this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
79 points (95.4% liked)

Selfhosted

40795 readers
995 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I see this as an absolute win. Be careful, folks. Just because it's DC doesn't mean it won't cause serious damage.

Edit for Clarification: When done correctly, the batteries should not arc. My problem is I did not wire the array correctly the first and a-hem second times. It only cost me one battery, which is a lot cheaper than a trip to an American ER.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] geekworking 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

UPS batteries are really dangerous because you cannot turn them off. They are also high enough voltage and current to harm you through arc flash and burns.

The other thing with small UPS batteries is that there are usually multiple batteries. There are fuses between the battery string and the circuit board but not between each battery in the string.

OP may have connected batteries wrong or he put a new battery in a string with a shorted/dead battery.

Whenever you are going to string multiple batteries together always disconnect batteries and check voltage on each separate battery to make sure that they are the same or very close in voltage. If different charge to the same level. Any difference in voltage between the cells will cause current flow that can cause a fire hazard.

[–] BobsAccountant 2 points 1 year ago

It was the former. This unit had 8 12v batteries VERY snuggly placed within it. I didn't pay attention to all the leads and their locations when dissembling the old batteries. I'm professional IT and hubris was nearly the end of me.