Ultimate Battery Backup Hack/Mod.
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 15 май 2015
- In this episode, I take an APC battery backup and modify it to have 3 direct DC output jacks as well as an LED display with voltage readout. This gives me a power supply for my HAM radio as well as many other useful capabilities during a power outage.
Visit me on Facebook
/ the8bitguy
![Chk Chk Boom - Stray Kids ストレイキッズ 스트레이 키즈 [Music Bank] | KBS WORLD TV 240719](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/63QPwqCRGcw/mqdefault.jpg)
>The iBook Guy.
>Pulls out a Dell.
Oh you, Dave!
And RUclips decide to recommend this to me after 5 years
Me too
RUclips actually likes this video a lot, its constantly being recomended around other videos from the 8bitguy
Yeap. And it keeps on coming.
@@andymerrett and here I am.
Same... Anyway it's worth it!
RUclips recommended this to me. 6 years later and a name change, but I hadn’t seen it. Really enjoyed the walkthrough and EE lesson :)
I would strongly recommend an internal fuse for each of the DC jacks.
The short circuit current for the battery is much higher than 16A and must therefore be protected.
Risk of fire!
If you are tapped directly into the battery, there is no way to prevent over-discharge. You'll definitely want to add a low voltage cut-off/protection circuit otherwise your battery won't live very long
He has a volt meter on a switch. I'm sure that's what it's for.
It's a lead acid battery, also it was 5 years ago. The thing I noticed was he didn't fuse any of the DC jacks.
the inverter keeps it charged, but if the power is out it will over-discharge.
That's precisely why he's using a voltmeter on a switch to not overdischarge the battery
@@jyotiradityadeka2905 yes but the thing is that it's not protected, and you may forget to check the voltmeter and it may over discharge
Making use of the ruclips.net/user/postUgkxcJ22tnHH9l1vjdIdEIG27iOG55P7LXI8 reconditioning plan, I just saved 2 auto batteries from being completely junked. The guides were very simple to follow. I wish I would have found this years ago! You may use the guide to recondition any battery type
Can you please shut up.
Sounds a little too good to be true…
An update to how the battery pack has held up would be pretty sweet.
Him getting those two big battery generators recently, tells you exactly how it went 👇.
These lead acid maintenance free sealed batteries have lasted me 3 years on average. I have units with 4Ah, 7Ah, dual 7Ah, and dual 9Ah batteries between APC and Cyberpower with most of their product range and I don't get more than 3-maybe 4 years without problems
@@peytonlutz1 Try keeping your batteries outside of the UPS. Undersized transformers heat stuff up, killing the battery.
I still have 7Ah Panasonic batteries that were used 10-12 years ago in a big Powerware UPS in a data center. They have a decent chunk of their capacity left. Largely moved to the lithium stuff, but still use those to light up the LED strip in my garage.
I love how he speaks of the most insane modifications quicker than the normal stuff he shows on screen.
"Insane mods" ? What, are you a 6th grade intelligence ?
@@davidjames1063 I guess gratuitously insulting people around the internet is a fine demonstration of such. Good job?
"I haven't sold a computer in like 3 years, so just, just-" **cues outro**
AcrOfSpades - Yeah.. I had to cut out a lot of footage. The video was originally 15 minutes long, and I just felt I needed to shorten it up. So there is footage taken out all over the place. Most of it I was able to cut in a seemless fashion. That end piece, not so great. But I didn't want to retake it.
The iBookGuy Do an other video with the missing footage.
Creeper 123 It would probably be a 5 or 6 second video if he did.
The iBookGuy Why'd you have to cut out footage? Nowadays you could easily upload the entire video to RUclips. Unless you've got bad internet speeds or whatever.
***** - If the video is too long, and not entertaining enough then people will stop watching it part-way through. This will affect a youtube statistic known as "retention" and thus will affect the ranking of the video. So unless I have 15 minutes of super-interesting content, I'm not going to make a 15-minute long video. Typically I shoot for 5-6 minutes.
*Step bits* save a LOT of time when drilling increasingly larger holes.
For years now, when drilling into plastic, I would always take the opposite approach by STARTING with, say, a 5/8 bit and working my way down. I was having...problems. So this explains a LOT, and I can't wait to help Nana with her next battery backup life-hack, which we are now doing publicly. (Please stop sending us letters? We do not do battery backup life-hacks for the public. We do our own battery backup life-hacks while in full view of pedestrian traffic in public areas, like parks, elementary school grounds, or subway platforms, etc. However, if you live in the Tucson-Tallahassee area, come out and see us! Just send a self-addressed stamped envelope [SASE] to our PO Box, so that we may dress accordingly). Great keep, work up the good vids, Kevin!
