Introduction

The Belkin Regular Pro Gold USB

We have all probably experienced a power outage or several, depending on where we live. Having a place in this unfortunate situation can cause much grief for a person, at times. Sometimes, if one wasn't prudent enough to save their work periodically, a power outage could be the cause for quite a bit of lost work, and consequently, great set backs. Similarly, voltage dips, commonly known as "brownouts", can affect sensitive computer systems and may result in seemingly spontaneous reboots. However, before these bad things occur, one thinks little about how to avert them. For a long time, servers have had UPSes (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) to prevent this sort of thing from occuring. Due to the sensitivity of the data and tasks that servers store and provide, a UPS was considered a necessary device. It was only justified that these devices would find a place in the area of protecting workstations and desktops as well, especially with the increased prevalence and depedance placed upon computers during these times, and the human desire for security and redundancy.

For me, the need for security in knowing that my computer would not be affected by power-system anomalies was quite high, due in part to the events this past summer. For years, all I had plugged my computer into was a power-bar with surge protection and enough outlets for the devices that I'd use. This worked to a certain extent, but you can imagine the frustration I experienced throughout the frequent thunderstorms this summer. Sometimes, even brownouts would cause my computer to reboot. It came to a point where I decided that a UPS was almost necessary for me.

This being the first UPS I have used, I will hopefully be able to show you all the features of it in a coherant manner. As you can see, it is a Belkin Regulator Pro Gold USB version rated at 650VA, and has a price of $179.95 USD at Belkin's Site. This may be pricey for some, but realize that the price, like most computer-related parts, has gone down significantly during the past year, and that this is the one of the flagship models of Belkin's Desktop UPS line.

Specifications and Features

• Unlimited dollar connected equipment warranty.
• AVR technology is a line-conditioning feature that ensures clean and consistent power.
• USB interface for faster communication between the PC and UPS.
• Data Recovery Warranty.
• 8 surge-protected outlets, four of which also include battery backup.
• Free shutdown software and 6-foot USB device cable included.
• Internet line and 10Base-T Network protection with built in splitter to protect multiple devices and 6-foot RJ11 cable included.
• 650VA with up to 45 minutes of backup time so you can shut down your computer before a blackout does.
• Cable management to keep your UPS clean and organized.
• BlockSpace™ so you don’t have to sacrifice two outlets to plug in one large AC adapter.
• AC line, on battery, overload, and replace battery LEDs for easy UPS management.
• User Replaceable Battery
• 6ft. Power cord
• Dimensions: 6.14"W x 8.46" D x 8.7" H
• Weight: 14.33lbs

The shutdown and UPS monitoring software that is included is compatible with Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT 4.0/2000, various *nix's such as FreeBSD and some Linux Distros, Solaris, Novell Netware, and Mac OS 9.0.4 or higher. They have surely covered quite a few operating systems here! Another feature that is worth your noting is the "Unlimited dollar connected equipment warranty". This is quite a nice claim for such a device, and should give one at least a little bit more peace-of-mind. The USB connectivity should make it even easier to setup this device with those operating systems which correctly implement the USB protocol and those who have disabled the legacy serial ports in their system, but might possibly create problems with those running old or non-USB supporting systems. This however, should be a very, very small percentage of users.

A well-packaged unit.

From left to right: The UPS; the AC power cord; the USB interface cord and the RJ-11 (phone) cable.

The UPS is not large at all.

The first thing that struck me was that this UPS was quite small or diminutive compared to my conjectures about it. This is because the box in which it came in was quite larger compared to the UPS itself. It turns out that there is quite bit of foam protection, about 5cm or 2" at the corners, keeping this UPS *very* safe during storage and the shipping process. Because of its small footprint, this unit takes up hardly any more room than my old surge protector, and in fact, takes up less space length-wise, than it. At the back, there is an RJ-45 input jack, two RJ-45 output jacks, the USB connectivity port, the AC circuit-breaker, an LED to detect if there is a site-wiring fault, and the AC power input. Also, the bottom part with the ventilation grating is the cover to the battery compartment, which is easily removed should you have to replace the battery in the distant future.

