UPS Battery Backup for Mac Mini?

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Continuing my new setup, the existing APC UPS 750VA is working, mostly as a line filter, I think, I did move the USB cable to the Mac Mini Pro/Ventura OS, and the System Settings/Energy saver does show it, (Back-UPS ES 750 FW:841.I3 .D USB FW:I3 ), but that is as far as it goes, the settings don’t change as far as timing, it shows the battery at 100%, but can I believe it?

Energy options UPS

It seems there should be a driver, interface from APC, but all I see is an outdated old PC based Powerchute 3.1, no Mac connections there as far as I can see… Much less a current application…

Anyway, anyone with a new system have another option, solution?

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Hey wecoguy -

My solution which I shared with you a few weeks ago, was to purchase a MacBook Pro - no UPS needed :wink:

'38Packard

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Heh, I already have a laptop, a nice little 11" MacBook Air from a while back, and a similar MacBook Pro, currently awaiting a battery and RAM replacement… Wanted a desktop, with the external enclosure for the 4 SSD, HDs saved from the elder Mac Pro for clones, Time machine. Now, it just needs a bit of continued protection… Almost complete…

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OK, those markers are so faint, I barely saw them, only while on the phone, I had a chat session with AppleCare, and just now a phone call, and I do now see I can move them, there is no other indication, so since Apple doesn’t control this screen, there is no way to make them more visible… I shared my screen, and they (Apple Support) saw how faint, and that’s just how it is… Too bad APC isn’t into readability much… Thanks for looking!

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Ahhh, the timing, as I cruised the APC support & forums, Blink, off went everything, no warning, no gentle shutdown, just gone. So whatever settings there are, didn’t matter… I had the Mini in the Master, Monitor & external drives in the protected outlets… So I’m guessing whatever software that’s supposed to tel the UPS to hang on, didn’t happen…

Power was off about an hour 4,016 customers, they said, after it was restored…

My faith in APC has dropped to nil… I had moved the monitor and external drive case to the Protected outlets, they definitely did not work until I moved them off to the non-protected outlets… Mini is plugged in the Master.

OTOH, DW came home, used the Ryobi Garage door opener, its battery backup worked like it should, so at least something worked right!

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Thanks! I didn’t know that garage door openers had battery backups! We’ve got the original garage doors still in our house (1983 version) and it’s time to upgrade, so it’s on our list this year for new ones.

I’ll have to look into that. Not sure we will need it, depends on added cost, as we do have a generator that would power the garage doors in the event of a power failure, but it is a manual generator setup.

'38Packard

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Well, long story, but my BIL lost their home in the firestorms of 2017 here in Sonoma County, CA, no smoke detector warning, even though they had wired and battery detectors, only the light of their neighbors home going up woke them, all they had time to do was dress quick, grab wallet/purse, but with no power, they could barely open, lift the garage door, but his DW managed to hold it enough to get the car out, they drove through flames, ash, smoke and came to our door at about 3 AM… The lost the large home, Indian Art, rug collections, jewelry, 2 parrot, a cockateel, and various art glass, old glass, book collections…

Anyway, I tried our garage door, I can do it, but barely, DW cannot. It’s set up with double tracks because of a lowered ceiling space used for storage when we bough it in '74. The opener pulls it up on the tracks one, but manual opening is tough. I looked, didn’t like that most openers used lead/acid batteries, this one, a Ryobi uses a 5A Li-Ion battery, has other options, like a fan, bluetooth speaker, laser guide markers for paring, even a camera or compressor if wanted. Several ports for them. As weak as wifi links for opening remotely, checking on its open/close status, etc…

At the time HD was not stocking the main units, the GDO in their stores, but Direct Tools had them, so I ordered from them, installed it here, replacing an old Sears Craftsman chain opener with his belt drive model… Fun project, but much, much safer than before…

But, I see now they are discontinued!

And here is why:

So Chamberlain won the war, so can’t be sold until 2023, but I don’t see them in Direct tools, and they are marked Discontinued at the Ryobi website… My choice today would be via 1st, my local hardware chain. Friedman’s, or 2nd Lowes…

I’ve no need to replace my Ryobi GDO, pretty happy with it, and setting it up, if it failed, maybe Genie… But maybe Rybi will be back, I did buy the accessories at HD. Sorry to see their pulling it off the market…

That’s my story & I’m sticking to it! But still unhappy with my APC UPS unit…

weco

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It’s very odd. If plugged into a protected and battery backed-up outlet, and not drawing excessive current, the Mac Mini should have remained on and running. Is it possible that all the other stuff combined drew too much power from the APC unit?

As far as I am aware, the “default” action for all APC UPS units is to back up those outlets regardless of setting. I have a few old (very old) APC 1500 units, and I’ve purchased replacement batteries for them from various sources on eBay as necessary.

