Did anybody get their $30 line inter - active UPS from Geeks?

GK_3GO

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2001
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436
I got mine today and it seems pretty decent. I hooked it up to my home theatre mainly because of the power conditioning properties and it seems to be doing pretty well.

I had a problem after moving in my apartment with all my video randomly showing vertical bars that were faint. Certain times the bars would be more apparent than others. I was never able to figure out what the problem was, so I figured it was dirty lines.

I figured I'd try this $30 thing and see what happens. So far my picture is clear, but the bars are random, so I can't say if it's doing it's job yet.

I can tell you that it is powering my 30" CRT, 500 Watt Receiver, two DVD Players, two VCR's, a Dish Network DVR, cassette deck, and a 10" 100 Watt sub. I wasn't going to connect the sub, but I was to lazy to disconnect it. If it was to cause I problem I would disconnect it.

I turned EVERYTHING all on including the sub and played a bass MP3 at full blast and the UPS didn't hiccup once. No overload LED, nothing. We'll see how it goes.

As a reminder this is the UPS that was posted in this forum:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=500VA&cpc=SCH&srm=0
 
Most of us got ours as per the original deal thread. Mine's working well also.

I'm nearly positive you're overloading that unit as it's rated for only 300w max draw. Careful as it can be a safety hazard.

btw, this thread will probably be locked, (for future reference, you're better off bumping the original thread ;))
 
SJetski71 said:
Most of us got ours as per the original deal thread. Mine's working well also.

I'm nearly positive you're overloading that unit as it's rated for only 300w max draw. Careful as it can be a safety hazard.

btw, this thread will probably be locked, (for future reference, you're better off bumping the original thread ;))
Yeah I tried searching for the original thread but could not find it. :)

As for overloading it, we shall see. I would assume I'm overloading it but the thing beeped only once when I fired up the TV and hasn't made a peep since.
 
some of those units have fail overs where if there is too much current they automatically stop using the battery and fail over to ac power - no filtering or anything.

As the previous poster said...You've got a 300 watt max ups with 500 VA.

My 500 VA belkin UPS starts overloading with only my p4 3.0 ghz computer and 19" CRT monitor(if I'm im doing a bunch of CPU cycles - it actually will start beeping signifiying that it's overloadeed, as soon as I stop the CPU cycles it goes back to normal) This forced me to only run my CPU tower off the UPS and have the monitor plugged into normal AC power outlet.

There is no way you are truly running all that equipment off of a 500 Watt UPS. Your reciever probably uses 100 Watts or so just being turned on. VCR 15-20 each, TV = 150-200ish. Ect Ect Ect.
 
Thats a really great deal, i got 2 2000va for free about 2 years ago or id jump on them
 
laserdemon said:
Thats a really great deal, i got 2 2000va for free about 2 years ago or id jump on them
hmmph

They've dropped the price to $19.99 as a green light special. No free shipping though it totals out to $34 shipped.

Pretty warm deal for an AVR unit imho, i've been pricechecking these and this is a low as it gets usually unless rebates are involved.
 
So these units are pretty comparable to a "brand name" UPS? Right now all I have is one of those surge protectors you get at walmart. I reaaly need to get a UPS as my town loses power frequently during the winter months.

And GK_3GO, I think I need to trade you my HTS 2500 for your UPS! All I got connected to it is my 30" tv, dvd player and vcr :p Definitely overkill compared to you.
 
oceancyc said:
So these units are pretty comparable to a "brand name" UPS? Right now all I have is one of those surge protectors you get at walmart. I reaaly need to get a UPS as my town loses power frequently during the winter months.

And GK_3GO, I think I need to trade you my HTS 2500 for your UPS! All I got connected to it is my 30" tv, dvd player and vcr :p Definitely overkill compared to you.

i would definatly recommend you jump on this, i have a 500va on my dls modem, router and switch so when the power goes out my laptop stays online. I live in a rural area and the power flashes off at least twice a month, just enough to be very annoying.
 
I've got two of them on my rack powering my servers and switches - I can even start up on battery power.

