Kitz Forum

Broadband Related => FTTC and FTTP Issues => Topic started by: Chrysalis on March 21, 2017, 11:00:05 AM

Title: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on March 21, 2017, 11:00:05 AM
[Moderator note: This new thread has been created by splitting off the posts from the MDWS "support" thread.]

my line just lost its 200 day uptime and may go down again major power cut east midlands 45k properties
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on March 21, 2017, 11:13:06 AM
is up full 80 sync low snrm if errors are ok ill leave it but we had tons of brownouts lately as well so may get a ups or two
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on March 21, 2017, 02:51:55 PM
for wombat and anyone else who takes an interest in quiet line data, its interesting comparing my current (when I synced before others) to my last quiet line data, quite a big difference.  It looks like at just under 3db snrm I am heading for 400-500 ES a day.  It may stay under 400 but I think it wont. I was in the 250-300 range as an average with my 4.9db snrm.

Also my power output on both US and DS is lower which is telling on my lower US attainable, but my US power varies with every sync event anyway, seems to be calculated live depending on the noise situation at the time of sync.  However I think usually my DS power is stable.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: burakkucat on March 21, 2017, 06:52:07 PM
From the BBC --

Leicester Substation Fire Leaves Thousands Without Power (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-39341030).
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on March 21, 2017, 07:30:42 PM
the guy on the phone was talking to me pretty much live.

I had my power back in 10 mins, and he said in that time 22k properties had it restored.  By the end of the phone call it was down to 15k still affected. Given how quick they were recovering it I would be surprised if its still in the 1000s right now.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on March 21, 2017, 07:58:59 PM
looking at google maps it was not far from me, but I never did see smoke when outside (I went out to check if power cut was on entire street which it was).
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: gazaai on March 21, 2017, 08:25:26 PM
Seems to be the highest you've synced at, and a good speed for being on an ECI cabinet, though only due to early connection at the time of power coming back on. If I were you id defiantly leave it synced unless the errors got too high like you said. Hopefully you'll be fine for another year at this speed :fingers:
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: NewtronStar on March 21, 2017, 08:46:10 PM
A nice SNRM of 3dB the errored seconds have increased 2X during evening time and when T/Storms become active again in a month or so you will need to keep a close eye on your circuit when running at 2.8dB with fastpath.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on March 22, 2017, 08:43:36 AM
still on my exclusive ECI 3db trial.  The error rate for majority of day is well within stability demands, but when it does spike it is spiking high in terms of CRC error count, ES I think on a full day will be about 3x as what I had on 4.8db SNRM, but should still be well within DLM limits.

Still undecided whether to play safe or not.

--edit--

with 25 hours uptime modem reports 499 ES.  So lower than my new estimate, after about 3am the errors settled down, my rough period for line (probably due to upstairs neighbour washing machine running all night) is from about 6pm to about 3am, but still errors will increase during afternoon.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: burakkucat on March 22, 2017, 09:35:55 PM
So long as the data is being uploaded to MDWS then there will be something interesting for WWWombat to analyse, in due course.  :)
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: WWWombat on March 24, 2017, 01:02:14 AM
It isn't looking that much worse than the old behaviour - especially if you look back more than a couple of days. But it looks like upstream ES have improved.

The QLN shows the exact form of the crosstalk, doesn't it? No difference in the ADSL bands, but lots as soon as you get above that...
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on March 24, 2017, 07:35:57 AM
Wombat I think I have an explanation for the US ES count.

It is my belief that whenever US is synced, a specific power mask is negotiated with the aim of minimising crosstalk on other lines, I observe that on every sync event the attainable US varies as the output power varies.  In this instance I have a lower US SNR giving me lower attainable but I seem to have won the lottery in terms of crosstalk related errored seconds.

Also I agree the DS ES count isnt too bad, in the early part of the day before 2pm it grows at the same rate as before but during my noisier period its a lot more spikey which is the bulk of the extra ES.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: WWWombat on March 24, 2017, 11:11:07 AM
I see what you mean about the ES count, around 6-7pm especially. Very noticeable. Have you figured whether it is caused internally or externally? Or have any correlation to, say, street lights or heating?

