From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Jul 7 08:15:48 1995 Return-Path: questions-owner Received: (from majordom@localhost) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) id IAA15674 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 7 Jul 1995 08:15:48 -0700 Received: from lupine.nsi.nasa.gov (lupine.nsi.nasa.gov [198.116.2.100]) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) with ESMTP id IAA15668 for ; Fri, 7 Jul 1995 08:15:47 -0700 Received: (from mnewell@localhost) by lupine.nsi.nasa.gov (8.6.12/8.6.12) id LAA28368; Fri, 7 Jul 1995 11:13:32 -0400 Date: Fri, 7 Jul 1995 11:13:32 -0400 (EDT) From: "Michael C. Newell" To: Chuck Robey cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: Using No-break Power Systems In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: questions-owner@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Fri, 7 Jul 1995, Chuck Robey wrote: > My new apartment comes with full amenities, including (what seems to be) > daily short power interruptions, usually less than 1 minute in length. I'd > like to get no-break power, something like an APC power system, just for > the two system boxes (not the monitor, printer, etc.) Each system has a > 300 watt power supply, which I think is lightly loaded. I was wondering > if anyone who has experience with power (I don't) could give me a SWAG as > to the VA load I need to run to be able to allow for ignoring 1 minute > outages, and allowing 4 minutes extra for system auto-shutdown if it runs > longer? I have a Tripp-Lite 500P 500 VA and a Tripp-Lite 450LAN (it's proclaimed to be "Internet Ready" on the box; this means it's got a telephone line spike suppressor built in... :-) Both seem to work quite well. I use the 500P to power my main server *INCLUDING* the monitor and modem; I've pulled the plug on it a couple of times for as long as 15 minutes without the system noticing. I paid right at $200 for the 500P and $180 for the 450 at CompUSA; you should be able to do much better from Computer Slogger mail order. The thing that's missing from these guys is there's no test output that tells the system they are connected to the state of the power; hence there's no way for your system to gracefully shutdown once the unit reaches their limits. In my case I have the same problem you do - short outages mainly caused by thunder storms; I was looking for a surge suppressor (those outlet strips are pretty useless) as well as a backup unit. I had about 4 outages in one week so I decided to buy the backup units; since then (of course) no new outages occur. I bought the 450 to do field testing of some radio equipment; I charge it up, then turn it off and drive off to where I want to test. I then plug in the radio equipment and turn it on; works great. Once I've finished those tests I'm going to install it on a Sun Sparc 10 server that we have in our office (that's why I didn't just buy a car power inverter - I wanted the UPS for the Sun eventually). Nice hearing from you again!! :-) Thanks, Mike +--------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ |Mike Newell | The opinions expressed herein are | |NASA Science Internet Network Systems | my own, and do not necessarily | |Sterling Software, Inc. | reflect those of the NSI program, | |MNewell@nsipo.nasa.gov | Sterling Software, NASA, or anyone | |+1-202-434-8954 | else. | +--------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ | work: http://www.eco.nsi.nasa.gov/~mnewell | | home: http://www.newell.arlington.va.us | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+