UPS serial cables (CyberPower).

[SeaFox]

I have recently acquired an old CyberPower brand UPS (a CPS425SL) and I need to get a serial cable for it to connect it to my FreeNAS box.

I know I need a F-M cable, but does anyone know which type of cable I would need, a straight cable or null-modem crossover type? I've heard that some APC-brand UPS systems use a odd wiring setup for the serial cable but nothing about CyberPowers using anything non-standard.

 

[cyberjock]

It's proprietary if I remember correctly. You have to buy the cable from Cyberpower(or ebay if it says for Cyberpower UPSes).

 

[budmannxx]

I called CyberPower the other day about this and the guy said to get a straight through cable (as opposed to a null modem cable). I tried it but couldn't get FreeNAS to talk to the UPS, so I went back to USB. But I didn't really try that hard to troubleshoot with the serial cable, so I'm not saying it won't work.

Edit: My UPS is model CP1500PFCLCD

 

[SeaFox]

I asked at work the other day (where I got the thing to start with) and they said it was a straight cable. I'm going to test it on my regular desktop PC with the Windows control software before I put it on the NAS.

 

[SeaFox]

For the record, I did buy a straight-through "extension cable".

After connecting the serial cable and installing the Cyberpower PowerPanel Personal Edition software on my normal Windows 8 desktop, I shut it down and moved the PC to one of battery-backed outlets on the UPS.

Booted back up and on first opening it up things looked promising - the Cyberpower monitoring utility was showing the status as running on electric power and the battery charging. It has been plugged in over 10 hours now so it should be fully charged, but to at least show this looked like the serial connection between the two was working properly.

I tried simulating a power outage with my main desktop PC hooked up (tower only) and while my main desktop is probably over the load rating for the UPS it didn't run even a second -- just cut right off when I pulled the plug, no alarm or anything from the UPS. The only thing I'm sure of so far is that the battery is dead.

I also had trouble getting the unit to power back on once I plugged it back in. Seemed to be internally cycling. But got that resolved.

Anyway, I thought I'd do a second test, this time with something not-really running on it. A shut down laptop connected to the battery backup and the PC fully powered elsewhere. The idea was I could still read the Cyberpower monitoring software on the PC when a "power outage" occurred.

When I unplugged the UPS's mains line, the AC adapter's plug light on my iBook went out immediately -- signalling it was not getting any power from the Cyberpower's battery (and it's certainly within the load rating for the unit -- even when running). But now the stupid part -- the Cyberpower's monitoring software still listed things as running on mains power and the battery charging! It should at least be saying the battery is not charging. Tried changing tabs and closing/opening the app panel -- no change.

I'm coming to the conclusion the Cyberpower utility simply reports everything as A-OK with no evidence of that if it hasn't gotten a signal from the UPS saying otherwise.

Haven't tried rebooting the desktop computer yet to see what the software says about the UPS if it boots up with nothing on the other side as by coincidence soon after my desktop began running a backup of my music library to the Firefly folder on the NAS, and I didn't want to interrupt it.

 

[budmannxx]

Well, obviously something is wrong with your UPS battery (as you stated). Even with no "data" connection to your PC, the battery should power your equipment.

Unfortunately I don't have experience with the PowerPanel software; my UPS has a display from which I've been able to get the information I need during testing.

Hopefully someone else can chime in with some advice, but I'd focus on getting the battery working before figuring out the PowerPanel stuff.

Edit: I don't want to assume (or offend), so just to confirm, you're sure your equipment is plugged into one of the 3 battery outlets, right? Your model has 3 battery+surge outlets and 3 surge only.

 

[SeaFox]

I just now plugged the AC line back in on the UPS after my last test -- and the UPS's alarm went off for a little bit. I also think I saw the light on the laptop's adapter come on briefly and then go out. And the monitoring software kicked up saying it had lost AC power (even though it is now plugged back in) and was now running off battery. There is no light on the Cyberpower even though the switch is still on.

It's doing that thing where it wont come back on again, too. I have to shut the power button (on the UPS) off and remove the load from the battery side to get it to "boot" up properly. So it does appear the battery is a likely culprit in this behavior.

