Re: Comcast telephone service question

Thumper wrote:
On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:28:31 -0500, Jer <gdunn@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thumper wrote:
On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:39:11 -0500, Jer <gdunn@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

phil-news-nospam@xxxxxxxx wrote:
On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:38:22 -0700 Kevin <webman6@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

| If you are talking about internet phone service, like Vonage for instance, | and any portion of the hardware required to use it is dependant on | electrical power, then your answer is no. Your basic phone, circa 1980, | does not require electrical power to operate. It is not plugged into an | electrical outlet. Any phone that has a requirement for electrical power is | vulnerable to a power outage.

OTOH, a lot of people now have cordless phones at home that completely go
down when the power goes out. That is because the base station is mains
powered. That would be a good candidate for plugging in a UPS of you like
to have those cordless phones, unless it is one with a built in battery in
the base station (I haven't seen anything like that, but I can't rule out
one or more existing).
My home phone system is digital wireless, and yes, I have the base station and both PC's on a UPS. Been there done that.

Be sure to test your UPS regularly by taking power off it. I work for
AT&T and many even some expensive UPS's fail when power is lost if not
properly maintained. The inexpensive ones are often only good for a
few years.
Thumper

This is a 3750Kva unit, about six years old, and it has an automagic diag feature that discovered a weak battery last year. After replacing that one battery, it's been quiet since. I also think I've had the sensitivity set a bit too low, as it would trip off the mains if the line freq shifts rapidly, and back to mains after stability returns during a five minute soak. This happens rather frequently in this hood, likely a result of the local grid being re-balanced to compensate for daily load shifts. After reducing the sensitivity, it's local alarm panel has been a lot more quiet, and presumably extending the lives of the batteries.


As long as you actually test it by pulling off the power you will be
ok. Some units haven't been switched in years and simply fail to do
so.
Thumper


When ever the unit runs it's diags, I can hear a click from inside both when it switches off the mains and again when it switches back. I honestly don't know if this is a relay-sourced click, and considering the switching times, a realy may be a bot too slow, so I suspect it's something else (not that it bothers me). Unplugging the mains source cable would also work, but it also disconnects the power ground from the UPS equipment, which is shared with the all components on the UPS. Seems a bit risky but maybe it's not.

--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Freezer Current Safety Indicator?
    ... that you could connect to a battery and a buzzer... ... Parallel Voltage measurement. ... The mains failure might be a circuit beaker or mains power as you suggested. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Advice in mini-ITX
    ... For power I use a picoPSU at 60W. ... input I can build a battery backed PSU rather than a UPS. ... without conversion back to mains. ... chargers can switch back to bulk charge from trickle mode without being ...
    (uk.comp.os.linux)
  • Re: Inspiron 6000 LCD - Backlight issue?
    ... rebooting on battery only with mains disconnected. ... if it involves different power wires going into the inverter and the ... brightness is that the laptop senses the power source and allows ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Re: UPS Recommendations?
    ... What you describe is correct, however, the output of the power supply that is charging the batteries is also the input to the inverter (as long as the is AC mains power). ... Effectively, the battery and the DC power supply derived from the AC mains are in parallel, so that the inverter will run from either. ... Because there is no net discharge from the battery, the battery life is the same as it would be in an equivalent "standby" UPS. ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)
  • Re: Sensing switch closure with & without power applied?
    ... >closes, whether mains power is applied to the switch, or power has failed. ... I think I may have come up with a circuit to meet your requirements...:). ... if the float switch is closed - the 'sense' line is low; if the float switch is open - the ...
    (sci.electronics.design)