For upstream - yes, that will be the UPBO mechanism in action. Right now, you have reduced upstream power (which I guess I expect) but you also have reduced downstream power (which I don't).
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: ejs on March 24, 2017, 11:51:02 AM
I think the UPBO mechanism sets the upstream power based solely on the length of your line, which doesn't change.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on March 24, 2017, 01:28:45 PM
I think the UPBO mechanism sets the upstream power based solely on the length of your line, which doesn't change.

nope, my US power changes on every sync event, its never the same.  Hence my theory it is something dynamically adjusted based on whats happening on other lines.  Of course the operational range is probably governed by the attenuation, the nope is in regards to it never changing.  The difference between the lowest power I have seen and highest is about 1mbit attainable of US sync.

My DS power doesnt usually change and I suspect the reduced power was because the QLN was low.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on March 24, 2017, 01:33:07 PM
I see what you mean about the ES count, around 6-7pm especially. Very noticeable. Have you figured whether it is caused internally or externally? Or have any correlation to, say, street lights or heating?

For upstream - yes, that will be the UPBO mechanism in action. Right now, you have reduced upstream power (which I guess I expect) but you also have reduced downstream power (which I don't).

Not internally of my own equipment, I suspect its related to my neighbour upstairs, they start using their washing machine and other stuff after 6pm.  From what I can see based on tbb graphing data, smokeping and real usage, the errors are not large enough to affect my service so I have left alone at least for now, but I havent done any serious testing tho.

My US ES count is very similar to when I first had this pair live, its averaging barely 1-2 ES a day.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: ejs on March 24, 2017, 01:36:51 PM
nope, my US power changes on every sync event, its never the same.  Hence my theory it is something dynamically adjusted based on whats happening on other lines.  Of course the operational range is probably governed by the attenuation, the nope is in regards to it never changing.  The difference between the lowest power I have seen and highest is about 1mbit attainable of US sync.

Yes, so I think it will be something other than UPBO that'll be responsible for it. Unless perhaps the measurements of the line length produce slightly different results each time. Unfortunately most modems do not report the various UPBO related stats.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on April 19, 2017, 10:51:37 AM
another power cut, they seem to have serious issues bear in mind i am in a city, also loads of brownouts since last powercut also


looks like it damaged my pfsense unit i cannot get it to boot/post
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on April 19, 2017, 11:46:18 AM
had to pull battery it got stuck in hibernate mode, not back online yet as its dissasembelled with ssd and intel nic removed and battery not back in also

info here https://communities.intel.com/thread/60009
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: NewtronStar on April 19, 2017, 05:46:04 PM
Your crosstalker is now wondering where has all that extra sync they had before the power outage  gone to ? Mr Chry hang your head in shame for robbing them of 6Mbps  ;D
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on April 19, 2017, 06:27:41 PM
this power outage 48k properties suspiciously close to property count of previous one, they refused to confirm over phone if the same infrastructure was to blame
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 08, 2017, 09:23:31 AM
and again 3rd power cut in a month

ordering a UPS cause im not happy with the state leaves my pc in and possible damage to pfsense unit.

for the curious i am at the exact same sync speed so i still believe the line is banded now.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 08, 2017, 01:35:04 PM
lots of angry people on twitter the city is back to Victorian times with power stability
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: tickmike on May 08, 2017, 02:26:29 PM
WESTERN POWER DISTRIBUTION

Time of Incident   08-05-2017 10:31
 Areas  Affected     LE2 0   
Number properties without power = 7    <<<<<<<<< ?
Estimated Restoration Time  08-05-2017 17:00
   
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: burakkucat on May 08, 2017, 06:38:23 PM
and again 3rd power cut in a month

Ouch.  :ouch:

Quote
ordering a UPS cause im not happy with the state leaves my pc in and possible damage to pfsense unit.

