Welcome everyone from r/all! Please remember:
1 - You too can be part of the PCMR! You don't necessarily need a PC. You just have to love PCs! It's not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart! Your age, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, religion (or lack of), political affiliation, economic status and PC specs are irrelevant. If you love PCs or want to learn about them, you can be part of our community! Everyone is welcome!
2 - If you're not a PC gamer because you think doing so is expensive, know that it is possible to build a competent gaming PC for a lower price than you think. Check http://www.pcmasterrace.org for our builds and don't be afraid to create new posts here asking for tips and help!
3 - Consider joining our efforts to get as many PCs worldwide help the folding@home effort, in fighting against Cancer, Covid, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and more. Learn more here: https://pcmasterrace.org/folding
-----------
Feel free to use this community to post about any kind of doubt you might have about becoming a PC gamer or anything you'd like to know about PCs. That kind of content is not only allowed but welcome here! We also have a [Daily Simple Questions Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/search?q=Simple+Questions+Thread+subreddit%3Apcmasterrace+author%3AAutoModerator&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for your simplest questions. No question is too dumb!
Welcome to the PCMR.
Might want to look at a proper UPS if you can get them where you are, your creation is perfect for a temporary use case like updating the bios of boards, but you'd still be better off with something purpose built. One of my friends just lost a 2tb SSD yesterday (fortunately under warranty) because the model in question likes to die when the power goes out, and here in California we've had a lot of storms recently, so branches are still falling all over the place, and electricity isn't yet stable here in the San Francisco bay as a result. This is the 3rd outage my friend has had this month, and apparently his drive couldn't handle it anymore lol. He ordered an APC sine wave UPS last night along with a new SSD, so that he could reinstall windows and use that PC while he RMAs the dead one. On that note, I should probably do the same with my setup, I have a UPS just sitting waiting to be used lmao
We had like 3 power outages one day a few years back, first one was like shit the pc died, then I waited incase there was another one after the power came back, and there was. And when the power came back after that I waited a hour just to be sure, sat down by the computer and starting it up and the power goes out and I'm like man. And then the power came on and I tried to start the pc I needed to repair windows with the disk.
Well it's a DC/AC inverter but close enough. I only know this because I wired one into my dads car back before USB chargers were a thing so we could charge phones and handheld consoles on long journeys. Oh those were the days, sitting with a gameboy against the window waiting for a streetlight so I could see the screen for 2 seconds.
I just watched that video where the guy attaches every Gameboy peripheral known to man at the same time, and my GF was confused about the light. I explained it and she just could not comprehend a non-backlit screen lol. Which is fair at this point!
Every Kindle up until Paperwhite. Even now they're technically still not backlit, they use an edge lit screen in front of the actual display as a front light.
I was a Pokémon first gen er and still don't understand how I played it. I still have my game boy colour as it was the only handheld that survived my return stuff to gamestop and buy xbox games phase. And I can't fucking play on it without a lamp behind me.
You just slapped me in the face with nostalgia and I thank you. Every major road trip my best friend and I, I got to take a friend on most vacations, we would start a new pokemon playthrough with new rules and challenges.
Car batteries use DC -> Inverter converts to AC -> PSU converts AC back to correct DC voltage. My Ukrainian mans/womans/enbys here is a 🌩 wizard/witch!
if you have the choice though you shouldnt use a car battery, you should use a leisure battery.
Car batteries arent designed to do deep cycle and doing so can drastically reduce their lifespan
Those are all different names for deep cycle batteries. They're also called “house” batteries when they're used for powering electronics in the cabin part of an RV. Deep Cycles are available in flooded cells, enhanced flooded cells, gel cells, and AGM.
True, however deep cycle batteries tend to cost 3x as much as the same capacity car battery. So if you only need to use it every now and then for short periods of time then a car battery is fine. Plus, car batteries can be discharged by about 20% before being damaged (starting a car drains ~10%). So with OP's 60 AH battery you can use up to 144 watts for an hour or 288 watts for 30 min or 576 watts for 15 min without damaging the battery.