 

[budmannxx]

Do your tests on something like a spare router or switch. They use almost no power, so you can rule out overloading your UPS. They also shut off (and all the lights go out) immediately on loss of power. I've seen laptop LEDs that stay on for a couple of seconds after being disconnected from power, even with the laptop battery removed.

 

[SeaFox]

Good idea. A router would be low power.

Tried that and on pulling the AC power everything went off immediately. Plugged it back in and the device started cycling on and off, with the system monitor popping up ech time it did to announce power had been cut. Had to turn it off and remove the router from the battery-backed side to get ti to start up normally.

Looks like if equipment is on the battery-backed outlets the battery needs to have some charge or be in good enough shape to store a charge for the device to reconnect back to mains, otherwise it will just cycle (maybe failing an internal diagnostic?).

 

[budmannxx]

Sounds like your battery is dead, and I don't think you can replace it on that unit (but I just skimmed the product page, so I could be wrong). Might be time for a new UPS.

 

[SeaFox]

No, it's replaceable. I've seen them for sale on the Net.

I've also figured out why the battery isn't working -- it doesn't exist. (lol)

Apparently the IT department at my workplace threw out the old battery before giving the UPS away, and didn't tell the people who offered it to me.

Edit: Bleh! That means the monitoring software really is lying when it said the battery was "charging".

 

[budmannxx]

Haha wow, didn't it feel too light?

 

[SeaFox]

Well I've never had a Cyberpower UPS before and my previous experience has been picking up all-metal encased ones. The transformer inside isn't lightweight so...

 

[DJ9]

LOL. :)

 

[joeschmuck]

So you need to ask yourself a question: If you replace the battery will the electronics still be fine? A battery isn't much money really, it's cheaper than purchasing a quality UPS but it could also end up being a waste of your money if it just doesn't work properly. My advice, buy an good quality APC UPS. Mine is in the tagline and it works fantastic and kept my system running for almost 3 hours during a power outage and it never did drop off. And my drives run 24/7, no sleeping for them. The unit also powered a second 2 drive NAS (drives do sleep) and a 5 port switch. Needless to say I was very surprised my UPS lasted that long, I would have been happy with 15 minutes.

 

[SeaFox]

I've already spent very little money (less than $10 total) on this whole thing so far. I'm willing to try with a new battery. I don't need more than a couple minutes of runtime honestly. The issue I have is if the machine loses power suddenly, when it's brought back up a SATA drive in it can't be seen my FreeNAS and will be in an unusable state unless a second proper reboot of the system is done at least after that. The smaller IDE drive has no issues like this. So I really just need the system to be powered long enough to execute a regular shutdown so when I bring it back up it's all good-to-go.

I was told when I got this UPS I'd probably need to get a new battery for it, implying the one it had was bad (not missing, though) and I seemed to have confirmed the straight serial cable is the correct one, as I set out to do with this exercise.

 

[DJ9]

You should be able to pick up a new battery for $30 or so. I've bought a few replacement batteries for my APC unit from Batteries Plus and they work just fine. Here's a link for your UPS.

http://www.batteriesplus.com/produc...teries/690332-Cyber-Power/CP1350PFCLCD/1.aspx

 

[SeaFox]

Here's a link for your UPS.

http://www.batteriesplus.com/produc...teries/690332-Cyber-Power/CP1350PFCLCD/1.aspx

Actually it's this model. ;)

But we can do a lot better on the price. Which is sad, as apparently BatteriesPlus has a store in my city (!). But even if I have to pay shipping, I can get a replacement for less.

 

[DJ9]

Definitely a better price. :)

I just mentioned Batteries Plus cause they are all over the place.

 

[SeaFox]

Not sure if you noticed, but you're bumping a 6-year-old thread.

I don't have this UPS anymore. I used it for awhile with my straight-through cable, and it worked fine on FreeNAS once I got the battery replaced. My main issue with it was that alarm can't be suppressed at all and it beeps the whole time it's operating on reserve, so if there's a short blip in power in the middle of the night it would go off briefly and wake me up.

When the battery went bad a year or so ago I replaced it with a higher capacity APC backup I can set the alarm preferences on.