@@heydannypark i never damaged plastic even i star with larger ones... it depends on the rotation speed
I was thinking the same thing. Harbor Freight regularly has a 3-pack on sale for $8.99
I use a conical reaming tool I got at Radio Shack in the 80's! Works on metal as well as softer materials -- Best 7 dollars I ever spent!
@@germanni5566 I would like to see how you guys start with a larger bit and work your way down to a small hole.
Be advised, a backwards video will be considered cheating!
04:22 - "I just used this white wire. *_So, sue me"._*
LOL Priceless.
I'm contacting my lawyer RIGHT NOWWW
It’s an Apple reference.
You should have said sosumi 😂
Quick tip: Use a conical shaped step drill to make perfect holes in plastic without having to keep changing to larger diameters. Once you get the smallest hole started, larger sizes will stay concentric. If you're off a little bit locating the smallest hole, you can add a little side pressure on the drill to move it back where it belongs as it gets larger. Also, a plywood blade cuts aluminum much cleaner than an abrasive one.
You absolutely, positively, should have put a fuse for those three 12 volt outlets.
+Nabeel Rahimpour yep no fused outlets connected directly to a battery is not good idea
you dunno if those cigarette plug ports had fuses built in already...i used to work at a place that sold them with fuses built in. He should've stated that tho.
There's a bit of difference between your flashlight batteries and apc batts in terms of potential for fire.*****
+ANCIENT ASTRONAUT that difference is what changes it from "ouch my hand... eww battery leak" to "FUUCK MY EYE!! THERE'S ACID IN MY EYE HELP!!!"~while the battery burns your desk and whatever close to it.
it's not uncommon to have paper around one of these devices. Paper ignites fast. A lead acid battery of this size provides a lot of current when shorted. Lot of current = lot of energy to ignite something flammable and ruin your day... or life.
That's only paper tho, one of these batteries can ignite a lot more when shorted. Or spill it's boiling acid around + toxic smoke.
+ANCIENT ASTRONAUT only in the amount of dc amperage? Incorrect.
Every tech channel ever: Although it flickers on screen it doesn’t in person
Wow
it is easier to say this then get hundreds of comments saying did you know it was flickering trust me people are that dumb say this in the comments.
If they don't say it theyll drown in a sea of "ermehgurd ita flickering what a dumbass" comments. Because the internet is full of grown ups capable of rational thought.
One of those sentences was a lie....
Most digital displays are multiplexed (fast switching on/off) so the camera picks it up, but not your eyes in person.
Garbage comment
This was the first video I saw of yours after I subscribed 5 years ago. It is amazing how far you’ve come in such a short time. ❤️
I got exactly the same APC unit, I removed the internal battery, changed the battery wires to thicker type, and use an external car battery, standing right next to it, I also cut out the ignoring beeper, now the unit handle my tank water pump for many days, and no fish will die if the mains power fail for that long.
I got one as well. Replaced the battery, and removed the beeper. Keeps my Wi-fi and cable modem up during a power outage.
@@shawnerz98 I didn’t want to desolder the beeper on my older UPS, so I filled the piezo with epoxy.
@@billyjack3580 Hey, whatever works. :) I'm thinking about converting the Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) battery to a Li-Ion type.
Be careful with the small UPS units when adding larger batteries. They don't have the thermal dissipation for extended run time. I had that exact model that I connected to a 35AH battery to power a small computer that hosted a web server. We had a power outage that lasted 2 hrs, and the transformer got so hot that it started melting the varnish and insulation on the winding (you could smell it) and it melted the plastic casing. It didn't actually fail though but was definitely a fire hazard. The small ones are only designed for short run times, where they wont heat to critical levels, and clearly id did not have any over temperature protection. My much larger APC Smart 1400 with 2 55AH batteries that can run my quad core desktop with 6 hard disks and 2 monitors off the grid for 2 hrs had no significant heating issues. Granted it is also a model that has external inputs to ad additional battery banks so it is designed for it. But it also has MUCH more ventilation and a fan that kicks in to cool the unit while off grid, and also runs during charging. If you are going to try this on a small UPS do a full off grid test a couple of times while you are around to make sure nothing gets excessively hot. You don't want it to catch fire if your power goes out and you aren't home.
The models that use switch mode inverters do not have this problem. But it is better to choose a model with external battery provision even if you do not use the oem over priced battery.