Assuming you don't want to maintain a local supply to keep all the equipment running then a fairly simple UPS, that will signal an orderly shut-down, would not be too expensive.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 08, 2017, 08:54:26 PM
WESTERN POWER DISTRIBUTION

Time of Incident08-05-2017 10:31
 Areas  Affected  LE2 0
Number properties without power = 7 <<<<<<<<< ?
Estimated Restoration Time  08-05-2017 17:00
7 heh, was told 48k again on phone and it was off as far as i could see based on alarms and dead traffic lights :) also people on twitter from other side of city have confirmed, its madness
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: NewtronStar on May 08, 2017, 10:53:58 PM
Not for me the US power can swing from 4.7dB to -0.3dB though still think the Billion 8800NL version 1 has a firmware issue when displaying the correct Upstream power
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: burakkucat on May 08, 2017, 11:45:57 PM
Not for me the US power can swing from 4.7dB to -0.3dB though still think the Billion 8800NL version 1 has a firmware issue when displaying the correct Upstream power

 :hmm:  b*cat is all kerfuddled. Me thinks N*Star has misunderstood . . . This thread is about the failure of the mains electricity supply in the city of Leicester.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 09, 2017, 11:34:13 AM
i have ordered this baby and a plug so i can connect monitor, pfsense unit etc not just pc

APC Back-UPS BX - Uninterruptible Power Supply 1400VA, - BX1400UI - AVR, 6 Outlets IEC-C13, USB, Shutdown Software https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00T7BYPDG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_dQzezb38GA4AP
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Ronski on May 09, 2017, 01:24:35 PM
I have the Smart UPS 1500 version for my server and main network equipment, great bit of kit.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 11, 2017, 03:42:48 PM
Redid the order, noticed the estimated availability is an earlier date, so new order now has a delivery day 3 days nearer.

To power the pfsense unit and monitor, I have also ordered this since the UPS only has kettle power outputs.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005FWRHNQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The billion 8800nl is in my living room so wont be UPS, but  am not so bothered about that.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 11, 2017, 03:45:10 PM
I have the Smart UPS 1500 version for my server and main network equipment, great bit of kit.

Looks very nice, but above my budget :)

I have tightened my wallet now as I been spending too much on electricals in 2016, partially funding this UPS by selling that Z83 mini pc I brought late last year and some unwrapped console games I accidently own duplicates off.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Ronski on May 11, 2017, 07:17:48 PM
They seem to have shot up in price, I paid £230 for mine back in 2011, although I've a vague idea it may have been a used or display unit.

You can buy the kettle plugs, or IEC plugs as they are officially know, I just cut the 3 pin plug off a four way socket, fitted a IEC plug and screwed it to my wall for some of the gear - transformers etc. Also changed the plug on the server to suit. You can also get angled ones for tight spaces (http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xiec+angled+plug.TRS0&_nkw=iec+angled+plug&_sacat=0), done this for my printer so it goes tighter to the wall. I get mine from RS components as we have an account at work, but Ebay's just as good.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350805002806
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 13, 2017, 11:58:18 AM
UPS is here, I cancelled the 2nd amazon order as I found them taking the pee having it in stock and a 5 day estimated delivery (was originally 8 even worse), got instead from ebuyer with saturday delivery for same price.

The included kettle leads do feel cheap as one reviewer said so have ordered another, no usb cable included, but I can borrow the printer usb cable, and have ordered a second.

I probably wont be connecting this tho until the C13 to socket adaptor arrives which is when I will be able to also hook up pfsense etc.

Find myself sort of itching to make my billion 8800nl also power protected, but putting it in this room is out of the question, likewise I am not prepared to run a long power extension cable to it either, exploring options to see if I can power it from my old laptop, laptops of course having built in UPs with their batteries.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: underzone on May 13, 2017, 06:36:41 PM
I have an APC 750W UPS to keep my router, pi-hole and a 12v PSU powered. The 12v is then fed from the UPS location over a spare cat5e ethernet cable to power the VDSL modem in a location 25m away (I twisted 4 wires for the +ve and 4 wires for the -ve).

The UPS is in the most central location but still feeds power to my modem in a remote location. You may be able to sort something similar, you could utilise a spare cat5e or an aerial cable or perhaps even run a dedicated length of bell wire maybe.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Ronski on May 14, 2017, 08:50:58 AM
I wouldn't recommend using bell wire,  I highly suspect you'll get a nice voltage drop over that,  especially at 25 meters and even worse for  higher current devices like AC wifi routers.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: underzone on May 14, 2017, 10:53:04 AM
If the resistance is negligible then the voltage drop will be negligible. I couldn't measure a difference over my 25m run. I have put a large ferrite bead before the DC goes into my modem though, as I was more concerned about RF pickup over the cable run.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Ronski on May 14, 2017, 11:34:03 AM
I'm no expert, but you're using cat5e with 4 cores for +VE and 4 cores for -VE, that 4 times the thickness of bell wire, voltage drop is more to do with the current drawn than the resistance. Try drawing 10 amps off the end of that cable and see what happens  ;)

PS. Did you measure you're voltage under load?

