!!!UPS Modding!!! + >>>Increase Backup time Manyfold<<< I have done it....

[Rollercoaster]

PART1

Hey people. Today i completed my UPS Battery mod!!!

What i had: One Numeric Digital 600 UPS


What I wanted to achieve
1. Long Back up time in the range of 3-4 hours without adding a whole inverter.(yaar a UPS is itself a inverter and a better one)
2. LEDs and Fans in the UPS (has to look cool)

What I used:
1. One 150AH Local made battery (3200rs)
2. One 10A charger(650rs)
2. One 120 MM fan
3. Ultra Bright white LEDs
4. A brightness/fan speed control

What i Did:
1. Open UPS
2. Remove internal battery
3. Add longer battery wires and add terminals to them
4. Parse and locate the internal charger and disable it.(!!!Most Important and very difficult as the circuit need to be understud and modifid)
5. Add more ventilation holes(Lots more heat as now it is expected to give backup for more then 4hrs in comparisn to the earlier 10 minutes)
6. Cutout front panel for ventilation and LED view
7. Install LED in series with variable preset resister
8. Add a switch to enable/disable internal charger
9. Add a switch to enable/disable fan and LED
10. Close it all up
11. Connect to the battery and test
12. Connect External charger
13. Connect PC and finished

TIME to build: 2 Hours

ok here are the pics(I am sorry for the bad image quality.. my camera is junk.)


Opened UPS:






this is sad only 4 images allowed in one post that too including smiley......anyways i will use multipleposts

[Rollercoaster]

PART II

Changed Battery connecters and lengthened them. Attached big battery connectors


Testing the new LED with a 3.6v battery



Install FAN and LED

[Rollercoaster]

PART III

Installed the FAN and LED(sorry not much visible)


Fire it up for the first time


Close up everything


Install the UPS, connect new battery(u can see the old batteries being put to good use as stand hehe)

[Rollercoaster]

Part IV

Finished


So what do u guys think. if anyone wants to do it tell me . i will put the steps in detail here...

[Sourabh]

wow, a lot of hard work in there. How long does your system run on the higher rating battery? Compare the results.

I am wondering how long can a laptop last on such a mod, would be a cheaper alternative than a laptop battery or an inverter if you arent taking your laptop to places.

[gary4gar]

great mod mate but its to risky to try. u might burn ur ups

[JGuru]

Did you check the results? How long your UPS can give backup, I mean did you test
it? And I want to know the duration (in hours or mins). If you are able to convert
10 min backup UPS to 3 hours or more. That's great work indeed. Post the results
here, so that all can see & appreciate.

[khansdream]

Great work.

Tell us, what time it is taking to re-charge.

[janitha]

Originally Posted by khansdream

Great work.

Tell us, what time it is taking to re-charge.

He is using 150 AH battery and 10A charger and so theoretically it should take 15 hours when totally discharged. But let alone being totally discharged, never even let it fall below 10.5V. (This is assuming he uses a 12V battery)

[Rollercoaster]

Hey guys.. thanks for the interest..
havent tested for the max backup time yet but i put the battery in quite a bit charged and it ran for about 3 hours. i am expecting backup time of over 4 hours on a fully charged battery.

Basically it depends on consumption.
My PC is a AMD64 3000+ on A8N SLI Prem with 1gb ram, 3hdd, one dvdrom, one dvdrw. 5.1 speakers, 17inch viewsonic ultrabright crt monitor and the PSU is 500W.

Anyone with a LCD would probabely get backups of over 6 hours.

Also The battry i used is local made so it is not a full rated 150AH. Can say around 135AH. also i read about One Amp current via my multimeter for stand alone UPS Runnig. so it is pretty good.

I will post the final backup time tomo as i will charge the battery full tonight and leave the pc running in the morning.

Anyways the basic math is::
Suppose ur original UPS gives a backup of 10mins.
Usually UpS Battery is a 12v 7AH.(charging at 700ma)
Now suppose u replace it with a 12v 35A battery(the one in a maruti car)
so u should theoretically get 35/7*10 minutes... i.e 50 minutes
I have put in a 150A battery so my theoritical backup should be:
150/7*10 = 214.3 minutes

The formula can be like this:
New Backup time in minutes = Old backup time in Minutes multiplied by New battery capacity in AH divided by Old battery capacity in AH.

One thing to note here is that the old backtime should be the one u got when the ups was new(The battery was at full 7AH capacity)
another thing to note is that the load(PC and periferals) should be same for the above to be accurate.


