Thanks guys. Apart from having been interested in stepping into this space for a while, I had noticed that some of the APC UPS' were on special over here. I have ordered two of these at 25% off (2 x $173)
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Does that have a built in network card or will you be using the USB port?
From what I've read it has protection for an ethernet connection, but I assume that does not nessecarily mean you can communicate using it via that.
Yeah I meant for the communications interface. I have several APC 750va's that I have the com card in (the cards are pretty cheap on ebay) so I use the LGK driver for them. Works well. I'm looking forward though to @dJOS 's UPS that he's putting together. I don't know if you've read the this thread but this is what he is building with a couple of mods... DIY- Battery Backup Hubitat- under TEN bucks-NO soldering - #296 by rlithgow1
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yep - surge protection only. All comms are done via the USB port.
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looks different than us models, but i have not had good luck with the back ups us models.. either noisy or battery works and only fails with no warning during load ie when wine fridge kicks in.. even if it is not drawing more than the rated watts.
that is why now i only get the smt1500 models, replacement batteries myself every couple of years or when it tells me during the self test.. Those do not seem to fail without warning under load.
also at least in usa you can get the network cards for them reasoneable on ebay for around 40-50 bucks with an offer.. My telnet based driver works for these network cards to get the relatvant info. apc 9630 or 9631 work well.
ie
hopefuly the au models of the backups works better than the us ones...
if you can find an smt1500i cheap/resoneable and add your own batteries and net card i hightly recommend it. i have about 10 between 3 houses.
The problem with this for me is i need a regular outlet in my ups as almost all of my devices i use them for has a kasa/tplink wifi or zwave/zibee switch on it.. The ones for my main network on a backup att access point network.
i like the kasa as they remember state if the ups ever really shuts down with a long power outage and come back in the last state.. many switches i tried do not.. One house is empty and i need to be able to reboot stuff like the hub and wifi etc remotely if they freeze up etc.
Recently i had my main private ip wifi router freeze up .. now i have a spare i can kick in.. but since that is my default gateway I also now had to put all my network switches on a kasa/wifi switch on the backup att network as when i kick in the backup main wifi router the default gateway ip stays the same but the nic address changs and nothing works if the switches are not rebooted.. Way too fricking complicated.
I hope they perform as well. I looked at the SMT models, but at least on Amazon there aren't any available below $1K, about 5x what I paid for the back model. I'm sure there are other options in that SMT range that may become available, or I could look elshewhere, but for now I am happy to give this a go.
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Hi @mavrrick58,
I noticed the reference to EventGhost in your UPS driver. What are you using that for, or what does this cater for? I've started using EventGhost on my laptop.
Trust a storm to be rolling through while my UPS is in transit.... No issues yet, so here's hoping it stays that way....
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Let us know if it's silent during use. I probably wouldn't mind getting another UPS 
Will do.
By use are you referring to when I am running on battery, e.g. during a blackout? From what I've seen I am expecting a "hum" when running on battery and when running the regular test. At least before receiving it, that doesn't bother me too much, if nothing else it's an indicator of the fact you are operating on battery, but I guess I'll find out soon enough.
When running on mains and fully charged. When it's on battery I have bigger worries than hum 
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So this driver is basically a fork from another driver I found that was for APC devices. I think that driver used the Event Ghost functionality for some stuff with a windows pc. For the purpose of my use I just tweaked it to have commands that Node-Red could call to put information into HE. Event Ghost wasn't used at all for what I setup. Thinking back on it now I wish I remembered where i got the initial code from to give them credit.
*** I did find the Original Source which was device driver "Smart UPS apcupsd Monitor Device" originally written by Steven White and tweaked by Arn Burkhoff before i forked it for this virtual driver
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Used them before here in the States and maybe its just old ears but never heard a hum - heard the running on battery indicator really well though 
(can be silenced).
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Received the two UPS' today. Definitely silent while charging. Will plug a few things in either tonight or tomorrow and let you know if I hear anything.
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My Eaton and APC UPS’s don’t make any noise either, unless they are charging after an outage. Then there is some minor fan noise but nothing else.
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I have plugged one of the UPS' into my Study setup, including two laptops, a network switch, Sonos Speaker, 32" TV and few other bits and pieces. When running off main I think what I can hear is the same as @dJOS, a very, very faint hum of a fan. I have it sitting on my desk right next to me, but I would expect if I placed it further away I would not notice it at all unless there was dead silence in the room.
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I'd forgotten we had discussed the driver options here as well....
I installed Arn Burkoff's version and have seen the stats coming through. I still need to finish the setup with EventGhost to send the stats through periodically. The UPS I have played with is plugged into my laptop at the moment, so went this route as it is running Windows. The UPS I plan to setup in my Living Room will most likely plug into a rpi, so I'll look at your suggestion around Node RED there.
I'd also add I have noticed a plastic-like smell that I had read about in a review (I think on Amazon) after having the UPS plugged in overnight, I assume once it had warmed up. Hopefully that will clear eventually....