I bought a used br1000g in 2020 for 20$. It was retired from an office that replaces all equipment every 4 year. & Even though the original 2x 9ah battery were in the unit. They were pretty much dead. They would run for like 5mins with no load and even 50w would immediately shut-off. I bought 16 Lifepo4 cells. 32700 6000mah 3.2v & made a 12ah 25.6v battery. Lifepo4 is proper replacement to leadacid with similar voltage curve. I did not have to dig with apc upsd and change & charge parameters. It would charge the cells at 3.75amps when external battery mode was enabled. & Run 300w load for 50mins which is similar runtime of 6x9ah battery according to apc runtime chart. So it was essentially half as cheap to buy Lifepo4 & they are holding full capacity as of today & even if they fail after 5 years it is still cheaper & better than leadacid.
1 oem apc battery goes for the price of all 16 cells + cell holder+ bms 😂 & i would need 3 of them to have the similar run time.
Now definitely better off using something like a jackery or ecoflow. That's probably what I'm going to do for my networking equipment.
I love how he ended this vid by saying: "I haven't sold them in like 3 years, so, just, just…" (fill in the blank - LOL !!!) I love it !!!
Hope the battery backup found to be useful during the crisis.
that tiny agm battery has such a small window of capacity to begin with, 12ah at most based on its size when it was new, and you should only use about half of that leaving 6ah and factoring in this is 6 years old, i bet that battery had about 2ah of of usable power. 12v x 2ah = 24 watt hours, so maybe able to power a small laptop for about 45 minutes. thats my guess anyways. after rewatching the video i would say his battery is only 8. he could have covered this in the video and then showed the math for how little power there is to work with here.
@@jasonbrown467 Still enough time for you to save your work and shut down. Or, fire up the 1KW inverter-generator and plug in your computer's power strip.
@@TimeSurfer206 you are not wrong, another thing is that in emergency or occasional cases you can use all of the ah the battery has, and my opinion of agm tech has went up a bit since i wrote that. i have a 130ah agm that tests at 129ah and its 10 years old and had been sitting in storage for 2 years.
@Jeroen i agree, and i have done exactly that. i have an old school ups from like 1999 when they were stuff was built to last more than just past the warranty. its power is provided by an inverter that is power by 20kwh bank, but anyways back to the ups it runs my xbox, big tv and a gaming laptop, it is much happier when i have two batteries wired in parallel, but they both fit, so i just have it all laying out on its side and it functions great. in fact i have a 12v mobile radio transceiver being powered by those two batteries two, why not?
@@jasonbrown467 You would certainly get more than 45 min on a small laptop.
A momentary switch for the voltage meter would’ve been ideal
And easier to mount.
Agreed. Although I believe he wanted the voltage displayed 24/7. (Minus outages of course) A relay could have done this automatically.
Probably just used what he had on hand, that's what I do for projects like this.
@@MrV1NC3N7V3G4 It think it's worth it to not spend a momentary switch and a relay when you can just do as shown in the video.
@@thejose970 nah he's right
"crude hole" "final hole" these sound like the bosses of the video game I never knew I wanted to play.
also love that shirt, WA state represent!
I got a hamster wheel rigged to a crank generator to charge a phone with my hamster in a power outage but your way works much better.
I must get a hamster, seems to be useful for all kind of things.
www.raspberrypi.org/blog/hamsters-all-the-way-down/
oh my word ha ha thats crazy
LOL
I dunno, I think the hamster method would be less of a fire hazard.
A hamster running fast enough to power a 500W load is at considerable risk of spontaneous combustion.
Good advice about starting with smaller bits and working your way up. I always started with the size needed when drilling plastic. I will try your method moving forward. Thanks !
Very useful mods you did and your reasons on why you did them are very good from the electronics point of view. Nice job!
I love to see how your channel has been growing since the last years, I love your content, keep it up buddy :D
:)
It might be a good idea to install a fuse for each 12V port.
Fuse rating?
@@Andrei2000PC If each wire is rated for 16A, that's pretty much your answer. There are on-wire cylindrical fuse holders that can be bought.
@@JohnnyReb1976 you could use small breakers as well, so that it just trips instead of blowing, would save you the trouble of going through fuses when troubleshooting an issue
Thumbs up for the Commodore sprites. It brings back good memories of when I was kid teaching myself how to program on the C64.
"The power adapter that comes with the phone" Well that didn't last very long
Lol
Oh yeah that’s right.....
Hey man, where can I buy a computer from you?
The battery in that UPS is likely a 7 AH lead-acid battery. If you actually pulled 16 amps or more from it, you'd drain it dry in minutes--if you were lucky enough not to burn it up & start a fire, since you didn't add a fuse. God help you if you accidentally short one of those plugs.
