MP 1,1-5,1 UPS battery Backup for cMP 5,1 and 24 Inch Apple Cinema Display Monitor

[Sossity]

I just had a power outage last night, was very brief, and then came back on. Going through this, I would like to get one instead of just a surge supressor power strip.

I would like one that protects against fluctuations, and a surge when the power comes back on, and enough time, maybe 5 mins or so to properly shut down and unplug external hard drives.

 

[MarkC426]

I use CyberPower UPS's, which seem very reliable.
With my (power hungry) cMP and 27 inch display, I get about 15 mins runtime with a 1500va unit.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Get one that does real sine wave and not simulated sine wave.

 

[Sossity]

I use CyberPower UPS's, which seem very reliable.
With my (power hungry) cMP and 27 inch display, I get about 15 mins runtime with a 1500va unit.

Do you know the model of what you have?

I found this one; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...earch_asin_title?ie=UTF8&tag=mrforums-20&th=1

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Do you know the model of what you have?

I found this one; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...earch_asin_title?ie=UTF8&tag=mrforums-20&th=1

That is a really great model.

 

[Blaine]

Get one that does real sine wave and not simulated sine wave.

Is there a way to tell if one has a pure sine wave vs simulated?

 

[arw]

Any idea where to find the power consumption of the CyberPower UPS's themselves (any model)?
Can't find it in the data sheets.
We currently use APC (non-sine wave) and they add ~10W to the devices' power consumption.

edit: Assuming the mentioned BTU/h make for all the power dissipation, then it‘s:
550 & 900 VA: 9,1 W (31 BTU/h); 1300 VA: 12,0 W (41 BTU/h); 1500 VA: 17,9 W (61 BTU/h)

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Is there a way to tell if one has a pure sine wave vs simulated?

Usually if it's a true sine wave they will call it the sine wave version, right in the title. So this is the true sine wave version:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...earch_asin_title?ie=UTF8&tag=mrforums-20&th=1

It's usually more expensive too (for the same power).

 

[MarkC426]

Do you know the model of what you have?

I found this one; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...earch_asin_title?ie=UTF8&tag=mrforums-20&th=1

That is the one I have.
Although mine is CP1500EPFCLCD, the 'E' is the European version.
Pure Sine Wave (stated on the box).

When I researched about 10 years ago, everywhere recommended pure sine wave for a Mac Pro.

 

[mattspace]

I just had a power outage last night, was very brief, and then came back on. Going through this, I would like to get one instead of just a surge supressor power strip.

I would like one that protects against fluctuations, and a surge when the power comes back on, and enough time, maybe 5 mins or so to properly shut down and unplug external hard drives.

I'm using an APC one (SMT1500IC) that's good for ~30 mins or so of my full system running. It's a pure sine wave model, and has saved my system dozens of times from both momentary flickering outages, and major events where I heard the explosion at the local substation (that poor possum).

The only criticisms I'd have of it are the fan isn't a "quiet" type, and it runs it when recharging after a test if I'm also loading more than 25% of its capacity, and with a 5m usb cable it doesn't report its battery status after a cold boot unless you unplug and replug the usb. That might be a firmware issue, but it can only have its firmware updated from Windows, so I haven't made time to do it.

 

[Sossity]

Another thought, what if the power outage happens when I am away from my computer and not able to be there to shut it down? will it just stay powered up until the UPS battery runs out of juice? and then what? both the computer and the UPS just shut off?

 

[arw]

Another thought, what if the power outage happens when I am away from my computer and not able to be there to shut it down? will it just stay powered up until the UPS battery runs out of juice? and then what? both the computer and the UPS just shut off?

That‘s where the smart part of a UPS comes to play. Via USB (or LAN) a UPS can trigger a shutdown/hibernate of the Mac/PC after a set duration of outage or after the capacity drops to a certain percentage.

