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Power protection products are a critical staple for any enterprise and they are continually becoming more advanced with more features to ensure critical equipment has power.
For instance, UPS manufacturers have developed tools to lengthen the life of the battery, warn of overloads, send e-mail alerts, manage via the Web or even a PDA, as well as warn the user that the battery needs to be replaced. TMC Labs examined a line interactive UPS from Tripp Lite called the SmartPro 2U Rack/Tower Extended Run UPS with models ranging from 500VA to 5000VA. We examined a model featuring 3000VA, 120V, and 60Hz sine wave. The SmartPro series informs you when it�s time to change the battery, supports SNMP management, and has a plethora of other features. We should mention that as IP-PBXs are becoming the phone system of choice, power protection manufacturers are ensuring that their line of products can keep mission-critical IP-PBXs up and running. In fact, the SmartPro series has been tested compatible with Cisco CallManager, versions 3.3 and 4.0 and has earned the �Cisco Compatible� logo.
The SmartPro 2U is a line-interactive UPS that can be rack mounted either horizontally or vertically and comes with the screws, nuts, washers, and brackets necessary for mounting. It installs in standard 19 inch rack enclosures with an installed depth of only 18 inches. The SmartPro line supports 15-amp, 20-amp and 30-amp AC outlets. On the front of the UPS features several LEDs, including a Power LED to indicate it is on, a Voltage Correction LED indicating it is correcting high or low AC voltage (without the assistance of battery power), and an Output Load Level LED, which is multi-colored and will change from green, to yellow, to red (overload) to indicate the load condition. Two other LEDs are also on the front of the unit including a Battery Charge LED colored green, yellow, or red, depending on the amount of battery charge left and a Battery Warning LED, which indicates that the battery needs to be changed.
The SmartPro supports multiple interfaces, including 2 USB, 2 DB9 (serial) and SNMPWEBCARD (optional) giving you multiple management and monitoring options that work in conjunction with their PowerAlert software (included). PowerAlert UPS monitoring software supports safe unattended shutdown, monitoring, and control via local connected servers, plus any number of additional servers over IP. A remote shutdown server (Windows, NetWare, and Linux supported) allows for multiple servers to be shutdown via a network message from a PowerAlert UPS engine that is monitoring the UPS through a communication port.
The unit also features an Emergency Power Off (EPO) port that can be used to connect the UPS to a contact closure switch to enable emergency inverter shutdown. One really nice feature is the power sensitivity adjustment dial which can be used to adjust how sensitive the UPS is to sine wave distortion. In area with poor power generation or chronic wave distortion you can reduce the sensitivity so that it doesn�t switch to the battery too frequently draining its reserves. The SmartPro 2U also allows you to connect an external battery pack for extra runtime. The SmartPro features a dual boost AVR that corrects brownouts to 79V and overvoltages to 147V.
Importantly, it features current monitoring along with three controllable load banks. It also has nine outlets (4 5-15R/4 5-15/20R/1 L5-30R), as well as NEMA L5-30P input. Tripp Lite includes a 5-20P replacement plug for installations that have 5-20P wall outlets instead of L5-30P wall outlets.
We did some tests on the unit including hooking up a wide variety of TMC Labs equipment to see if we could force an overload condition. Eventually, after enough equipment was connected we did get an overload alert. Next, we pulled the plug to simulate a power outage. All of the PCs stayed online and immediately we could hear the internal cooling fan in the SmartPro get much louder than normal, no doubt due to the increased load and from having to power from the battery and the resulting heat increase.
Tripp Lite backs up their product with a $250,000 Ultimate Lifetime Insurance policy, which may give peace of mind to their customers. Additionally, both the external battery packs and the internal batteries are hot swappable, which means no down-time when its time to replace the batteries. Overall, TMC Labs was quite pleased with the number of management interfaces, the excellent runtime, the sleek black design, and the powerful PowerAlert software and would not hesitate to recommend the SmartPro 2U to suit your power protection needs. IT
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