Battery Backup & Surge Protector UPS System ~ Question (+Star Trek)

Tiffany

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I have the following backup and surge protector UPS system:

CyberPower EC850LCD Ecologic Battery Backup & Surge Protector UPS System, 850VA/510W, 12 Outlets, ECO Mode, Compact, Uninterruptible Power Supply

CyberPower  Battery Backup.png

On one side of the battery backup it says: Battery supported and surge protected outlets. I have plugged in both my laptops and desktop PC on this side.

We live in pseudo country, where we have power outages with bad storms. When we have a power outage, my pc's are shut down, rather then staying on, as the battery backup should maintain as I thought what the battery was designed for?

Thoughts? Have I set this up wrong, since my computers are getting shut down during power outages?
 

Tiffany

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@Digerati We never have ever had to worry about power loss in all of the years we've lived here and other homes too. For some reason, all of that changed in winter of 2021 and now the power grid just can't make it. A lot of people have moved here and you can tell, the population is explosive, but the power grid shouldn't be failing like this. This past summer we had some small power failures too, which was also odd. Never even thought about insurance, thanks for the tip.

I'm so glad your tree is doing well, thriving and making your house look great. My neighbor swears by her arborist and has had our tree looked at a few times over the years. We kind of share this tree, between our properties and it's important to her. So we have a pact, that if it comes down one day, we will plant another hardy tree in it's place and have a ceremony. 🌳

@Retro et. al..... Nature and animals....show them the way and they will thrive! 😇
 

Retro

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It's not our world, it's hers and she lets us borrow it. Unless we play nice with her toys, she's not going to let us play with them...
Yeah, true dat. We forget that our whole planet, heck solar system and galaxy, are but a spec in a vast universe and we'd do really well to respect it. Spaceship Earth is all we have right now, so why are we wrecking it for short term gain?

Helping the current drift of off topicness we've got going on here lol, I think this is why the whole earth as one country run by a benevolent government, preferably democratic, would be the best thing to happen to mankind and all the other creatures that live with us. Alas, this is merely a utopian dream as there's no way in hell that this is ever going to happen. Shame.
 

Tiffany

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It's not our world, it's hers and she lets us borrow it. Unless we play nice with her toys, she's not going to let us play with them...
Great way to view mother earth!
Yeah, true dat. We forget that our whole planet, heck solar system and galaxy, are but a spec in a vast universe and we'd do really well to respect it. Spaceship Earth is all we have right now, so why are we wrecking it for short term gain?

Helping the current drift of off topicness we've got going on here lol, I think this is why the whole earth as one country run by a benevolent government, preferably democratic, would be the best thing to happen to mankind and all the other creatures that live with us. Alas, this is merely a utopian dream as there's no way in hell that this is ever going to happen. Shame.
We'll keep dreaming, and hoping that better stewards will watch over earth. The potential of a one World Government....I'm still not over reading the Left Behind Series and that was over 20 years ago. ;)
It could - after WWIII - if we survive that.

Long live the United Earth.
#LongLiveUnitedEarth

Thanks for your link for ST United Earth. I have it open to read! Should feel in the gaps that I've always wondered how Star Trek's utopia of a central government came to be and how it worked. We always knew, there wasn't want for money, but the desire to learn and become better in ST. My husband and I have debated this type of civilization many times.
 

Digerati

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We always knew, there wasn't want for money, but the desire to learn and become better in ST. My husband and I have debated this type of civilization many times.
To me, a debate is pointless as everyone should be (IMO) on the same page if everyone remembers in ST, world hunger and need ended with the invention of replicator technologies and climate stabilizers. I am, however, assuming everyone had equal access to such replicator technologies, and could move (transport) to other regions if they didn't like where they currently lived.
 

Tiffany

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To me, a debate is pointless as everyone should be (IMO) on the same page if everyone remembers in ST, world hunger and need ended with the invention of replicator technologies and climate stabilizers. I am, however, assuming everyone had equal access to such replicator technologies, and could move (transport) to other regions if they didn't like where they currently lived.

IMO, STNG society was more visible and defined of the intentional design of equalization to avoid suffering, to stabilize norms in their economy, food availability, and the overall message of strive to be better. People were "ranked" by their abilities and maintained jobs and duties by their skills, with the obvious opportunity to become better. I didn't really pick up on that so much in TOST? That's where our discussions and debates come from...just how that would look into today's society?