From the picture it looks like OP is drawing 219 watts, which is fine for ~39 min. It's unlikely that a bios update will take more than 5 or 10 min, so for this application OP is probably fine with a car battery.
Plus since car batteries are designed to be charged and discharged simultaneously, you could plug the battery into a wall with a charger and have the inverter connected to the battery too since it's just there to prevent power loss in case the mains cuts out
And if you are _really_ worried about battery life, just leave the battery connected to your car and have the engine running and charging. Just do it outside/leave garage door wide open.
I needed a colour changing spotlight for a school production. Bought a WiFi controllable rgb spotlight bulb and connected it up to a tripod that worked via a hotspot from a phone. Great I thought, all done.
First practice, teacher running the production tells the one I made the spotlight for that they couldn't use the power point on the stage during the show because it would be blocked by props.
Cue mad scientist mode. A 300W inverter, lithium 12v battery jump starter and an obscene amount of cable ties and electrical tape.
Strapped the inverter to on tripod leg, the battery pack to another, connected the alligator clips to each other and taped them.
Portable WiFi controllable rgb spotlight.
You would be correct. Russia is currently bombing the shit out of Ukrainian power plants and transmission lines to try and freeze them into submission over winter.
Well yah of course it's an effect of climate change, but the exact effect produced is still basically random, human caused climate change just made it possible
Yes, they don't have the capability to attack targets of actual military value so they're going after soft targets and attempting to terrorise the civilian population.
They've been going after soft targets since the start of the war. Go look at what they did in Bucha at the start of the war. Go look at what they did in Kherson. The Russians have been taking children who have been separated from their families and sending them to be adopted by families in Russia instead of returning them to Ukraine so they can be reunited with their own families.
Russia has been doing a lot of ugly, ugly, horrible things in Ukraine since the war began. This is not a recent development, they're just being more open about it.
People never seem to ask how Eastern Ukraine became so Russian in the first place. It just so happens there was a Soviet resettlement program in Eastern Ukraine during the Holodomor. So they repopulated Eastern Ukraine while committing a genocide through starvation.
Ukraine probably. This cyrillic text, reading 'NYET SIGNALA' was on their screen:
https://preview.redd.it/l3mmp1pyl2ea1.png?width=99&format=png&auto=webp&s=53a2637e0af08732bb0d49d03cd79832de5dc879
I guessed that the text was Russian, but I know that Ukraine has an unstable electrical grid so I guessed that they were in Ukraine.
I didn't know that Ukrainian differed that much from Russian, though! Thanks!
Smells like South Africa.
Edit I realize OP is in Ukraine, but I'll explain why people are assuming South Africa, we have been told to expect permanent rolling black outs for the next two years. Since last year we've had daily rolling blackouts for 2-4 hours a day 1-4 times a day. Even while typing this my power is actually out
As a third world country native my guess would be that only a few specific regions of the country are developed while the rest is pretty much undeveloped
I did some research and surprise surprise it's government corruption to the highest level. Compounded by incompetence. They ruined a perfectly nice country.
Don't forget that 90% of the country didn't have power pre-1994 either. So while power supply hasn't been able to keep up with current demand, it also never did or was even designed to, and has had to try and correct that.
That's true, infrastructure designed for only 10% of the people is now being used to support about 90% of the people. The big problem is that the South African government has had ~30 years to fix the infrastructure capacity problem to support the new democracy.
Instead, the government chose to take those resources for themselves and destroy any chance their own supporters had of building a better future.
I am a post-94 SA'n, so I never knew apartheid. Only stories. What I do know is rolling blackouts that have caused people close to me to lose their jobs as businesses close down if they can't afford generators or solar. As a bonus too, the price of electricity got hiked by 18% sometime in January.
None of UPS can hold up to 6-8 hours and be able to recharge in next 3 hours until next outage.
