sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information APC SU1000XL question

We just replaced the batteries in an APC SU1000 UPS that has two additional battery cases, so a total of five replacement battery packs were installed. The batteries have been charging for 24 hours, yet the "replace battery" LED is still on. Any ideas on how to make this go out?

It's been my experience with replacing batteries on UPSs that it's hit or miss. Sometimes it works, many times it doesn't and there's a problem with the UPS. How much did you pay for those batteries (they ain't cheap) vs the cost of a new UPS? And how old is it? I've been burned too many times by getting stuck with batteries only to either have to replace the UPS or the customer saying I don't need it because they don't want to pay for a new one. So I don't replace batteries anymore.

-Hal

The system is about four years old. Some of the batteries were leaking, so the customer wanted all of them replaced at the same time. I think that the unit is good because all other indicators appear to be functioning properly.

Ed, I've had that problem before. Check ALL connections. On the APC batteries that I've changed, sometimes the slide-on connectors to the battery terminals is loose or not even touching. As soon as that's corrected, the alarm will cease.

I aggree with MooreTel we had a Big APC Matrix UPS that I changed I believe 8 total Car batteries out on the unit and one of the connector wasn't seated properly.

That thing was a BEAR!!! I thought I was going to have to replace the entire unit because the batteries had swollen and cracked and I had to pry them out of there. Painful to say the least!

Does that model use the 1 big power connector for the batteries? If so, it probably isn't loose as those connections are designed properly. My guess is that the UPS needs to be reset. To do this, unplug all devices from the UPS. Then plug in a high wattage device, like a halogen shop lamp. Unplug the UPS and let it drain down. Unplug the shop lamp. Plug UPS back into utility power. Let battery backup charge for 12 hours or so. That should reset the firmware's settings about the battery.

Note: APC tends to overcharge batteries (floating charge is too high) which overheats the batteries and reduces lifespan (and causes them to swell and/or fail in worse cases). So you end up replacing batteries a lot sooner than you should. There's a program that some russian guy wrote to modify the floating charge value and other firmware parameters via the APC serial cable. I can search for it if you are interested.

If I remember right the last time I changed batteries on the one I have you had to initiate a test or wait until it does its' own weekly test to get rid of that light.

Ed,

The added external batteries definitely complicate matters. What others have said concerning resets and firmware settings is absolutely correct - like most modern equipment, these things make their own decisions and try to deny us lowly humans any control over the process.

That said, as soon as read I your post I remembered a rather long thread seen recently on a prepper forum. Yeah, I know us bunker dweller types are considered a little "off," but some of these guys do know their stuff. The thread concerned modifying a different model of APC UPS to use a much larger external battery bank, but it may be worth a look at least, because it talks about how to actually get into the firmware settings on these beasts:

https://www.zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=109171

Scroll down past the pictures to the section titled "Programming." Whether any of this can help your situation depends on whether or not your customer's unit has the programming interface. The required connecter looks like it takes a standard serial cable, but it doesn't. It uses a special cable from APC [big surprise].

As far as the nitty-gritty programming details, I will leave it to the younger guys on here to advise on that. I am a lot of things, but a programmer isn't one of them...

Jim
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