Are ConstantVigil still in business?

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neb

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#3348092 26-Feb-2025 16:16

mkissin:

That's unfortunate. I bought a unit from them about 3 weeks ago and was considering getting another one!

Friend of mine did the same, just a few weeks back.

neb

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#3348094 26-Feb-2025 16:20

nztim:

APC Back-UPS Connect CP12036LI

That looks like the successor to the more powerful CP12142LI, you may be able to still find that on clearance since it's just been discontinued. That would run a router/AP through 8-hour outages no problems, the only annoyance was that it was a bit finicky about its input voltage, once a blue moon it would decide the 12V input wasn't quite enough and switch to battery mode until you noticed the beeping and reset it.

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#3348099 26-Feb-2025 16:51

Highly rated the Constant Vigil gear, glad I purchased the Mk2 when I did, it's got over double the battery capacity of the other alternatives provided, although it's nice to see there are other retail options now too.

Still planning on getting a 20w solar panel to plug into the Mk2's Aux power at some stage!

neb

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#3348172 26-Feb-2025 20:27

concordnz:

Eaton have just launched a similar device on to the NZ market - with selectable voltages.

https://www.eaton.com/nz/en-gb/catalog/backup-power-ups-surge-it-power-distribution/eaton-3s-mini-ups-anz.html

Looks like everyone's jumping on the "slap a row of 18650s and a charge circuit in a box" bandwagon now. At least these will be (hopefully) less dodgy than the Chinese ones that have been all over Aliexpress for some years now.

mentalinc

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#3348731 28-Feb-2025 14:59

@kiwifidget any updates?

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kiwifidget

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#3348772 28-Feb-2025 19:21

mentalinc:

@kiwifidget any updates?

Well, I used the blue tip connector and the house has not burned down.

PBTech were unable to advise on the correct adaptor, and I have yet to hear back from PowerShield AU.

It takes up way less room than the shoebox+ sized Dynamix I had in place which had about 3secs of UPS usage left in it.

And it doesnt beep!

Delete cookies?! Are you insane?!

neb

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#3348774 28-Feb-2025 19:30

For people wanting a direct Constant Vigil replacement, Meanwell have the LAD-xxx series of UPS power supplies.

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Wheelbarrow01

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#3362145 8-Apr-2025 21:17

Wheelbarrow01:

Probably complete overkill, but I have just bought one of these - https://www.ferntech.co.nz/bluetti-ac70p-portable-power-station-1000w-864wh

Primarily bought to have power on the go and use for things as powering my camp fridge in the back of the car when the car is not actually running, and to charge phone/camera/drone batteries etc.

But I also intend to try it out as a UPS on my ONT and router to see how long I can get out of it in a power cut. It has a 20ms failover from mains to battery in the event of a power failure according to the stats.

Just circling back to my own comment above. Yesterday at midday, I plugged the AC adapter for both my ONT and router into my Bluetti AC70P battery station, and unplugged it from mains power on 100% charge. Since then, I've continued working from home yesterday afternoon and all day today, and watching Youtube/Netflix etc on the TV last night and tonight. At the time of starting this test, the screen indicated 30 hours until the battery goes flat (drawing a steady 17-18 watts).

The ONT is the standard Enable Huawei model, and the router is a Deco AC1200 M4.

We are now 33 hours in and I have 14% battery charge left, with the screen indicating I still have just over 4 hours left. I'm quite impressed. Yes it's relatively expensive if your only use for it is as a UPS (I paid a shade over $1000 on sale), but I can't fault the run time, plus it can run/charge up to 8 separate devices at once which gives it some extra versatility in an actual power outage.

I'd be keen to test the runtime of Starlink through it at some stage.

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

neb

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#3362147 8-Apr-2025 21:29

Just out of curiosity, what's the lifetime of one of these when used as a UPS, so almost never discharged, meaning the usual X-cycles-to-80% figure doesn't mean much? Wondering whether a LiFePO4-based system, despite the higher upfront cost, is a better deal long-term than replacing $200 worth of SLAs every few years.

Wheelbarrow01

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#3362148 8-Apr-2025 21:39

mentalinc:

@Wheelbarrow01 noting your personal view.

Be interesting to see the employer view of what to run on ONT off to provide UPS?

The APC looks good above, but needs barrel pins to work so no use for Chorus ONT.

Sorry mate, I just realised I never replied to this. I know myself and some colleagues have discussed backup battery options for ONTs etc in the past, but the view has always been that we wouldn't want to get into the situation where we are seen to recommend or endorse one UPS device or another (in an official Chorus capacity anyway), to then have that come back to bite us for some reason. I'd suggest we'd only ever make such a recommendation after exhaustive lab testing but doubt it would be a product we'd ever offer direct to the public (that would likely put us too much in the 'retailer' category, which we of course are not).

My post above this one is very much my own (unscientific) research, conducted in my own home, with my own device, so nothing to do with Chorus, although I'll likely talk about it with colleagues at the water cooler...

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

Wheelbarrow01

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#3362149 8-Apr-2025 21:45

neb:

Just out of curiosity, what's the lifetime of one of these when used as a UPS, so almost never discharged, meaning the usual X-cycles-to-80% figure doesn't mean much? Wondering whether a LiFePO4-based system, despite the higher upfront cost, is a better deal long-term than replacing $200 worth of SLAs every few years.

I'd also be interested to know this too. I can't say I've seen anything about the longevity of that use case written anywhere. In my head I did the math that using it almost daily, recharging 6 times a week, would give you roughly 10 years of use based on their claimed 3000 charge cycles to 80% capacity.

Would using it plugged in continuously still allow you to get 10 years out of it? Probably? But I just don't know if anyone has a definitive answer...

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

mentalinc

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#3362150 8-Apr-2025 21:52

The next question is how do you use a cheap solar panel to top it up during the day.

@wheelbarrow01 - not home solar something like this, but not this... https://www.jaycar.co.nz/100w-canvas-blanket-solar-panel-suitable-for-brass-monkey-battery-solar-ready-fridge-freezers/p/GH2015

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Wheelbarrow01

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#3362153 8-Apr-2025 22:23

mentalinc:

The next question is how do you use a cheap solar panel to top it up during the day.

@wheelbarrow01 - not home solar something like this, but not this... https://www.jaycar.co.nz/100w-canvas-blanket-solar-panel-suitable-for-brass-monkey-battery-solar-ready-fridge-freezers/p/GH2015

Bluetti do make folding solar panels for this model, but they are spenny, particularly to get one big enough to charge it quickly:

https://www.ferntech.co.nz/bluetti-pv120d-solar-panel-120w

https://www.ferntech.co.nz/bluetti-pv350-solar-panel-350w

The 350w panel above has a claimed charge time for this battery unit of 4-5 hours. If using the 120w panel, you'd need 2 of them to recharge in 6-7 hours. Figures quoted from the Bluetti website, which I assume are optimistic or at least only applicable in optimal conditions.

They do use a "universal MC4 connector interface" though, so perhaps that increases the options - not something I've explored yet.

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

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