+Alex Lardschneider depends on the phone. a 1.5ah phone could be charged about 14 odd times.
12v x 7ah = 84wh.
1.5 x 3 = 4.5wh.
84 x 0.9 (dc/dc efficiency) = 75
75/4.5 = 16 charges.
he does make some other claims that are pretty bunk though...
+sn0wchyld My phone (and most apple phones today) are 1.9 ah at 1.2v.....so that's more like 33 charges after efficiency drop. His claims of efficiency drop through dc-ac-dc conversion are wayyyy off though....he goes from 16 to 1. If that were true, then it would be pointless to have one of these battery backups for your computer considering your computer transforms the power AGAIN (twice in fact).....so by his calculations, your computer will run for 5 seconds? Genius!
+Robert Caldwell (sabriath) I think the part you missed is that the stock UPS circuits (appear to) consume a lot of power without any load. So even if the DC-AC efficiency of the unit is 100%, the power consumed by the UPS still kills the battery in a certain amount of time. Of course that's coming from the UPS software -- who knows if it's accurate at all.
Andrew Wiens My reply was based on how many times you can charge your phone, not about the drain rate of the system on idle.
Okay lets work this out slowly shall we. If the UPS itself dies in 1 hour without anything plugged in, what is the longest you could have your phone plugged in? 1 hour. So the most you could charge your phone is 1 time, even if DC-AC-DC is 100% efficient.
Love the wall mounted wire/ device management.
if there's anything David needs right now it's this!
10:00 _I haven't sold computers in three years, so jus'......_
That seemed like a perfectly fine way of ending a video.
Neat hack, but I see 4 possible issues:
1. No fuses, you can make some dangerous situations! Hint: short circuit
2. The charger is likely weak (by design), so you can't drive high power loads for extended time.
3. The battery may not actually be isolated from mains, so beware
4. The wires may be good for 16A, but is the barrel jacks?
erlendse - Believe it or not, I've actually considered all of these. I honestly don't know how many amps the barrel jacks can support. But I actually won't be using anything myself that draws more than 1-2 amps anyway. The charger is probably weak, but again, nothing I plan to use will draw enough power to worry about. The primary thing I'm using (the ham radio) does have an inline fuse between the radio and the UPS. The other things don't, but will rarely be used.
The iBookGuy actually, those things are made for computers, so they can probably give much more amps than what you are actually pluging in. Great "emergency enabled Ham radio", by the way... that's the kind of hacks that can actually save the day if hell breaks loose. I may try something similar for a two walkie talkie charging base I have arround.
erlendse i just dont like ups in general, they have there uses, but the tall ways battery mount, almost always swells the ups battery, and need changing often, like every couple of years not used. better off solar panel and 1-2 100ah batteries and a regulator to keep them maintained well
@@rimzo2006 In night?
@@The8BitGuy Look at the Mean Well SCP-75-12, it's a 12V power supply/UPS, 75W output, can add a thermistor for temp compensated charging voltage, runs about $30. They also have a 24V version, which I used for backing up the SCADA electronics at a water tower site. It worked perfectly for that.
You old-school computer experts are actual craftsmen with many skills, ample knowledge, and lots of creativity. Gotta lotta respect for y'all.
While you're at it, you could put usb ports in case with a switch on them. A momentary switch on volt meter would keep from accidentally leaving it on. If using car sockets you could also put those right in the case instead of pigtail to get damaged or lost. One of the best UPC mods I like to do is ditch the little expensive batteries, and add leads to connect a car battery. If fumes are a concern, you can get a sealed deep cycle car battery for about $130 at Sam's. You could run all electronics for days if needed and the batteries last for many years instead of 2-3.
once or twice a year??!! I use this thing twice a day man!! I'm serious! I live in Syria, we're out of electricity halftime
i hope your problem is solved...
or still powercut happens?
That because you in 3 rd world country we in 1st world contry
@@nithpro1385 But more importantly, the pointless wars.
O wait isn’t Syria not safe
@@volka2199 USA is actually under attack right now b/c people like you repeat this lie over and over again. Who is bombing? Are you stupid? USA is 99.99% civilians, and in the last ten years, we have 100x our number in military police personell trying to wipe us out.
For drilling holes in plastic, let the bit turn opposite the grinding direction and melt through. This gives clean holes and no problem of the bit biting in the plastic and puling through the material!
Now I have to find some plastic and try that.
"18 gauge wire can only pass 16 amps"
16 amps?! Good lord, man.
