Uninterruptable Power Supply for UFB available: Constant Vigil Sentry Lite UFB DC UPS

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › Uninterruptable Power Supply for UFB available: Constant Vigil Sentry Lite UFB DC UPS

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1323827 13-Jun-2015 09:09

Within that sarcasm is a valid point, how do we know they're safe? The developer told me they've been extensively tested. The power supply has a bunch of symbols on it, but the writing is all in Chinese so I have no idea what it says. The fact that it's Chinese writing means nothing, probably just about every power supply is made in China these days.

How can we tell if the units are safe? What kind of electrical certifications should they have for use in NZ? What kind of certifications should they have to be allowed to connect to telco equipment - any?

BarTender

3606 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1324099 13-Jun-2015 16:07

timmmay: Within that sarcasm is a valid point, how do we know they're safe? The developer told me they've been extensively tested. The power supply has a bunch of symbols on it, but the writing is all in Chinese so I have no idea what it says. The fact that it's Chinese writing means nothing, probably just about every power supply is made in China these days.

How can we tell if the units are safe? What kind of electrical certifications should they have for use in NZ? What kind of certifications should they have to be allowed to connect to telco equipment - any?

Excuse the sarcasm. It just smells bad and not being properly tested with the LFC equipment. As Brent (who if anyone would know in Chorus it would be Brent) hasn't heard anything about it. It just doesn't bode well.

I think the relevant safety standards as AS/NZS 4417.2 would be a good place to start.

Just because it's made in China doesn't make it bad quality, but the reverse also applies I have seen some shocking build standards from some Chinese gear.

The other thing which concerns me more is that it would have fairly beefy sealed lead acid batteries. Are they of an acceptable build quality?? As those things can leak or explode if not properly managed. I assume there is no monitoring of them to replace them after x years when they have reached their end of life.

Sideface

9353 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1324103 13-Jun-2015 16:18

BarTender: ... The other thing which concerns me more is that it would have fairly beefy sealed lead acid batteries. Are they of an acceptable build quality?? As those things can leak or explode if not properly managed. I assume there is no monitoring of them to replace them after x years when they have reached their end of life.

+1 Good question.
How big are the batteries, and what would they cost to replace (every 3 years or so)?

Sideface

SirHumphreyAppleby

2844 posts

Uber Geek

#1324113 13-Jun-2015 16:47

Sideface:
BarTender: ... The other thing which concerns me more is that it would have fairly beefy sealed lead acid batteries. Are they of an acceptable build quality?? As those things can leak or explode if not properly managed. I assume there is no monitoring of them to replace them after x years when they have reached their end of life.

+1 Good question.
How big are the batteries, and what would they cost to replace (every 3 years or so)?

SLA batteries are quite large, and typically last 3-5 years in a UPS. A 12V 7AH battery costs about $25, and should give you a good run time.

I am presently talking to the company about getting a custom unit which works on 6V batteries (I am limited to 12V input), and they seem competent with the electronics side of things. I'm hoping timmmay will be pulling his review unit apart for a closer inspection of the insides.

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1324121 13-Jun-2015 17:06

I can take photos of the insides, but I won't be able to tell if it's good or bad.

They might supply a battery with the production units, I don't know. I bought a Panasonic 7AH SLA battery myself.

I'll likely buy a production version of this once I return the demo unit. When I do that I'll buy a much larger battery, 20-40AH I think, so I can have a few days standby if required.

Sideface

9353 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1324136 13-Jun-2015 18:00

timmmay: ... I'll likely buy a production version of this once I return the demo unit. When I do that I'll buy a much larger battery, 20-40AH I think, so I can have a few days standby if required.

Good plan - IMHO the whole point of the UPS is to cover a prolonged power outage - a short outage would not matter to most people.

This of course assumes that you also have heavy-duty backup for the rest of your system.

Sideface

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1324137 13-Jun-2015 18:06

Sideface:
timmmay: ... I'll likely buy a production version of this once I return the demo unit. When I do that I'll buy a much larger battery, 20-40AH I think, so I can have a few days standby if required.

Good plan - IMHO the whole point of the UPS is to cover a prolonged power outage - a short outage would not matter to most people.