How cool that would be to just beam somewhere else and by pass the car and plane? :)
 

Arantor

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Original series doesn't spend much effort talking about Earth and the culture back home; it's not even kept straight in season 1 that there is a Federation and Starfleet is a single entity - Kirk talks about Space Fleet, he mentions Earth and the implication that it's not part of a Federation yet, though by the end of season 1 it's a lot more solid on the concept.

There's mentions throughout TOS and TAS of 'credits' implying that there is some monetary system, but the first real mention of it is 1986's Star Trev IV, when Kirk is talking to Dr Taylor and they're out on a not-date about how 'they don't have money' in the future. It's, at best, a simplification for dramatic tension in the moment.

Even TNG is floaty about this concept. The very first episode, Crusher is looking at some fabric down on the planet, and it's one of the plot points that the fabric changes at her wish, and there is a comment about how they could put it on her account.

DS9 is distinctly blurred about this concept, though. On the one hand, there are the logistics of DS9 itself; Starfleet paying for drinks in Quark's, clearly there is some economic situation - because the Federation must by definition trade with other cultures economically, and after all money is mostly barter-exchange tokens of agreed value. In DS9 this is gold-pressed latinum, because the latinum can't be replicated, thus it has intrinsic value.

But at the same time we see Joseph Sisko's restaurant back on Earth, which doesn't apparently take payment for anything, and doesn't seem to need to be economically viable for him to do it.

Then we have what is depicted in PIC: Picard had his chateau, his vinyards, his servants, while Raffi has essentially a trailer.

The ultimate point of the 23rd-25th Century economic model within the Federation is that it is post-scarcity; there is food, clothing and housing for everyone who wants it. But beyond that, there is something very hinky going on around ancestral value (the Picard estate), as well as almost space communism - from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.

But even a post-scarcity society requires economic function; replicators require power, power requires power generation, whether that's dilithium or some other mineral. There are certainly instances of the Federation having mining outposts (Janus VI, Delta Vega in TOS), during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, DS9 was partially an ore processing facility. This is still an economic activity that has to be carried out - somoene has to mine the materials to power the reactors that make energy so plentiful. Someone has to build the replicators, someone has to maintain them.

We get a more thorough sense of this in DS9, with some of the insight into Section 31 and O'Brien's activities, and of course O'Brien himself isn't an officer - ignore TNG, it's very clear from everything in DS9 that O'Brien is enlisted, he signed up for the job. It is, therefore, a job - services rendered in exchange for... what?

It's clear that the society as depicted has some function about finding what people are good at, what they're passionate about, what they're interested in, and funnelling them toward it. This leans back towards Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - food, shelter, etc. are provided so people can work towards their self actualisation, and thrive under their own steam.

Picard talks about it in First Contact, that 'the economics of the 24th Century are somewhat different' and that people work towards bettering themselves; if you're in an environment where your basic needs are taken care of, this is entirely doable, but it's not clear how the fundamental socioeconomic inequalities that really must be present are not more of a problem - everything shown in PIC makes it clear that there is really some quite deep fault lines in the economic situation, between Chateau Picard, Rios and his ship, Seven doing her thing with the Rangers... but we're never given enough time to explore it. (And I'm not sure how to even get into the situation in DISCO's later seasons.)
 

Digerati

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Wow! Me thinks I woke a sleeping giant! Or a least a true Trekkie! Or is it Trekker? Well that's for a whole 'nuther debate.

As for Crusher and her clothe, I suppose it should be noted that Deneb IV, where Farpoint Station was located, was not a member of the Federation and therefore, may not have done away with their form of currency.

And wasn't the transporter "chief" at the time when Warf's parents came on board, O'Brian? My point is, Warf's father made a point of greeting another "enlisted" person.

Raffi chose to be isolated - but your point about the Picard family still "owning?" their Vinyards is valid.

And no doubt your point about there still being a big need for "manual labor" is valid too. Sure, so much would be automated, especially the "heavy lifting" tasks. But who would be willing to "work" to build all that automation? And why - what incentive would there be to get workers if it is not about good wages and/or benefits? IDK I remember one mention of large scale "industrial replicators". But again, who makes them?