Note that there are two RJ-45 outputs and only one input jack meant to protect you from any surges which may come through phonelines or a network which isn't under your control. These were meant to be used with two phoneline devices, like a phone and a fax machine. (RJ-45 jacks will accept RJ-11 plugs but not vice-versa.) If you are using the RJ-45 jacks for network surge protection, you should only use one of the outputs, as I don't think the UPS was meant to function like a hub.

Another feature is the cable management system, which consists of purple plastic "hooks" at the back, which together, look like a handle for picking up the UPS. Belkin explicitly warns that this is *NOT* a handle, and should not be used as one! The cable manager even came detached, and had to be attached to the back of the UPS before use. The cable management consists basically of you pushing or pulling the power cables through or into the handle before plugging them into the outlets on the UPS. This feature is meant to prevent an accidental tug on a power cable from detaching a plug from the socket. I found it to work quite well in that it was able to keep cables from tangling that were coming in from the same direction.

The back of the UPS.

The front with the power button and indicator LEDs.

The front of the UPS has four indicator LEDs and the power button. The power button is not a hard-switch, so it serves as more than just an on/off switch. To turn on the UPS, you simply hold down the button for more than three seconds until the "On Line" LED illuminates. If you repeat this procedure while the UPS is on, it is turned off. Pushing the button for less than three seconds while it is on performs the "Self-Test" function, where the UPS and its battery condition are verified. This can be used to diagnose basic functioning problems with your unit. The "On Battery" LED illuminates when the UPS is providing power via battery-backup, while the "Overload" LED lights up when you are drawing more power from the UPS than it can safely provide.

There are eight (8) outlets on the UPS. They are spaced out far enough that AC power adapters will not block adjacent outlets. Four of the outlets provide battery-backup, while the other four only provide surge protection. These four non-battery-backup outlets are not controlled by the on/off switch and are always live as long as the UPS is plugged in.

Installation

There is not much to the installation of any UPS that I've dealt with. This particular UPS, because of its size, will fit well underneath any office or home desk, or into a hidden area, out of the way of daily activities. Once you have charged it a little (a full charge takes about four hours), you are ready to put it to full use. You simply plug one end of the provided USB cable into the UPS and the other end into one of your USB ports, and upon the next boot of your OS (I used Windows 2000 for this example), the UPS will be automatically detected and its functions monitored and put to good use. You also install the Belkin Sentry Bulldog software at this point. However, it is not needed, at least not in Windows 2000. These are the basic features you get from within Windows 2000, through the "Power Options" in the control panel:

Configure timed power events.

Set alarms and power events at certain battery levels.

Battery Status.

As you can see, all the necessary functions are provided, included what to do when the battery level reaches a certain point, and the monitoring of the battery level. For some, this might suffice, but for others wanting more detailed reports and diagnostics of their UPS, Belkin's Sentry Bulldog software is sure to please.

The Main window. The bottom two meters can be set to gauge a variety of values.

Status history of values monitored.

Diagram showing crucial values.

I was certainly amazed by the sheer amount of features offered by Belkin's software! This is one point where praise is definitely deserved. Of particular interest are the battery voltage, output values, output load, and of course, the temperature. I'm sure all of you are concerned about temperature! The history chart of values is also of importance. Show in that particular chart above, in red, is the output load. You can see several spikes up and down, and those can be attributed to times when my monitor is off. In short, expect to be able to monitor nearly everything that is going on with your UPS! Definitely a geek's dream.

The full range of indicating-meters.

Action-response configuration.

As you can expect, the range of configuration options is staggering. You can configure multiple actions for a wide range of events, more than I'd ever expected. I suspect that most of you out there will never have need for such configuration options, except for the basic "Power Failed" event and a few others, but it is VERY nice to know that Belkin took the time to go above and beyond.

In addition providing information to the computer which is directly connected to the UPS via the USB, the Belkin Sentry Bulldog Service can also provide UPS status information to other computers which may also be powered off of the same UPS, via a network.

Muliple-computer + UPS diagram.