This of course assumes that you also have heavy-duty backup for the rest of your system.

I have a small UPS for the main computer, but phones are more than capable of doing everything I'd need during an emergency. I'm not quite at the paranoia level that I have a generator... yet. Food, water, lighting, communications. The big battery will probably just live on a standard charger rather than always connected, I'll only plug it in when required... which is likely to be never.

Plus, I'm doing it because I can. Same reason I'm going to use an old R.Pi as a torrent box via VPN.

Samsung

Shop now on Samsung phones, tablets, TVs and more (affiliate link).

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1328363 20-Jun-2015 16:06

Some photos, as requested. Comments welcome.

These will be in the review that should be posted in the next few days.

SirHumphreyAppleby

2844 posts

Uber Geek

#1328424 20-Jun-2015 17:48

timmmay: Some photos, as requested. Comments welcome.

These will be in the review that should be posted in the next few days.

Thanks for the pics. Look forward to the review. My unit should arrive Tuesday, customised to operate with a 6V battery.

The PCB looks quite clean and tidy. I note the wire on the top layer... to correct a mistake?

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1328425 20-Jun-2015 17:53

Could be. This is a demo unit, I think it may have been pre-production, would be interested to hear if production units have this.

I've been running on battery for almost 3 hours now, with my wife and I using the internet, including for streaming. Still seems to be working fine.

jnimmo

1097 posts

Uber Geek

#1328488 20-Jun-2015 21:08

How do you get on giving the mains switch a few flicks on and off quite rapidly? This seems to defeat any low end standard UPS's I've tried. My picoUPS/DC-DC buckbeak setup is working well but moving house next year and will want a tidier/easier supported solution then..

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1328494 20-Jun-2015 22:01

jnimmo: How do you get on giving the mains switch a few flicks on and off quite rapidly? This seems to defeat any low end standard UPS's I've tried. My picoUPS/DC-DC buckbeak setup is working well but moving house next year and will want a tidier/easier supported solution then..

You know, I'm not going to try that one, but I will ask the manufacturer to try it.

webwat

2036 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1328498 20-Jun-2015 22:11

timmmay:
Jarno: How long will the roadside cabinet typically last during a power outage? It wouldn't make much sense to attach a battery to the ONT that lasts much longer than that.

As I understand it roadside cabinets are passive. The active stuff is back in the exchange, which I guess has generators. There's quite a lot of background in this thread.

Chorus call the UFB cabinet a "fibre flexibility point". It contains optical splitters and patch cables, and only connects your line to 31 other fibre users in your area sharing the same splitter. The problem with power is at your house so in that sense fibre is far more reliable than copper. Except you don't usually have a backup generator at your place — so there's the archilles heel... Hopefully power-over-fibre will come soon, but photovoltaics for fibre are still too expensive.

Time to find a new industry!

timmmay

20578 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1331101 25-Jun-2015 07:56

jnimmo: How do you get on giving the mains switch a few flicks on and off quite rapidly? This seems to defeat any low end standard UPS's I've tried. My picoUPS/DC-DC buckbeak setup is working well but moving house next year and will want a tidier/easier supported solution then..

Reply from the manufacturer

I must admit that it is not something I have performed myself in anger but my firm belief is that there will be no effect on the Sentry Lite output should repeated micro brown-outs occur.

The power adapter we have selected has been through suitable factory EMC/EMI testing but we have independently tested this product for the old C-tick marking here in New Zealand as part of our development and the supply passes well. The power adapter has sufficient energy storage (output capacitance) and transient protection to smooth out any micro brown-outs but we have included additional transient protection into our Sentry Lite unit as a precaution. This really allows the use of other power adapters where specification may not be as stringent as the ones we supply.

I am very confident that the output voltage(s) from the Sentry Lite unit will not be affected by any repeated mains switching event.

pdath

252 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1331113 25-Jun-2015 08:10

I'd stick with a plain and simple low cost UPS if that is what you need. Ultimately you are going to need power for something else. Having the Internet up during a power outage is no use if you don't have a computer or something else to plug into it.

Try my latest project, a Cisco type 5 enable secret password cracker written in javascript!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4