An APC Back-UPS and the Mac Pro

I manage my APC Back-UPS RS 1000VA directly with Energy Saver System Preference. When you connect your UPS via the supplied USB cable it will appear as a new Power Source in Energy Saver and from there you can administer the shutdown/sleep times etc.

Given the racket the APC UPSs make when they switch to battery power it's a little hard to not know you're on battery power… software monitoring or not.

To be honest, beyond electrical monitoring as a whole, I find the importance of such information as this rather useless as it isn't going to change what I'm doing. The only time my actions will change is when it is severe enough for the the UPS to go to battery for more than 1 minute and that's rather hard to ignore. Not to mention Mac OS X does additionally tell you when the UPS goes to battery.

So I shouldn't hide the UPS in a closet where it can't be seen?

Well… what exact circumstance are you concerned over? For me, there's only one… a prolonged outage. Mac OS X will take care of that when I'm not around. Beyond that the UPS is there to protect my gear against everything else so I'll be continuing on without a care in the world.

Has there ever been a blackout that you've failed to notice?

1) Assuming yu're not around to do something about it, this should be covered by Energy Saver. A Mac Pro will more or less run for around 15 minutes on a 1500VA UPS so it's not a great amount of time anyway. The way I've set mine up is as follows…

A) Shutdown the system when the UPS gets to 20% charge
B) Sleep time is set to 5 minutes which is approximately 50% of my expected run time on my 1000VA UPS and additionally the display sleep time is 1 minute (no screen saver set as this does sometimes require high processing - Flurry is a big offender)

2) This is will be covered by the UPS' surge proctection functionality. The APC RS models can take quite a slam so don't be concerned on this front. I would only be concerned if you do not have a proper ground wiring in your home/office. Even if on the off chance there is a direct strike the UPS' fuse will blow out, isolating your electrical equipment. The important thing here is good ground wiring.

3) The APC RS models do on-the-fly trim and boost of electrical voltage so if its coming out of the UPS' battery ports it's the right voltage. Unlike cheaper model your set voltage will remain perfectly constant while your UPS has mains/battery power.

The ZeroSurge line conditioner offers the best protection from a huge surge or lightning and can be used in front of the UPS. Ambient current from a nearby strike can get into even a cat5 type cable, or make your hair stand on end - not much that can be done.

I've worked through storms, brown and blackouts. Just the other day power flickered for a second while I was formatting a drive! no problem and no harm (seems to happen a lot in this community) but had to reset TV/VCR (I did have UPS on those also but took them off).

Hi Ned,

Sorry for just jumping in here at this thread. I wanted to see what you mean to this one...
I also purchased an APC Back UPS RS1500, to protect my MacPro 2.66/X1900 and the rest of my stuff.
I wasn`t sure weather I could set up the UPS close to any harddrives, so I asked at APC and the Technician told me there isn`t any problem for that.

Now the thing is, he told that the "Back UPS" isn`t reccomended for our type of Mac because of "graduated sinuswaves" (I had to translate this from German it originally said "Stufenfoermigen Sinuswelle"). Really don`t know what it means?
Anyway he reccomends to use a "Smart UPS 1000VA" or higher!
What do you or anyone else know about this?
Do I have to go ahaed and exchange the UPS?

Marc

The Smart-UPS 700 and above output a real sine wave, whereas the Back-UPS models output a stepped (approximated) sine wave.

Some loads cannot be driven by a stepped sine wave. AC motors, for example, wouldn't run smoothly. But for switch-mode power supplies, which are used in all modern computers including the Mac Pro, it doesn't really make a difference whether the sine wave is real or approximated.

A stepped sine wave will put more strain on components in the power supply, though, so a real sine wave output is always better. But this applies to all computers, not just the Mac Pro. I don't see a particular reason why you absolutely need a Smart-UPS for the Mac Pro.

I manage my APC Back-UPS RS
1000VA directly with Energy Saver System Preference.
When you connect your UPS via the supplied USB cable
it will appear as a new Power Source in Energy Saver
and from there you can administer the shutdown/sleep
times etc.

Do all APC Back-UPS do this?

I have a 900XS, and though it has a data port, and I have it connected via USB, nothing shows up in the Enegy Saver.

Are the XS models just lame?

All the Back-UPS models that have USB connections that I've used… yes. That doesn't presume that all models will work though. You might want to contact APC regarding your issue.

Also, you might just want to try unplugging it and then reconnecting it.

I have the same set up (MacPro and the APC XS900). APC has yet to resolve this issue.

Interestingly, my XS800 works fine with the MacPro.


MacPro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

The XS does the boost and trim differently, and it doesn't have an RJ45 line surge. They are sold retail by 3rd party but not from APC direct. I have both RS and XS1500 models.

PowerChute hasn't caused problems, but I thought the only time it was needed would be to handle what happens if there is a power outage and you want the system to restart, or if the outage occurs when in sleep mode.

The Windows version, especially the business edition, have more useful features than the Mac. Shame.

PowerChute 1.3.4 came out 9 months ago. If you were using an earlier version, that would sort of make sense that it was trouble. 😉

Since I already have an APC 750 ES, I figure I'll keep all my peripherals connected to that. But I understand that the 750 won't be adequate for the MacPro, correct?

So, for the MacPro alone, what's the minimum APC unit? It will have the ATI graphics card, 2 or three hard drives.

Thanks for suggestions,
Tina