My Digital Life

Power went out, good test for my FIOS setup

The power went out around 8:10 am  (I will have to check my logs for the correct time). My Wireless network is and FIOS are still up and running thanks to my 3 APC BACK-UPS ES-350 bricks I have my network equipment attached to (my setup). This will be a good test of my setup and how FIOS handles power outages.

My XPS 720 attached to an APC RS 1300 LCD shutdown in an orderly fashion after it determined that it only had 5 minutes of power.

It is now 8:35AM (25 minutes), I will update this thread periodically.

Update: The power was out for a little over 1 hour, the power was restored for about 5 minutes about 40 minutes into the outage. I never lost access to the Internet or my land line both on FIOS, I did find a couple of minor issues in my setup:

• 2 of my BACK-UPS ES-350 were beeping. I need to load up the APC software on my laptop and plug into the units to shutoff all alerts. It is too bad you can't shut off the beeping directly on the unit.
• It looks like the XPS 720 is set by default to hibernate rather than shut off when instructed to shut off by the UPS. A nice feature, but during the 5 minute power restore the system did not come out of hibernate correctly. I was told by Dell tech support on a earlier call about a USB issue, that they had issues with sleep mode and USB devices which is fixed in Vista SP1. Maybe this is related (further investigation required).
• The Thecus SATA hard drive array attached to my Directv HR20-700 DVR did not turn back on after the power was restored.The DVR rebooted from the internal hard drive. This situation would not be good if I was away since my To Do list on the internal drive is empty (you can only one drive, internal or external). I am sure this is by design to protect the disk array, however I need to investigate potential solutions.

It looks like the outage affected about 73,000 homes in Northern, no word on what caused it.

The key point to this test was that I never lost FIOS, I wonder how folks did with Comcast...

 

APC Powerchute software and RS1300LCD UPS

Update 10/29/07: new event 61453 - electrical noise (bold)

After I installed my new APC RS1300LCD UPS (see post) I found out that the Powerchute Business edition monitoring software I was using is not compatible with the RS1300LCD UPS,  you have to use Powerchute Personal edition (unless you use a hack). It seems APC has decided to distinguish their workstation UPS' from their server UPS'. I can understand that the server UPS' should provide more data and configuration option, however the Business edition software should work with both segments of the market.

The feature I wanted to continue using from Powerchute Business edition was the ability to email me UPS events. Windows Vista has the ability to trigger tasks based on log events. These tasks can include an email trigger. Rather than fiddle with the Business edition hack I decided to use this route and I currently have identified 3 UPS events.

• Self Test passed - event id - 61452
• Battery backup transferred to battery due to a blackout - event id 174
• Battery backup transferred to AC utility power - event id 61455
• PowerChute not communicating with the battery backup - event id 61456 (usually happens on a system resume)
• PowerChute recommenced communicating with the battery backup - event id 61465
• Battery backup transferred to battery power due to electrical noise - event id 61453 (I have never seen this event before but I was glad I had a UPS, the event lasted 5 seconds)

The tasks are easily created using the start (right click on computer) manage Computer Management plug in. The log events can be found in Event Viewer/Windows Logs/Application. You can easily create the task by right clicking on the event or by manually creating task in the Computer Management Console under System tools/Task Scheduler/Task Scheduler Library/Event Viewer Tasks.

Since the email trigger requires an SMTP relay server, I use 1st SMTP Server which works well although I would love to run it as a service. In order to catch all the events to decide what I want to keep, I also created a catch all tasks with APC UPS Service as the event source, so I can decide if I want to track other UPS events.

The real test of my UPS setup

Yesterday I was able to test my UPS deployment in my home, we lost power for 23 minutes and never skipped a beat on the Internet.

