Equipment Autopsy - Uninterruptible Power Supply

We split open an old UPS to, after a long struggle, take a look at the goodies inside.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• thegeekgroup
• the geek group
• chris boden
• UPS
• power supply
• NOC
• autopsy
• screw
• battery
• panasonic
• SLA battery
• MMA array

[lpg42t]

I admire your enthusiasm, but you showed that UPS no respect at all! you tore it apart like a criminal would rip a stereo out from a car dashboard.. I bet there was nothing even wrong with it besides the bunged out battery's. The only thing I learned from this video is how not dissemble a piece of equipment.

[thegeekgroup]

@lpg42t We've done a few autopsies, they don't all go easy.

[ndiboomer]

GO UP GO UP! I keep saying to him, but he wants to go through the front...

[thegeekgroup]

@ndiboomer Tried up first, front was actually easier.

[thiesenf]

@Cris:

Don't ever use THAT prybar when handling batteries... you have done it once with a laptop battery and that battery caught on fire while using that prybar... :-)

[thegeekgroup]

@thiesenf This is a MUCH more rugged battery.

[colt4547]

You MOSFET Murderer! Why you hate them so bad? Those parts attached to the heatsinks you ripped from the board are some of the most expensive useful parts :(

[experimentboy]

It'd be really cool if you could make a video explaining/showing how to change DC back to proper 120VAC.. I'm wondering for YEARS how it's done !

I understand you might have other things to care about, but maybe roughly expound how it works ;)

[mspeir]

What brand were those grey power connectors. I could use some of those for a robotics application, but cannot find them.

[Arabhacks]

I have disassembled nearly the same model.

First off, one cell shorted and has left that classic bulge.

Second, in place of ripping out rivets and parts why not loosen the top shelf move it up an inch or so?

And, yes, marine deep cycle batteries work wonders!

Mine has 2 big marine batteries and runs for hours.

[AngusVFF]

I'm Chris Boden  And Your Not

LOL

[TheColinputer]

I wouls say that UPS's charging regulator failed. And thus it just kept charging the batteries non stop and killed them.

Whats fun to do with those old UPS units too is to ditch the small batteries and hook it upto like a 100AH deep cycle battery or a couple of car batteries. But you will need to rig up your own way of charging such batteries as there is no way the UPS's built in charger can do it.

[AintBigAintClever]

When the batteries fail like that it's usually not worth replacing them, the UPS will overcharge and destroy the next set as well, unless you strike lucky and find a fault using APCFIX.EXE. We've seen the same issue on a few of ours (I'm responsible for about 50 APC UPSes of various shapes and sizes at work, plus 2 at home) regardless of battery brand.

At 16:35 that's a 12V 7.2Ah battery, standard fare for intruder alarm panels. 14.5V is the charging voltage.

[parp12345]

I have always found it very impressive how quick a UPS would "kick in" during a black out or brown outs resulting in a seamless power supply. Very informative video - thank you Geek Group.

[ndiboomer]

Have I told you before - I love equipment autopsies. I especially like Low Voltage, High Amp stuff like APC UPS's - (I have several waiting under my desk!)

This week I have 7 PC's waiting for autopsy or resurrection. I expect to have at least 5 running Ubuntu! BTW - what model is the AS/400 you have - and do you have an RPG compiler installed? I'm game.