At 12 volts, that's not quite 200 watts. ;)
I love how modern apc ups's have like majority of this stuff built in XD
I am concerned that if you are using this to power 12V devices, while it is plugged in, you could overdraw what the "trickle charger" can support.... then what happens? My guess is that it is only rated for something like 2A@12v.
So where can I buy a computer from you?
Business Dead Already
Joke he said like 3 times "stop asking".
cue to "Is raining men" song!
No where but when. You gotta time travel to 2012.
@Tylore Rogers ñ¿??¿¿¿¿
Hi sir very informative video but you forgot to to put fuse in dc output of the battery it could be very dangerous as this 7 ampere battery is capable of delivering very high current in case of short circuit and can cause fire aswell especially this model of APC which is entirely made of plastic
Your problem is that you're replying to a 7 year old video The Eight Bit Guy is no longer reading these comment as often as he used to
Yeah, I reckon he doesn't have this unit anymore. APC makes better units now.
Not sure where you're going with the dislike of switch-mode vs. having an "actual transformer". switch-mode power supplies are more efficient than linear. Plus, they're lighter and smaller. If they're "burning up", it's because of a bad design. What I would point out is that these inverters usually output a modified square wave, rather than a pure sine wave. This will run a PC fine, but it will buzz a bit.
Please please please put fuses inline. Those SLA batteries can deliver huge currents that could easily turn that wire into a light bulb and set fire to your house.
S.S. Power supplies on these cannot handle any significant loads. They DO in this hack "burn up" rather quickly.
"You only get to use them once or twice a year", but when you do, you're SO GLAD you bought one ^^
The only problem I've ever had with power to a PC was when the online UPS failed.
just just what? WHY MUST YOU LEAVE ME HANGING AT THE END!!!!
thats what she said. also... RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE
Felix M he's clearly saying 'stop asking to buy a computer'
>just
~ brilliant ~ retrofit, I like every aspect and the support rational, that you shared... KUDOS.
I want to build one... would do the same things... Strangely, the power was funky last night
and I was thinking of this very thing, thank for the ideas and inspiration... very cool!!!
Glad you explained why you didn't just integrate USB ports onto the UPS. I was thinking about that 8 minutes in. Would be nice if they made switchable USB ports that only activated the DC to DC circuitry when something was actually plugged in.
dude.... grinders on ally is a big nono, particularly if its a normal ferros metal disk, the ally dust is explosive and/or you can gum up the grinder and the disk can explode. if you've cut steel previously it can even create thermite.... the dust is also highly toxic. cutting ally with one just makes heat, which is why your cut looked like melted cheese. Get a hacksaw, or a jigsaw (with ally blade) or a ally blade for your cutoff saw and you'll do it 100x easier and neater, with 0 risk of exploding bits of grinder disk flying around your house, or explosions from the dust, or health problems from the dust...
sn0wchyld Get off his back. He is a limited tools guy that mainly does software and is just dipping into hardware. ... You could say the same thing but put a positive spin on it without sounding condescending.
servant74 one comment is hardly 'on his back...'. really wasn't trying / intending to be condescending... it was meant to be 'stern' (for lack of a better term) though, as not knowing this could genuinely result in his (and anyone else who does the same) severe injury, or even death. Apologies in advance to The iBookGuy if its taken that way, i do like allot of his stuff... but this is a serious danger that needs to be addressed. I'd rather come across as too harsh than the seriousness not be conveyed because i sugarcoated the comment.
sn0wchyld I usually don't cut up my allies. Did you mean aluminium (aluminum?)? In that case I mostly agree, but I'd like to know more about the supposed toxicity.
mjouwbuis yea... ally is just an abbreviation of aluminium.
afaik its just 'fine dust' toxicity - the same with any ultra-fine dust, its bad for your respiratory system as it can get past the normal 'filters' (ie nose) and deep into your lungs.
sn0wchyld IBookGuy is not cutting steel he is cutting aluminium and im sure if what your talking about the "allie" (idiot) is getting SOOO hot to melt the "allie" then we should be seeing molten aluminum just draaaaaining down the "allie." So we don't see molten hot allie draining down the allie.
Get yourself a step, or stepper drill bit (called by both names, same tool) It's basically several drill bits in one. When using it, drill slowly, with slight pressure and it will gradually make the hole whatever your desired size is.
This is exactly what I was looking to do with my UPS! Thanks 8-bit guy!