I have the APC RS1300LCD to backup my Vista Ultimate workstation, Directv HR20 DVR with an external eSata storage array, along with other miscellaneous electronics. I use 4 APC Back-UPS ES 350 in the rest of the house:

1. Tivo
2. D-Link DFL-210 router, Intel hub, Linksys/T-Mobile wireless router (setup as an AP)
3. Linksys/T-Mobile wireless router (setup as an AP)
4. FIOS Optical Network Terminal (ONT)

My wife was using her Samsung T-409 over Hotspot@Home and never skipped a beat. I was working away on my laptop. The advantage of having a UPS attached to the Verizon FIOS ONT proved itself. Verizon only provides battery backup for telephone service, not Internet. With the UPS providing AC power to the ONT, Internet access over FIOS remained active.

The Windows Vista event log alerts I set up and discussed yesterday (link) worked like a charm. I received a power outage email at 4:22PM and a power restore email at 4:45PM.

The only minor annoyance in my setup was the beeping from the 4 Back-UPS 350s, I ended up going to each one and reconfiguring them not to beep with Powerchute Personal.

I am glad the power outage was only 23 minutes, but it would have been interesting to see how long the setup would have lasted...

The week of July 23rd in My Digital Life

Last year was a good one for Microsoft, they passed the $50 Billion mark ($51.12) in revenue and the Entertainment and Devices Division (EDD) reported a 28 percent increase in revenue to just over $6 Billion. Microsoft's mobile and embedded devices (MED) software platforms revenue, which comprise Windows Mobile, Windows CE, and Windows XP Embedded, and Windows Automotive, are not officially broken out of the EDD revenue numbers. However WindowsForDevices.com estimates the revenue for the full year was about $631, a 28% increase over last year. The big disappointment for the EDD was the $1.06 Billion charge related to the XBox 360 warranty issues.

Semsons & Co. Inc. (via pocketnow.com and MoDaCo) has released mini USB multi adapter which lets you plug in a standard 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack and a mini USB jack for power/data for $4.99. The other choice I reported on a while ago is from JAVOedge, but at $11.95 is no bargain. For now, with my Bluetooth headphones, I personally have not needed to plug in a set of headphones.

It looks like APC is dumbing down their firmware for PC and Workstation UPSs. The RS1300 UPS I just bought does not provide the level of information that my BP650S did and does not work out of the box with their Powerchute Business Edition software. If you want to use Powerchute Business Edition you need an SUA series UPS which is almost double the price. The recommendation is to use the Powerchute Personal Edition software, which give you limited capability. The feature I really like with Powerchute Business Edition is the ability to email alerts. I will have to research to see if there is some other solution that will meet my needs.

T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home is working well, the call quality is good although there have been some call disconnects which seem related to WIFI disconnections. Once the disconnection occurs the phone reverts to cell coverage. T-Mobile transfer desk called me this weekend to confirm the port of my Sunrocket number. It is scheduled for tomorrow. I just need the UMA client for Windows Mobile to make this an outstanding solution. It looks like Dock-N-Talk is not working out, the 2.4GHZ frequency sharing between WIFI and Bluetooth seems problematic. I have read that you need Bluetooth devices which can hop frequencies, I doubt the Dock-N-Talk can do this.

This week:

• I am working on a review of the Sunny solar charger.

The week of July 16th in My Digital Life

Last week I finally gave up on my old APC BP650S (6+ years), even after replacing the battery it was never able to handle the load with any kind of safety margin. It calculated 6 minutes of battery run time, but in reality it would die in less time not allowing Vista to shut down in an orderly manner. APC has a trade in program which is very good. I purchased an RS 1300VA LCD for $162 + shipping of $12. The cheapest I found it on line was $199. They also provide a shipping label to return my old unit. I think this was an excellent deal since I no longer have a use for the old unit. The unit now shows 21 minutes of run time, more than enough to shutdown my Vista desktop. I also have 2 Samsung LCD monitors, the Directv HR20 DVR, the one TeraByte external eSATA array, and other miscellaneous electronics attached to it. The one problem I have encountered so far is that the PowerChute Business Edition Basic console won't recognize it, however the agent does. The PowerChute Personal Edition application works fine. I want to use the Business Edition because it emails status when a power event occurs. I will have to chat with APC support today.