I often get this at work, a fitter measures the voltage on a cable with his volt meter and gets 12v or 24v, connects the light and can't understand why it goes out. Reason is the wire is corroded somewhere, effectively making it thinner at that point, and once you start drawing current it can't cope and the voltage drops significantly.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 14, 2017, 12:53:50 PM
I found a second usb cable that fits that was used for my external hdd caddy, impatience got the better of me and now my PC is hooked up via the UPS, done a fair bit of tidying up as well as was a mess of power cables even covered in some dust as well, right now its just the PC fed by the UPS and I also temporarily have some things disconnected since I have plugged in the UPS direct to the wall socket (as said by the manual), until I get my kettle to power socket convertor there will be nothing else fed by the UPS, but I see its very handy to see the amount of watts my pc is using.

Circa 60 watts when idle.  Circa 100 watts low GPU load, circa 130-160 watts in a game.  Seems my 600 watt PSU is a tad overkill. :p

I ran a self test, and when it switched to battery wow the UPS is noisy, a pretty loud buzzing noise, didnt sound healthy, but maybe thats normal?
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Ronski on May 14, 2017, 02:37:58 PM
Just tested mine by pulling the plug out the wall, there's a bit of a noise as it kicks in and the fans spin up, but other than I wouldn't say it was noisy.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 14, 2017, 02:57:29 PM
Found a few threads on the net with people reporting buzzes, and the people replying try to make the person think its a humming noise. O_o

here is recording funny enough phone mic struggled to pick it up

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7P3Ne0hzKcGbXozN0szQnAxeVk/view?usp=drivesdk

Is silent on AC (thankfully) but thats the noise when on battery.  Bear in mind you have a premium model and I dont :)

When I checked the specs of your unit its roughly 3x the battery capacity, 4x charge speed. and better warranty. :)

I would say the volume is comparable to hair clippers.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 14, 2017, 03:31:58 PM
Done some digging it might be related to this "Simulated Sine Wave"

Apparently that can cause buzzing in the equipment its powering.  However I am 99% sure in my case the buzzing is coming from the UPS not my PC PSU.

More worrying is some people have said emulated stepped sine wave's can damage equipment including monitors, so not sure now about the safety of using my monitor on it.  Need to do some more digging.

See waveform type near the top.

http://www.apc.com/shop/uk/en/products/APC-Back-UPS-1400VA-230V-AVR-IEC-Sockets/P-BX1400UI;jsessionid=yi+2qVBX5uHil1WPRbGJf0iq.prod_store02-2

The smart ups models use true sine wave.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 14, 2017, 05:26:58 PM
Seems I should be ok with my monitor however I learnt that one should not use a surge protector in a UPS (which I was going to do), I was going to plug in my existing 8 socket surge protector extension cable into the single socket adaptor.  Now I have ordered a couple of plain 4 socket adaptors that are safe to use in a UPS.

Didnt really find much more useful info on the buzzing.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Ronski on May 14, 2017, 05:29:35 PM
That buzzing does sound just like hair clippers. I do recollect reading something about the wave form and it could be problematic for some power supplies.

I have one of these at work, although it's gone up by £50 since December 2015

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/780w-cyberpower-lcd-tower-ups-pfc-sinewave-series-1300va

No noise when on batteries and I'm sure it's pure sign wave. IIRC the Cyberpower stuff gets good reviews.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 14, 2017, 05:40:05 PM
I think my PSU is fine, PC stays up and running, and no noise from the PSU when its on battery.  I think there is some confusion on this because most people talk as if there is only 2 types of sinewaves but seems there is 3.

There is squared sinewave which is large steps and causes the issues with those PSU's.  There is pure sinewave which is like a perfect frequency output.  Then there is stepped sinewaves which is stepped like square but much smaller steps emulating a pure sinewave.  The stepped and squared are treated the same by some people.  I do have a active PFC PSU and it works fine.