Was the population of Earth at the time of any ST show/movie ever mentioned? With 8 billion today and over crowding a problem, it makes you wonder about the future with habitable places to live in limited supply. I note they "stabilized" the weather, they didn't control it. So it is not like they could make inhabitable places habitable - assuming habitable in the future means somewhere people would enjoy living there.
 

Tiffany

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@Arantor and @Digerati both of your posts on Star Trek here should go into the Nerdzone Hall of Fame! 🥳


Subtle lessons can be learned from the animated movie Robots too, where robots are replaced by robots, (Big Wheel character of the big robot replacement parts company gets greedy) but now no one can repair the robots and keep the city working. Point is, you still need the "physical" being for the critical thinking and repair of the "stuff" that makes the world work

....the Star Trek conundrum of who will continue to do the physical work? That work will always be there.

Robots
 

Arantor

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Wow! Me thinks I woke a sleeping giant! Or a least a true Trekkie! Or is it Trekker? Well that's for a whole 'nuther debate.

As for Crusher and her clothe, I suppose it should be noted that Deneb IV, where Farpoint Station was located, was not a member of the Federation and therefore, may not have done away with their form of currency.

And wasn't the transporter "chief" at the time when Warf's parents came on board, O'Brian? My point is, Warf's father made a point of greeting another "enlisted" person.

Raffi chose to be isolated - but your point about the Picard family still "owning?" their Vinyards is valid.

And no doubt your point about there still being a big need for "manual labor" is valid too. Sure, so much would be automated, especially the "heavy lifting" tasks. But who would be willing to "work" to build all that automation? And why - what incentive would there be to get workers if it is not about good wages and/or benefits? IDK I remember one mention of large scale "industrial replicators". But again, who makes them?

Was the population of Earth at the time of any ST show/movie ever mentioned? With 8 billion today and over crowding a problem, it makes you wonder about the future with habitable places to live in limited supply. I note they "stabilized" the weather, they didn't control it. So it is not like they could make inhabitable places habitable - assuming habitable in the future means somewhere people would enjoy living there.
Deneb IV was not part of the Federation, but it is a clear indicator that the Federation *must* trade with other entities that don’t have the same egalitarian deal going, so it must have a functioning economy of some kind to have things of value to trade, whether as goods or as some barter token currency.

Chief O’Brien’s status while on the Enterprise is very convoluted; we first see Colm Meaney as an unnamed low-level officer on the battle bridge (in a red uniform) in Encounter At Farpoint, but he later got accepted as a recurring character, Lt. O’Brien. This is not an enlisted rank, and his collar pips indicate as much. The “enlisted” comment for Worf’s parents is most likely a lack of familiarity with how the navy works in the writer’s part, especially as up to that point, O’Brien’s rank wasn’t in debate. By the time of DS9 however he is very much not an officer and even comments to that effect. He is a chief petty officer, the highest enlisted rank (assuming it parallels the US Navy upon which much of it is drawn), but it’s quite possible to explain this away as a field promotion for flagship purposes; you don’t want the first person that everyone meets to be the lowest rank on the ship, and he is experienced enough to justify not being outranked on paper by even Wesley. On DS9 though, the chain of command is less rigid because of the non Starfleet influence.

Raffi may have chosen to be isolated but she still has access to food and shelter. By any measure she is still benefitting from the socialist society going on, with the implication that no one starves and no one is left homeless, but that income inequality is still very much a thing - not everyone can own a vineyard.

Don't underestimate the desire for good “honest labour” people. I sit on my butt writing websites all day, this is of no interest to many people, just as how to build a house is of no interest to me. There will always be people who want simpler “honest” work.

The only time I remember the population of Earth directly namechecked is in First Contact, where the Borg ship goes back and assimilates everyone in 2063 Earth in that alternate timeline, and the population is asserted to be nine billion Borg,bwhich sounds like a reasonable estimate of “one human to one Borg” especially in the recovery of WWIII.

As for habitable, there isn’t much talk of terraforming but that there is a disproportionately high number of human-compatible worlds out there. TWOK establishes that full on terraforming is a Bad Idea and doesn’t come up again, but note that in the PIC prologue, they’re less worried with where they’re going to move the Romulans to and more about the logistics of picking them up in the first place. That said, there are planets with a different temperature to Earth norms; both Vulcan and Cardassia are warmer than Earth by a few degrees, and Garak doesn’t the temperature aboard DS9.
 