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The only other things plugged in the UPS unit, but not the Protected outlets are the old Mac Pro, an HP monitor, both Off, and the Soundstick speaker set and watch, iPhone charger, so no real load. Problem now is I can’t trust it to work as it should keep at least the Mini Dell monitor & OWC enclosure powered, at least until they can be shut down. As I remember, but hadn’t tested it for a long time, it worked fine with the old Mac Pro and this same monitor, so all I can think is that the new OS, Ventura isn’t rally very receptive to information over the USB cable like the Mac Pro was, running Mojave. Biggest clue to me is how washed out, nearly invisible the UPS settings are in the Energy Savings pane, And that’s why I did not see the markers until I was on the phone with AppleCare, with sharing my screen. But since it’s not Apple’s UPS, that was the end of it as far as they are concerned. I chased around the APC site, but Macs seem to be ignored there, so I’ve resigned to really only seeing the unit as a surge protector, if that even matters. So far I don’t see anything that looks to be better integrated into our Mac OS anywhere. Amazon has their own branded units, but no information on interconnecting with a computer… There are big money large, supposedly smart UPS’s, but am I going to dump $500+ into one, nope…

It’s like the UPS business has folded up today, I have UPS’s on this setup and DW’s iMac, a Monster line condoner/surge protector on the LG TV, Cable box, AppleTV 4K and a TrippLite surge protector on my Office TV, the Cable modem, Airport Extreme, andother AppleTV… So all electrics at the least have surge protection… Even DW’s Cepap machine…

Looking around, i found this UPS from TrippLite, and it uses Li-Ion battery, a positive…
https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Line-Interactive-Protection-SMART1500LCDT/dp/B000E6LJUU/?tag=mrforums-20&th=1

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Wait! How old is that APC unit? The batteries definitely die every 4-5 years. Like I said, I get new ones on eBay periodically.

Like this (random choice from top of eBay search) - 12V 9Ah F2 SLA Battery Replacement for APC BACK-UPS ES BE750G by SigmasTek 853592005003 | eBay

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It does go back a ways, but I have replaced the lead acid battery on this one, DW’s hasn’t failed… It lets me know, must be it’s internal firmware, if the battery drops…

We used to have a local electronics surplus shop nearby, they carried batteries, but they folded a few years ago… Now, amazon is handiest… Be interesting to see if there’s a li-Ion substitute, or maybe a DeWallt or Ryobi substitute.

An interesting recent discussion on MacRumors:

And yet another article from OWC:

And then:

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OK, I made a good contact with APC Support, we proved it was communicating with the mini, but in the end, from the s/n, it is an old unit from 2009, I found my Order, I replaced the battery in July 2019… So it’s time to replace it… He verified I had the right cable, and I unplugged, replugged and the UPS Options comes and goes, so that’s OK, no PowerChute for Mac OS’s, Apple has it in the OS, and we did a terminal command from here to verify what was linked up: How to verify APC UPS is communicating over USB with Mac OS X | Schneider Electric Philippines

So no current 750 model, but he pointed to an 850 that is the current model, his List $139, but as we’re chatting, I see it’s only $99 at Amazon, so most likely, free shipping, etc, the better deal… Doesn’t work, easy return with Prime! Tough to beat, actually, Ordered.

https://www.amazon.com/APC-Protector-BE850G2-Back-UPS-Uninterruptible/dp/B085JJZDFK?th=1

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Thanks for the reminder that I need to see how old my own UPS is.

Yeah, washed out nearly invisible anything pretty generally means whatever it is isn’t available.

The way retail pricing is distorted these days it is often as cheap to replace the whole thing than just the piece that needs it.

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The support fellow was doing his job, promoted his offer at List, saying it was fresher, that Amazon may have been bought in bulk, sat on the shelf a while, which is how they beat the retail pricing on some items, but the beauty of the web, I had looked up the price in the midst of the chat. I did order the 850, be here tomorrow by 10Pm.

Later last night I looked at Li-Ion 12v batteries for the UPS, found one the same dimensions, so it would fit the case, and wonder why they haven’t gotten away from lead-acid by now, maybe they can’t get the supply for all their lines… Whether the existing charge system is OK for a Li-Ion battery is not known, but I’d consider it down the line…

Tech does change…

Update: Replacement Back-UPS BE850G2 arrived today (Sun) via Amazon delivery van. Plugged it in let it charge fully overnight deal with sorting out the connections tomorrow… This one has two USB ports, sharing 2.4A, so maybe I can free up an AC slot or two…

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Well, finally got around to setting the new 850 UPS in place, moving things over, along with the new data cable to the Mini… Every Saver/UPS Options are still really faint… But now I know to look closer. It makes no sense that there so unreadable, I’ll do a grumble to Apple about it, see what comes of it… All they need to do is add a fill color, one little line in the code… There’s been other times where readability has been a pain, not sure why such things are allowed to happen…

Anyway, I’ll take another look at the old 650 UPS, maybe use it more as a surge protector, but I could replace the battery, use it for the other network modems, switch, AppleTV. but, no point of the power is off other than one more beeper to chase down…

Onward!

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I have two UPS units. One is on my main computer and one of the mesh WIFI remotes, the other on the cable modem and primary mesh router. That was all set up before I got Tesla solar panels and two Powerwalls, so now they may seem redundant. Which it is to a point, but I am happy with the setup and don’t plan to change anything. (In fact if either UPS died I would replace it.) I would be willing to shut down the computer during a prolonged power outage, but not the network. My phone and iPads would be especially important if my computer is down, and they need the network. My cell reception here stinks, but my phone works great using WIFI calling, and I really want my phone if power is out.

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