Playing with fire - I need an uninterruptible power supplies

Luis Caffesse

Luis Caffesse

Admin
So I literallly JUST had the power go out in my office for a split second - enough to shut down all my gear...and enough to make my heart skip a beat. I'm finishing up a big project that is due in three days....NOT the best time to kill my system.

Luckily everything seems fine, but this just made me realize that I need to do what I've been putting off for a long time - buy a UPS system for my editing station.

So I've heard that APS is the best, but I was wondering if anyone out there could give me some tips on how to figure out the minimum I need, and any recommendations on what would be best (in terms of the power, baterry life, etc).

So - any advice, experience, etc would be welcome.
I'm going to go catch my breath now.

:)


EDITED TO ADD:
Damn it - I need to be more careful with my thread titles.
Can a mod fix my typo?
Thanks.
:thumbsup:
 
Can't go wrong with APS- we use these in Mexico City all the time where the power can sometimes go out several times a week.

-Noah
 
I'm tellin ya, everyone thinks I'm paranoid... but one power loss during the process of backing up your P2 footage from your capture drive to a backup can wipe EVERYTHING out with no tape to go back to. Get a UPS, and use it for EVERYTHING. I have two portable ones and one for each edit station...
 
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1500 - we've got one of these at work powering a workstation, two lcd's, two decks, one small crt, one dvd/tv combo, a couple of external drives and whatever else we can cram in there. Gives us a whole 5 minutes of time with everything on. Kinda frightening really. Anyways it sure is nice to have the computer and ALL of its accessories on the battery. We get little blips a few times a week and the lights flicker and you here the battery kick on (big loud relay) and not a minute is lost. Makes file backups and renders so much less stressful. Get the biggest one you can find. By the way the one I linked to is the size of a small computer and weighs twice as much so be aware if that might be an issue.
 
Thanks for the link Jeff - that gives me a good idea of what kind of power I need to be looking at - sounds like you're running just about the same amount of gear I would be.

This may sound like a ridiculous question, but I have to ask - is it a problem to run power strips off these things, or do I need to find a UPS that has as many outlets as I need?

Between the edit station, the speakers, the monitor, the deck, etc etc...plugs go terribly fast around here.
 
yeah I've got two power strips running off mine. it probably says in there somewhere to not plug power strips into it just because some fool will overload them but if they are in good condition (bare wires etc) I dont see a problem. That UPS I linked to (and others too I'm sure) protect against overloads. It did not like it when I plugged in a fan one day and kicked it into high speed. Just made some god awful screaming sound til I turned it off and reset the UPS.

I can also vouch for the APC customer service. Had originally gotten a lesser model than the 1500 and it just kept acting funny and not working well, so we sent it back to APC and they said the battery was toast (under warranty) and asked if it would be ok if they upgraded us for free as they didnt have any of the original model in stock. Good people them APC :)
 
One thing to keep in mind is you do not really need to use the UPS for the monitors or anything else that has nothing to do with data preservation. In other words, if your monitor turns off, not a big deal, as the UPS makes sure your PC is turned off in orderly manner, controlling it via the USB cable. By not plugging in the monitor or any other power hungry devices, you extend run time of your UPS from a few minutes to 10-20 minutes, depending on its rating.
HTH
 
Good point Alex. My 5 minutes is plenty of time for me though especially since I'm only experiencing minor brownouts most of the time. With clients frequently in and out watching over shoulder I like to keep the monitors up and live so we dont have to stop and go back so they can see it again or anything. And since the power is there... I'm using it :)
 
adolgin said:
One thing to keep in mind is you do not really need to use the UPS for the monitors or anything else that has nothing to do with data preservation.
Click to expand...


That's a great point.
Thanks for everyone for their insights as well...
I'm taking care of this this week hopefully - as soon as I can stop working long enough to go buy something.
:)
 
This is my set up ( i have 3 Mac Pros + 6 screens + deck + sound system off this)

APC Smart UPS 1500va (lasts about 15minutes at full load) (one mac pro + dual screen, lasts about 40minutes)

and a tonne of IEC cables. if you have a couple of hundred, i would get a APC smart UPS 1500va. I use them for home, work, server farms etc. Cant beat it. Also they are fully mac compatiable (had a scare when i ordered 10 of them and though what if they would not work with mac osx server) just plug and play.


So i would say
APC 1500va smart UPS - about $500
10 x IEC CABLES - about $3 each.

Cheers
 
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