Recommended to me in March 2021... How did this device do in the ice storm? 😂
..Its an old video I know, but thought I'd comment on drilling holes in plastic, and thin metal. The drill but best suited for this is a 'stepped bit'. In traditional drill bits as shown in the video, they are intended to drill deep holes in thick material with the cutting surfaces on the point/bottom of the bit. A stepped but has its cutting surface on the side of the bit. They are basically intended to enlarge holes in thin material. They do.this very well and one bit can cut several different sized holes depending on how many steps it has and how deep you push the bit in. They come in configurations with size of hole and depth of step being the two characteristics people are generally interested in. Anyway, I just wanted lto share a tip about using Stepped Drill bits, hopefully others will find them as usefull as myself. If you have ever drilled a hole in some appliance's thin metal case and marvelled at how you now have a ragged hole a set of dull drill bits....you are gonna love how much better a stepped drill bit performs.
I love how the 8 bit guy always shows us chucking unwanted items in to the trash can😅
Things on the radio will get more fun when you can upgrade to general. I'd enjoy hearing you on HF too.
that intro typing sounds SOHOHOHOHOOOO delicious
Thanks for a great video. I did an upgrade to my UPS when the 7Ah SLA battery expired by removing the battery altogether and running some 10 gauge wires out
to a 60Ah agm deep cycle battery which fits down behind my desk. I have since had some very long power outages with no problems running my PC, screen and a few peripherals.
Prior to that, the 7AH battery used to give me just enough time to close and save what I was doing, now I can just keep working for hours.
That's fine if the UPS has time to charge the battery up between power outages.
The problem with your external battery is that is has a MINIMUN charge current specified by the manufacture and the bulk charger designed for the 7Ah battery is woefully underpowered to handle that. Also, the UPS that you modified was not designed to run at 100% duty cycle for hours. It's a packaged system and you just decided to make it do what it was never designed to do. Yes, most UPS are not only designed for orderly shutdown of the computer, they are INTERFACED to the computer to initiate unattended orderly shutdown.
@@DiffEQ I had considered that and modified it accordingly. I added two heatsinks to the inverter switching mosfets (mounted on isolated aluminium plates) as well as a case fan to circulate air through to include the transformer. The charge current for a 7Ah battery is fine with larger batteries, only taking proportionately longer to recover a full charge. Lead acid has no minimum charge current, and long slow constant current charging actually extends their cycle life. I did supplement the charging with a 200 watt rooftop solar panel and MPPT regulator, both charge systems use independent CC/CV and don't affect each other adversely. It has now done many long outages, one a year back lasting for two days and running two 7 hour sessions with no problems, no excess heat and good overall efficiency.
I would not recommend the modification unless you know what your doing, first checking that the battery is fully isolated from the mains supply (some are, some are not) and other mods like adding mute switches for alarms, thermo controlled fans and isolated heatsinks calculated for required energy dissipation under full load are things not to be guessed at. Beyond that they make a very cheap upcycling project that works well.
I have also since increased the battery count to around 250 Ah working, and it can give me almost unlimited run time between solar and generator recovery during daylight.
My idea as well.
@@DiffEQ Compromise that external battery size, use an ATV battery, that will accept trickle charging, and switch between two external batteries, charging unused one by external means.
Deep Cycle batteries can be had that accept .5/ah charging, the same output as a good UPS.
Was wondering can you parallel other batteries to extend your run time? My thought is if thats possible then you could put ports on the side to connect them without having them hooked up all the time. Or you could build and external battery box that is connected all the time but hidden away.
Hi, Question for you, how long should the battery hold a charge for when there is no power going to it and nothing is hooked up to it?
"Once or twice a year...". More like everyday here in Cambodia.
It was smart to bypass the inverters / transforners. They're basically just energy vampires. If you added a solar charger, this would be an even better solution for extended power interruptions. You can power all sorts of things with a rig like that.
SeanFromPVD And the great thing is, those DC jacks will work in both directions. I can add an additional battery pack outside the unit, or a solar charger as you mention. I was going to mention that in the video, but it was getting to long and I had to start chopping footage out.
@The 8-Bit Guy do we need a 12v DC stabilizer for when the UPS is charging isn't the voltage higher than 12v to charge the battery?
Battery backups seem a lot more important in Texas than anywhere else
"we only use it like once or twice a year"
*Cries in Iraq*
Even in East Europe you get more frequent power outages too...
4:45 never mind that the jacks themselves aren't rated for 16A... Nowhere near, actually.
Prob not likely that ups is rated 10 amps max in the first place.
Imagine pulling 48 Amps from that tiny, 7Ah battery :-D
He would release the smoke very very fast
@@CharlieGosh no body was confused by his comment. you repeated what he said
@@DryLog420 House catches fire and he's like at least i can see during a blackout
That jack is rated for 3A max.
