UPS for HC2 and Router with Universal Sensor

[JohnnyC 7]

I have been working on a UPS System with the HC2 and have had one built specifically for use with Fibre gateways and the HC2.

This device will supply power to the HC2, a fibre gateway and router for up to 2 hours after a power failure. We have powered a Universal Sensor from the unit and it sends out a notification when the unit switches to Battery. It sends another notification to the user when the battery hits low power and this generally tells the user that they have 20 minutes of battery life remaining before the HC2 shuts down and will no longer send notifications until the power to the house comes back on.

This photo was taken during the testing setup... More to follow when the finished product is put together.

With the new notification feature in the scenes interface (Beta), we can send more notifications as the current 1.047 version only allows one notification per device.

This was purely driven from the requirement to have notifications from alarm systems after power failure without the use of GSM modules or a monitoring service

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[Scucciari 0]

Very usefull! When you have finished, can you post more details? Thanks

[JohnnyC 7]

Of course! I should have everything done by the middle of next week

[dot.service 3]

very good project !

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[JohnnyC 7]

Its finished!!...... Almost

I'm just waiting on the connectors so you can simply remove the connector from the Universal Sensor and plug it directly into the connector coming from the PCB.. I overlooked the antenna and different size cable being the issue.

But it is ready to go and working. The target is 5-6 hours battery time when powering the HC2 and internet router. It has also been approved by the supplier of the Fibre Gateways being rolled out in New Zealand and will support this at the same time but will obviously reduce the battery life.

Notifications are configured to tell you when the mains power fails and again when the Battery hits a low level. After this second notification you can expect 20 more minutes of battery power for your HC2 and router to be able to send you notifications for other battery powered devices in your home... Like your house alarm

[ Added: 2013-03-14, 18:18 ]

And the interface of course.....

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[lolomail 0]

Really nice!!! Could you explain how you connect the universal sensor to the UPS? Thx

[JohnnyC 7]

There was an extra connector block added for the LED panel. This had a 12v, ground and a terminal for each of the LED states

AC Power On

Battery On

Battery Low

Battery Charging

Battery +/- Reversed

Battery Missing

UPS Error

Using only 1 universal sensor I chose the 2 most useful states to monitor. You could add more to the other terminals but theres not really any need to do so

[ivan.ruban 3]

Your solution is great, I am impressed. I thought also about similar UPS-solution after reading a lot of stories about problems with HC after mains power cut.

In had a simplier idea without using of universal sensor. I thought about external Smart UPS connected to Fibaro HC2. UPS must have the web interface (http) allowing to get the status of UPS battery. So LUA script quiries UPS in loop and knows when UPS is in a battery mode and when the UPS-battery is low and send notifications in both cases.

I also thought about the idea to programmatically shutdown HC when the battery is low. Have you managed to find a solution for a shutdown of HC? Or does it just die in your case as soon as UPS-battery is dead?

I believe that Fibaro HC2 should have a small 5-minutes internal battery inside so it has enought time to shutdown itself programmatically in case of power cut.

[TheCycler 1]

A UPS solution is indeed something to think about.

Burglars could cut the power on the main board or just having a planned or unplanned power off.

Isn't there a commercial UPS product compatible with the HC2?

[novos 9]

Power for HC2 it's 12V with 1-2Amp ?

[TheCycler 1]

On the transformator is marked 12volt -4 amp.

[petergebruers 1,268]

Power for HC2 it's 12V with 1-2Amp ?

For what it's worth... I've measured current at the supply side and it is very non linear (typical for SMPS). My meter says 0,11 A RMS so that would be 25 Watt. I'd say 5-10W for the supply and 15-20 Watt for the HC2. Add 25% of uncertainty to that

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Are you planning to feed the HC2 by AC or DC?

[TheCycler 1]

I think that you could find a commercial UPS that works with the HC2 on an electronic components webshop (e.g. conrad).

Basic question is: isn't it a better idea to buy an alarmsystem of SATEL that is fully integrated (right?) with the HC2 and that is designed to work on batteries, has a telephone module to call you when internet connection is down, ...

I'm not sure what way i will be going.

So more studying to do

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[Lambik 194]

Just wondering:

When ssh into my HC2 you can install debian packages. One of this packages is called NUT (Network UPS Tools). In this package there is a ups-monitor command available.

I have a Synolgy NAS which is attached to an UPS. Theoretically I could poll the Synology's attached UPS with this command and...... ?

Maybe you can even connect an UPS with usb and figure something out?

Anybody tried this (yet)?

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EDIT: Just tried on my Linux Desktop. I installed the package "nut":

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after that I polled my Synology with command:

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It returned:

battery.charge: 100

battery.charge.low: 10

battery.charge.warning: 50

battery.runtime: 3300

battery.runtime.low: 300

battery.type: PbAc

battery.voltage: 27.1

battery.voltage.nominal: 24.0

device.mfr: American Power Conversion

device.model: Smart-UPS 750

device.serial: AS1232311979

device.type: ups

driver.name: usbhid-ups

driver.parameter.pollfreq: 30

driver.parameter.pollinterval: 5

driver.parameter.port: auto

driver.version: SDS4-3-2013Q3branch-3795-131004

driver.version.data: APC HID 0.95

driver.version.internal: 0.37

ups.beeper.status: enabled

ups.delay.shutdown: 20

ups.firmware: UPS 08.3 / ID=18

ups.mfr: American Power Conversion

ups.mfr.date: 2012/08/09

ups.model: Smart-UPS 750

ups.productid: 0003

ups.serial: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

ups.status: OL

ups.timer.reboot: -1

ups.timer.shutdown: -1

ups.vendorid: 051d

Maybe this could be useful?

[TheCycler 1]

Lambik,

Your English is very good. Don't apologize!

Do I understand well that you are installing Linux packages on your HC2?

hmm... is that allowed and safe to do?

i'm new to Linux, so that really opens a lot of possibilities.

[deanrparry 19]

no he is installing on his linux computer not the hc2 he has no access

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[TheCycler 1]

Ah OK. That reassures me.

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[Lambik 194]

no he is installing on his linux computer not the hc2 he has no access

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I do have access.....

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But I don't want to mess with the Debian system. Yet...

I first want to have a full working backup of the system and (some) knowledge how things are done, before messing around.....