What's a good UPS for keeping VOIP active in a power outage?

Posts: 29 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 28, 2004 Posts: 29

any idea how much the batterty would be for the one i posted?

Posts: 183 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: May 05, 2004 Posts: 183

vincatzero wrote:

any idea how much the batterty would be for the one i posted?

The Belking 500 VA unit? Only Belkin could give you a price for a replacement battery. But you won't be needing one for several years, as alll UPS' come with a battery.

Oh, I just realized, most units use standard lead-acid batteries, so it is likely you could get a replacement battery for less money online from a different source. You'll have to get the unit to see exactly what battery yours uses (my 500 VA APC uses a Panasonic battery).

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 08, 2004 Posts: 16

The RS models from APC ARE on their site. I think the XS piece is just a retail SKU.

http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=23&tab=models

I use the RS 1000 at home and the runtime is killer. Played through an hour outage the other day with CPU, LCD monitor, router, ATA, cable modem all being powered by the UPS. Funny.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 03, 2004 Posts: 13

Yes, for the money the XS1000 is one dang fine UPS. I will be doing a runtime test with the CATV amplifier connected tonight and will report back on the results (Linksys WRT54G wireless router, Motorola 1005 ATA, Comcast/Scientific Atlanta cable modem, and the Comcast whole-house amplifier).

Steve

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 03, 2004 Posts: 13

Alright, finally got around to doing a test using the APC XS1000 *with* the whole-house signal amp power injector plugged in to the UPS. It only reduced my runtime by a half-hour, to the figures below:

Powering Linksys WRT54G wireless router at full transmit power (84 milliwatts), Motorola 1005 Voip ATA, Comcast/Scientific Atlanta WebStar DPC2100 cable modem, and Comcast whole-house digital cable line amplifier:

On backup.......17:30
Low battery.....22:52 Elapsed time 5 hours 22 minutes
Off.............22:57 Elapsed time 0 hours 5 minutes
Total uptime 5 hours 27 minutes

Steve

Posts: 29 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 28, 2004 Posts: 29

Hmmm. I got my UPS and I was running a test earlier. It keeps the power going but when I pick up the phone as it's being powered by the UPS I get bad sound. It sounds muffled and staticky. Any ideas why?

Posts: 50 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 10, 2004 Posts: 50

Sounds like something is pulling too many amps, or the phone is to close to the UPS. Did you charge the battery before plugging your equipment.

If it came with software load it and hookup the UPS to the computer. The software will tell you what is going on.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 03, 2004 Posts: 13

vincatzero wrote:

Hmmm. I got my UPS and I was running a test earlier. It keeps the power going but when I pick up the phone as it's being powered by the UPS I get bad sound. It sounds muffled and staticky. Any ideas why?

It's normal to hear a soft buzzing sound from the inverter in the UPS. The better the UPS, the quieter it runs, but it should still be there. Mine even introduces the buzz into the corded phones elsewhere in the house by way of the Vonage adapter. As far as being muffled, that's definitely NOT a normal side-effect of a UPS. Sounds like something's gone wrong somewhere.

BTW, you may want to try the test by actually throwing the circuit breaker rather than unplugging the UPS (unless you DID do the breaker). I have found that UPSes run a little quieter, and it's much SAFER, if you just throw the breaker, which allows the system to stay grounded.

Steve

Posts: 29 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 28, 2004 Posts: 29

-Was I supposed to charge the UPS before plugging everything into it? I was kind of confused about this. I didn't. Did I cause any harm?

--If I ran the phone wires through the UPS would it decrease the buzz? Is there any reason to do this?

---Is there a way to make it not beep every few seconds when it's not getting power?

Thank again folks

Posts: 50 · Full Forum Member Joined: Mar 10, 2004 Posts: 50

They usuall put an initial charge on the battery, but depending howlogn it has set on the shel the battery will start to dissipate its' charge, so most manufacturs reccoment that you plug in the unit and charge the battery for 2-6 hours to allow the battery to fully charge before adding the equiptment.

You have not done any harm to the unit, They reccomend to charge the battery to full as the equipment runs off the battery via a rectifier.