If this UPS does actually turn out to be a problem then I will probably just return it, the pure sinewave is not a reasonable cost to me.

Hmm according to my sound meter on my phone it is actually below 45db the rated noise level.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 14, 2017, 06:05:15 PM
By the way ronski do you use the powerchute software? I am considering monitoring via pfsense instead since that has a UPS package that is compatible with these units, as then I can check it from any device on my lan.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Ronski on May 14, 2017, 06:40:49 PM
Yes I do, I have it set up to email my phone, also to shut the server down after X minutes. I've also configured the outlets so that only half are turned off when the server shuts down, so I can keep some stuff powered for much longer.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 14, 2017, 07:14:03 PM
The personal edition doesnt have some of those features :) (backup models) But I can setup the email notification using pfsense.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 15, 2017, 12:29:48 PM
Ronski if I did the research prior to purchasing I perhaps would have gone with this, a cyberpower but lower wattage than the one you posted.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CyberPower-CP900EPFCLCD-Backup-Sinewave-Sockets/dp/B004SO5FWM/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1494846644&sr=1-1&keywords=cyberpower

It seems APC is the intel of the UPS market, where they charge a premium for their brand, and cyberpower is the AMD which is better value. :)

The APC unit I has thankfully does have AVR (some of their consumer devices do not), but I still have the limited consumer version of their software, simulated sinewave and had to purchase extra components so I can use it for my purpose.

The cyberpower units have much better software for consumers, cheaper pure sinewave as you shown, and even have normal power plug sockets at the back. Of course its possible they may cut corners to achieve the prices they do, but as you said reviews mostly hold out.  If I was buying today I perhaps would have got the £150 cyberpower, £35 more than the one I did get.  If anyone else is reading this thread and wants a pure sinewave UPS at home without spending £400 on a smartups, then consider cyberpower.

With all this said the device I got is doing its job to spec, my pc stays on without no abnormality if I run a test, the buzz is ok I have confirmed now, APC do have a warranty for damaged equipment caused by their units as well.

The personal edition software has these features.

A summary page which shows amount of undervoltage (brownouts), overvoltage, blackouts and electrical noise within a set time period, the time period viewable is either 1 week, 4 weeks, 12 weeks or 24 weeks. It has a note stating short instances of problems will not appear on this page.  There is no historical graphs like the business edition.
Current status page, shows the power been drawn from the unit (which I like), the power source in use, charging state of battery, input voltage, and date of last blackout and self test.
A run self test page to stimulate a power failure.
Energy usage page to estimate electricity costs of devices powered by the UPS.
Auto shutdown cannot be disabled, it can either be set to run the PC for X amount of minutes on battery, or shutdown when X amount of mins is remaining.
The audible alarm on the unit can be disabled or set to only sound at certian hours, there is no email notifications function.
The electrical noise sensitivity can be adjusted to either low, medium or high, medium is the default.  I am on the default of medium and no instances have been tallied.
Finally a voltage page where can adjust upper and lower voltage limits before battery intervention, I have left on the defaults.

Now I installed the software on my laptop so I can watch the status whilst using full screen stuff on my PC, but the obvious flaw is that if there is a power cut the UPS may shutdown my laptop.  I am likely to connect it to my pfsense unit and monitor it from there instead, and the pfsense unit if I choose to can send a network signal to my PC to shut it down.  This will also allow me to monitor from my phone etc., setup email notifications, and graph data on pfsense.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on May 15, 2017, 06:12:35 PM
everything hooked up now to UPS that I want

So

PS4 - doesnt like power cuts when in hibernate mode
Both LCD monitors
PC
PFSense unit
Asus router

USB is connected to pfsense, here is screenshot of pfsense status page during my simulated power cut, good news is nothing exploded :D

Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Ronski on May 15, 2017, 07:24:28 PM
Looking good, bet you won't get any more power cuts now.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on June 12, 2017, 02:12:19 PM
For the curious Leicester has continued to have power cuts, I have not had the new one's but in the past 3 weeks meridian business park has had 7, and glenfield area has had 3 more also.

