[Bob Haller]

What size backup power supplies are being used for the 721? Around here our power companyt has constant drops and sags. I figure a UPS will help cover short outages and make for more reliable operations.

Ratings of these devices dont appear standard and designed to confuse the purchaser.
Any suggestions?

 

[scooper]

The 500 VA size you can find at most any office supply store should be more than sufficient for what you're asking. A 721 is a PC in what it does and power requirements, right ?

 

[zimm0who0net]

The 721 only consumes 65W of power. A 500VA UPS would be waaaay more than enough...

 

[P Smith]

"A 500VA UPS would be waaaay more than enough..."

Who says it's enough for 30 min blackout ?

 

[Bob Haller]

Yep these how big questions are the interesting one. Dont want to waste money on the other hand need one big enough for how long of a outage? I heard some UPS have a timer that shuts down even with little load and a fully charged battery.

I am converting to dish pro LNBs to get rid of my power hungry SW64. It works fine but still I dont like things that can be single point failures.

It along with some 4900s will be available shortly.

I am hedging my bets keeping a 500 with twin active for my DPs. on 2 slots only. Later I may get rid of them and go all dshpro as well/

 

[Bob Haller]

I bought a 500 tonight. Tomorrow once the battery is fully charged I will see how long it will run my 721.

Anyone ever put a car battery on a uPS? I would think this would dramatically increase the run time in a outage,.

 

[Guest]

Originally posted by scooper
The 500 VA size you can find at most any office supply store should be more than sufficient for what you're asking. A 721 is a PC in what it does and power requirements, right ?

Don't forget the load of the TV.

I have an APC SmartUPS 600 on my 501 and Mitsu 27" does just fine.

 

[Bob Haller]

I doubt I will put the TV on the UPS. I am more interested n protecting the 721 from reboots which according to the book take 4 minutes. Around here we have daily power glitches

 

[Bob Haller]

Matt whats your backup run time?

It would be cool to continue watching tv during a outage...

Although I would probably rather just protect the receiver for longer back up times...

Anyone ever add a car battery to a UPS for longer run times?

 

[Guest]

Originally posted by Bob Haller
Matt whats your backup run time?

I had it in my office with a larger load and was getting about 20-25min run time.

Originally posted by Bob Haller

Anyone ever add a car battery to a UPS for longer run times?

My guess is that once the battery was drained you would burn out the charging section once power was restored. I would be very carefull doing this.

 

[scooper]

I wouldn't do it at all.

One word about buying UPS's, typically, they have been sitting in storage for 6 months - 1 year before you buy them. So your first set of batteries in the UPS is going to have this smaller amount of life compared to if you got new batteries. I got this from a tech at the company that manufactured one of mine (my big one that I keep on the server and the networking gear). YMMV...

 

[Nick]

It is very cool to be watching TV during short power outages. Saves the bother of having to light candles.

One night, when power in my apt. complex went out for about 10 minutes, a neighbor knocked on the door asking why our power wasn't out. He had noticed the TV's screen light through the window. Another time, a dumber-than-dumb ATT cable "auditor" arbitrarily cut 8 of 16 lines (all unlabeled). The same neighbor knocked on the door asking if my cable was out. I told him again that I had sat. He still didn't get it.

The best benefits of having a UPS are better electrical isolation and not having the IRD reboot. If you want to watch TV during outages, buy the highest rating you can afford. You won't regret it.