Batteries

[Charles Steinkuehler]

Lucas Peet wrote:
> I picked up an APC Back-UPS Pro 1000 for nearly free, but the batteries are 
> dead, it seems.  Does SES have a website, or do you know if they carry 
> batteries for this model?

Perhaps I wasn't clear...the SES folks sell the raw batteries.  They are 
not taped together with little pull-tabs the way a set of replacement 
batteries from APC would be, but they're a *LOT* cheaper, since you're 
just buying the batteries.  It's up to you to determine if the batteries 
they sell will fit your UPS.

I've found packing tape and the occasional sheet of double-sided foam 
tape allows me to effectively emulate most of the APC battery packs, and 
the higher-end UPS's I've got (like a nice Liebert model that came in a 
second-hand Symbios RAID I picked up for the UPS and rack-cabinet) use 
the generic batteries (ie: no attempt to lock you into a special set of 
batteries glued together into a specific shape, but then the unit is 
also not setup to have "user" replaceable batteries either...you 
actually have to take out screws to get to the batteries :-).

Virtually *ALL* smaller UPS systems (ie: stuff intended to power a few 
systems, not the one sitting at your ILEC CO capable of powering the 
phone system for tens of thousands of people for 2+ hours on battery 
power alone) use the 12 Volt 7 AmpHour gel-cells.  These are pretty much 
standardized (ie they're all the same shape/size), but there are two 
terminal flavors.  APC tends to use the (less common) 1/4" terminals, 
while the batteries you'll find at places like SES and general 
electronics places typically have the 3/16" terminals.

I don't know where in KC you'd find "real" APC replacemnt battery packs, 
if you're not the do-it-yourself type...

-- 
Charles Steinkuehler
charles at steinkuehler.net