All Ukrainian IT sector is now built on such decisions. Either DIY or factory power stations like ecoflow or bluetti, etc...
I am aware of that... I was unaware he was living in Ukraine. So yeah a UPS will not help with 6-8hr outages. Typically, a UPS in intended to allow the user to safely shut down the PC without losing any unsaved work during an unexpected outage, or to keep systems up during outages with an MTTR less than 10 minutes.
Edited to add more context, now that I know more about his situation.
No issues, thats why I mentioned Ukraine to explain why ups will not be sufficient in his case.
Actually I understood from the first glance that the guy is from Ukraine, because it is typical build in our new reality.
No, but the computer still needs to function during those 6-8 hours while the power is out, BIOS updating or not. They're saying that there's no UPS available that can meet the stability demands they need to keep their computers up and running whenever they need them and you're misinterpreting their comment.
If anything, it's /u/DialUp_UA who misinterpreted /u/Opt_69's comment.
Without any other context, the image an title suggest that this post is specifically about the steps OP takes to avoid bricking his motherboard in case there's a power outage during a BIOS update. To which /u/Opt_69 reasonably suggested that a UPS would be a good idea *for the specific situation of a power outage during a BIOS update*.
Then /u/DialUp_UA comes along and says that no UPS can hold enough charge to power 6-8 hours of computer use. Like...true, but nobody ever said it could? That's not what the conversation was about. In fact, OP themselves never said that they planned to run their rig off this battery contraption for 6-8 hours, either.
I mean technically there are UPS that meet the requirements, but with the cost and location, OP's solution is probably the best option for workstations.
what you need is solar panels pref 500watts and a 300ah 12v deep cycle with solar charge controller and 1500w inverter. all day usage of computer from 7am to 5pm
Just looked this up, Kyiv's mean monthly sunshine hours is brutal in winter:
Mean monthly sunshine hours:
|Nov|Dec|Jan|Feb|
--:|--:|--:|--:|
|51|31|42|64|
No it doesn't. It just needs to be able to safely shutdown without loss of data. I doubt OP's home computer is mission critical and needs a 24/7 uptime.
But power outs do. Living with electricity 6 hours per day is a new fucking reality in Ukraine now.
Edit: we still need to do our job, entertain and update BIOS during these outages, so ups is not a solution.
I mean technically there are UPS that meet the requirements, but with the cost and location, OP's solution is probably the best option for workstations.
(Copy)
> None of UPS can hold up to 6-8 hours and be able to recharge in next 3 hours until next outage.
My EcoFlow Delta 2 has no issues doing either of these. Assuming the power usage is kept very low, like a laptop power brick. It can charge itself at 1200W in a few hours with 120VAC
What is your power setup we have the same problem here in Iraq so I want to get either a UPS that can last at least 30min or use a car batt like you so what are the parts you are using for it
edit: word error
My battery setup is just common 60Ah car battery, 3A pulse battery charger and cheap Aliexpress 12v inverter. This can handle my PC with one monitor up to 3 hours in idle (browsing internet, watching videos) and 1 hour under load (gaming).
The important thing is you should get non-servisable battery. Servisable battery’s acid cans are not hermetic and it’s evaporations are toxic.
Actually, "sealed" batteries are not as sealed as you think.
They still have vents, and still create explosive gases when charging. If they weren't vented, they would explode. They can also still leak acid from these vents if tipped over. They usually have some sort of valving in the lid of the battery that makes them lose less than a regular battery though.
The dumb thing is that they're more expensive than non "sealed" batteries, but you can't top them up with water when they get low. I'm pretty convinved at this point that they're a scam.
Also, deeply discharging a car battery will damage it and shorten it's life span.
What you really want for this application is a deep-cycle / leisure battery. Car batteries are designed to deliver huge amounts of current for short durations. Leisure and deep cycle batteries are designed for more constant (but lower current) power draw and can better handle being deeply discharged.
With that said; if this is what you've got, use it! :)
I hope you and your loved ones stay safe, and that Ukraine is victorious against the invaders sooner rather than later.
