Re: Debian Compatable UPS?

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Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 11:31:19 -0300
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005, Hugo Vanwoerkom wrote:
> all UPS's are Debian compatible as long they have an rs232 interface.
> Which statement I don't understand. Why is USB bad? What do I do with M$
> code that is shipped with most?

USB is not bad (but good luck trying to find USB power surge isulators,
which are quite easy to find for RS232), but its support in Linux is not
anywhere close to the RS232 support (smart protocols).

And not all dumb RS232 UPSes have Debian support out-of-the-box. You may be
unlucky enough to have to either open the UPS or do some experiences to find
out the RS232 pinout. I know of some Brazilian UPSes with dumb contacts
that certainly do not follow the usual pinouts for these things.

> Alvin's claim that they don't last long might be true, but here again, a
> good db for Linux is lacking. How long is a UPS supposed to last?

A good UPS unit (prosumer grade) is supposed to last more than five years,
at least seven. Batteries are expected to last two years or a bit more.

I am not very sure if there are good consumer grade units anymore. I have
had two at home, both had control circuitry AND battery problems. I ditched
them to the recyclabe trash, and got a prosumer ("small server") APC
instead. So far, I am happy with it.

> Then there are the prices. I would get an APC BP500UC, that's $110. But
> Henrique reports on an APC Smartups, that's double the price, where I
> look. So what is the price performance curve?

NOW that is the golden question. There are a lot of bad talk about cheap
APC units (including Alvin's), and it makes sense that you would get trash
if you go for the "average joe" model of UPS.

I would go with prosumer models, you pay more, but what you are trying to
protect costs at least 10 times the UPS, doesn't it?

> Now I am afraid to leave the system on when I am not personally present
> to turn the switch.

Yeah, I know that fear. Here where I live (Campinas/SP/Brazil) we get
really, really annoying electrical storms (I live near what is considered
the 5th worst area of the world for electrical storms :( ). Fast power
cycles (~ 2s) when the power transmission lines get temporarily shorted out
by lightining are way too common. Also, fast ~5s power cycles while the
automated power routing systems compensate for falling trees and branches
downing street powerlines and utility poles during storms are also common
enough to worry about.

And power quality ain't that good to begin with :)

It took a lot of faith on the UPS and building surge protection system to
leave anything plugged in when I go out... I am lucky to be in a building
complex with its own power transformer (and a reasonably beefy one, since
the complex is composed of six buildings), so we get high-voltage mains from
the utility company, which is much better behaving most of the time than the
low voltage mains houses get. And the high voltage mains have lighting
protection fuses just before the power transformer, which the low voltage
mains don't.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh
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