How to Reset UPS after changing battery


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I have a Backups 1300 ups on my unraid (6.2.4).  Recently had the batteries fail. Replaced the batteries, but the UPS isn't reporting correctly.  I've read on the APC forums that sometimes the UPS needs to recalibrate to the new batteries.  Has anyone ever done that recalibration via unRaid?  I can download powerchute to my laptop and do that, but just wondering if anyone else has run into this problem and how they corrected.

 

Here's a screenshot of what it looks like...

2017-01-23_1246.png

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Why did you create a new user for the forums? https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=141477

 

To your question, I have an older APC Smart-UPS SC620 that I successfully recalibrated while connected to a serial cable, I don't know without researching how to connect to a USB model.

 

Here are the steps I followed to successfully recalibrate mine.

 

1. Set the Start APC UPS daemon: to No in unraid settings.

2. Open a console session, I SSH'd in, telnet or local console should work too.

3. Start a screen session to talk to the UPS. My specific command line was

screen /dev/ttyS0 2400,n81

yours will be different and dependent on what port your UPS is connected to. The terminal will go blank, DON'T hit random keys!

4. Be extremely careful what you send to your UPS as certain characters may cause it to power down or may even cause damage to the UPS. Try sending an upper case Y to the UPS (without a return at the end). It should respond with SM. If this is not the case, stop, and read the apcupsd manual. If you fat finger the Y and enter y instead, no cause for alarm, you will simply get the APC copyright notice.

5. When you are sure you are properly connected send an upper case D (no cr). This will put the UPS into calibration mode, and it will drain the battery down to 25% capacity at which point it will go back on the mains. In doing so, it will recompute the runtime calibration. Don't type anything else while this is going on.

6. After the UPS comes out of test mode, you can hit CTRL-a \ and y to get out of screen. (That's control plus lower case a, followed by a backslash, followed by a lower case y)

7. Set the Start APC UPS daemon: to Yes in unraid settings, and watch your runtime go back up as the battery recharges.

 

(Large portions of this procedure were lifted verbatim from the apcupsd online manual)

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In my experience with APC UPS is that failed batteries are almost always not a battery failure, it's the charging circuit that craps the bed. 

 

I have a Back-UPS Pro 750 that reported battery failure, I replaced the batteries, and it was still saying dead batteries.  I stripped the UPS down and found a LOAD of leaking capacitors.  I got about £5 worth of new caps off eBay, spent some time replacing those caps and the UPS started working.  That was about 2 years ago, and it's still going.

 

I've never seen/needed to recalibrate that UPS, nor any of the 20-odd I have dotted about work (mostly 5-10 year old APC units). 

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I changed batteries very recently in my APC Back-UPS RS 800.  Charging was fine - the batteries were dead, confirmed by trying them in another UPS.

 

To do the recalibration is quite simple.

[*]To avoid surprises (just in case) take the server off-line by stopping the array.

[*]In the UPS settings you then stop the APCUPSD daemon, and apply.

[*]Assuming that you have a keyboard and monitor attached to your server, at the command line you then run "apctest". (or you can run from a remote login)

[*]That utility offers a number of options such as self-test frequency, audible alarms on or off, etc.  Not all functions are supported by all UPSs.

[*]Provided that the UPS thinks the batteries are fully charged you can then run the calibration option.

[*]It will then automatically disconnect the load from the mains and run it from the UPS until the batteries are almost empty.

[*]Just before they are exhausted it should reconnect back to the mains and the batteries will then start to recharge.

[*]Exit the command line session and restart the daemon before you restart the unRAID array.

That's all there is to it.  The UPS status report should then reflect the updated battery condition and estimated run time.

 

 

 

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I changed batteries very recently in my APC Back-UPS RS 800.  Charging was fine - the batteries were dead, confirmed by trying them in another UPS.

 

To do the recalibration is quite simple.

Well I'll be.

 

That's what I get for reading the manual.

 

"Recalibrating the UPS Runtime

 

Note: In a future release of apcupsd this procedure will be replaced by a daemon operation that can be performed on all types of UPS."

 

I guess the online manual for apcupsd is just as far behind as unraid's.

;D ;D ;D

 

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I changed batteries very recently in my APC Back-UPS RS 800.  Charging was fine - the batteries were dead, confirmed by trying them in another UPS.

 

To do the recalibration is quite simple.

Well I'll be.

 

That's what I get for reading the manual.

 

"Recalibrating the UPS Runtime

 

Note: In a future release of apcupsd this procedure will be replaced by a daemon operation that can be performed on all types of UPS."

 

I guess the online manual for apcupsd is just as far behind as unraid's.

;D ;D ;D

Perhaps you skipped this part in said manual...

 

http://www.apcupsd.org/manual/manual.html#apctest

 

It is a bit hard to find things, although this is also in the index...  ;D

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Thanks S80_UK!

 

I was able to access the apctest and ran the calibration. i also was able to change the battery date (not sure if that will do anything but i did it :) )

 

We will have to see if I have any more failures. I pulled the batteries out and taped them together then reinserted them too. It also looked like the positive connector was a little loose so I re-crimped the connector and then put it all back together.

 

I haven't had any issues since Dec but it was always a nagging thought, "what if the ice builds up and the power goes out... will i loose all my backups?" So hopefully that puts all of that to bed!

 

Thanks for all your your help Guys I really appreciate it!

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Thanks S80_UK!

You're welcome.

 

I don't believe that changing the battery install date does anything useful, other than making the information available when you or someone else run the program in a few years time trying to remember when the battery was last replaced.  I set it in mine in hope that the UPS is still working at that time... :)

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  • 1 year later...
On 1/25/2017 at 6:19 PM, S80_UK said:

I don't believe that changing the battery install date does anything useful [...]

I disagree. I've changed my battery twice, first time 3 years ago, and again 2 weeks ago. Both times the APC (BG900) started complaining about the battery not charging after replacing it with a new one, and last time it even shut down my unraid server because of low battery (which was a brand new battery, only two weeks old). Using the apctest utility and manuall setting the battery date, solved everything. It is now fully loaded again and fully functional.

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12 hours ago, jowi said:

I disagree. I've changed my battery twice, first time 3 years ago, and again 2 weeks ago. Both times the APC (BG900) started complaining about the battery not charging after replacing it with a new one, and last time it even shut down my unraid server because of low battery (which was a brand new battery, only two weeks old). Using the apctest utility and manuall setting the battery date, solved everything. It is now fully loaded again and fully functional.

I stand corrected!  To be fair, my comment was based on my Back-UPS RS 800 and from what I have seen that unit has no way to complain except to simply not work.  So it's perfectly possible that the battery-changed entry does have an effect in those UPS systems that are aware of the passsage of time.  Mine seems not to be that smart, and has no UI other than a single button and four LEDs. 

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  • 7 months later...

hello...in my case also I have a Back-UPS Pro 750 that reported battery failure, I replaced the batteries, and it was still saying dead batteries.  I stripped the UPS down and found a LOAD of leaking capacitors.  I got about £5 worth of new caps off eBay, spent some time replacing those caps and the UPS started working.

 

pcb assembly canada

Edited by DaveRodda
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