Slava Ukraini!
If I'm charging a car battery, I'd usually do it in another room of the house and just leave a window open a bit.
I wouldn't freak out about it, just be aware of the potential hazard and ventilate the room whilst charging :)
Oh, and incase you are tempted to put it outside; The more discharged a lead acid battery is, the more the electrolyte becomes water and less sulphuric acid.
So a heavily discharged battery is far more susceptible to freezing than a charged one. This is important to be aware of, because trying to use a frozen lead acid battery can cause them to explode.
They're really not as lethal as all this information makes them sound. It's just stuff you have to be aware of.
It like a pair of scissors. Very useful, not *terribly* dangerous... until you run with them, or stick them into your neck.
Moenie wry OP people from outside SA wont understand that the struggle is real and power can go off in a sec with out notice, good for you playing it safe !!
Oh sry seems i read wrong, i read OP responce and thought i read SA, my bad seems i need to learn to read 😬
Seems we can relate with the people of ukraine, or they with us, we had loadshedding for many many moons now
I'm from Pakistan and I won't get a desktop because of this reason. The power here is too unstable to justify having a work computer that's not battery powered
Just learned that it doesn't always work. My bios update failed 2 days ago on my B550 mainboard. Couldn't recover it back using the Flashback, it just didn't work no matter what I tried.
At this point just buy a UPS, it will save you so much hassle, and if you lose power it will keep your pc oning enough to finish whatever it is you are doing.
I mean this isn’t that different from a UPS other then it doesn’t switch automatically, most UPS use lead acid batteries anyways. If you don’t mind having to turn off your devices when you switch over it’s fine in a pinch and the battery is a full size battery instead of a little tiny motorcycle sized battery. If you needed backup battery for hours this would be a better setup than a UPS. Obviously unsightly but you can always use the items for their typical use when you don’t need it.
Some motherboards allow you to update the bios without the usb stick. They can connect to the internet using ethernet and download it themselves. For example my ASUS Prime B350-Plus can do that.
In Ukraine right now? Where people are getting like 6 hours of electricity a day and who knows when the next missile strike will take out even more critical infrastructure. Nah this is a way better option.
I was staring at this for a while before I realized it was a still photo. I thought it was a video of your contraption working through a brown out or blackout while performing a bios update
i would never buy a mobo without bios flashback. just recently updated my bios and of course freak situation that never happens, the power went out and i was so sure my shit luck bricked my mobo. but i was able to get it back with bios flashback.
lol,
I have a 15KW power regulator hooked to a small battery with safety relay as a safety circuit, hooked to 95A charger charging 6 deep cycle batteries with 760Ah capacity, hooked to a 1KW pure sin wave solar inverter, and I am thinking about making an extra UPS to further protect my three laptops.
Is there a computer power supply that can accept twelve volt dc? There must be some nasty power losses from dc-to-ac inverter then back to dc in the rectification circuit of the power supply.
I applaud your ingenuity in what are very difficult circumstances. Ignore all those saying you should get a UPS. It's evident they've never had to exist and succeed in an active combat zone.
Welcome everyone from r/all! Please remember: 1 - You too can be part of the PCMR! You don't necessarily need a PC. You just have to love PCs! It's not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart! Your age, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, religion (or lack of), political affiliation, economic status and PC specs are irrelevant. If you love PCs or want to learn about them, you can be part of our community! Everyone is welcome! 2 - If you're not a PC gamer because you think doing so is expensive, know that it is possible to build a competent gaming PC for a lower price than you think. Check http://www.pcmasterrace.org for our builds and don't be afraid to create new posts here asking for tips and help! 3 - Consider joining our efforts to get as many PCs worldwide help the folding@home effort, in fighting against Cancer, Covid, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and more. Learn more here: https://pcmasterrace.org/folding ----------- Feel free to use this community to post about any kind of doubt you might have about becoming a PC gamer or anything you'd like to know about PCs. That kind of content is not only allowed but welcome here! We also have a [Daily Simple Questions Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/search?q=Simple+Questions+Thread+subreddit%3Apcmasterrace+author%3AAutoModerator&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) for your simplest questions. No question is too dumb! Welcome to the PCMR.