Digerati

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Well, I find it all fascinating because I just cannot believe that we are alone in this universe, or even the Milky Way.

I think the odds of intelligent, advance lifeforms developing on another planet are extremely slim - next to impossible even.

However, with an estimated 100+ billion planets (400+ billion stars) in the Milky Way alone, and 2 trillion! (at least) galaxies in the (this?) universe, those numbers are just too big for there not to be other advanced ET beings. So "next to" impossible, but not impossible.

I mean - eventually, someone will win the $1.2 billion Powerball. So why not other inhabited planets? It just makes no sense that we would be alone - regardless our beliefs in how we got here.
 

Arantor

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That's the basis of Fermi's paradox - with the amount of planets in the galaxy, the odds are good that we're not alone - but we haven't met them yet.

Either no-one has invented FTL travel yet, or we're so stinky to the outside that no-one wants to come see us. To be fair, I wouldn't want to come see us either.
 

Retro

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FYI ppl, since this thread has veered wildly off topic into Star Trek territory, I've renamed the thread title a little.

Please do carry on though, as I feel it's more important to keep the conversation flowing like it would in a Real Life chat than rabidly force members to "stay on topic". I've seen enough of that crap in other places.
 

Digerati

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Either no-one has invented FTL travel yet, or we're so stinky to the outside that no-one wants to come see us. To be fair, I wouldn't want to come see us either.
I don't know about "stinky".

My take is this: I don't think it safe to assume other life has heard/seen all our radio transmissions - which to me, is likely the only way they could detect us or know of our existence.

BUT - if other life does, somehow, know we are here, I just don't think the tiny Sol-3 is big enough to be of interest. I mean if they have the means to travel here, then clearly they are way more advanced. So I don't see that we can offer them any advanced knowledge - at least not about the sciences. And with Earth being so tiny, what resources, in sufficient quantity, do we have to offer or trade - or just take?

So this speck of dust called Earth would just be a passing curiosity they stumbled upon when passing by. Would we even be worth slowing down to take a gander? IDK.

Something else I have thought about. If we assume "The Big Bang" created all this at the same point in time (assuming we understand what "time" is), then it seems to me all the inhabitable planets this far out from that big bang center point in space should be about the same age. Accepting the fact that different compositions of those planets, along with different distances from their suns, along with a bunch of other variables no one, especially me, probably never conceived, a bunch of our "sister planets" should be similar in their ability to support life.

Okay - that may be a huge assumption but that's what I believe.

So, the Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old. That suggests (to me) those sister planets should be about 4.54 billion years old too. Now if we assume there is an identical twin planet out there (I know, I know - another stretch - live with it! ;)), and if we assume our twin was born first by a couple seconds (astronomically speaking), developmentally, they could be a million or two, or even just 1000 years ahead of us in terms of our technologies.

1000 years is a drop in all the oceans, but can you imagine where we humans will be in 1000 years? Assuming we don't destroy ourselves in the meantime with global warming, war, or a colliding asteroid.

A lot of assumptions, I know. But still... ...Fascinating!

It will be interesting to see what the new UFO investigation by NASA will reveal. I just think is sad they will only be looking at data already publicly available. They will not be looking at classified information. This, IMO, will put any results NASA puts out in question and only continue to fuel the tinfoil hat wearing conspiracists. :(
 

Tiffany

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Since we might have a winter storm come through Monday/Tuesday, I have prepped with one of my new UPS-AVG set up on my sofa and loveseat because they are powered. If we lose power and have to camp out in front of the fireplace, we can at least recline..... :rolleyes:

Thanks @Digerati for all of your weather prep advice!
 

Digerati

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You are quite welcome. I just went through the same prep thing here - where all the local stations and national stations reported we were about to get 8 - 12 inches of wet, heavy, power line dropping and tree branch breaking snow. We got 1 inch. Phew!

Usually they wrong the other way around - where we get way more than predicted.

Anyway, don't forget to fully charge your phones, laptops, fresh batts in flashlights, etc. too.
 

