09.19.05
UPS Battery update time
That, and I didn’t think my baby would appreciate the self test beeps of complaint. :~)
So, I had to remember what the UPS brand/model was (APC Back-UPS Pro), and then did a bit of a search for suppliers/price. The final three contenders…
- From the manufacture website http://www.apc.com : $169.99 (US or AUS? +postage?? no thanks)
- From a company in sydney called UPS Solutions http://www.upssolutions.com: $134.02 (+postage??) Their online payment form appeared to be http not https… hmm. Better price, but No thanks.
- Battery World. No info online, but they have a store near me.
So I wandered up to battery world with a printout of the APC battery web page, and basically said “got one of these?” - “yes, i think so. How many do you need” - “one” - “that’s good, we only have one in stock”. $49.95. Yes thanks.
I removed the old battery (’you can do a “hot swap” - very cool, erugh.. hot… I had to tripple check the manual to be a believer though :) and inserted the new one. Great. However, the UPS firmware still thinks its got a dead battery and needed to be told to do a new self test. Bummer. I did find some docs related to doing a reset or test with the apcupsd tools, but didn’t quite figure it out. I used the MS approach and did a complete reboot. Fixed, but so much for my hot swap. It may have fixed itself at the next auto test time, but i was impatient.
Well, one final thing - i really wanted to update the battery date in the EEPROM of the UPS so my reports would be right… and if i’m still using this UPS in a few years i’ll know when it died. As i’ve mentioned before, I use debian
on my server, and i’ve been using the apcupsd package (apt-get install apcupsd == done (almost)) to monitor the power and perform auto warning, test, shutdown as need. I also have things set up to auto reboot when the power comes on, and that was fun to set up (not) but worth it in geek points to me when I set it up.
RIght - back to the date update. I used the “acptest” utility to connect and communicate to the UPS. Only, i needed to stop the monitoring daemon first so that the test util could do its thing.
/etc/init.d/apcupsd stop
Then:
> apctest 2005-09-19 17:18:44 apctest 3.10.18 (21 July 2005) debian Checking configuration ... Attached to driver: apcsmart sharenet.type = DISABLE cable.type = CUSTOM_SMART You are using a SMART cable type, so I'm entering SMART test mode mode.type = BKPRO Setting up the port ... Creating the device lock file ... Hello, this is the apcupsd Cable Test program. This part of apctest is for testing Smart UPSes. Please select the function you want to perform. 1) Query the UPS for all known values 2) Perform a Battery Runtime Calibration 3) Abort Battery Calibration 4) Monitor Battery Calibration progress 5) Program EEPROM 6) Enter TTY mode communicating with UPS 7) Quit
I selected 5 to mess with the EEPROM
This is the EEPROM programming section of apctest. Please select the function you want to perform. 1) Print EEPROM values 2) Change Battery date 3) Change UPS name 4) Change sensitivity 5) Change alarm delay 6) Change low battery warning delay 7) Change wakeup delay 8) Change shutdown delay 9) Change low transfer voltage 10) Change high transfer voltage 11) Change battery return threshold percent 12) Change output voltage when on batteries 13) Change the self test interval 14) Set EEPROM with conf file values 15) Quit Select function number: 2 Enter new battery date -- DD/MM/YY: 19/09/05 Attempting to update UPS battery date ... The old UPS battery date is: 03/23/99 The new UPS battery date is: 19/09/05
Done. Well, except i needed to start the monitor again.
/etc/init.d/apcupsd start
Very happy. Now I won’t be bugged with warning emails every 5 hours because of the stuffed battery and I can spend more time on other fun things!