Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

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Tex_Lawrence
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Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by Tex_Lawrence »

I'm posting this question on several forums, because it is important to know before I purchase equipment.

I'm wondering whether you concern yourself with power outages in your shop and on your router?

I have a UPS on just about every piece of electronics I own, but none of those gadgets consume the power of a router while carving. There doesn't seem to be much sense in only using a UPS on the electronics and not the router. (I can only imagine dragging a router bit around without spinning it.)

What do you do?

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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by AndyPitts »

I have a ShopBot Desktop and a 1400 VA UPS powers it and the laptop.
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Tex_Lawrence
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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by Tex_Lawrence »

A typical Milwaukee 5625-20 3.5 HP router is about 15 amp. max @ 120 VAC that is 1800 VA.

A UPS is available in this power range (1500 VA to 2200 VA) for between $300 and $700 depending on brand and sales.

So it is technically possible to have a UPS hold the power to a router for those brief blips, and should hold it long enough for an orderly shutdown. Whatever that means with a CNC router!

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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by Mogal »

I just don't run the CNC on dark stormy nights :D

We rarely experience power outages in my area.
For the 10+ years I've been here, 2 maybe 3 outages.

I've just never found it to be an issue or worry.

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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by Tex_Lawrence »

Mogal wrote:We rarely experience power outages in my area.
For the 10+ years I've been here, 2 maybe 3 outages.
Great, but clearly there are others that do have power problems.

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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by Leo »

I have spent many many years working in an industrial machining environment. Power outages DO occur. CNC machine do loose power. Sometimes a cutter will break. Mostly it's a matter to reboot the machine, change the cutter and start over. I consider it an inconvenience.

At home on my CNC router, since 2007 I have never had a power outage during cutting. I don't run it during electrical storms.
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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by Tex_Lawrence »

Some logical conclusions from the comments about UPS use:
  • If you keep the computer alone running during a power outage, you can somehow recover the current location in the current toolpath.
  • A UPS to operate your complete CNC router system would be overkill, because power outages mean the power is out for everything; including dust collection.
More?

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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by Adrian »

http://forum.vectric.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=21697

I'm of the school of thought that if you have regular power outages then a UPS on the computer is a good idea regardless of whether it's running a CNC or not. Power backup for the CNC itself is overkill IMO unless you're running a business in an area where there are regular outages.

Since 2006 my CNC has gone down once from a power cut despite being used every day and it took a couple of minutes to get the job restarted in the right place. It would have been no harder or easier if the PC had still been running.

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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by Tex_Lawrence »

The reason I brought this up is because I have a power "blip" at least once a day. A "blip" is hardly long enough for the BEEP to occur on the UPS.

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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by COWBOY1296 »

I live in the sticks and am plagued by those momentary power outages. I contacted cyberpower and the tech said that their equipment would not work for me. But on the Shopbot forum some said that it would, so i took the plunge. After hooking the ups up i did a test cut on a 3-d project. I run the router on 16k when doing 3-d finishing. During the cutting i unplugged the ups. I notice a significant drop in rpms but the router continued cutting. I forget now how long the ups showed that it would continue working, perhaps 15 minutes. But i let the test cut run for 6 minutes and it handled it. i plugged it back in and finished the cut.

Now my ups was not meant to power my shopbot longer than the time it takes me to get to it and shut it down properly but mine was a good investment.

The one that i bought was
http://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-OR2200 ... detailpage

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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by Tex_Lawrence »

Finally! Confirmation! The specs say you can do that, but it's good to have someone confirm that they actually have that plan in place.

I'm sure someone with a big spindle running won't care about this, but there is a UPS that can handle the typical router.

Either way, there seems to be some consensus that the UPS should power the electronics, but not necessarily the router control or router.

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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by COWBOY1296 »

Just a little more about my machine. I run the shopbot buddy, the computer, the monitor and my 3 1/4 hp porter cable router model 75182 off of the ups. I am happy. Fyi the shopbot buddy runs off of a 110 but a 20 amp circuit. So is my model right for you? Not sure.

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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by scottp55 »

We use a Cyberpower UPS on both of our Desktops both as a line conditioner and a backup for computer and Desktop.
Lots of "blips" here(every couple of days and T-storms regularly in summer)
DC not connected and have halogen not connected, so I know when it's More than a blip, and can do a Spacebar "Pause",shut spindle down and wait for up to an hour before shutting everything down(hasn't happened yet). Usually just wait until power comes back on and hit resume after turning spindle on.
For Thunderstorms, I yank the USP power cord,spindle off, and wait till the storm passes, and plug back in and resume.
With the UPS I barely notice power blips while cutting except for the halogen blinking, and DC stuttering.
Heck of a lot better than getting a "lost connection" and having to start over again.
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Re: Uninterruptible Power (UPS)

Post by highpockets »

I had this same concern a while back. Here's my original post and how I decided to solve the issue. http://forum.vectric.com/viewtopic.php? ... 92#p154292

A while back I had an occasion to have it tested in real time and it worked perfectly. Had a hard time figuring out what exactly was happening, but then I caught on and just smiled. It saved my machine and the tool bit.
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