If you can excuse my ignorance, but what are the advantages to running this compared to an off the shelf UPS? I have a standard UPS on a shelf beside my ONT.

Cheers, Matt.

With a standard UPS you convert 240V to 12VDC, store it in a battery, then put it through a DC to AC converter to get to 230V, which then converts it back to 12V DC. Those multiple conversions are inefficient and affect runtime. A standard UPS has quite a lot of overhead, for example my old Dynalink one uses 20W when it's turned off! So by using one 12V power supply, storing in directly, and powering all devices from a single PSU or battery you get much more runtime for the same battery size.

There's no word from anyone whether you're meant to use a different power supply, so there's a risk there, but I've accepted that minimal risk.

jonathan18:

 

Thanks for following up with those questions, Tim.

 

That battery life's not as bad as I'd thought it may be, but that it is not swappable makes it somewhat inflexible compared to the current option. Apart from the neatness of a single box, I don't think it's got many meaningful advantages over the current model, so will probably go with the latter.

 

Agree. I think the all in one unit would be ideal for someone like parents or grandparents who want Internet to work if the power goes out for a short time, but isn't really suitable for long term power. 

plus, they're bigger

MadEngineer:

freitasm:

 

As per Tim's reply above, not sure about "finally" as Constant Vigil Sentry UPS has been in the market for months already.

 

are they supplied with the 8 pin connector used by the ONT?

Here is the Sentry Lite and the ONT connector. It comes with an extra output cable too if your router is not next to the ONT.

I have just swapped my ONT and Synology router from the Dynamix UPS to the Sentry Lite. The Synology is about three metres away from the ONT (on a desk whle ONT is on a wall). The long output cable came in handy here. Both ONT and Synology powered up with no problems.

Awesome. _b

Can these only be purchased through their website?

The new unit not available for six weeks. Older (and better IMHO) units available only from their website AFAIK, but I'm not an expert on the company.

bcourtney:

 

Any idea what these go for? Not having luck googling a NZ reseller

 

Cablemax

or, any computer shop.

timmmay:

With a standard UPS you convert 240V to 12VDC, store it in a battery, then put it through a DC to AC converter to get to 230V, which then converts it back to 12V DC. Those multiple conversions are inefficient and affect runtime.

 

1. Runtime from the same battery is higher using the DC directly, rather than going DC -> AC -> DC. I looked it up, the difference is really significant
2. I can connect a cheap ebay device to the battery and charge my phone directly, again more efficient than conversions
3. I can have multiple batteries, giving me much more runtime (I have 100AH of batteries).
4. New DC UPS is cheaper than a new AC UPS

I actually have an AC UPS sitting on the floor not doing anything, though it might need a new battery. The size of the battery is probably around 8AH.

neb: Hmm, I'm still not convinced. My current UPS will run all the stuff off it for many hours (never managed to run it to zero), any decent UPS will have extended battery packs available, and as a bonus they have graphical displays telling you when you need to start shutting things down. In addition a lot of stuff will talk to the UPS via USB and automatically shut itself down as needed. Now I'm not saying don't use a 12V UPS, I just haven't been able to find a really compelling argument to do so.

I suggest you don't buy one then ;) That's why there are different products, because everyone wants something different. Yes a standard AC UPS would work as well, but it's less efficient and less flexible for what I need. I have a standard UPS for other stuff.

I can run for something like 5 days, I can charge everything (phone, batteries, etc) and it cost me a total of $200. I got a pretty crazy good deal on the batteries though.