Need help upgrading my UPS ME-2000-VU+

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sw1chy

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Hi all

So im new here but im hoping someone with a better understanding can help. I bought myself a Mecer ME-2000-VU+ 2000va UPS to run my PC during load shedding and want to upgrade the batteries to 2x180AH batteries i have connected in parallel. Now as soon as i connect the batteries to the UPS it doesnt come on & if i plug it in the buzzer sounds constantly showing a fault.

Now i know this is due to some type of security measure built into the UPS, but my question is, can i get around it some how? Thought i would give the forums a shot before i sell the UPS, unfortunately 15min just isnt what im looking for.

Any help would be appreciated & Thanks in advance!
 
Zuner said:
i'll just leave this here for future, i have the same ups would like to do the same type of this, how much were the new batteries?
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Being a mechanic i was able to wangle 2 new 180AH Truck batteries for free haha. Hence the reason for me wanting to do the upgrade.
 
sw1chy said:
Being a mechanic i was able to wangle 2 new 180AH Truck batteries for free haha. Hence the reason for me wanting to do the upgrade.
Click to expand...

damn, the only thing stopping me from doing what you're trying is getting the actual batteries, i don't have a couple grand to spend on batteries right now, best of luck though i have 3 ups's all running separate parts of my pc/internet just to extend my run time, but its not enough.
 
sw1chy said:
Hi all

So im new here but im hoping someone with a better understanding can help. I bought myself a Mecer ME-2000-VU+ 2000va UPS to run my PC during load shedding and want to upgrade the batteries to 2x180AH batteries i have connected in parallel. Now as soon as i connect the batteries to the UPS it doesnt come on & if i plug it in the buzzer sounds constantly showing a fault.

Now i know this is due to some type of security measure built into the UPS, but my question is, can i get around it some how? Thought i would give the forums a shot before i sell the UPS, unfortunately 15min just isnt what im looking for.

Any help would be appreciated & Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

No it's not a security feature. You're doing it wrong.

My 2000va units run at 24 volts, so 2 batteries in series, not parallel. Did you check properly before connecting your new batteries?
 
mister said:
No it's not a security feature. You're doing it wrong.

My 2000va units run at 24 volts, so 2 batteries in series, not parallel. Did you check properly before connecting your new batteries?
Click to expand...

makes sense, i haven't opened my ME-2000-VU+ but my other 2kva ups's both run on 24v.
 
If they are truck batteries, they might already be 24V. If not, it could be that they need to be in series to get 24V into the UPS. Even my 1kVA is 24V.

Best way is to open up the unit and put a meter across the battery wires and see how they are connected. The other issue could be that the batteries require charging and are overloading the charger in the UPS.

Take some photos of your battery arrangement, the existing battery arrangement inside the UPS and we can try and tell you where you are going wrong.
 
mister said:
No it's not a security feature. You're doing it wrong.

My 2000va units run at 24 volts, so 2 batteries in series, not parallel. Did you check properly before connecting your new batteries?
Click to expand...

Oh wow you are a life saver 30min before load shedding! Im an idiot i didnt check the batteries i pulled out the UPS where in series. Iv re-wired my truck batteries now into series aswell (24v) and its working perfectly! Thanks :D
 
sw1chy said:
Oh wow you are a life saver 30min before load shedding! Im an idiot i didnt check the batteries i pulled out the UPS where in series. Iv re-wired my truck batteries now into series aswell (24v) and its working perfectly! Thanks :D
Click to expand...

let us know how it works, how much laod you have and how long it lasts, also if it charges properly, lastly do you use view power on your pc? i'd also like to know if it registers power level remaining..

we've got a gennie but my ups's reject its dirty power so i must try this soon.
 
sw1chy said:
Oh wow you are a life saver 30min before load shedding! Im an idiot i didnt check the batteries i pulled out the UPS where in series. Iv re-wired my truck batteries now into series aswell (24v) and its working perfectly! Thanks :D
Click to expand...

haha, you gotta be careful man!
 
Anyone has software that shows remaining power on of the batteries... it's so annoying that ViewPower doesn't show for this UPS.
Is it the UPS not reporting the stats? I'm asking this because I've see on the on the ViewPower manual/screenshots that it does have display the remaining power, but not for this UPS
 
Last edited:
Hi. I see some had rather poor experiences with particular UPS. Rather poor standby times.

I have been asked to look into why this particular UPS ( installed by a garage door company as a back up power source ).

Anyone have available the user manual and any software for this UPS?

Calculating the powere available in the built in battery bank shows that the absolute maximum run time would be about 12 minutes at 1000watt load.

What astounds me is that any professional would sell something like this as a back up for a garage door motor!

But then I guess during the load shedding issues we had the name of the game would have been rip them off!
 
Geoff.D said:
Hi. I see some had rather poor experiences with particular UPS. Rather poor standby times.

I have been asked to look into why this particular UPS ( installed by a garage door company as a back up power source ).

Anyone have available the user manual and any software for this UPS?

Calculating the powere available in the built in battery bank shows that the absolute maximum run time would be about 12 minutes at 1000watt load.

What astounds me is that any professional would sell something like this as a back up for a garage door motor!

But then I guess during the load shedding issues we had the name of the game would have been rip them off!
Click to expand...
https://www.google.co.za/url?sa=t&s...D10YhNWn2qaSdp7jg&sig2=0F7nsXUTUYhXzviMVDIumA
 
Geoff.D said:
Hi. I see some had rather poor experiences with particular UPS. Rather poor standby times.

I have been asked to look into why this particular UPS ( installed by a garage door company as a back up power source ).

Anyone have available the user manual and any software for this UPS?

Calculating the powere available in the built in battery bank shows that the absolute maximum run time would be about 12 minutes at 1000watt load.

