We recently purchased some new APC Smart-UPS batteries to replace existing APC batteries which had no support for a NMC (Network Management Card). As part of a larger project to replace our servers, we ended up going with model SMT1500RM2UC for network rack(s) and model SMT3000RM2UC for server rack(s). While I would have preferred lithium-ion batteries just for the longevity, having NMC with humidity and temperature sensors would be a significant improvement over what we currently had, which was nothing. It wasn’t until a few months later during our first extended power outage that I discovered that some of the new batteries were not charging off of the on-site generator.
Interestingly enough, this wasn’t the first time I’ve encountered an issue like this. At my parents house we had a APC battery backup for the modem, router, switch, and access points which also did not work off of the generator there. From my research, it has something to do with either having ‘dirty power’ which essentially means values are fluctuating too much or are out of specification for the battery at default state, resulting in the battery to not recharge until utility power is restored. Oddly enough, just the SMT1500RM2UC units were affected.
After some trial and error, and reading up online- I discovered that by dropping the sensitivity on the battery, it would then start recharging off of the on-site generator. Simple fix, but it took quite a bit of playing around with the low/high voltage and other settings before determining that it was the sensitivity by itself. Sure enough, once I made that change within a few seconds I heard the battery click over to act as if it were on “utility” despite recharging from the generator.
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