[OT] Charging UPS batteries outside the UPS

[Bill McGonigle]

I ran scared from EE classes.

My neighbor has a 1500VA APC UPS of similar vintage, perhaps from a  
similar scrapheap, marked as 'dead'.  He 'jumpstarted' it with an  
automotive battery charger/conditioner, and it works fine a couple  
years later.  If I were to guess, perhaps his unit only had one of  
the 4 cells you had, for 12V, so you might need to charge each of  
your 4 12V parts separately then reassemble them.

A colleague and I once bought an APC unit very similar to yours off  
eBay, labeled 'works, no batteries'.  We found the batteries were  
made by panasonic and after a bit of tracking found them to be  
motorcycle batteries.  We ordered a complete set for ~$120 from an  
auto supply and wired them back up like the originals.  As far as I  
know, that UPS is still running a small bank of storage servers and  
hasn't caused any fires.  Total cost was ~$220, which was quite a  
deal at the time.

-Bill

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Bill McGonigle, Owner           Work: 603.448.4440
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