In the above diagram, Belkin designates the computer which is powered off of the UPS, but NOT directly connected to it via USB, as a "Slave". This computer can, however, receive status on the UPS through the computer which IS connected to the UPS via USB, over the network. That computer is labelled the "Master", and will have the Belkin Sentry Bulldog Service running on it. In this way, one computer is like the server, providing the UPS status information to all others that are running off the UPS. (In this case, you shouldn't have more than two computers running off the UPS)

This is accomplished by setting the Belkin Monitor software to connect to the IP address of the system designated as the Master in the network. The Master system also sets the password which must be entered in order to gain access to the status reports. In this way, one could power more than one computer off of the same UPS, and have them both safely shutdown automatically in the event of a power failure, as the Slave computer's Monitor would receive word of the power failure event from the Master. I found this feature to be particular use, as I also wished to power my poor server from this UPS. (I don't have a monitor/keyboard/mouse for my server -- I control it over the network) I could now install the software on my server, and also have it shutdown safely during a power failure. An excellent feature that I would have never thought of!

Testing

Testing was accomplished the only way I knew how: Unplug the UPS from the wall, and see how long the battery can provide power before the voltage level it provides drops to an unsafe level. In this way, the test simulates a power outage. I tested the UPS with the following:

• PC with a T-bird 1.33GHz @1.80v, Asus A7V-133, 512MB PC-133, 32MB GF2 GTS, 1 x 7200rpm HDD, 1 x 5400rpm HDD, 300w PSU and Windows 2000 Professional
• 19" Samsung 900p Monitor

The UPS was fully charged (verified by the software monitor) before the test began. Those were the only two devices running off of the UPS' battery during the simulated power outage. Please note that the CPU was close to idle during these tests. If you are running distributed computing challenge program like distributed.net's RC-5 or SETI@home, the extra load that the CPU puts on the system from this will certainly decrease your battery times.

The first thing that happened when the simulated power outage started was the loud beep that was emitted by the UPS every few minutes. This is a feature that is expected of a UPS, I believe. Also, the Belkin Sentry Bulldog software popped up a notice on my screen every few minutes along with a wave file of a voice in a female-British accent telling me that the UPS was now running in battery power. Nothing short on notices here! One anomaly I noticed with the Belkin software was that as the UPS started running on battery power, the battery level reported in the monitoring software dropped from 100% to 60%, right away! I knew this couldn't be correct. I waited for some time, and after a few minutes, it was remained at 60%. I then checked out what the Windows Power Management system was reporting. As I suspected, it gave me a different number, this time, 89%. It appears that Belkin's software may have some quirks, because it remained at that number of 60% for 6 minutes, while the Windows battery level value decayed in a more defined manner.

Eventually, the value of 60% reported by Belkin's software started to change after just over 6 minutes. I now believed that the value being reported was the correct value. The battery level continued to fall, and after 10 minutes, it was at 42%. Quite good for a system drawing quite a bit of power! By 12 minutes' time, the level reported was 32%, and after the level dipped below 20% (Which is what I had set it at), the Belkin Software initiated its shutdown procedure. Over 15 minutes had now passed, and the UPS had started to emit a series of rapid beeps indicating that the battery level was low. The Belkin software was quite advanced, in that it's shutdown procedure checked for any open documents, and promptly saved them before properly shutting down the OS and then the computer. The UPS then powered itself off.

Conclusion

Pros

• Easy to setup and install both the UPS and its software. (Works with many operating systems)
• Full-featured software with many options
• USB connectivity for those that wish not to use serial or COM ports
• Provides quite a bit of battery-backup time to safely shutdown your system
• Lacks a large footprint, so it will fit nicely under your desk and not be in your way.

Cons

• Software is a bit quirky at reporting battery levels when running off the battery

Overall, a good UPS. I had no operational trouble with it; it performed well, and in some ways, better than I expected. The software is quite the package, with many options and features to configure and play with. Some of them you will not use, while others are standard fare. This UPS was easy to setup and use, but my only caveat about it would have to be the monitoring software. If one is working at their PC while the power goes out, it would be disheartening to see the battery level drop from 100% to 60% almost right away! But beyond that, this UPS performed all that it was expected to do, and more. This would be a definite well-spent investment for the small home or office group. Thanks again to Belkin Components for providing the review unit; they have it for sale at their online store, if you are interested.

'Till next time, and mail me any of your comments!

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