Tiffany

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Hi @Digerati!! I hope you make it through your winter storm okay and thanks for the reminder to charge all of my tech. I do have our little mini lanterns sitting out in each bathroom now and we keep the super large Coleman lantern in the kitchen which is connected to our main living room with the fireplace because it really can illuminate this area well.

Stay warm and safe!!
 

Tiffany

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@Digerati we hope you did well through the recent winter storm Kassandra. We did okay in the south here, had a lot of rain that turned into freezing rain but got lucky with the temperature staying away from freezing. We kept power too!

I know this isn't a weather conversation thread, but because of the impending winter weather we have coming through in next weeks winter storm, I thought I'd share what I've done for additional preparation in terms of battery backup. We have a three day winter weather event on it's way which includes freezing temperatures, freezing rain, sleet and snow over the three day period. Tonight, I went ahead and purchased three more UPS-AVG's. I bought this one CP1500AV:


....and I bought 2 more of CP1200AV:


Hopefully I chose the right ones this time :) I've learned through this thread from the NZ experts that you can't be too prepared for bad weather and power loss and since most of the week we will be in very cold weather, there's going to be a huge strain on our power grid to maintain power. Finger's crossed we all do well or I'll be picking up my mom and probably have another guest or two :rolleyes:
 

Digerati

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UPS-AVG's
I thought maybe the first time I saw that in one of your posts above, it was a simple typo. But since you used it again, I thought I would do some clarifying to avoid some possible confusion for others.

It is "AVR" not AVG. AVR, or automatic voltage "regulation" is actually the most important feature of a "good" "UPS with AVR". As I mentioned way back in Post #11, it is the protection from power anomalies that a "good" UPS with AVR provides. Backup power during a full power outage is only a minor bonus feature - the icing on the cake, if you will.

A good surge and spike protector (SSP) is better than nothing but we must remember, a surge and spike protector is little more than a fancy and expensive extension cord as they do absolutely nothing for abnormal low voltage events like dips (opposite of spikes) and sags (opposite of surges), or long duration sags (brownouts) - any of which can cause our electronics to suddenly stop, resulting in possible data corruption. And for "extreme" surges and spikes, a surge and spike protector simply kills power (if working properly) to our components. That's hardly good for our computer, drives, or data.

***

Here's a very real example of how having a "good" UPS with AVR can save the day, and maybe $1000s!

A couple years ago. I came home after dinner one evening to hear all my UPS (I have one on each computer and my home theater system) were beeping. Yet I could see by the lights and the correct time on the microwave oven, the power to the house was still on. That was weird. I live in Tornado Alley so I am used to them beeping during power outages, but never like this. Surely all my UPS didn't fail at once?

Checking the UPS display panel for this computer, I saw the line-in voltage was 146VAC! 😲 It's supposed to be 120VAC ± 10% or a maximum of 132VAC. 146VAC was way too much!

I quickly got out my multimeter and verified that my UPS readout was correct. Not good! I then measured the 220VAC outlet in the garage. It was showing 291.6VAC! Not good at all!

I called the power company, told them I was a technician and said if they didn't want to buy new refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers, AC compressors and HVAC blower motors for everyone in this neighborhood, they better get someone out right away!

That got their attention! Without exaggeration, within 15 minutes :) they were at my door asking to go into my back yard to check my meter. Sure enough they verified the problem was not on my end, but theirs as the voltage at my drop was 292VAC (146VAC x 2). He got on the phone and within another 15 minutes, there was another technician in a cherry picker going up to look at the transformer on the pole feeding the houses on my block.

He quickly noted the "tap" on the transformer had fried. Transformer taps allow the technician to "tap" into the output side of a transformer at different output voltage points. This allows for the same model transformers to be used in different applications.

He moved the neighborhood's supply to an adjacent functional tap for a temporary fix until they could replace the 30 year old transformer. This setting was still a little too "hot" at 258VAC (129VAC single phase). But at least that was a safe level for our home electronics. All my UPS (and I) were happy. :)

About 2 weeks later they replaced the old transformer with a brand new one and now we are sitting at 120VAC. :)

There is no doubt in my mind, had my UPSs not yelled at me that night, these excessive voltages in our home appliances would have caused significant and expensive failures - with potential catastrophic, perhaps fatal results. :(
 
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