EDIT: It depends on the exact model, which interface it provides and if it comes with a separate software. MacOS automatically adds a dedicated UPS tab in energy settings once one is connected via USB. I‘d prefer “hibernatemode 25“ so the current RAM state is saved to disk, but by default an emergency shutdown is initiated:

UPS
If you have a supported uninterruptible power supply (UPS) connected, you can check its settings using
pmset -g ups
which will typically return something like
UPS settings:
haltlevel off 0
haltafter on 2
haltremain off 0

The three settings here are:

• haltlevel – the % battery level at which to start an emergency shutdown,
• haltafter – the time in minutes after switching to UPS power at which to start an emergency shutdown,
• haltremain – the remaining time in minutes available on UPS power at which to start an emergency shutdown.

from https://eclecticlight.co/2017/01/20/power-management-in-detail-using-pmset/

 

[MarkC426]

As stated above, you can set a time/battery % level threshold to shut down your Mac in Energy settings tab.

 

[Sossity]

Ok, that makes sense, anybody recommend or describe the thresholds they have to set up an automatic shutdown or hibernate?

Also, if one sets up the UPS to begin a shutdown after say 5 minutes, and the power goes out, and right at about 5 minutes, or before 5 minutes the power comes back on, what will the UPS do?

 

[MarkC426]

The UPS will only go onto battery when there's a spike/drop in power for brief seconds (i.e. if your lights flicker, but general appliances stay on, a UPS is vastly more sensitive to minute changes) or off completely.
As soon as your power outlet has power, it will return to normal operation, and be recharged if necessary.

You can set 'when UPS level is below a certain percentage', or when 'UPS has x minutes left', to shut down.

 

[Sossity]

With all this, what happens in the event of a power outage, and I have my system all set with preferences for shutdowns etc, and I am doing an hours long backup between two hard drives or a time machine backup, what happens then?

 

[MarkC426]

You would ideally cancel the hour long backup.
This is an absolute worst case scenario.

Edit: the nature of TM, backups are generally very small as their done every hour.

 

[mattspace]

With all this, what happens in the event of a power outage, and I have my system all set with preferences for shutdowns etc, and I am doing an hours long backup between two hard drives or a time machine backup, what happens then?

You could probably also use something like Keyboard Maestro to monitor the UPS status, and issue a terminal command to disable Time Machine (or your other backup app) when UPS power is engaged.

 

[arw]

I don't want to hijack this thread but I followed the recommendation and upgraded our ancient APC UPS' to two CyberPower CP900EPFCLCD for our MP6,1s (hence the smaller 540 W model).
Any advice how I get the Macs to shut down from sleep during a power outage?
USB is connected directly and everything works as expected when the Mac is running.
When sleeping, the UPS wakes the Mac for some seconds and then the Mac goes back to sleep (LED breathing).
The external displays don't activate.
If I then manually press any key, the Mac wakes again and now it shuts down almost instantly like it should have before.

edit: Big Sur 11.7.1 with the integrated UPS solution, haven't yet tried CyberPower's PowerPanel

 

[Sossity]

Bumping this thread, I got the cyberpower 1500, UPS, and I am using it with my mac mini 2018 intel model, with macOS Ventura 13.2.1.

Problem is there are no settings for UPS backup in the energy settings, and a look in system profiler shows no UPS battery backup installed.

I aslo tried to download some UPS management software from Cyberpower, but theirs is not up to date with macOS Ventura.

 

[mattspace]

Bumping this thread, I got the cyberpower 1500, UPS, and I am using it with my mac mini 2018 intel model, with macOS Ventura 13.2.1.

Problem is there are no settings for UPS backup in the energy settings, and a look in system profiler shows no UPS battery backup installed.

I aslo tried to download some UPS management software from Cyberpower, but theirs is not up to date with macOS Ventura.

Is it plugged in via USB? Is it showing up in System Information as a part of the USB tree (assuming there's no dedicated UPS section in Ventura's System Information)?

Can you test it on an earlier macOS version / different machine to eliminate Ventura as the problem?

 

[Sossity]

Is it plugged in via USB? Is it showing up in System Information as a part of the USB tree (assuming there's no dedicated UPS section in Ventura's System Information)?

Can you test it on an earlier macOS version / different machine to eliminate Ventura as the problem?

Facepalm😊, oh my goodness, somehow the USB cord got unplugged from the UPS, plugged it back in, and it is now visible again.

My cat got on my desk, and must have pulled it.

Thank you, sometimes it is the simple things that need looking at first, wish all tech troubles were this simple. This also just saved me from messing with cyberpower's clunky looking app to mange the UPS.