haven't checked the power supply, yet, but is my UPS fucked?

I think I read something about "unplug it during storms".... wtf? what is the point of having a UPS if you can't use it?

11/21/2008 9:16:48 AM

smoothcrim:

too lazy to Google again, but under the APC label it's a "BB Battery" part# HR9-12 and I was able to locate the cheapest replacements searching for that part

this is for the rackmount form factor -- if you have the tower form factor I would guess it uses a different battery configuration, but I don't have one to confirm

^ I've had surges kill systems plugged into the wall while systems on the UPS were fine. I recall this model having a surge rating, as well. I don't know about yours and I'd confirm that in the documentation to be sure before continuing to use it for surge protection, but I find it hard to believe a UPS would lack surge protection capability.

[Edited on November 22, 2008 at 1:39 AM. Reason : .]

11/22/2008 1:36:34 AM

I really fucking hate these things. We have to replace at least one every month at work.

11/22/2008 9:54:09 AM

I've always just gone to Batteries Plus in Garner or North Raleigh when UPS batteries go bad. they've always replaced them witn new on the spot and they take care of recycling the old ones.

probably not as cheap as buying them online but they install and test it free when you buy their batteries which is worth it to me. I don't have time to screw around with DOA parts these days.

11/23/2008 11:43:41 AM

bump

7/8/2011 12:32:53 PM

Does anyone use alternative batteries (sealed deep cycle) in their UPSs?

We get these at wholesale and the specs match exactly. Do you see any problem using one as a substitute to an RBC7? It's a Smart UPS 1500.

http://www.atbatt.com/product/22980/sla/interstate/dcm0018/battery

7/8/2011 12:51:59 PM

+1 vote for batteries plus. Their 3rd party stuff is just as good as the originals at 1/2 the price.

7/8/2011 3:25:54 PM

funny you bump this. I just bought these today http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200468876592

7/8/2011 7:53:07 PM

switch to FedEx

7/11/2011 8:11:28 AM