Lol Whitbey Island, I used to live there. Thanks for the video 8 bit!
Very clever work. Really made me think about what I could do to keep my computer from frying every time there's a thunder storm (Lost my 120W Speaker Sub 2 weeks ago during a thunderstorm, because the power strips didn't surge-protect for some reason).
It is a shit work! And the surge-protected power strips are not for you. Those are the last level of a complete protection. If you use a power strips with surge-protection, you can aim your all the devices burn in it. You need T1, T2, T3 levels. Do you really think you will be protected with a power strip??? Do you know anything about how they work??? What do you think, why are the complete protection on the roof and in the electric box for??? ALL OF YOU DON'T KNOW AAAANYYYYYTHIIIIIIING!
why not a momentary switch for the display? that way, you can't forget to turn it off
Plus the portruding switch could be bumped on
He wants to leave it on (with the option of switching it off in the case of a blackout for instance)
Just wanted to say thanks. I had an old, but never used, UPS laying around that was only 12vdc out (for cable modem). Ended up using it to power a small timer circuit that triggers a small 12v pump every 6 hours for 30 seconds at a time. And if power goes out and I'm not home, my gecko will still get his daily sprays.
With that, your gecko is practically a cyborg.
@@herrakaarme Even more so. The original lead acid battery is finally dieing and I'll be upgrading the UPS to a Lithium battery. 👍
Nice idea not only for simple backup power but energy saving techniques too...👌
Been a viewer for a little while now, fellow ham as well. I support more videos like this and jam radio videos
Just picked one of these puppies up from Goodwill for $10, $16 battery later and it works great.
I know I might be late to the party for this video, but I was thinking about a minor upgrade to your modification: Instead of using a switch for the LCD display, you can use a simple button with an RC timing circuit, and make it so it turns on the screen for a fixed amount of time and then it turns off automatically... I have a tendency to switch things on and then forget about them, so I started using this approach for my projects.
On a side note, I haven't thought about using an APC like that. I have a car battery with a charging circuit and a 3D printed hub where I put all my connectors. Of course, I don't use it with my computers, its just for things like cell phone chargers, and a hand radio (which has a switch to bypass to mains in case I need it).
Nice idea! I have an old APC backup that I haven't used for years.
wow this just popped into my feed almost 5 years later. Great vid tho. Those barrel jacks are also great for getting some good runtime out of a cable modem and router.
Just make sure the battery doesn't discharge beyond about 10.5 volts. Most of its energy is discharged at that point, and draining more will damage the cell.
4:21 "I didn't have any red wire around and just used white....So sue me" hjahahahhaha
j
I thought about it, but the only lawyer I know lives in Michigan and I only see him on youtube.
Use time marker 4:20
Would not placing a on/off switch for the USB power converters stop the drain? That way you have more control over the usage of the power than leaving it as normal and have it drain power as is?
Also, could you put a few solar cells on the top so it could be DC charged to the battery from an alternative source in case power shuts off and it does need a recharge in case of a medium to long term power outage?
Too many switches lol.
As for the solar cells, you would be depending on the sun and you can't control the weather, so you might get power from it or it will hide and no power for you.
Also, a bad solution for winter times XD
This has confirmed my plans for the UPS I just found in a recycling pile. It's going to be the centrepiece of my power distribution system for my shed in a rural location, with solar going into the battery via an MPPT, and DC out for the lighting & small 12v cooler. The transformer will function as an added bonus, where I can run AC appliances on demand, without having to think about it too much, so long as it's sunny.
I need to replace the battery of my UPS so I will take a look at doing some of your modifications!
Ah ha ha! I see what you did there... Preparing for the zombie apocalypse!
hey 8-bit guy! i live in the austin area! didnt know you were that close to me!
Do power cuts occur with some frequency in the US or something? I've seen a number of videos about backup batteries on YT. I can see why you might want to use some to protect rare/valuable electronics 'just in case' but I've probably only had 2 power cuts in the last 15 years, one was preplanned and the second was pretty bad in the fact that it lasted for about 4 hours but was caused by a storm.
@C J Bowen geez... I can see why a back yo generator might also be a good thing too :P
Great ideas to make these little guys more useful. Thanks for the video.
6 years later I wonder if this came in handy during the Texas power outage of 2021
The whole converting up to AC to get it back down to DC is one of the things I used to laugh about when car tuning nuts used to put a PS2 in their car with an inverter... the internal voltage of the PS2 is 12V, so instead of using an inverter to get it up to 220V (Europe) AC, to then get it back down to 12V DC, it was a lot better to just remove the power supply from the PS2, and run it into the battery via a small surge protector (power can spike in some cars when you turn the key to start the engine)... this also eliminated part of the PS2 overheating issue by removing one of the elements that caused the heat in the first place, apart from making the PS2 very "cuttable" to reduce its size to make it fit anywhere better. This was good for camper vans too because on those things, if you don't have a solar panel system installed, power can be at a premium!!
