USB-C UPS designed by the community for Hubitat

Admiitdely, I dont know much.
When my power goes out, so do all (except for battery powered devices) of my devices.
So what I really want from a UPS is the ability to tell the the Hub to perform a clean shut down, prior to the UPS running out of power. For the UPS to just eventually run out of power ,and stop feeding power to the Hub really doesn't provide much value.

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Agreed, that is the ideal scenario IMO too.

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Nice - I've always wondered how long mine would last. :grinning:

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6 posts were split to a new topic: Cool indoor place to bike in Pittsburgh

I know some folks use a sonoff usb smart controller to help restart their hub remotely once power is restored. I also found https://a.co/d/9naHKCP which are a tuya alternative. The one i did so far Installed super easy.

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Agreed.
One decision is: how much capacity does one give up to be sure the hub is notified in time to shutdown. While it would be great to know 5minutes or so before loss of battery power, batteries don't work by time. We would have to monitor the battery voltage and catch it before the UPS chip decides the battery is depleted.

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another reason i like the apc smartups.. lead acid batteries versus lithium.. lead acid has a much more predictable and gradual discharge curve vs lithium as we know can drop precipitously very suddenly.

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Yea. This ups with two batteries will give half a day of battery. I installed @thebearmay app to shut it down automatically and set it to 5 hours of delay.

When I tested my gen 1 version i got 14.5 hours of runtime. I think needing to know battery voltage becomes a much larger issue of we get more ports and allow running other low power devices from the UPS at the same time. I would love to be able to run my main router off of it at the same time. That said not sure how many people would have devices that would run off the same 5v output.

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I'm not advocating it, but on the one hand, my TalentCell is dumb. It won't shut itself down on low voltage. But, it was $64 and can power the hub for five days. I'd still like to get it some smarts.

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I have a ZEN17 multirelay powered off the same battery, via the USB-C port. I set it up so that when the coil is powered, it's powered by utility, so that there's no current draw on battery for the coil.

what do you have it controlling.. i though about this but mine is on the garage door so not much point in putting a battery backup since cannot open or close the door anyway.

I'm trying to come up with a scheme of turning my Generac standby generator on and off remotely without blowing it up.

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I think we would have bigger problems if the power is off for that long. :wink:

Yeah, it'd be a vacation in the winter kind of thing.
I've got a boiler with hot water heat.
It's not like I can drain the drinking water system and hot water tank and call it a day.
The boiler and its distribution pipes can freeze and burst.
Antifreeze? Maybe, but I have a buffer tank with 120 gallons of water in it. It's not cheap.
Just run the standby?
Propane isn't cheap, and air cooled units aren't designed to just run, especially unattended.
Then, the generator's car-type battery gets depleted in a couple of days if it's not run to maintain charge.
So, not having solar, or the site to install it, I'd be dependent on the generator.
A modulated running of the generator.
Perhaps on a schedule with input from temperature and voltage sensors (I have yet to find a voltage z-wave or zigbee voltage sensor), just so the pipes don't freeze and the generator still starts. Damn the food (I don't have a freezer).
Bigger battery for the generator? Non-solar PowerWall?

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not taking a winter vacation.
In the warmer months, I'll just turn the generator off when I leave. :slight_smile:

I agree (kinda) on the discharge curves. However what we are talking about here is a UPS with 5V in and 5V out. No AC and it's only a little larger than the hub. A whole different animal.

Tomorrow I plan on running a test with the @dJOS UPS. We'll see how it makes out.

I have an APC ES550 and its a beast. Large clunky and heavy. My UPS from the 1st round is sitting next my hub with a 6" cable between them. It's up on a top of a book case, it cannot be seen without a stepstool, and it doesn't beep if there is a short drop in the A/C line.

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Apologies all for the radio silence on this, I have been working on things behind the scenes to improve my production capabilities. I've got a new reflow oven coming that is almost twice as powerful as my old one (so it can more accurately match solder reflow curves) and is fan forced to get more even heating of the chamber.

I also built a vacuum operated PCB Solder Stencil jig - the 200x200mm version had a few issues, so I remixed it and printed it out a few days ago.

https://www.printables.com/model/451126-vacuum-pcb-solder-stencil-jig

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Wow. OK, you're un-fired. :wink: :rofl: :partying_face:

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I spent most of today building my new reflow oven, I’m just waiting on a power switch, that’s coming tomorrow.

Before:

After (minus power switch):

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Are you repurposing the original controls for amusement value? From what I can see of the second picture that would be a no... but figured I would ask.

At first I was like "that is an awesome reflow kit" but then I realized you are doing some repurposing.
:slight_smile:

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Nope, Aside from adding a power switch to the front panel, the oven is now controlled by a Reflow Master from Unexpected Maker (and an SSR). The OEM controls are not connected at all.

I discovered that the fan duct can be blocked off with duct tape, making it a really nice fan-forced re-flow oven. With the 4 elements (1700 watt) it heats up really quickly too. My old one was only 1000 watts, if that.

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