If anyone still wonders whether a UPS is worth it...

Rosen Sound · Post by **Rosen Sound** » Sun Jul 06, 2014 7:21 pm

Last night I played at the House of Blues Anaheim and plugged my UPS into their supplied power and my UPS detected a wiring fault... So I figured maybe they have ground lift going or something and thought nothing of it. As soon as I plug the audio cable into my my kronos and grabbed the other end, my left hand was being shocked rather badly! Touched the chassis of my Kronos and I was still being shocked! I asked the stage manager who was a very kind man if there was another power source I could plug into and there was, and i had no more wiring fault indicator. Luckily I could unplug my UPS and have my kronos stay on until it could be plugged into something more reliable. I cannot imagine how crappy it would have been to have to reboot my kronos or to have it potentially fry with current going to ground...

Theyre worth it people... a very small investment for your very large ones

Bald Eagle · Post by **Bald Eagle** » Sun Jul 06, 2014 7:39 pm

Any expensive electronic hardware should be connected to a UPS. Its to save the gear and deal with unexpected electrical systems. So many people just think its to allow you to play in a hurricane blackout.

JONLIBRA · Post by **JONLIBRA** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 2:08 am

+ 1! Last night at a gig an asistant unplugged the power during the sound check...made me realize the UPS is worth it.

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 2:04 pm

robbinhood I certainly hope the stage manager locked out that source for repair!

toohip · Post by **toohip** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:45 pm

I have been an IT field tech all my life. I installed Ethernet systems and large business phone systems, not really on the computer work station end. But I was told, and learned over the years, to always get a 'SMART UPS' for any gear of this nature. The transition time from commercial power to battery power is much quicker with a 'SMART UPS' than a cheap-o UPS, which is much better for PC based systems such as the KRONOS, and they generally offer better voltage spike protection. Just adding my 2 cents here.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 9:14 pm

toohip wrote:I have been an IT field tech all my life. I installed Ethernet systems and large business phone systems, not really on the computer work station end. But I was told, and learned over the years, to always get a 'SMART UPS' for any gear of this nature. The transition time from commercial power to battery power is much quicker with a 'SMART UPS' than a cheap-o UPS, which is much better for PC based systems such as the KRONOS, and they generally offer better voltage spike protection. Just adding my 2 cents here.

Generally a UPS, Switch, or even other gear is labelled as 'smart' because it has network-attached capability i.e. for configuration or monitoring, or an expansion slot that allows such functionality.

There are UPS that will handle switchover better, and I expect 'smart' ranges would be of this nature by default, being an enterprise grade product, but there are plenty of non-'smart' UPS that will do the job just as well.

For better switchover, you really need something which is 'online' or 'line-interactive', rather than offline UPS which simply kicks in when necessary, these UPS are more expensive but their inverters are always running.

Another option which completely decouples the output from the input is where the actual mains voltage wave is completely resynthesized, I forget what this is called but it seems most expensive so I've never bought them.

But yes, definitely worth having, especially if you are going to be plugging into unknown, untrusted power supplies.

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 9:31 pm

Pure sine.

AntonySharmman · Post by **AntonySharmman** » Mon Jul 07, 2014 11:09 pm

We've discussed in the past many times about UPS subject under all perspectives !
Briefly I can remind you that Kronos (as your PC) uses switching mode power supply which operates with DC voltage ,
from 80 to 400 volts , it contains a high Q rectifier that regulates completely even the strongest ripple currents
of any kind of input supply waveform , pure or not pure sinusoidal / square / triangle (works even with a 90 volts battery)
and summary it does not really concern at all for main voltage stability since it regulates it itself.
There is only one thing that it can't handle ... this is the total power supply loss for more than 0.2 seconds duration !
Do you want proof ? ... quickly switch on-off (<0.5 sec) your Kronos as many times you like , it still working with no interruption !
Here is where a (cheap) offline UPS comes to continue feeding device with electric current (of any waveform) via lead batteries
and an inverter it contains.
Also this is the main difference between a line-interactive UPS and a switching mode power supply , since both are Regulators !

Thanks for reading

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 1:44 am

I have a good cyber power but it isn't pure sine. I have lost power and ran the Kronos and both QSC speakers for 10-15 minutes before shutting down. I wasn't blasting the speakers though, just low volume noodling.

aron · Post by **aron** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 1:01 am

Yes the power supply sections in these keyboards have filters and voltage regulators to the boards. Even the cheaper UPS products work ok with them. Nothing wrong with spending more if you want, but the cheaper ones work fine.

Now that this has been mentioned. A simple outlet tester would be of much use.

StephenKay · Post by **StephenKay** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 2:31 am

Definitely worth it.

For whatever reason, the power here in my home in NJ has a tendency to just completely shut down (not just me, the whole neighborhood) for a few minutes every now and then for apparently no reason whatsoever. Yeah, sure, sometimes in a storm situation, but more often than not, in the middle of a perfectly normal day. Complaining to the power company gets you nowhere.

After screaming myself hoarse multiple times over the years as the whole studio goes down, I finally bought several years ago a massive APC UPS tower - weights over a hundred pounds, nearly impossible to move.

But I have a lot of gear, and I have plugged the entire studio into it - 5 to 10 keyboards on at any given time, 4 or 5 computers, mixing board, monitors, etc. Works flawlessly. Now, every time the power goes down, I just smile as everything in the studio keeps running. It's good for about 20 minutes if I recall - I can wait a few minutes to see if it comes back on, and if not, I can start an orderly shut down sequence, saving all my work. A lifesaver.

AntonySharmman · Post by **AntonySharmman** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 9:54 am

aron really got my point , and that was an explanation of shape and regulation management of a non interruptible electricity net.
In that sensitive case and for precautionary reasons of losing our workflow , a ST-BY UPS system is always inevitable.
For instance , here in my sea home (vacations), I use nothing for my equipment 'cause I feed my outlets with independent
photovoltaic & air electric energy gear that's a 100 % efficient since I personally designed it , but in my base city home , lab &
studio gears are directly connected to an industrial of half tone 20 Kwh St-By UPS , that preserves energy for the next 24 hours !
Also a small offline UPS feeds only my keyboards in gigs for only one precaution reason ... re-booting !

In spite of all that have been mentioned , there is a very dangerous point that requires a continuous power supply , and this is the
"saving data" point that can easily destroy our storage media and our data resources if a complete power loss happens !!!