Hey big guy!

Check this out, you don't need to buy an expensive UPS that will "last for 4 hours or more".

Here's what I did for my computer, and for others as well. Wait for circuit city to have their bi-monthly UPS sale. Buy which ever one you have the money for. I usually get the 500 for around 70$.

Next, head over to your local battery shop. Buy a deep cycle battery. Now, head over to your local electronics shop and pick up a small spool of 12 guage wire with connectors to crimp onto the wire that will fit over the connectors on the deep cycle batter and 2 high amperage wire nuts.

Now, get it all home. Open up the batter compartment, snip the wires leading to the battery, strip both ends. Grab your spool of wire, and cut 2 pieces long enough to reach from the compartment to the battery. Hook it all up!

Now, I did this with a wimpy 250 UPS as a test. I had a huge high end gamming machine with a 19" monitor. That little bugger kept that cpu going for 5 and a half hours!

I then waited about 24hours for the battery to recharge and did another test. This time, I left the monitor off. 12 hours of runtime and it was still going strong.

So the theory here is, get a UPS, get an external deep cycle battery, hook everything up except the monitor and your power problems will be solved.

Cool!!

I'm curious as to the how great of a load is placed on the charging circuits when the battery has been discharged. The small units are probably capable of keeping a battery topped up, but are they capable of supplying the current needed to bring a partially discharged battery back to a charged level without burning up?

Simple answer, yes.

I have never measured the actual circuit and how it works. I was told by an engineer years ago that the circuits inside those ups's are trickle charge circuits.

Deep cycle marine batteries are designed to be charged back to full capacity by the use of trickle charging.

I have ran a several of these units I am talking about in my own home computers for years. I still have the first one I built from 8 years ago. Only thing that needed replacing was the power cord from when the cat chewed threw it once. (taught that cat a lesson it will never forget!)

here kitty kitty

Now Susie can keep her vibrator going when the power goes out.

Not sure about comp, though. His takes a lot of current...

No problem! It can run a Sybian at half speed for 2 hours!!!

Woot!!

Thats a cool idea! Lol... Got any pics so I can better picture it? Could probabily build a small box to put it in i bet too.

Now that I have downsized to smaller PC's running the site (No longer the massive dell triple hotswap power supply server) im sure the modified UPS you describe would do a lot better than the un-modded one i have down there now

I will try and get some pics of it. However, it's buried behind the 19" rack mount and not easy to get too.

It's really not hard to figure out. If you have ever had to replace a battery in one, you will see how simple they really are. Usually, the wires going to the battery are attached to the main unit using spade connectors.

Just disconnect the connectors and attach longer wires to a deep cycle sitting next to it.

Talk about a bad omen. I reply to this post today and the power went out again a couple hours later.

I have an old IBM UPS and a couple APC's that dont last very long either. Im gonna try to get the old IBM one going first... Got a deepcycle in the garage and everything.

Gonna have to clean up a bit in my server closet too. Cat5 is WAY too long. Spagetti city in there. Brutal. I think im gonna move the DSL in to the same room too then as well so i can power the internet link too.

Fun fun fun.

I got the generator out today and had it running. Just as I was plugging in a light, the power came back on.. lol I kept the gen set outside ready to go though. (Its a big one on wheels) Big wind storms here today. Only thing is i dont have ext cords to run to the two seperate places needed to keep the servers going right now. I'll get this UPS thing going soon though. Gotta get some shorted cat5 cables tomorrow. Too lazy to make em when i can just pick em up free tomorrow. haha

I've got a shit load of 25 footers if ya need any DJ.

OK its done!

First took a IBM one that's been on the fritz for years. Still didnt work. Must be bad...

So then i took the APC 650 that i was using for the servers and dropped the battery out of that one and put the wires on it instead. Hooked it up to the battery and hit the test button and waa laa, battery backup!

So now that i know its working, i moved the DSL down there into the same room along with the tiny hub etc needed and plugged just whats needed to run the sites.

1-PC running the firewall/proxy
1-pc running web server
1-pc running email server
1-dsl modem
1-5port hub
1-8prt hub

Hope im not overloading it but pretty sure it will be ok from what you are saying here. I had all three of the machines plugged into the APC before the battery swap anyways... (Real short battery run time with stock battery!) I figure the next time the power goes out I will just sit and watch it to make sure for the first run.

Now, I did some reading on the net and a lot of people are saying that its best to use gel cell batteries for these instead of the liquid type due to hydrogen issues. Others say its so little and so light it will just drift away. For now its on a liqid type deep cycle, but i do plan to swap in a gelcel asap.. Might as well. (I'm gonna put a fan in there tonight too.)

Kind of looking for another outage here to see it go, but'with winter coming on, im sure it will be tested again soon enough

Thanks for the idea!

You can use either or. You should know how some people are just paranoid over the little things in life. I run a wet deep cycle myself. I don't like gel as you cannot replace the gel. With water you can!

Oh and just to let you know, the gels out gas as well. So your not really gaining any safety there. I was once studying for my ASE certification in batteries. The only 2 factors that are positive about gel cells, is if your a dumbass (oops) and kick the battery over onto it's side. The other is maintenance free.

One other thing I saw in case anyone was interested in another option is to purchase an actual inverter to the size your requirements need. Hook up the battery (s) to that, and then an automatic battery charger to the battery.

This way the battery is always charged as long as the power is on, and when the power goes out, the inverter takes care of it. When the power comes back on the battery gets charged again.

Oh ya, and I'm soooo curious now on how long this will last that Im gonna test it out tonight when I get home to see how long it will go before the low battery warning beeps. (I wont do it to power out... )

Did you make sure that the battery was fully charged before hooking up to the ups?

At either rate, it should take about 2 days to fully charge a completely drained deep cycle on a 650 ups.

Good Luck!

Oh, you could always create your own power outage!

Yup was fully charged.. didnt do the outage check last night. Under the weather and when i got home i just wanted to chill.

Well, I am sure with all the crap weather we have had the past week, that thing should have had a good workout. How's it working?

Hey guys been along time. I did a 5000 watt inverter setup in my box truck I use for work. The inverter has a built in charger! I am running dual Gel bats. I also plan on adding a solar panel on the roof later. Here is a link of the inverter.

http://cgi.ebay.com/5000-10000-Watt-Powe...1QQcmdZViewItem

This baby gives me 2 -- 21 amp crk's. I can power a comp, skill saw, sawsall, dewalt charger / radio, laptop / printer / usb hub, and other stuff for well over 4 hrs. I got about $2000 into this setup. I use the 200 amp alt @ idle off the engine to recharge the bats when needed or at high loads. I useally run it for about 15 mins during lunch time on a normal day to recharge them. I also have a diode installed so I dont drain off the main engine bat. It beats running a generator for sure. This has no noise and doesnt waste 5 gallons of fuel during a work day. I have saved so much money doing this its unreal. I started doing this about 2 years ago and saved prob about 14k in fuel costs. Not to mention filling up fuel cans and repair costs to the generator. Its a nice setup for sure!

Talk to u guys later

Tom718