UPS hack

[Shadow Catcher]

Has any one hacked a UPS to provide a pure sine wave inverter? I have had my main computer plugged into a UPS for five years and have been grateful for it a number of times for surge suppression.

[boomboomtulum]

Havent used it for anything other than short back up until you can get shutdown and do not have one at home only on work Computor. Over the years it has been helpful only a few times.
Dave

[Shadow Catcher]

The idea is to remove the electronics from the case hook it up to the 12V and not pay an insane price for a pure sine wave inverter. There are a couple of examples on Youtube of hooking one up to a car battery or deep cycle battery for home use, why not in a teardrop. You do not need the recharge the gel cell circuits and with a bad battery you can find them dirt cheap.

[Kevin A]

Interesting, I happen to have one with a dead battery.

[vreihen]

Keep in mind that unless you are looking at a premium-grade UPS, it is most likely also (1) a modified sine wave, and (2) not double-conversion. If it is not double-conversion (which runs the inverter at all times), the inverter is not going to be happy running at any kind of duty cycle more than the 15 minutes or so it was intended to run your computer for during a power outage.

I have all kinds of APC desktop UPS's at work. Not one of them has a fan or cooling fins, and the latest ones come in plastic cases. Not exactly the recipe for running for hours under load.....