What astounds me is that any professional would sell something like this as a back up for a garage door motor!

But then I guess during the load shedding issues we had the name of the game would have been rip them off!
Click to expand...

Ups's are designed only to keep apc running for a few minutes to save work and shut down. So getting 15 minutes out of it sounds about right. What's the wattage of the garage door?

The only way you're going to get more run time out of it is to upgrade the batteries. Or perhaps the current batteries are old and dying? I've added 4 extra 7ah batteries to my mecer 2kva and get around 2 hours of light pc usage.
 
Zuner said:
Ups's are designed only to keep apc running for a few minutes to save work and shut down. So getting 15 minutes out of it sounds about right. What's the wattage of the garage door?

The only way you're going to get more run time out of it is to upgrade the batteries. Or perhaps the current batteries are old and dying? I've added 4 extra 7ah batteries to my mecer 2kva and get around 2 hours of light pc usage.
Click to expand...

I am planning a call to the manufacturer of the garage door motor today. The original installer of this system was not at all helpful. I think he realised he has been caught out for ripping off his customer 3 years ago.

Update:

The motor plus electronics and the light in the unit draw about 360 Watts. So that means this inverter is probably running at >90 % efficiency.

That means if the power goes off AND the door is operated immediately after cutting mains, the batteries would probably be able to open the door once and close it once.

Total load including an allowance for the inverter = 300 x (1.1) + 30 = 360 watts.

Total discharge time then would be

T = ((9 ah x 24 V) x 0.85 )/ 360 W = 0,51 x 60 = ~ 30 minutes.

BUT IF the UPS is sitting there drawing power with no load present then :

T = 9 x 24 x 0,85/30 = 6,12 hours.

After this time the battery would be flat, and the door would not open at all. As the inverter has not been setup properly, it cannot sense the absence of load and will therefore continue to discharge the battery when there is no requirement to open/close the door.
An incredibly bad implementation.
 
Last edited:
Having a look at the data sheet for this UPS, one can see why so many persons feel cheated after spending money on off-the-shelf UPS units.

(1) INPUT: No info on inverter efficiency provided. One has to start doing calculations to be able to try and deduce what the efficiency most probably is. Next, What does "simulated sine wave" mean? Those that want to use this UPS for driving a printer may be in for an unpleasant surprise.

(2) BATTERY: What does this say? It says 12V/9AH x 2. It says NOTHING about that fact that those 2 batteries are connected in series and that the battery bank is therefore 24V, not 12V.
Then it says the "typical recharge time is 4 - 6 hours. NOTHING about how the charging takes place. One has to again do some maths to try and work out what the charging modes are. Does one assume that the battery will completely discharge or is the minimum discharge level is 30%? Again some calcs are needed before you can say anything about this UPS's charger.

The fault condition on the UPS is a permanent tone. Yet there is nothing wrong with the unit. The batteries are in good condition considering in the 3 years, the unit has basically being used as a rather poor trickle charger for a battery bank that is only suitable 15 minutes of standby on a light PC load.

So the completely wrong backup power solution for a garage door opener, plus a pretty disappointing backup solution for anyone with a few PCs and printer.

Short answer: This product is not at all suitable for use or distribution. No wonder it has gone off the market. But what does it say about ones confidence levels about other Mecer/Mustek UPS units available in the market?

Now to what does one do? Well as seen in this thread a few decided to increase the battery capacity with an external battery. So is the charger in the UPS suitable to recharge these batteries? How long would it take to recharge? How much extra standby time will you get? All these answers would be found by experimentation.

One has to ask if one is going to have to resort to this sort of shenanigans, then why not go the better route with either:

A properly designed backup power setup, or, using an inverter/charger and a battery setup made up of separate components?

You cannot just go and add more batteries to a unit without checking a few things.
1. Make sure what the voltage is. You cannot just add 12V batteries to a 24V system and vice versa.
2. Make sure the batteries you add are the same as those used internally or throw out the internal ones all together. For example if the internal batteries are 9AH then ones should add other 9AH batteries, or change completely.
3. Check on the charger and see if it will be able to handle the extra batteries added and that the recharge time is good enough for you.
 
The ups is 24v. I remember reading somewhere that it's got a 1amp charger, I could be wrong though.

No clue it it allows the batteries to run completely dry or not, depending on the wattage of the door it could work but I highly doubt its a good solution,.

In my opinion it isn't at all disappointing, its not meant for a bunch of pc's and printers are not supposed to be put on a ups. It's definitely suitable for use, just remember all its there to do is give you a few minutes to save and shutdown. Which you can set it up to do automatically when power cuts, so the pc would only need 2 minutes.

As for upgrading the batteries I added an additional 4 7ah batteries to each of my 2kva ups. I've added in a switch to keep the internal fan on so the charging circuit doesn't burn out as it takes some time to charge. Using 2 ups with that arrangement I get easily 4 hours of pc usage with 5.1 charging phones a light 2 monitors.
 
So I ran a discharge test on the unit to sort out the permanent fault error yesterday.

The UPS took 5 hours and 52 minutes ( lets say 6 hours) to completely discharge the internal batteries with no load connected.

Based on this the UPS itself uses up 48 watts. The load according to the door manufacturer is 300 watts when running, BUT with an extremely high startup current (do not what this just that it is extremely high).
The total load is thus lets say 350 Watts when running. The assuming run time for the door to close or open is 60 seconds. That means about 0.24 AH. Hence the unit will be able to run the motor provided it can cope with the startup current.

Will report back when I know a little bit more about the load.

But my opinion stands. This UPS is not suited to act as a back up for this type of load, and should never have been sold to a customer by a garage door installation outfit.
 
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