@Sourabh
Dude if u put on a laptop it will run forever...hehe. A laptop uses very little power. need to know the power rating of the laptop adaptor to tell u the minimum backup time.

@gary4gar
To gain some u have to risk sum. The danger of UPS burning is less then the danger of the PERSON getting electrocuted while modding.
BTW this is the reason i put in a FAN (for cooling)
Otherwise alsi i have givin this a lot of thought. U should realise that a UPS has a inbuilt voltage stabiliser on the same transformer. so if the transformer can talk the load of the PC while stepping up/down then it can ofcourse take the load of the PC on battry mode(that is also without stepping up/down)

@khansdream
janitha is right about the charging time calculation. But i am not charging at a full 10A. I have brought a variable current charger and set it on 4A. Besides the light problem here is not that bad that i have to freq use the pc on long battery backup. Whenever needed i can turn up the charging current.

also abt the 10.5v thing. there is a thing about batteries(say 12v) called deep discharge(below 9.8v) and overcharge(above13.5v). whenever these thresholds are crossed there is a 20-30% damage to the power of the battery. that is why auto cut-off chargers are used. and that is why the UPS turns off before the battry is fully discharged. Anyways usually there are full 300 cycles for a battry before is starts to go down in capacity.

[TechGuru#1]

Great work & post for sure!

[casanova]

Man, a very gud modding. But still all this must be around 8k to 9k + risk factor.
We can get a fairly gud inverter in its place.

Will try this in a month or two and will definitely get in touch with u.

[Rollercoaster]

Originally Posted by casanova

Man, a very gud modding. But still all this must be around 8k to 9k + risk factor.
We can get a fairly gud inverter in its place.

Will try this in a month or two and will definitely get in touch with u.

come on dude... where did "8k to 9k" come from, as i said in the 1st post, total cost = battery+charger = 3200+650 = 3850 + misc electronics. Also inverters produce bad electricity(for PC) as PC requires Sine wave and Inverters give TPZi wave. sure, sine wave inverters are also available but they give lower backup(low efficiency) and cost more.


EDIT: here is a pic of the system running of UPS mode and the backup time finally...

The total time it reports is approx 3 and a half hours(running for 2.5hrs and 55mins remaning).
This was done with the system running on Sissandra BurnIN auto cycle and Monitor on maximum monitor brightness. So i am happy to say that at full load i get backup of 3.5 hours.
Probabily on normal usage it will be above 4.25 hours.(as it purely depends on usage it is hard to give a accurate value, like if i am surfing the net then it will be much longer then while i am playing games)

NOTE: It shows the LOAD Incorrect

[casanova]

UPS around 2.5k
battery+charger=3850
misc electronics=made a wild guess to add to 8k to 9k.
And where do u fit the fan mate.

[Rollercoaster]

Originally Posted by casanova

UPS around 2.5k
battery+charger=3850
misc electronics=made a wild guess to add to 8k to 9k.
And where do u fit the fan mate.

UPS is already a must.. whether inverter or not. god help u if u dont use ur PC on a UPS.

And misc eletronics is just wires, LEDS, cooling fan... total less then 100rs

See the pictures above to see where u fit the fan.

[casanova]

i do use a ups but still its cost has to be taken into account. I cant find any pictures rollercoaster.

[Rollercoaster]

man there are approx 12-14 pics here...cant u see them?

see the source code or press quote on each post to see the image webaddress.

well UPS cost is not taken into account as it is a MOD. The basic idea was to increasing backup capacity. I never thought about the total cost. anyways which ever way u see it, it is cheaper this way and more efficient and safe for the comp

[casanova]

Alright seen them. Good creativity. Dont know what problem it is. Couldnt see the pics in opera nor in iexplorer.

[Rollercoaster]

thanks. ya i get that creativity comment a lot.

anyways here are a few updates...

I installed a new chargerit charges fast and has better auto cut-off circuit.
It was getting too hot so i installed a pIII fan inside it.


here is another look at my creativity. Installing switches is real boring and takes lot of space. besides it makes the front look bad. so i did something new.. I installed jumper pins and use jumbers as switches


here is where is got the pins from.It is the circuit plate of a CDROM. the one where the IDE cable connects.
Then i heated them and they went thru the plastic like knife thru butter. this is a very convenient method and WORKS!!!



colage by picasa 2.

[~Phenom~]

whoa , great post man.
Really commendable.
keep it up.

[Rollercoaster]

thanks man.... thatzcool.

anyways now i am looking fwd to do my PC MOD!!
havebeen thinking for a long time and i hope it will look greate too...