These things, however, don't seem to like my 21" monitors. Their turn on draw overloads them. I keep my monitors on line power and my towers through the UPS. I bought four of them.
 
Well I give this unit two thumbs up! It's been running great and all the garbage I was seeing on my TV is completely gone!

I had faded bars that would appear and disappear, funky power static, etc. Everything is gone and the picture is absolutely perfect!

As for the system load, it hasn't been a problem, yet. All in all I think it was worth every penny!
 
oceancyc said:
And GK_3GO, I think I need to trade you my HTS 2500 for your UPS! All I got connected to it is my 30" tv, dvd player and vcr :p Definitely overkill compared to you.
That unit is purrty looking. :)

I never buy Monster shit as it's overpriced, but that's just me.
 
I got mine running on my Windows box and is doing a fine job. I seem to have misplaced the serial to serial cable for monitoring though. I think I will order two more of them, one for the TV and another for the Linux box.

Fish :cool:

Oh yeah, the price has dropped $10 since it was posted. It is now $19.99 + shipping. Still cheaper than an APC...
 
Well I ordered 4 of them for $134. I hope they're decent. All ready got two 1000 VA APC UPS's for my comp and another one so I'll have these for other computers and whetever else I can think of :). So I take it these clean up the power coming from the outlet?
 
AssMan said:
So I take it these clean up the power coming from the outlet?
Yes, smooths out spikes and sags with the AVR feature. Hold onto the manual since you'll need it to figure out the dipswitches on the back of the unit (i pointed them all south to make it work right).
 
Worminater said:
Hm... how does this ups (showing up 29.99 s/h for me) stack up to this 550va belkin? http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=171855 This is assuming the 54321 code or somethign similar still works to even the prices out btw...
That belkin you linked doesn't have AVR, it's simply a battery backup unit which won't smooth out power fluctuation much.

Here's the cheapest Belkin unit that has the AVR feature: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProd...t_Id=&Section_Id=76&pcount=&Product_Id=171876

btw, most of us posting here got our units a few weeks back for $25 shipped, which easily made up our minds for us ;)
 
Update: The TV finally tripped the UPS last night. I plugged it into a surge protector straight into the wall.

All the noise and shit is still gone. Now that they're on sale I wish I had a reason to buy more of them.

They are GREAT units and I would recommend them to anybody!
 
The main thing you're buying with the APC unit is not the UPS it is the guarantee!
http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=22
Customer peace of mind is further enhanced by the addition of a $150,000 Lifetime Equipment Protection Policy...

Belkin's is a bit lower
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProd...t_Id=&Section_Id=76&pcount=&Product_Id=171855
Supports USB connectivity, and comes with a $50,000 Connected Equipment Warranty and a Data Recovery Warranty.
 
SJetski71 said:
Yes, smooths out spikes and sags with the AVR feature. Hold onto the manual since you'll need it to figure out the dipswitches on the back of the unit (i pointed them all south to make it work right).

What is there to configure? The UPS's I have now don't have DIP switches... not that I know of anyway.
 
kleptophobiac said:
Look again, there's a bank of DIP's near the power input plug.
I think he might own a different brand UPS(?)

BTW: got a tip from a fellow [H] forum member on a good ebay battery merchant. As a goof I was thinking of swapping my geeks UPS battery with this one (12v, 12a, 12mah) and putting the geeks battery into an APC unit i have. Need to research a tad first though and measure the battery compartment to see if it'll fit. I needed a new battery anyway and this would give me a chance to upgrade and experiment a bit. If i suddenly stop posting here, then you'll know i fried myself crispy :D
 
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kleptophobiac said:
Look again, there's a bank of DIP's near the power input plug.

The UPS's I have right now are APC's not the ones from the thread. What do the DIP switches configure?
 
Oh, sorry for the mistake then. There's a feature that automatically turns the UPS off if there is less than a certain amount of power draw. It's really annoying, so I turned it off via the DIP panel on the back. :)
 
What voltage and frequency am I supposed to set this to? What happens if it's set wrong and I try to use it?
 
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