David, you are correct that there is a usb cable. THis cable only
provides a link between the UPS and the computer for the purposes of
communication, this cable does not carry power. The UPS has a number
of power outlets which you would plug your Mac into and other devices.
Some plugs are not active when the UPS is on battery power and some
are so it is important you know which outlets to plug your machine into.
I assume you know a UPS really is nothing more than a glorified
inverter. It takes power from one or more batteries which are
generally Lead-Acid 7 amphere-hour or greater battery packs and the
inverter provides the 120V AC current your computer requires to
operate. The usb cable sends the appropriate signals to the computer
regarding the health of the batteries, whether or not the UPS is
receiving power from the wall or has switched to battery operation ,
etc. It's up to the computer as to what it does with this information.
You can configure your Mac to do a number of things such as shutdown
when the battery reaches a certain level such as if it reaches 25
percent of it's capacity etc. I would never recommend running the
battery down below 25 percent or even below 30 percent. It's actually
best to either shut things down yourself or make sure the machine is
configured to shut itself down in sufficient time to save all data and
perform a clean shutdown.
hth
On Nov 14, 2008, at 11:53 PM, David Truong wrote:
Hi Scott,
So with your APC units, you have a cable from APC UPS to USB of your
pc and
then the UPS gets it's power from a power cable coming from a wall
outlet
PowerPoint? If that is the case, how does the battery power the pc
when the
actual ac power goes off? Does it do this through the USB port?
Thanks in
advance,
David Truong
EMail and Messenger:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Skype: blindboxer1967
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Howell
Sent: Friday, 14 November 2008 10:30 PM
To: General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS
X by
theblind
Subject: Re: UPS with the Mac
I have a ups on every machine in the house. Reason being is I'd rather
spend the little bit of money for piece of mind. They offer the
ability to shut the machine down which might just save you data loss
and I know from experience what a drag that can be. Now, I use APC and
most all APC models I'm aware of will work fine without the optional
software. Just plug them into the usb port and the Mac will quietly
recognize and work with it. you'll know it's detected as you'lll get
some other options in Energy preferences as well as if you pull the
plug on the ups, you'll get a message from the Mac about the loss of
ac power.
On Nov 13, 2008, at 7:20 PM, Dane Trethowan wrote:
Hi everyone!
I've heard of people using these devices with Mac's and it makes
sense so here's the question, will the Mac automatically detect the
UPS when its plugged in? If anyone is using one of these with your
Mac then what experience have you had with the device, did you get a
particular model because of your Mac and software compatibility
issues, assuming of course that software of some description is used
with these things.
******************************
Dane Trethowan
From Melton Victoria Australia
mailto:Dane Trethowan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
phone +61 3 9005 8589
Fax/TTY +61 3 9743 7954
mobile/sms: +614 418 773 532
MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
skype: callto:grtdane12
******************************
Scott Howell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Scott Howell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