My other project this weekend was to see if I could figure out a better way to migrate my iTunes music to my T-Mobile Wing. I previously discussed a method here. The problem with my previous method was that it requires the Storage Card to be placed in a card reader and it did not create a playlist on Windows Mobile. Removing the Storage Card on the Wing is pain because of its size and the associated cover. I did find a Windows Mobile application, Softick Card Export (the Windows Mobile software echo system is great), which lets the Storage Card be recognized as a drive solving that issue. Unfortunately, iTunes Agent is not stable on Vista Ultimate with iTunes 7.3.x.

After some research I found that Windows Media Player in Vista Ultimate will play unprotected AAC content, so all I needed was a way to convert the iTunes playlist into something WMP would play. I found iTunes Export, this utility from Eric Daugherty reads the iTunes xml export files and converts the library or playlist to .m3u or .wpl format. I will write up my experience in more detail tomorrow, but for those who can't wait, the process takes five easy steps; use the iTunes export feature to create an .xml file of the playlist you want to sync, use iTunes Export to create a .wpl playlist, open the .wpl playlist in WMP, and drag the playlist over to the Storage Card sync device. Then sync your Windows Mobile device with WMP. It is that simple and the playlist is synced as well...

BTW, there is a big issue with iTunes 7.3.x, Apple broke the backup to DVD feature. This was a great feature introduced with iTunes 7.x. I think this is a major flaw, the only thought that came to mind was that if this was a Microsoft product it would be all over the news (it is all over the iTunes forums).  Why is that? For all of Apple's claim of writing superior software, I guess they are only human after all...I do respect their inovation, but they could afford to lose the "holier than thou" attitude.

It looks like the HTC Kaiser maybe the 3G Windows Mobile device T-Mobile USA will release whenever they turn up their 3G network (rumors are that the frequencies T-Mobile purchased last year in an FCC auction have not be released by the Federal Goverment). The Kaiser was released as the T-Mobile MDA Vario III in Europe last week.

This week:

• Post a summary of my Wing tweaks, I will do it..
• The updated Dock-N-Talk should show up, we will see how well it works with the Samsung T-409 and HotSpots@Home.

Resetting an APC BP650S UPS to new battery status

It seems that some APC BP650S UPS' do not reset correctly when a new battery is installed. The symptom is that the battery shows 100% charged, yet the battery status shows as discharged. The one that I own is one of them. The UPS is 6 years old and on its third battery. Changing values in the UPS' EEPROM can be very dangerous and destroy it; use this information at your own risk and you assume all liabilities. APC recommends first discharging the battery totally several times to see if the UPS resets itself.

A very informative web site (www.apcupsd.org) documenting how to interface a Linux Daemon to APC UPS' can be found here.

You will need to have a special serial cable and a basic terminal emulation application to program the EEPROM, I use Hyperterminal, with the following settings: 2400 baud/8 bits/no parity/1 stop bit/Xon/Xoff. The cable that came with my UPS did not work. To test the cable:

• If you are running APC' PowerChute applicationAPC PBE Agent service
• Bring up the terminal emulation application and connect
• Type shift a; the response should be SM

If you got the appropriate response, you have the right cable, if not you can purchase a cable from APC or build you own with information found on www.apcupsd.org.

To reset the UPS to new battery settings I was given the following sequence of commands from APC support:

• Make sure your battery is 100% charged and your battery status shows "Discharged" in your UPS battery monitoring application, I use APC's PowerChute Business Edition Basic version 7.0.5 on Windows Vista.
• If you are running APC's PowerChute application stop the APC PBE Agent service
• Bring up the terminal emulation application and connect
• Type shift a; response should be SM
• Type 1 (wait .5 seconds), type 1; response should be PROG
• Type 5
• Type + repeatedly until a value of 91 is displayed (if you pass 91 you can type - to decrement the value)
• Type shift r to terminate session; response should be BYE
• If you are running APC' PowerChute application start the APC PBE Agent service
• Your battery status should no longer show Discharged.