Hi Scott, Thanks for the excellent explanation. My APC UPSES are about 5 years old. I can only feel 4 sockets on the back of this unit. There are 3 sockets which look like phone jacks with one of them being a bigger socket which is where I put the cable connecting my UPS to the PC. Then the other two sockets which look like phone jacks, they are smaller but I don't know what they are used for. Then there is the socket where a power cable goes to. At the moment I have a AC Power cable going from a PowerPoint to this socket on my UPS. If I read your message correctly, this is not how it should be? I should have a power connection from the UPS to my PC and then this PC in turn should be on AC power via a power cable going to a PowerPoint from my PC? In other words, I should have my PC being powered by a AC power cable going from a PowerPoint to my PC. Then I should have a power Cable connecting my UPS to my PC? Thanks again for all of your help with this. I'm just trying to understand how this all works.
David Truong EMail and Messenger: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype: blindboxer1967 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Howell Sent: Saturday, 15 November 2008 9:05 PM To: General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by theblind Subject: Re: UPS with the Mac David, you are correct that there is a usb cable. THis cable only provides a link between the UPS and the computer for the purposes of communication, this cable does not carry power. The UPS has a number of power outlets which you would plug your Mac into and other devices. Some plugs are not active when the UPS is on battery power and some are so it is important you know which outlets to plug your machine into. I assume you know a UPS really is nothing more than a glorified inverter. It takes power from one or more batteries which are generally Lead-Acid 7 amphere-hour or greater battery packs and the inverter provides the 120V AC current your computer requires to operate. The usb cable sends the appropriate signals to the computer regarding the health of the batteries, whether or not the UPS is receiving power from the wall or has switched to battery operation , etc. It's up to the computer as to what it does with this information. You can configure your Mac to do a number of things such as shutdown when the battery reaches a certain level such as if it reaches 25 percent of it's capacity etc. I would never recommend running the battery down below 25 percent or even below 30 percent. It's actually best to either shut things down yourself or make sure the machine is configured to shut itself down in sufficient time to save all data and perform a clean shutdown. hth On Nov 14, 2008, at 11:53 PM, David Truong wrote: > Hi Scott, > > So with your APC units, you have a cable from APC UPS to USB of your > pc and > then the UPS gets it's power from a power cable coming from a wall > outlet > PowerPoint? If that is the case, how does the battery power the pc > when the > actual ac power goes off? Does it do this through the USB port? > Thanks in > advance, > > David Truong > > EMail and Messenger: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Skype: blindboxer1967 > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Howell > Sent: Friday, 14 November 2008 10:30 PM > To: General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS > X by > theblind > Subject: Re: UPS with the Mac > > I have a ups on every machine in the house. Reason being is I'd rather > spend the little bit of money for piece of mind. They offer the > ability to shut the machine down which might just save you data loss > and I know from experience what a drag that can be. Now, I use APC and > most all APC models I'm aware of will work fine without the optional > software. Just plug them into the usb port and the Mac will quietly > recognize and work with it. you'll know it's detected as you'lll get > some other options in Energy preferences as well as if you pull the > plug on the ups, you'll get a message from the Mac about the loss of > ac power. > On Nov 13, 2008, at 7:20 PM, Dane Trethowan wrote: > >> Hi everyone! >> >> I've heard of people using these devices with Mac's and it makes >> sense so here's the question, will the Mac automatically detect the >> UPS when its plugged in? If anyone is using one of these with your >> Mac then what experience have you had with the device, did you get a >> particular model because of your Mac and software compatibility >> issues, assuming of course that software of some description is used >> with these things. >> >> >> ****************************** >> Dane Trethowan >> From Melton Victoria Australia >> mailto:Dane Trethowan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> phone +61 3 9005 8589 >> Fax/TTY +61 3 9743 7954 >> mobile/sms: +614 418 773 532 >> MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> skype: callto:grtdane12 >> ****************************** >> >> >> >> >> > > Scott Howell > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > Scott Howell [EMAIL PROTECTED]