My UPS has logged 27 brownouts.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on December 14, 2018, 03:30:59 AM
So an update, the issues have been continuing in my area, mostly brownouts rather than outages but this christmas instead of power cuts I got informed in advance of a planned outage, expected 1 hour.

My modem is not connected to a UPS tho so that lost power regardless.
By time I started shutdown on my PC there was 92% power left.  Its logical to conclude this drained a bit more prior to actual power been shut off from it.

The devices left drawing power were my ac68 wifi access point and pfsense unit.  Before now I didnt know what power usage these consumed, but now I do as after power came back on, I checked the utilisation via my laptop and between them they load the APC unit up to just 1%.

So at PC shutdown the unit estimated 22mins of usage with 18% load.  This load was with PC and the PC monitor amounting to the extra 17%.

Power cut lasted 1hr 45mins, so 1% load should have bee a breeze right?

Sadly no

At about 1hr 20 mins the flashing green light on the APC unit stopped flashing but it was still buzzing away supplying power so I paid no more attention and carried on using my phone.
At about 1hr 43 mins (yes just before power was restored, kinda unlucky) there was a quick beep and it shutdown.

Now my laptop is consuming about 16 watts in its low power mode at idle state and thats with screen off.  Its battery is way smaller than whats in the APC unit, when power was restored it had 70% left.
The APC with a much bigger battery only had to supply just 7 watts.

When I powered up pfsense, I logged into the gui about 15 mins after power came back on and there was 8% capacity and in charging state, so it does indeed look like the battery was drained.  Probably not to 0% I expect it shuts down before that but I expect to 5%.  I checked the load and it was 1% so thats how I knew was 1% as PC was still powered off.

Underwhelmed, see if I were to get a better UPS for the PC which I Was thinking off anyway and passed this down to my modem, it seems it wouldnt even be able to power my modem for 2 hours, and these things are supposed to handle little devices like modems for several hours.

Ronski and others who run a UPS what are your thoughts?
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Ronski on December 14, 2018, 03:47:58 PM
My first thought is how old is the battery in the UPS?

PS I would think the power draw was more than 7w,  try checking with a proper plug in power meter.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on December 14, 2018, 06:00:13 PM
Good idea, I will check with my watt meter tomorrow.

It looks like may 2017 I got the UPS, judging by dates of older posts in this thread so about 19 months old.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Ronski on December 15, 2018, 09:09:08 AM
Battery should be OK, but I suppose it could be a lot older than its purchase date.

My UPS at work has a runtime of about 20 to 30 minutes, but does last a lot longer as I tend shut the pc down pretty quick to preserve power for the voip phone and networking equipment. Can't remember how long it lasts, same goes for my home system.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Alex Atkin UK on December 28, 2018, 06:51:49 AM
and again 3rd power cut in a month

ordering a UPS cause im not happy with the state leaves my pc in and possible damage to pfsense unit.

for the curious i am at the exact same sync speed so i still believe the line is banded now.

You might consider now re-installing using the ZFS filesystem!

I managed to kill the boot of mine pulling the power when it had hung due to a bug in Unbound (I think) but ZFS is supposed to be much more reliable and kinder on SSDs, plus the bonus it handles TRIM automagically vs the old filesystem where you have to enable it manually.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on December 28, 2018, 04:54:49 PM
Already is ZFS, I stopped trusting UFS years ago :)
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on February 22, 2019, 09:02:27 AM
more problems, and even causing me sync issues, as other modems drop out affecting signal mappings on the dslam.

So been getting lots of brownouts, UPS keeps momentarily kicking in, power vans were here yesterday and day before, they back today so went across road to ask them whats happening, and another feed keeps cutting out, they still trying to find the fault, it isnt my feed, but when the feed cuts out it affects all the other feeds in the cabinet.
Title: Re: Major Power Outage in Leicester - Effects on Circuit
Post by: Chrysalis on March 11, 2019, 09:41:32 PM
things are getting messy, half the road is dug up (its a main road quite long) they are trying to find the fault and every time they tried to turn on the faulty feeds yesterday the whole street tripped out.  Seriously considering newer UPS devices at the moment to cover all my devices I am 50/50 on it.

But with the amount of concrete dug up, then surely vodafone and openreach could take advantage as well to deploy FTTP on the cheap.