Old UPS from 2001 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Lango1818
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 18, 2025, 05:37:55 am
content: Hi everybody.Recently I was given this SOLA 610-1500 UPS.The manufacturing inspection date on an internal sticker places its manufacture at 2001. I found an installation and operation manual online. The manual was dated Rev4 1998 so the unit had been around for a number of years before 2001.The AGM batteries (four of them) had a sticker with the number “010130F2” on them so maybe that stands for 2001/01/30. They may be the original batteries from new. The terminals of the batteries were corroded but the batteries had not leaked.I happen to have a 50 volt LI battery lying around (as you do) so I thought what the hell and hooked the unit up. The unit powered up when I pushed the on button, ran through some self-tests and started to produce a perfect 240 volt sine wave at the power out sockets. So I loaded the unit up until my clamp meter was reading 4.5 amps @ 240 volts (drawing 30 amps at the battery side of the circuit. Wow talk about well made, sitting around for 20 years and works.It had an ANZ bank asset sticker on it, so used in a bank somewhere?I have included some photos, I imagine in the day this unit would have cost thousands of dollars.Does anybody have any more information on this unit, price in the day, service manual or circuit diagram?I really do not have a use for this unit, but I do not like to throw a masterpiece like this out. So I guess I will put with all the other masterpieces that I have collected over the years, even if just to piss my children off when they have to dispose of my “junk” when I die.

author: John B
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 18, 2025, 09:25:35 am
content: Congrats on the score. Large businesses and institutions seem to replace the batteries in a UPS maybe once or twice max before disposing of the entire unit, even if the electronics work perfectly fine. If you know the right people, or are in the right place at the right time, you can get quite a stash of usable equipment.I have a bunch of 2200-2400W units, and even a 6000W unit, but that one requires a 32amp plug.... kind of hard to implement in a home environment.I have been using a 2001 model APC unit as well for many years now. I have replaced the batteries a couple of times. There is a consideration in that a more modern unit has lower quiescent power, so even a free older unit can become economically disadvantageous in short order.

author: Njk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2025, 08:10:41 am
content: I also have several old APC UPSes in my collection. SU420 and SU450. There is an interesting feature on the PCB, a trace of calibrated resistance. The design apparently does not use it, but it's there. What's the purpose of it?

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2025, 08:18:37 am
content: My guess is the unused trace segment marked 10m\$\Omega\$ is a test structure, to double check the quality of the PCB before planting the parts.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2025, 03:42:29 am
content: The board itself is used as a current shunt, that calibration trace is read by an automated test setup which also writes a calibration constant to an EEPROM on the board.