[cyrux]

Wow man... really cool setup. You must have been really brave to do that. Although i am a electronic engg. student i would never dare to open my ups and do some modding

[Rollercoaster]

well that is what happens after u have completed a century of electric shocks. LOL

seriously. before i was a computer geek i was a electronic hobbiest.. i think from around class 9.

i have built some heavy duty electric circuits. like heavy duty stabilizer(5kva), a 100W inverter, two way talkey thru electrical wiring, multi volt adapters and stuff...

[janitha]

Originally Posted by Rollercoaster

well that is what happens after u have completed a century of electric shocks. LOL

seriously. before i was a computer geek i was a electronic hobbiest.. i think from around class 9.

i have built some heavy duty electric circuits. like heavy duty stabilizer(5kva), a 100W inverter, two way talkey thru electrical wiring, multi volt adapters and stuff...

Congratulations from a similar person who used to get electric shocks from Pre Degree times and even designed and published a circuit for giving high voltage shocks using a single pen torch cell and got it published in the now extinct "Electronic Hobbyist" and got Rs.20 royalty 30 years back.
Pl dont misunderstand, Just being nostalgic.
BTW, is the charger an SMPS type?
The battery, if it was a tubular one could have given you a much longer back up and lasted upto 10 years, but of course you preferred this one to reduce cost.
Keep it up and let it be an inspiration to others.

[Rollercoaster]

Originally Posted by janitha

Congratulations from a similar person who used to get electric shocks from Pre Degree times and even designed and published a circuit for giving high voltage shocks using a single pen torch cell and got it published in the now extinct "Electronic Hobbyist" and got Rs.20 royalty 30 years back.
Pl dont misunderstand, Just being nostalgic.

thanks man. that is cool. i never got anything published on hard paper ever...

Originally Posted by janitha

BTW, is the charger an SMPS type?
The battery, if it was a tubular one could have given you a much longer back up and lasted upto 10 years, but of course you preferred this one to reduce cost.

NO the charger is a simple transformer(with 8 intermediate taps to select current/voltage) in series with a 10A diode. for pulse charging which is best for these local battries.

i got 20mins extra backup with this new charger. becuause it does not use a full bridge rectifier but a single diode we get stronger pulses. they are bets for charging these local made battries.

i dont know much abt battries internals or structure but 3.5 hrs avg backup is quite enought for me.

[XtraOrdinary]

aree yaar.. kya baat hai...
but i think this is too big for me to try.
i would really like to get in contact with u roller... i have sending u private message. please respong.

[Rollercoaster]

yes this mod is only for experienced people. and playing with high voltages is never easy but cool.

The results are amazing.

BTW i replaced teh local 150ah battry and put in a Exide power 180AH battry. Backup is up by 1.5 hrs.

The thing bad is that now in uttaranchal light problems are going low as the tehri Dam project has started production . So now no power faliures. i donno if i should eb happy or sad.

for the last week there has been power loss fro less then 1 min.

[Rollercoaster]

-----[posting after a long time]-----

Originally Posted by hellgate

hi
wanted some help to inc my UPS backup time.
currently i own a Powercom 1kva ups which has 2 12v 7ah batteries inside and has provision for connecting 2 external batteries (in series).my q is if i connect 2 12 65ah abtteries in series externally will the UPS work without being damaged??also will the bateries be charged correctly.
if not then wats the highest capacity battery that i shall be able to connect externally??

u need to consider-
1. charging current - you need find out if ur ups can provide sufficient charging current. cause if the internal charger is only able to produce the current req for the internal battries or a little more then large outside battries will take for ever to charge. but it does not have any -ve affect on the working of anything

2. backup time/temperature - a ups is designed to provide small backup time and as such has minimal or no ventilation. so if that is the case then refrane from attaching too big batteries. cause when running on battery power u have a chance of burn out due to over heating but this can be checked by feeling the temp of the ups by hand to see if it is getting too hot. if yes then u cant keep it running for too long otherwise no probs. my own personal expert test is to take a damp cloth and touch it on the transformer core metal for a few seconds then lift it up and check for steam. gotta be careful too.

in essence, the size of the battery has no harmful affect on a UPS except affects of temperature on prolonged use. that also due to poor ventilation design of UPSes for compactness.

65ah batteries should not be a problem. btw y dont u call/email the company support and ask then what charging current and what battery size ur ups can support.

in my mod i used a ups that is very poorly designed for ventilation so i installed a fan. u can try that too. works gr8

[Lucky_star]

Nice Post! Rollercoaster...
Good that you brought it up
Will try out this in my UPS once the battery goes down...

[hellgate]

@Rollercoaster thnx a lot for the help.