Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have not tried this and I'm not sure I would recomend it, but I found this is some news group.

"Remove the screws holding the cover on and get a hot glue gun and fill the buzzer up with glue. Sticky tape or Bluetac works if you want to dull the noise down but hot glue really fixes the problem."

Is the UPS be 2nd hand ? 4w, even allowing for conversion losses would have expected about 5 hours. Another watt or 2 for a fan perhaps.

i scored myself an APC 300w Ups the other night, very basic thing and small, No battery in it as it was dead, usual 7ah thing, doesnt have any fans either...

going to charge up a Car battery iv got here and hook it up to it and see how i go, is only a 12plate Battery bout 2 year old, So will have to see how it go's, going to be doing a lot of AP stuff over the next week while im off and the UPS is one of them.

Will Post my Workings in here!!

No it was brand new. I just returned it last night. I was expecting 5 hours as well. I guess it used a battery made to give a quick jolt of power.

I'll pick up a sealed (maintenance free) battery small inverter, & maybe a trickle charger or stick a small solar panel in the window. I'd like it to be self-powered.

Post the UPS stuff here. Maybe someone will find a unit appropriate to AP?

I'll post my battery back-up/cob job in a different thread.

I'd like to mention one more thing in this thread.

The UPS I bought did not like the power coming off my generator. As soon as the house batteries started to be topped up the alarm would sound on the UPS. I think the sine wave was clean so the only problem I can think is that the voltage was out of tolerance. My high speed DSL modem wasn't bothered though.

Iv also Designed and made another Battery Backup system using a 150w Sinewave Inverter and a control circuit that changes my Mains power over too the inverter nicly, but it was costly to buy the commercial grade timers and components to make it, however it would also work well as a solar powered system, i think with 200odd watts of panels and a few truck batterys =]

if i dont return iv fallen victim to 240vitis brother is on his way over for xmas so were going to play with the UPS (he is a sparky)

UPS's are very finicky about proper neutral and ground wiring also. A voltage differential can crop up if your neutral wires and ground wires are not properly isolated between the generator and the original house wiring. Most appliances/devices can handle the differential, but since the sensing circuit of the UPS is so sensitive (to quickly switch over in case of a power outage) even a small differential can cause a fault condition and the UPS just balks.

Roy

Any danger involved here?

Our system has been in place for 14 years or so. I'll have hubby check it out (he should know - he did the wiring). He's planning on redoing the "utility room" anyway.

Your generator probably does not put out a perfect sinewave (black line) especially if its 14years old. Most put out a "stepped" (red/blue lines) wave that approximates what you would normally get as its cheaper to build. Depending on the quality of the generator it can have more steps ie 18.
A lot of UPS will shift into buck/boost mode as it thinks there is something wrong with the incoming supply with a stepped wave.

The other possibility is the voltage regulator is faulty and its dropping below the alarm set point of the UPS when you put the high load of charging batteries on it. If it is doing that you have a problem that needs to be fixed quickly before other equipment starts failing.

Below is my UPS, normally the cover is on and the front unit on top of the 2nd. I just rearranged things a bit so you could see the battery bank.
There is a 2nd unit on the shelf below with just 4 batteries. I've got those external as they are not the high density originals and are slightly too big to fit.
All up I spent $300 but it gives me a huge backup time. Also if the UPS develops a fault it automatically switch to bypass mode and run the pumps direct from AC.

Only thing not on UPS atm is the air pump it only draws power during 1/2 of the ac cycle and sends the UPS into alarm constantly. Next project is hocking up the DC airpump to the same line but I am having trouble finding a 19mm non return valve for low pressure air.

The generator is only 11 months old. Actually, the inverter (an Outback) & batteries are only a few years old as well. I meant the overall system & house wiring.

Why does the pump draw off 1/2 the AC cycle? Could this have been part of my trouble as well?

The magnetic piston air pump I have (HJD-02) has a diode that blocks the flow of power in one direction. It uses 1/2 the ac cycle to generate a electromagnet in a coil and push the piston forward. Then a spring returns it to the start position during the period the ac cycle is blocked.
My UPS didn't like the uneven current flow and raised an alarm then shut down that power outlet. If I put a 60w pump on the outlet at the same time it didn't raise the alarm straight away but after a day or 2 I would get home and find the outlet off.

At 4w I'm guessing yours is a diaphragm air pump so probably works differently. It doesn't make it use more power either just blocks the current flow 50 time a second.