Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
On Wed, 2 Aug 2006, Matthew Sullivan wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Update: I replaced the batteries today, and indeed, several of the old ones (mostly in the first pack) were split and some had popped a couple of their sealed tops. I left for several hours and came back to the house stinking like burning rubber. The new batteries are apparently melting the terminal rubber insulation. I had to throw it back into bypass mode and unplug that pack (the only one with new batteries!) Any ideas to the cause? The status screens looked ok. (no bad batteries again) Tip: Except where a newly supplied battery is faulty, replace all or none - across all your packs connected to the same UPS. Understood...that's why I unplugged the other 2 XR packs from the UPS. APC rejected the notion that there was a controller problem, until they had me perform the battery test, when it not only cut power (batteries were fried anyway), it stayed in test mode until bypassed. According to them, even with dead batteries, it should come out within 5-10 seconds. James Smallacombe PlantageNet, Inc. CEO and Janitor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://3.am =
Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s) (please, lets end this)
Can't you guys take this off-list? I'm seeing this thread gatewayed on *another* mailing list also. Somehow, APC battery maintenance doesn't seem like a critical topic (unlike for example, internet pipe cleaning day) ^) Joe McGuckinViaNet Communications[EMAIL PROTECTED]650-207-0372 cell650-213-1302 office650-969-2124 fax On Aug 2, 2006, at 6:34 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:On Wed, 2 Aug 2006, Matthew Sullivan wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Update: I replaced the batteries today, and indeed, several of the oldones (mostly in the first pack) were split and some had popped a couple oftheir "sealed" tops.I left for several hours and came back to the house stinking like burningrubber. The new batteries are apparently melting the terminal rubberinsulation. I had to throw it back into bypass mode and unplug that pack(the only one with new batteries!)Any ideas to the cause? The status screens looked ok. ("no bad batteries"again) Tip: Except where a newly supplied battery is faulty, replace all ornone - across all your packs connected to the same UPS. Understood...that's why I unplugged the other 2 XR packs from the UPS.APC rejected the notion that there was a controller problem, until theyhad me perform the battery test, when it not only cut power (batterieswere fried anyway), it stayed in test mode until bypassed. According tothem, even with dead batteries, it should come out within 5-10 seconds.James Smallacombe PlantageNet, Inc. CEO and Janitor[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://3.am=
Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
--On July 28, 2006 9:33:59 AM -0400 Robert E.Seastrom [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I left for several hours and came back to the house stinking like burning rubber. The new batteries are apparently melting the terminal rubber insulation. I had to throw it back into bypass mode and unplug that pack (the only one with new batteries!) By terminal rubber insulation do you mean the insulation on the lugs that bolt to the terminals on the batteries? If so, this is a sign that you either didn't clean the contacts or didn't bolt them together firmly. Those batteries need to be initially charged, and they draw a lot of current when doing that... which heats up any kind of high resistance connection in the chain. Any ideas to the cause? The status screens looked ok. (no bad batteries again) By the way, you probably ought to replace all the batteries in all your packs regardless of what the battery status monitor says. ---Rob Yeah my other thought here was that one or more of the other packs had totally dead shorted cells, that'd cause excessive heating on the other batteries too.
Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Update: I replaced the batteries today, and indeed, several of the old ones (mostly in the first pack) were split and some had popped a couple of their sealed tops. I left for several hours and came back to the house stinking like burning rubber. The new batteries are apparently melting the terminal rubber insulation. I had to throw it back into bypass mode and unplug that pack (the only one with new batteries!) Any ideas to the cause? The status screens looked ok. (no bad batteries again) Tip: Except where a newly supplied battery is faulty, replace all or none - across all your packs connected to the same UPS. / Mat
Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I left for several hours and came back to the house stinking like burning rubber. The new batteries are apparently melting the terminal rubber insulation. I had to throw it back into bypass mode and unplug that pack (the only one with new batteries!) By terminal rubber insulation do you mean the insulation on the lugs that bolt to the terminals on the batteries? If so, this is a sign that you either didn't clean the contacts or didn't bolt them together firmly. Those batteries need to be initially charged, and they draw a lot of current when doing that... which heats up any kind of high resistance connection in the chain. Any ideas to the cause? The status screens looked ok. (no bad batteries again) By the way, you probably ought to replace all the batteries in all your packs regardless of what the battery status monitor says. ---Rob
Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
Hi, i am very sure that the batterys are dead. APC recommends to change the batterys every 3 to 5 years. I'd change them every 3 years to be sure. Its very unlikely that your 6 year old packs are still fully functional. I had the same symptoms at a customers APC (3000VA) and the battery packs were dead. Try to locate the packs on ebay, can save quite a bunch of money (but beware of low quality packs). Regards, Jonas Frey On Thu, 2006-07-27 at 16:07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi: I've had this APC Matrix 5000 with 3 XR battery packs for almost 6 years now, and it's generally been rock solid, with lots of uptime when needed...the average laod is only around 24%, which probably helps. At around 1am last night, my network had a power event which brought everything down...everything came back up on its own except a customer's colo server, which has a dead power supply and one of my servers, which had a dead drive in its RAID 1 (the other was ok). I looked at the UPS menus...status, etc and everything looked 100%, with BAD BATTS 0, 12 hours+ of est runtime, etc. I then decided to run a battery test, which I stupidly did without going into bypass mode first (kinda thought it would do that automatically), power was interrupted and the alarm started beeping with a BAD BATT light, after which power came back on and it eventually quieted down and looks the same as it did before...still zero bad batteries in the status menu, 100% etc. Any clues what the problem is here? Is it the UPS itself, or one of the battery packs? If the latter, is there a way to find out which one? TIA! James Smallacombe PlantageNet, Inc. CEO and Janitor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://3.am =
Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
Hi, i am very sure that the batterys are dead. APC recommends to change the batterys every 3 to 5 years. I'd change them every 3 years to be sure. Its very unlikely that your 6 year old packs are still fully functional. I had the same symptoms at a customers APC (3000VA) and the battery packs were dead. Try to locate the packs on ebay, can save quite a bunch of money (but beware of low quality packs). http://stores.ebay.com/Gruber-Power-Services I've used them multiple times and been very happy. Malcolm
RE: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
Hi, i am very sure that the batterys are dead. APC recommends to change the batterys every 3 to 5 years. I'd change them every 3 years to be sure. Its very unlikely that your 6 year old packs are still fully functional. I had the same symptoms at a customers APC (3000VA) and the battery packs were dead. Try to locate the packs on ebay, can save quite a bunch of money (but beware of low quality packs). http://stores.ebay.com/Gruber-Power-Services I've used them multiple times and been very happy. Malcolm I have used them as well and been fairly happy. Beware that they will spam you to death (and responding to their mailings with removal requests continue to go unanswered). Brian
Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I've had this APC Matrix 5000 with 3 XR battery packs for almost 6 years As others on the list have noted, your batteries are almost certainly ready to head off to the battery recycler. In terms of what to put inside the XR packs, they're Group 24 AGM batteries, 12v, 75 AH, and if my recollection is correct they have lug style terminals not threaded studs like a marine battery (verify before you buy). Others (hi, Steve) have reported success with the PRC-1290S. If you are handy enough with a wrench to change the battery in your car, you can change the batteries in the UPS too (powered off, of course). You can get these from your local industrial battery supplier (in the yellow pages under batteries). If you have them shipped to you, you'll earn the emnity of your UPS man (no pun intended) since their shipping weight exceeds 60 lbs and you need a bunch of them. If you're an amateur radio operator be sure to mention this to the guy at the battery store; a lot of the proprietors seem to be hams and since hams are big battery users they'll often give fellow hams a discount. ---rob
Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I've had this APC Matrix 5000 with 3 XR battery packs for almost 6 years Do you have the little telephone cables connecting the battery packs properly connected? Does the UPS think is has three cells? If no to these questions, it could indicate why the UPS doesn't show bad batteries. There are also little red bad battery lights on each cell that are powered by the telephone cable. Also one other thing. There is a special procedure for resetting the bad battery lights on the cells. Its a real pain. Roy
Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
On Jul 27, 2006, at 12:25 PM, Robert E.Seastrom wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I've had this APC Matrix 5000 with 3 XR battery packs for almost 6 years As others on the list have noted, your batteries are almost certainly ready to head off to the battery recycler. In terms of what to put inside the XR packs, they're Group 24 AGM batteries, 12v, 75 AH, and if my recollection is correct they have lug style terminals not threaded studs like a marine battery (verify before you buy). Others (hi, Steve) have reported success with the PRC-1290S. If you are handy enough with a wrench to change the battery in your car, you can change the batteries in the UPS too (powered off, of course). [non-operational anecdote AKA: Looking for any excuse to avoid writing documentation] Be careful when doing this... A few years ago I was working for a company that had a small enterprise datacenter. We ran out of space and so got a new, better space made and then started migrating into the new space. We shut down the UPS in the old space, pulled all the batteries (so we could move it) and moved all the bits on a pallet-jack to the new space. I showed someone how to hook up a battery and slid it into the bay closest to the ground (no fool I!), then let him get on with reinstalling the rest of the batteries while I cabled up the network gear. After a while I hear some cursing and turn around -- he has managed to get the one of the sets of DC cables between the battery casing and the sheet metal and is sitting on the floor trying to force the battery in with his feet! Before I can say anything he pushed really hard and the sheet metal casing slices through the insulation, shorting out the battery I never did figure out how much current the battery could supply into a direct short (a good car battery can supply 1000 CCA), but it was enough to vaporize a chunk of metal around 8 x 8 from the side of the UPS, blow a large piece of plastic out of the side of the battery and warp the plates Also from the same place: Pointy Haired Boss type reads an article in NetworkWorld on physical security and hires some consultant who comes in and sells some really expensive proximity card reader system. They install the PC that runs the whole system (running Windows 98!) inside the new datacenter space -- entry to with is protected by, you guessed it, the proximity card system. After a few months, the proximity card machine locks up... Of course, by then no-one can find the keys to the lock on the door (Why would we keep that? There is a proximity card reader on that door..). Apparently there was an option for a master card, but it was too expensive There are countless more similar stories from this particular place W You can get these from your local industrial battery supplier (in the yellow pages under batteries). If you have them shipped to you, you'll earn the emnity of your UPS man (no pun intended) since their shipping weight exceeds 60 lbs and you need a bunch of them. If you're an amateur radio operator be sure to mention this to the guy at the battery store; a lot of the proprietors seem to be hams and since hams are big battery users they'll often give fellow hams a discount. ---rob -- Never criticize a man till you've walked a mile in his shoes. Then if he didn't like what you've said, he's a mile away and barefoot.
Re: APC Matrix 5000 question(s)
On Thu, 27 Jul 2006, Michael J Wise wrote: On Jul 27, 2006, at 5:10 AM, Ray Van Dolson wrote: In any case, give APC support a holler. Definitely. I'm always nervous doing any sort of maintenance on our Symmetra. The Symmetra is a completely different animal from the 5000, though. I 3 the Symmetra. Oh yes, one more point... best to check the 5000's battery packs for heat and bulging, as some of the packs may be about to vent the Hot Sauce, and cleaning that up is always Fun. Aloha mai Nai`a! -- Please have your Internet License http://kapu.net/~mjwise/ Update: I replaced the batteries today, and indeed, several of the old ones (mostly in the first pack) were split and some had popped a couple of their sealed tops. I left for several hours and came back to the house stinking like burning rubber. The new batteries are apparently melting the terminal rubber insulation. I had to throw it back into bypass mode and unplug that pack (the only one with new batteries!) Any ideas to the cause? The status screens looked ok. (no bad batteries again) James Smallacombe PlantageNet, Inc. CEO and Janitor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://3.am =
