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Author Topic: Another Tripp Lite UPS Bites The Dust Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-07-2015 06:53 PM                        I'd say 90% of our outages happen during summer storms. Maybe 3% during repairs to our aging infrastructure, 2% caused by people running into poles, digging up buried lines etc, and the rest just stuff wearing out.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-07-2015 08:11 PM                     It was bad in Salt Lake City for a few years but they did not cut the trees back sufficiently. Now they do. At my old residence we had strange power issues where the power would go low. The came out with chart recorders and the whole nine yards and didn't find a thing. Then one night I could hear the transformer on the pole out behind our place making sizzling sounds after a very light rain. They sent a guy right over and turns out the transformer was bad, they replaced it the next morning and all was well. Lineman said the insulators on it were shot. Other wise in that town I had basically zero power issues. It was a locally run power company and not Utah Power. Mark  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-08-2015 12:01 PM                     Anyway, the saga on this one continues... It died again yesterday and apparently the batteries are not staying fully charged. This has happened over a four day period too. So beware if you think you have it fixed and all indicates on the front panel that it is there could still be other issues. Mark  |  IP: Logged Rick Raskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1100 From: Manassas Virginia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 09-08-2015 04:44 PM                     quote: Scott Norwood Is the US power distribution system really that bad that significant numbers of people experience power failures on a regular basis? Not really. Most outages here are associated with storms. When you have well water a generator is a good idea. After all, you only get a few flushes without one.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 09-10-2015 01:45 PM                    Is there an AC--> DC --> AC power converter without batteries?  |  IP: Logged David Buckley Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 525 From: Oxford, N. Canterbury, New Zealand Registered: Aug 2004 posted 09-10-2015 09:26 PM                        quote: Steve Kraus Is there an AC--> DC --> AC power converter without batteries? Sure is, many double conversion (ie online) UPSs are happy to run without batteries, just enquire of technical support. These guys have been around for years, and have a range of battery-less static converters ostensibly for frequency changing purposes, but they are quite happy to convert (something like 110V 60Hz) to (perfect 110V 60Hz). Pick a size from the "50Hz or 60Hz column". Some of them you can even add batteries to the mix.....  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-14-2015 02:54 PM                     I did a little checking around on other groups that also use a lot of these types of UPS's and this issue with the unit not charging batteries is actually a pretty common problem. Since Tripp Lite doesn't repair their own products it leaves you two choices... 1. Replace the UPS and use the old one for a door stop. 2. Connect an external charger to the external battery back connector IF you are not using an external battery pack. If you are on an external pack you are likely already using an external charger becauase the internal charger is too wimpy to charge a large bank of batteries. External Lead acid chargers are widely available.... Mark  |  IP: Logged System Notices Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi Posts: 215 Registered: Apr 2004 posted 08-29-2017 08:55 AM                 It has been 714 days since the last post.  |  IP: Logged Brian Mendelssohn Film Handler Posts: 17 From: Pittsburgh, PA, United States Registered: Oct 2015 posted 08-29-2017 08:55 AM                     Hi all. I'm having problems with my Tripp Lite SmartPro 1500VA and I needed some expert advice. 1. We use to turn it off at the end of each night to power down the system. The power button stopped working (the shut down cycle failed... which makes no sense to me). So we not just keep it on 24/7, and just shut down out projector on its own. What is the standard practice for this. I'm worried about the economics, but more worried about the safety of the equipment. 2. During our most recent power failure (we have about one per month), the Tripplite battery worked for about 15 min, which is normal... but even though the power was back on, it wouldn't switch back to city power. After several restarts, we ended up bypassing the UPS system completely. 3 days later, I tried it out again... and everything seems fine. I'm hesitant to do this because I don't want my projector to fail. My first Tripplite completely failed after 1.5 years.... and I'm 1.5 years into this one, so I've been bite which makes me more hesitant. 3. Everyone talks about switching out the batteries and using a local supplier. This is beyond my knowledge, so I need some help. Is there an online link to the particular batteries I need... and maybe I can just buy them from an online battery supplier. Also, is this straight forward to change? Thanks in advance. I don't want to spend another $600 to buy a new tripplite.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-29-2017 09:51 AM                     Brian, We have hundreds of Tripplites out there from both the SMART Online (double conversion) and SMART PRO (Line interactive). By FAR, the biggest failure we see are just the batteries. A flaw, in my opinion, of the design is if the batteries fail (just one has to fail) then the unit appears completely dead. Change the batteries, they are as good as new again. I have definitely seen that those that use the "dimples" to turn them on/off daily will wear the dimple out, if not the switch itself. As such, we do not recommend using the UPS to turn things on/off daily. We have put a power strip, in line with the UPS to turn things on/off. This has the added benefit that if a UPS actually fails, you only have to move that one cord to city power to be back up. That said, we developed our own transfer switch so if a UPS fails, then it automatically switches to city power. The UPSes run 24/7. There is little to no reason to ever turn them off anyway. Our automation system is what powers the projector and servers up/down in or later systems so the user interface is just a toggle switch, designed for daily use. Ultimately, the POS schedule will be what will actuate the systems going on/off. As for batteries. Tripplite has their own battery packs, which are not the cheapest things. Most UPSes run on some form of 12V Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) batteries. We buy them by the pallet and change them out for our customers on our regular PM calls. If you do source your own batteries, then be sure to get the right size with the right terminal size.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 08-29-2017 10:17 AM                     We use a Tripplite SmartOnline 1500/230 on our site, it is running for 4-1/2 years now. It get's switched off every night completely (front panel shutdown, mains removed). Never had a single issue with it. Still on first battery set. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-29-2017 12:19 PM                     Well there's the kiss of death! (The batteries are rated for 3-5 years). I'm amazed that the dimples haven't broken off on you yet.  |  IP: Logged Carsten Kurz Film God Posts: 4340 From: Cologne, NRW, Germany Registered: Aug 2009 posted 08-29-2017 03:14 PM                     It is actually only running for 3-4hrs per day. So I expect it to last a bit longer. - Carsten  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 08-29-2017 03:22 PM                        I just (yesterday) had a "whole house surge suppressor" installed beside the panel box in my theatre. I have surge suppressors and UPS's on things here like the projection equipment and computers and whatnot, but there was really nothing protecting stuff like the boiler and air conditioners and fridges and the like. By the nature of this unit I suppose I'll never know if it actually does anything or does any good but I figure it can't hurt and since it cost $300 installed, that's not too excessive if it can help save the equipment. It sure doesn't look like much; it's a three-inch cube with a green light on the front. If the green light ever goes out it needs to be replaced. And that's all there is to that.  |  IP: Logged Dave Macaulay Film God Posts: 2321 From: Toronto, Canada Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-29-2017 05:00 PM                     Well, yes - depending on location. Country sites are on long transmission lines often with lots of trees and thunderstorms. You're crazy not to have high quality site surge protection and use UPS units on computers etc. Cities are much much better, any location will have multiple HV feed routes. But outages from auto crashes and tree falls are not so rare. Equipment is getting old and load has increased enormously: everyone seems to have multiple TVs and computers, air conditioning is everywhere... transformer explosions and vault fires are more common now. Newer urban power infrastructure uses buried lines eliminating many potential problems. But outages can occurfurther up the line. Overloaded substations coping with a new condo building tend to fail.  |  IP: Logged

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