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"Cyberpower offers Pure Sinewave UPS alternative" - finally a cheaper UPS solution?
- Thread starter Icaras
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Received my SMT1500 today, works like a champ and in beautiful condition. No fan noise at all once I did a factory reset, full charge and then a self test. I'm quite pleased. Naturally it produces perfect sine wave power as advertised, my MP makes not a chirp when on UPS power, couldn't be happier.
Great price for a serious UPS; I think the thing weighs as much as my MP!!. My MP+LCD+Speakers pull 21% load at idle.
Great price for a serious UPS; I think the thing weighs as much as my MP!!. My MP+LCD+Speakers pull 21% load at idle.
Quick Update: My SMT1500 started producing the loud fan cycle noise as reported elsewhere, but a simple support request at APC got an email with the firmware update. Unfortunately my unit being a refurb, it did not come with any cables but APC was nice enough to send me the necessary serial cable. Of course with my MP not having a serial port I had to use a PC to flash (hyperterminal, 9600baud, xmodem.. blast from the past there!) but all is well, quiet as a mouse.
The display is really nice. Switching it into advanced mode causes it to cycle the screen through lots of different info like I/O, Load in Watts and VA, battery time, etc.
At idle (245W draw), it reports it can power my setup for 1hr.
The display is really nice. Switching it into advanced mode causes it to cycle the screen through lots of different info like I/O, Load in Watts and VA, battery time, etc.
At idle (245W draw), it reports it can power my setup for 1hr.
FYI, the CyberPower PFCLCD1500's dataline RJ-45 jack is 10/100, not Gbit. I was searching for this information and could not find it listed anywhereeven in the manual that comes with the unit. I finally got an answer when speaking to tech support.
CP1500PFCLCD and Return of Power
I have this CP1500PFCLCD model on my Mac Pro (2009) and while it works great and OSX (Yosemite right now) both recognizes the UPS and properly will shutdown with the time specified in the Energy Savings pref, I do have one weird issue and am curious if my unit is defective or if others with this one have seen the same. If I have a momentary loss of power with this unit, the Mac will tell me I have gone on battery power, but when the AC comes right back the UPS will report as being on AC again but the Mac seems to permanently think its running on battery power. Its like it communicates to the Mac when power is lost but not when power is restored. Its pretty darn annoying when it happens since the only way to get the Mac to think it has AC again is to reboot it.
Anyone else with this model see this behavior on theirs?
I have this CP1500PFCLCD model on my Mac Pro (2009) and while it works great and OSX (Yosemite right now) both recognizes the UPS and properly will shutdown with the time specified in the Energy Savings pref, I do have one weird issue and am curious if my unit is defective or if others with this one have seen the same. If I have a momentary loss of power with this unit, the Mac will tell me I have gone on battery power, but when the AC comes right back the UPS will report as being on AC again but the Mac seems to permanently think its running on battery power. Its like it communicates to the Mac when power is lost but not when power is restored. Its pretty darn annoying when it happens since the only way to get the Mac to think it has AC again is to reboot it.
Anyone else with this model see this behavior on theirs?
Do you have the communication cable plugged in to the mac directly or through a USB hub? I know this isn't the exact same issue, but I was getting a Mac restart one second after the unit would come back on AC power after testing with the "initiate test" button and by unplugging from the wall. It never restarted when it was on battery—only once the wall power had come on for about 1 second. This happened consistently while I had the UPS's communication cable plugged in to a USB hub. Once I moved the comm cable to a USB port on my Mac, I have not had any restarts when testing the battery.
Also, this USB hub does not require or have an external power source, so it does seem to be a strange issue—maybe the Mac lessens power to the USB ports when the UPS is on battery and the hub couldn't supply the power needed? I don't know exactly why, and no one at Cyberpower was able to help me. They had issued me a return label and a refund form. I ended up moving the USB just on a whim, and it fixed my issue.
Also, this USB hub does not require or have an external power source, so it does seem to be a strange issue—maybe the Mac lessens power to the USB ports when the UPS is on battery and the hub couldn't supply the power needed? I don't know exactly why, and no one at Cyberpower was able to help me. They had issued me a return label and a refund form. I ended up moving the USB just on a whim, and it fixed my issue.
Yeah, I had some different strangeness when I first got it and tried it via a USB hub. (it would sometimes just disappear completely and then come back) I've had it directly to one of the rear USB ports though for ages and get this weird behaviour after it comes back to AC from battery.
So with yours connected directly your problems you describe have stopped?
Yes, the problems have stopped so far, but I've only been using it for 3-4 days at this point. When it was restarting, I was getting the "Your computer restarted because of a problem" message. I don't know if that always indicates a kernel panic. Unfortunately, I did experience a kernel panic after the UPS had been plugged in to the Mac directly, but I believe this is unrelated to the UPS, as it did not cycle to the battery or anything else at the time.
I have same model UPS for my MacPro 2010. When my AC comes back it does take a while before my MacPro recognizes it is no longer on battery power. Sometimes it's a few seconds but it's taken up to a minute to register. Not sure if this had to do with other tasks running on my MacPro but it does eventually report back it's off battery power. Worked the same on Maverick as well.