JoLLyRoGer
Diamond Member
Mine came two days ago. A little background information first. I can't really say where I work, but I can say what I do. I am the sole communications guy for the support of a US customs branch. My job includes dealing with and maintaining all things comm related. From our computer network to HF/VHF/UHF radios, satellite communication radios, phone and internet via ATM link over a satellite, right down to the DSS system we have for entertainment.
Well as the story unfolds, the other day the boss decides to train everyone on using the back-up generator. OK fine, I'm sure it's a good idea that everyone knows how to use this thing. However in the back of my head, I'm thinking, oh sh!t. Here goes the neighborhood. Well, as you might expect, the ATM satellite runs from an UPS system, as well as the other key computer stations in the building. If it (the ATM) loses power even for a microsecond, it drops the damn link and the whole thing has to be reprogrammed. Well I'm trying to be optimistic about the situation, crossing my fingers that nothing will go wrong. Of course I've unplugged every piece of equipment that I could reach.
So, we all go out to the generator, the boss fires it up. So far so good. We walk inside and go to the power panel. There is a large rotary switch that cuts commercial power and connects the generator to the building. Well before I realize what's happening, the bosses "voulenteer" is throwing the main switch over to generator power. Bear in mind at this time, all of the individual circuit breakers are still in their "ON" postition. Now I accept some blame here for not pointing that out in time, guess I really didn't think about it until it was too late. Apparently no one else thought about it either. But for all of you electronic whizzes out there, have you ever heard of the term "Peak In-rush Current". P.I.C. is what happenes when any piece of electrical equipment initally powers up. Upon powerup the equipment for about a split second can draw up to 100 times it's normal operating load. As you might imagine, that creates one helluva power surge when you multiply that by an entire building full of equipment.
Well sure enough when I came back in to check on my equipment, that unmistakable burning sulfur smell was in the air, and the sattelite ATM link was down. (Worst of all, the boss in his infinate wisdom decided to do this at the END of the work day:|) Without the ATM link, there is NO phone or internet, it's teh backbone of our operations. Fortunately, it was just the power fluctuation of the UPS switching to battery backup that caused the link to go down. After about a half hour of re-programming, I had the ATM back on the bird. However, two of the other UPS's (one running one of three servers) took the hit so hard that they immediately became $700.00 boat anchors. Part of this was my fault, I should have unplugged the damn things in the first place. I mean hey, they're UPS's. Well that wasn't even the worst of the problem. As I was soon to discover, the building apparently could use some heavier wiring. Do you all remember the scene on Apollo 13 where Gary Senise is in the simulator trying to figure out the proper order in which to power up the shuttle without going over a certain amperage. Well this was more or less what I was having to deal with when powering up all of the equipment I had unplugged. It seemed like everytime I plugged something in....Bam, go reset the breaker. This went on for a matter of about 3 1/2 hours before finally getting it right. Well, it was drawing close to 9 p.m., and the man who created this mess had long since left. That kind of burnt my @ss, considering I was feeling about like that guy at the end of a parade who cleans up all of the horse sh!t. I didn't create this problem, but I sure as hell wasn't getting any help cleaning up the aftermath. Now I can't very well leave one of my servers without an UPS. Soooo, I bust out the tool kit and crack open the broken UPS's. Have any of you ever cracked open one of these things?? There really isn't a whole lot to it. What I found was an obvious problem, and I was hoping it would be an easy fix. Right where the AC power connects to the circuit board there is a bank of capacitaters, and varactors. On both of the UPS's, the same varactor (MU5) is blown to hell. Fortunately these UPS's are the same model, and there are muliple varactors of equal value on both boards. So I cannablize the part I need off of "UPS A" and replace the blown part on "UPS B". I'm praying that this is the only thing wrong with the board. Without schematics I can only diagnose the obvious. The whole process takes about an hour start to finish. So now the moment of truth. I'm afraid to plug this straight into the wall for fear of tripping a breaker and going through that whole mess again, so I plug it into another working UPS. Viola!!! success. Well at least I was able to fix one of them. I'll be taking a trip to radio shack to get parts for the other one (hopefully they will have what I need). Well, I installed the UPS I had repaired, and wrapped everything up about 10 p.m. (five hours after quitting time.) Talk about someone who was p!ssed at the world, by this time I felt sorry for anyone within a block of me. Two days later I'm still ranting on. Oh Well. Lesson learned. Next time I'll be double sure that every last thing gets unplugged, and every last breaker gets turned off before switching power sources. I guess I'm fortunate that I was able to recover everything at the cost of just One UPS and three power strips.