Same thing for a number of other consoles, like the Gamecube for example (which is easier as it's just replacing the external brick... no need to open the console at all)... but everyone at the time always wanted the PS2
Also, I know this is a bit late, but for those USBs, if you wanted to embed them with a switch, I would recommend making your own using a UBEC like we use in radio control hobby. Those cigarette lighter adaptors tend to lower the 12V to 5V by just burning off the excess 12V, which is a total waste of power, where as a UBEC uses a switching mechanism to reduce the voltage, and not waste more than it uses... much more efficient, and you can get them in a variety of amperage capabilities.
lol
By PS2, is that the SONY® PlayStation® 2™, or the IBM® 8540 Personal System/2? The PlayStation 2 needs a single 8.5 VDC source, while the 8540 needs +3.3VDC, ±5VDC, and ±12VDC sources.
Andrea Woodvine are you referring to the PS2 slim or the original fat PS2?
@@BCSchmerker I figured it was an 8.5V brick, because I've got about 4 or 5 of them in the garage purchased from a closing pawn shop, and they all say SONY(r) 8.5V and I seemed to vaguely remember them being for PS2
But as the APC battery starts to run low, the inverter will still produce 110v, from which you can get 12V with your power supply.
If you plug directly to the battery, you get 12V, then 11v, then 10v. Well you get the idea.
How did the HAM radio work out? Clean audio when the battery is charging?
Can you incorporate a larger battery for extended runtime and would the charger keep it topped off?
the surge protector for "telephone lines" is actually also a surge supressor for RJ45 connections as well, you can use it to supress surges on ethernet too.
also it would have been alot easier to just attach a battery charger pcb and two spade connectors to a cig lighter adapter
Ethernet has isolation transformers on every port. And where are the surges going to come from when you have a local network?
@@gblargg both are false. They are not purely isolated
The lan circuits are ground through the local machine but have a connection via the modem. I've lost a few lan ports through storm surges before
The only connection to local ground is through a 1500pF capacitor: i.imgur.com/mv0wfCT.jpg
I do use a surge protector on the coax cable into the cable modem.
Where'd you get that LED array?
I have purchased one on eBay a few years back.
This is perfect for my diy solar generator project. Just got my hands on an Eaton 800watt ups to convert to lithium and add a solar input with a handle added to top to make it portable.
How did you hook up the voltage display and related switch?
I had a big ups for my computer setup 1.5k watts (with runtime 90mins) in 2005 (finally died in 2014). The problem was fan noise. The internal fans 2 x 4" were obnoxiously loud (high cfm). I did a similar project to create a housing for air outlet tubes to external 6" PC fans (much quieter). Fans were powered off internal dc power and fan speed passed to the UPS system.
Problem with your direct DC outputs is that it looks like they bypass the low voltage disconnect/battery protection. So you can over discharge that battery and kill it.
Not only that. Also battery charger inside UPS can provide only 1-2 amps. So if there are conneced DC device, which consumes more, then battery will discharge even if there are no power outages.
How did you get the heat shrink on? All the wires you connected to had large plastic ends .
That's a really good idea bypassing the transformer. Those things are notoriously inefficient and as you mention they do run hot, though not as hot as cheap solid-state models.
I currently use a 2.1mm quad (4-way) splitter to power all my 12v network equipment (Obihai SIP Gateway, Cable Modem, Router, battery charger for AA\AAA\C\D that runs off a massive 12v 10A brick that itself has about a 10% loss (and draws 100mah in standby!) and this mod would bypass ALL of that.
This is around the third time I've watched this video, and it suddenly hit me: Since the display draws power while lit, and it is possible at some point you'll either forget to turn it back off, why not use a momentary switch? (Yeah, this video is a few years old, but thought I'd ask.)
Where are the fuses for the DC outputs? Very bad things can happen without them.
How well did your rig work with the radio? I'm a little skeptical because I know with an 80-watt 2-meter rig I couldn't draw enough amps through a cigarette lighter-type socket in my truck, and I wound up running a dedicated line with 10ga wire from my battery to the radio (fused of course). If it works though, hey! Cheap power supply!
Dave - "Battery back ups are not really all that interesting"
Me - My favourite video causes its a battery back up 🤣.
cool video, weird ending.