[BC] UPS hell

[Craig Healy]

> A week ago Sunday one of my clients called me with a radio station off the
> air. The problem turned out to be a UPS that was stone cold dead. It was
> clearly an electronic problem not a dead battery. And while the ops
> manager was looking at it, another one right next to it died, taking
> another station off the air. Same symptoms.

I've had the same problem before.  What I did was build a relay and switch 
box.  The relay is engaged when the UPS is supplying power.  When it goes 
down, the relay goes directly to AC.  Two cords to the box, one to the UPS 
and the other directly to the wall.  An outlet on the box feeds equipment. 
This also makes it easy to change batteries in the UPS.

On testing it, the relay switches quickly enough that no computer attached 
reboots.  Tried some other equipment such as an audio processor and remote 
control unit.  No restarts on those either.

Parts for this were bought at Grainger and Home Depot.  Easy construction.

Craig Healy
Providence, RI