On Fri, 29 Aug 2014 11:37:07 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 29/08/2014 04:10, Johny B Good wrote:
On Thu, 28 Aug 2014 15:40:48 -0700 (PDT), JimK
wrote:

What do you want to pay?

Is the difference worth your time?

Nah
Just spend the whole tenner & move on ffs?


Well Jim, that was one thought I had at the back of my mind, along
with another thought that I could just simply carry on running without
a backup battery as I have done for the past 10 to 15 years and save
the money for better things. :-)

Depends how often you have power cuts. Where I live it would quickly
drive you crazy if the boiler clock reset to midnight every time (like
the blasted cookers do and then refuse to play until you set the time).


That's the key thing. Apart from one 3 hour outage over 20 years ago
and a period of modest brownouts about ten Christamases ago, my UPSes
have never been called upon to 'save the day'.

The mains has been so reliable that ever since the batteries on my
big 2KVA UPS failed nearly two years ago, the only UPSes still
protecting anything are the BackUPS500 protecting the NAS server
box[1] and my first UPS ever, an Emerson AC30(?) which is meant to
protect the supply to the VM Superhub.

This last unit provided power to a lamp stand, with a 15W CFL fitted,
strategically located on the first half landing to illuminate the
toilet (where the kids could complete their homework assignments for
the evening of that 3 hour outage) as well as provide some
illumination for the stairs and hallway.

The mains had failed just before I was going out to an amateur radio
club meeting so I was able to move the little UPS from its usual
location to set up some strategic lighting to save the XYL and sprogs
from being left totally in the dark, apart from a candle or two and
some torches.

By the time I returned, some three hours or so later, the mains had
been restored just prior to my homecoming. The UPS had managed to run
the 'emergency lighting' for all of that time without exhausting its
battery.

Getting back to the issue of the Potterton controller, it would still
be nice not to have to 're-program' it every time I felt the need to
shut the power off for maintenance jobs. As things stand, I'm loth to
do so which means any such maintenance tends to be put off
indefinitely.

Since mains outages are so very rare where we live, I can afford to
take my time over finding a replacement so have the luxury of keeping
my eye out for any suitable 'donor' NiCd (or NiMH) packs I might spot
in a flea market stall or junk shop. The original mempac uses oval
shaped cells (oval as in 'racetrack oval, that is!) which could easily
be substituted with round cells of the same diameter and length so my
choice of a donor battery is quite wide. :-)

[1] Mention of which, I've still got an outstanding firmware update
that was issued, literally, 4 calender months ago. The server is now
showing almost 208 days of up time. It's high time I updated the
firmware and used the opportunity to check the condition of the
battery in the BackUPS 500. It's been quite a few years since I last
ran an endurance test on this unit.
--
J B Good