I have an antenna on the roof and it is powered by about a 100ft Cat-5 cable via a Condor 24V 800mA AC/DC PoE adapter. The web console says it is a rb4xx gen4_cpe. I have the power adapter plugged into a cheaper Belkin F6B750-AVR UPS. When I unplug the AC mains to the UPS, simulating a power outage, the antenna dies and I can no longer connect to it, but the Linksys router and VoIP ATA stay on just fine. I have tried unplugging the AC/DC adapter for a couple minutes and re-plugging while still on battery power, but the antenna will not come back on. When I restore the AC mains to the UPS, the antenna comes back online, whether I unplugged/re-plugged or not. From what I have read it may be a problem with a capacitor in the rb4xx, but I would think unplugging for a couple minutes and re-plugging while on UPS battery would bring it back up, and it does not. I have ordered a 1000VA line interactive UPS in the hopes that will keep it up in a power outage, but I am not sure what to expect. I also looked into online UPSs but they are super expensive for this small task and possibly noisy. I have the UPS for the purpose of keeping the network up when power drops until the standby generator kicks on or AC mains is restored. The antenna runs fine with the generator supplying AC to the UPS.
Any input on this would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
For power backup solution for CPE I use cheapest solution 14V switching adapter in parallel with 12V; 7Ah sealed lead nonspillable battery, it can work for half day without power and cost not exceed 10-15$ . Only few minus - it can’t work with high power equipment with cable longer like 30-40meters.
My AC is USA 120V. My CPE antenna and power adapter were supplied by my ISP. The power adapter has a male/female RJ45 connector on it so the male plugs in my Linksys router’s WAN port and the female side has the Cat-5 from the antenna plugged in. They told me not to use any other power adapter and I am weary of using a battery in-line. My Cat-5 run may be near or over 40m, not sure exactly. I really have no experience with these routerboard units, but it is what I was supplied with. I need to stick to a UPS solution and not modify the hardware or cabling.
I run a couple of these on mains power with APC battery backups (350ah to 1000ah). No problems here, but I do use linear power supplies, not switching. Sounds like it may be an issue between the UPS and the switching power supply. Can you try a linear power supply for a test?
Are the other two units on the same power supply, or do they have their own?
ADD: Some cheaper UPS units use a square wave output, rather than sinusoidal. This could cause a switching power supply without a transformer to malfunction.
Linear power supplies you mean with 50Hz oh sorry 60Hz transformer actually it’s not commendatory for high level communication equipment. It’s not provide wide input voltage range, it’s sensitive to short power outage ( switching PSU can even up output voltage when input voltage have small up to half sec. power outage), most of then not stabilized and don’t have short circuit protection, all of them is sensitive to AC sin curve form.
About power lost on battery mode it is because most UPS decrease output voltage on battery mode, for example I measure output voltage on line mode it’s 235V AC, when UPS switch on battery it’s go down to 195V AC I think this is same problem and your PSU can’t provide output voltage at lower input voltage. Take multimeter and check step by step.
That is exactly my point! On a sinusoidal output, the max voltage for 120vac RMS is 158 volts peak. For square wave output for 120vac RMS is 120 volts peak. Different waveforms. Triggering of the switching unit could be severely affected also.
ADD: Sometimes it is not what is best, but what will work. I don’t want my main router within 6 feet of a lightning rod on the top of a 22 story building in the middle of the “Lightning Capital of the World”, but that is the best location, and there it sits, month after month…
I am unsure whether this power adapter is linear or switching. It says Class 2 Transformer on it, the same as my Linksys router power adapter. This UPS is supposed to have automatic voltage regulation, thus the AVR in the model name. There may indeed be something to the waveform. I will check the voltages with a multimeter, but the software interface to the PS reports the voltages to be consistent. I am also unsure of the switching time on it, but I did read a review that it was slow on this model. The line interactive UPS I have coming is supposed to have a 4ms switching time, so I hope it is a better waveform and faster than this Belkin.
Unflippingbelievable! This Belkin F6B750 UPS puts out 90VAC on battery power. That is almost certainly the problem. How can Belkin even call that a UPS, with AVR nonetheless. I will update when I get my new UPS tomorrow.
It is probably the voltmeter giving you the incorrect reading. Voltmeters are designed to read a sinusoidal waveform, so they find the peak voltage and multiply it by the sine RMS percentage which, for a square wave output, would give the wrong value by about 1/4 the total voltage less. And 90 volts is about 1/4 less than 120 volts.
The important phrase there was “on a different UPS”. The other UPS probably uses a sinusoidal output. It is more expensive and difficult to control for the manufacturer, and so the price is usually higher. But as you are now finding, the lowest price is not always the best deal.
ADD: On the other hand, don’t think the most expensive units are the best. You would be much more disappointed now if you had purchased the most expensive equipment, and it did not do what you required. I’ve been there!
The different UPS is a Belkin 1500VA tower model, also with AVR, so they do make decent products, but the 750VA F6B750-AVR is not one of them. The UPS coming today is a different brand with an LCD that reports the voltage. I will report how it works.
Well, I got the new UPS, and I really like it. The voltage output is good, 120VAC on battery, but the rb4xx still disconnects. It is definitely plugged into a battery plug. I am pretty bummed about this. I guess even a 4ms switching delay causes what sounds like the capacitor problem. Maybe I will just have to live with it for now.
OK this is weird, but I have found a solution and verified it.
Switched UPS power off.
Unplugged UPS from AC mains.
After waiting 1+ minutes, switched UPS power on while still unplugged so it was on battery.
Verified rb4xx came online.
Plugged UPS into AC mains.
Now I can unplug and replug UPS power all I want and rb4xx stays on and network stays up.
I have no idea why this works, but it does. So long as I do not switch UPS power off, the rb4xx should stay online, regardless of power outage. This is on the new UPS, a CyberPower CP1000AVRLCD, and it puts out 120VAC on battery power.
ADD:
Unfortunately, after an hour or so, I have tried unplugging the UPS and the rb4xx goes down on battery again. It comes back up after replugging the UPS power. I am at a total loss about this issue.
Thanks SurferTim. I am using a wall-wart 24V 800mA supplied by my ISP. I got the multimeter out and tested the new UPS to find it also read 90VAC on the multimeter. I suppose this is due to the waveform. I tried a third UPS, a 1500VA Belkin I had elsewhere, and it is working solid to keep the rb4xx up. It reads 103-110V on battery on my multimeter. Thanks so much everyone for the input. I am finally pleased.