I recently experienced a corrupt database while I was out of the country for an extended period of time and was unable to automate or control anything in my home for 5 weeks. I suspect this happened due to a power outage.
That said, does anyone know of a UPS that will shutdown the hub if the power goes out and its batteries run low? And apologies if this is a noob question but I know nothing about UPS's. TIA.
You might be interested in this thread: USB-C UPS designed by the community for Hubitat
I recently purchased a small TalentCell UPS. It's bigger than I need but finding a small actual UPS is rather challenging.
I specifically want it for my hubs that are POE powered (via splitter) and after getting a 9v splitter, this works quite well and lasts for well over a day.
Ring makes a Zwave extender that has status for Mains power or Battery. You can use it switching to Battery as a trigger to shut down hub. I can't remember where my Ring device is plugged in to test it. It's named for where it was in previous house. Yes, I am getting old.
You can setup a Rule with the Ring extender switching to battery as trigger and send the http request to shut down hub as action: [http://YOUR_HUB_IP/hub/shutdown]. If you buy a UPS and determine how long it will run before running out of "juice", you could add a wait in the rule. Therefore, if Ring extender switches to battery and stays that way for however long your UPS will last, THEN send the shutdown HTTP Request. That is probably preferred since there is no way to turn the hub back on with an HTTP Request. DON'T PLUG RING EXTENDER INTO UPS!!!!
I thought Aeotec extenders would do the same. I have 2 that have a status of Mains power but if I unplug, nothing changes.
I simply use a UPS connected to my PC.
When the power goes out my PC does a shutdwon via the comms from the UPS.
Meanwhile my hub is pinging my PC every 3 minutes 24/7
If the hub doesn't get a response, PC is shutdown, then the hub initiates a shutdown.
This all works thanks to Hub Ping app!
When power is restored my PC autoboots (power mgmt settings) and hub when the UPS says it's ready and turns on the sockets.
I think this is one of the simplest ways to initiate a hub shutdown if the mains power doesn’t return for a prolonged period of time. You can use any UPS this way. Rule machine can be used to control the logic for shutting down the hub depending on the particulars of one’s power situation.
I second the Ring Zwave Range Extender to monitor for power outages. As an alternative to setting up a rule in Rule Machine to control the logic, you can use an app developed by @thebearmay called Power Outage Manager,,,,[BETA]Power Outage Manager. It is available via HPM.
I need a Google Home "Find My Range Extender" option to make it beep so I can find where it is plugged in.
EDIT: FOUND IT!!! It was in my son's room plugged into an outlet for a wall mounted TV. In my defense, the socket is 6' off the ground behind the TV wall mount. No TV; the mount is from previous owner.
Does anyone else have the Aeotec z-wave repeater? I thought it also had mains/battery indication and both have Current Status of Mains but it doesn't change on either if I unplug.
I have 3 of the Aeotec Range Extender 7 and none of them have the mains/battery indication. I unplugged one and like yours, the current state of power did not change.
Ring products are nice for monitoring for a outage. I have a Ring Keypad that can do the same as well. The I use @thebearmay Power management Smartapp to shut down the hub if needed. I have a small ups that will keep my hub up for about 12 hours so I leave my setup up for some time after a power failure.
I also experimented with using a traditional UPS with a Raspberry Pi. Simply put the Raspberry Pi connected to the UPS just like any computer would. Then i used Node-Red to query the APCUPSD dameon for battery stats. Node-Red would update a Virtual device on the Hub if the battery changes state. From that point you could have the hub determine if it needs to shut down. You can also do this with a UPS attached to a NAS if it can support Node-Red. Actually any device that connects to a UPS and can run the APCUPSD dameon can provide this data. Just plug in your hub to the same ups.
I like [almost all] Zooz products, so I'd look at ZAC38 Range Extender – ZOOZ (getzooz.com). In fact, while going to get this link I noticed they had a used one for $19.95 so I jumped on that.
To my knowledge the only way to accomplish this is to find a sensor or device that can communicate back to the hub that the mains power is lost. Then have the hub wait for some time before the battery UPS does down to shut down the hub. Using this command:
http://hubIP:8080/hub/shutdown
My Honeywell thermostats report mains / battery so I use them for my lost mains notification.
Zooz also make a range extender/mains monitor ZAC 38 on sale now, have 2 will get more.
I have a C7 hub that uses USB-C for power. It seems like I could buy the Talentcell Rechargeable and just use a USB-A to USB-C cable to power the C7 hub. That way it would be transparent to the hub if the power went out as long as it wasn't out for an extended period of time. Does that seem like it would work?
The little TalentCell I bought is LARGE from a capacity viewpoint, relative to the Hub's use.
I have not tested how long it will power the hub, but I have yet to see it drop even one of the 5 LED indicators.
The product comes with a 9v wall wart to keep it charged, but as I said above, my need is for a POE location. You can see the white USB-A to USB-C cable powering the hub in the Pic I posted above, so yes, that would work for you.
No my apc smart ups device driver ( requires.net card in ups) can monitor both power outage and battery status so yoy can shut ups down before battery is exhaused.
Curious, can it talk to the Hubitat Hub? I have an APC with a similar output, however it is not compatible with anything (simple) I can connect to my hub.
Seems to me the ideal function of such a device would be:
The above is not difficult to do but there is no "off the shelf" solution that I'm aware of.
Other way aound the hub periodically talks to the ups on a set schedule via telnet. And has a setting to increase the polling when a power outage is sensed. Requires one of the 96xx such as 9631 net cards in the ups with telnet enabled..
Ie
That is also very similar to what I was referring to with the APC UPS I have with Node-Red helping pull the data in.
The UPS is attached to any kind of computer over USB. It could be something as tiny as a raspberry pi, or NAS, or a home server with USB. Then Node red running on whatever, but most likely that same device will read the battery state from the APCUPSD service running on that box. The Node-Red integration checks like every 12 seconds. then you have a flow that validates all the values and only passes what is needed to Hubitat through Maker-API to a virtual device. The flow isn't to bad as shown here.
Here is what the virtual device looks like.
The problem in my setup though is neither of those UPS's actually protect my main hub. If I was going to protect my main hub I would probably get the APC Back-UPS 600VA because the 425 doesn't have the usb data connection. I would then also backup my Hub, Router and extra switch so it wouldn't just be for the hub at that point. Then use a Raspberry Pi to facilitate everything i mentioned above. At one point i already had a pi doing this. It is also very quick to update the hub since the APCUPSD dameon is updated every 12 or so seconds.
The downside to this though is it doesn't help restart the hub.
Ya other than a more expensive ups with a netcard my app requires no 3rd party devices or computers.
Download the Hubitat app