Guess everyone has days like these every once in a while, I'd love to hear your war stories, I know a few of you have some good ones.
J.R.
Well as the story unfolds, the other day the boss decides to train everyone on using the back-up generator. OK fine, I'm sure it's a good idea that everyone knows how to use this thing. However in the back of my head, I'm thinking, oh sh!t. Here goes the neighborhood. Well, as you might expect, the ATM satellite runs from an UPS system, as well as the other key computer stations in the building. If it (the ATM) loses power even for a microsecond, it drops the damn link and the whole thing has to be reprogrammed. Well I'm trying to be optimistic about the situation, crossing my fingers that nothing will go wrong. Of course I've unplugged every piece of equipment that I could reach.
So, we all go out to the generator, the boss fires it up. So far so good. We walk inside and go to the power panel. There is a large rotary switch that cuts commercial power and connects the generator to the building. Well before I realize what's happening, the bosses "voulenteer" is throwing the main switch over to generator power. Bear in mind at this time, all of the individual circuit breakers are still in their "ON" postition. Now I accept some blame here for not pointing that out in time, guess I really didn't think about it until it was too late. Apparently no one else thought about it either. But for all of you electronic whizzes out there, have you ever heard of the term "Peak In-rush Current". P.I.C. is what happenes when any piece of electrical equipment initally powers up. Upon powerup the equipment for about a split second can draw up to 100 times it's normal operating load. As you might imagine, that creates one helluva power surge when you multiply that by an entire building full of equipment.
Well sure enough when I came back in to check on my equipment, that unmistakable burning sulfur smell was in the air, and the sattelite ATM link was down. (Worst of all, the boss in his infinate wisdom decided to do this at the END of the work day:|) Without the ATM link, there is NO phone or internet, it's teh backbone of our operations. Fortunately, it was just the power fluctuation of the UPS switching to battery backup that caused the link to go down. After about a half hour of re-programming, I had the ATM back on the bird. However, two of the other UPS's (one running one of three servers) took the hit so hard that they immediately became $700.00 boat anchors. Part of this was my fault, I should have unplugged the damn things in the first place. I mean hey, they're UPS's. Well that wasn't even the worst of the problem. As I was soon to discover, the building apparently could use some heavier wiring. Do you all remember the scene on Apollo 13 where Gary Senise is in the simulator trying to figure out the proper order in which to power up the shuttle without going over a certain amperage. Well this was more or less what I was having to deal with when powering up all of the equipment I had unplugged. It seemed like everytime I plugged something in....Bam, go reset the breaker. This went on for a matter of about 3 1/2 hours before finally getting it right. Well, it was drawing close to 9 p.m., and the man who created this mess had long since left. That kind of burnt my @ss, considering I was feeling about like that guy at the end of a parade who cleans up all of the horse sh!t. I didn't create this problem, but I sure as hell wasn't getting any help cleaning up the aftermath. Now I can't very well leave one of my servers without an UPS. Soooo, I bust out the tool kit and crack open the broken UPS's. Have any of you ever cracked open one of these things?? There really isn't a whole lot to it. What I found was an obvious problem, and I was hoping it would be an easy fix. Right where the AC power connects to the circuit board there is a bank of capacitaters, and varactors. On both of the UPS's, the same varactor (MU5) is blown to hell. Fortunately these UPS's are the same model, and there are muliple varactors of equal value on both boards. So I cannablize the part I need off of "UPS A" and replace the blown part on "UPS B". I'm praying that this is the only thing wrong with the board. Without schematics I can only diagnose the obvious. The whole process takes about an hour start to finish. So now the moment of truth. I'm afraid to plug this straight into the wall for fear of tripping a breaker and going through that whole mess again, so I plug it into another working UPS. Viola!!! success. Well at least I was able to fix one of them. I'll be taking a trip to radio shack to get parts for the other one (hopefully they will have what I need). Well, I installed the UPS I had repaired, and wrapped everything up about 10 p.m. (five hours after quitting time.) Talk about someone who was p!ssed at the world, by this time I felt sorry for anyone within a block of me. Two days later I'm still ranting on. Oh Well. Lesson learned. Next time I'll be double sure that every last thing gets unplugged, and every last breaker gets turned off before switching power sources. I guess I'm fortunate that I was able to recover everything at the cost of just One UPS and three power strips.
Guess everyone has days like these every once in a while, I'd love to hear your war stories, I know a few of you have some good ones.
J.R.
