I found an old UPS in my neighbors rubbish bin and apart from a dead battery it seems to work fine. I hacked it to use an old car battery.
Are there any additional steps I should take, or do I just plug my computer into it now and hope for the best? I'm really looking forward to not having the computer shit itself every time there is a 5 second power cut
What kind of an absolute third world shithole do you live in where you get regular 5 second power cuts?
London
I would assume that plugging your shit into it should be safe given that fault indicator isn't on, although I would definitely test what it does when you pull the plug and it switches to battery. However, if the battery is not the sealed type then it's probably not a good idea to operate it in an enclosed space because it may release dangerous fumes due to being filled with sulfuric acid. You should also check the voltage rating on your battery to make sure the UPS doesn't overcharge it, which could lead to an explosion or a fire, although it's probably the same as the rating of its standard battery (~13.6-13.9 float - this is a what a UPS does, ~14.6-14.9 - cycle). All things considered, you should probably get a UPS battery, the tiny amount of money you save by using the car battery isn't worth the long term risk.
Thanks for the advice. I'll build a hut for it in the garden to keep the gas out of my house.
It could be a sealed battery, check what it says on the label.
Disgusting. I've lived in my place for 11 years and my power has gone out maybe twice during major storms with high winds.
Just about all batteries that would fit in a UPS are sealed these days.
take a look at the picture, it doesn't exactly fit in the ups case
car batteries shouldn't vent sulfur, what they do vent in normal operation is hydrogen. could be not good. also they're made to dump hundreds of amps all at once and then be recharged, not whatever load they get from being a ups. could be not good.
>filthy stained burlap carpet
>hole melted in black plastic sheet covering the stack of soiled underpants
>jimmy rigged electrical devices
Did you ever live in a grenfell tower by chance?
Note how he's hiding his hands, this could be the return of the ogre.
wow this looks so safe, op.
you should write a tutorial and post it on a website
>London
Enjoy spending most of your salary to feed some jewish renter and scrap the street in research of old hardware, instead of just ordering descent products on 1st hand market.
>Salary
m8 I'm a benefit neet who finds old electronics in bins, i ain't worked a day in me life
>Jow Forums is afraid of lead batteries
sad!
The thread is actually the place you should be posting this.
No matter where you live, you should be using a UPS so filter your power. Voltage drops and spikes occur on all utility power grids in every country. You may never even know about it unless you meter it for a year to see the results. Even without power outages your equipment will last more than a decade longer with a UPS than without.
Kek
>Voltage drops and spikes
Both are accounted for thanks to your PC's PSU if it isn't a complete cheap piece of shit. Even TVs have AVRs now so regular voltage dips aren't an issue.
UPS is not for blackouts alone, even though modern PSUs handle brownouts well, UPS is still a must for anyone not retarded.
Nope, there's only so much a PSU can handle, even the most expensive server ones.
Enjoy. You might want to put a fan in though, since they aren't meant to work with car batteries.
Otherwise yes, you're fine, if it works, it works.
>exploding pavements
MFW they go this far instead of just admitting that they have a Muslim problem.
You need a fan to disperse the hydrogen towards the outdoors.
not a problem, its a feature!
Depending on the design of the UPS,
THOSE BATTERY CONTACTS MIGHT BE LIVE AT MAINS VOLTAGE, and _WILL_ KILL YOU IF YOU TOUCH THEM.
They might also not be. Test this by connecting a 240 V light bulb between either battery contact and the ground pin in the socket, while the UPS is also connected to the mains.
IF IT LIGHTS, THOSE CLAMPS ARE LETHAL TO TOUCH.
If it does not light, then they are at most likely not a danger to life, only a fire hazard if you drop something across them.
Nigger you better vent that battery in a case with a hose or get a battery with tube ports to hook a hose up directly.
You're going to get lead acid gas build up in your room which is acidic and will melt flesh or your lungs.
Also it's flammible.
better hope you don't get any spark gaps in that UPS.
Leave the EU already, you dumb faggots.
>Battery
>Mains
No
That battery is going to be gassing constantly because of the slow charger. Bad idea.
>Test this by connecting a 240 V light bulb between either battery contact and the ground pin in the socket, while the UPS is also connected to the mains.
And this isn't a firehazard?
pic related exists for exactly this purpose
The battery in itself is not dangerous.
It's the charger circuit in the UPS. Often, the low-end units do not have a transformer coupled battery charge circuit since that's much cheaper to build than one that is safe to touch.
This is fine as long as you can't access the battery terminals while it's plugged in. By modifying it like OP has, the battery terminals are exposed, and the safety feature is defeated.
This is not true, low-end units like this never have multi-step chargers, so the battery will just take avery long time to charge fully.
You can't use a multimeter to test it since it doesn't load the circuit. Since there's almost always filter caps from live to secondary ground, you're likely to see about half mains voltage when measuring with a multimeter, whether it's safe to touch or not. You need to use a light bulb to see if it's capable of passing current to ground, either lighting the bulb or tripping your GFCI.
>This is not true, low-end units like this never have multi-step chargers, so the battery will just take avery long time to charge fully.
It’s a 1 amp charger if he ever uses the backup it will vent gas for a long time to recharge. Faggot
No, it won't.
Lead-acids only outgas when they're being overcharged or saturation charged. This happens when you bring the battery voltage up past 13,8 V or so, and it happens because the battery isn't able to free up more electrons from the plates, so the energy you're pumping into the battery instead starts electrolyzing the water to allow current to flow. This is a function of high cell voltage, not high cell current.
This only happens if you have a dumb, old charger with no voltage regulation at all, or a proper multi-stage charger.
Cheap UPS units have neither. They have a current limited charger that's set to a voltage of 13.8 V or below, meaning that you never reach the threshold voltage where the cells breaks down. There will always be *some* outgassing due to irregularities in the battery, but it's not going to be a problem unless the battery fails.
TL;DR unless the battery breaks you're wrong.