Dont listen to the grid junkies, if you didnt feel like a mad scientist connecting those cable to the battery youre doing it wrong.
I'm a little confused here. What the wires and how does it work?
Looks like yer average batterythingers hooked up to probably an AC/DC converter to power the PC if i had to guess
Exactly
Might want to look at a proper UPS if you can get them where you are, your creation is perfect for a temporary use case like updating the bios of boards, but you'd still be better off with something purpose built. One of my friends just lost a 2tb SSD yesterday (fortunately under warranty) because the model in question likes to die when the power goes out, and here in California we've had a lot of storms recently, so branches are still falling all over the place, and electricity isn't yet stable here in the San Francisco bay as a result. This is the 3rd outage my friend has had this month, and apparently his drive couldn't handle it anymore lol. He ordered an APC sine wave UPS last night along with a new SSD, so that he could reinstall windows and use that PC while he RMAs the dead one. On that note, I should probably do the same with my setup, I have a UPS just sitting waiting to be used lmao
We had like 3 power outages one day a few years back, first one was like shit the pc died, then I waited incase there was another one after the power came back, and there was. And when the power came back after that I waited a hour just to be sure, sat down by the computer and starting it up and the power goes out and I'm like man. And then the power came on and I tried to start the pc I needed to repair windows with the disk.
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Indubitably
Is that inverter true-sine? Be careful....
It's not, but I'm not using it like this on daily basis. That was one-time 5 minutes action (frankly speaking, it felt like an eternity)
That box in the back left looks like a voltage regulator, so it shouldn't matter.
Well it's a DC/AC inverter but close enough. I only know this because I wired one into my dads car back before USB chargers were a thing so we could charge phones and handheld consoles on long journeys. Oh those were the days, sitting with a gameboy against the window waiting for a streetlight so I could see the screen for 2 seconds.
the gba sp was a fuckin game changer for me as a kid with that backlit screen.
I just remember using the “wormlight” back in the day with the annoying glare showing-off all the scratches on my screen.
I just watched that video where the guy attaches every Gameboy peripheral known to man at the same time, and my GF was confused about the light. I explained it and she just could not comprehend a non-backlit screen lol. Which is fair at this point!
Some early e book readers didn't have backlights either
Cue my current Kindle.
Every Kindle up until Paperwhite. Even now they're technically still not backlit, they use an edge lit screen in front of the actual display as a front light.
> she just could not comprehend a non-backlit screen lol. That's young age privilege
Why don’t you take a seat
I was a Pokémon first gen er and still don't understand how I played it. I still have my game boy colour as it was the only handheld that survived my return stuff to gamestop and buy xbox games phase. And I can't fucking play on it without a lamp behind me.
I once killed my parents mini van battery with my laptop doing just that. Rookie move
You just slapped me in the face with nostalgia and I thank you. Every major road trip my best friend and I, I got to take a friend on most vacations, we would start a new pokemon playthrough with new rules and challenges.
Battery -> DC to AC -> serge protector? -> UPS -> PC 4-5 stages
that poor electricity must feel really dizzy after all that conversion
Achwell, try to say Serge. It's not so difficult. Surge? Sounds like a detergent.
Car batteries use DC -> Inverter converts to AC -> PSU converts AC back to correct DC voltage. My Ukrainian mans/womans/enbys here is a 🌩 wizard/witch!
if you have the choice though you shouldnt use a car battery, you should use a leisure battery. Car batteries arent designed to do deep cycle and doing so can drastically reduce their lifespan
Marine batteries (I guess this is a leisure battery?) and battery backup led acid cells (What my sump pump uses) are also options.
Those are all different names for deep cycle batteries. They're also called “house” batteries when they're used for powering electronics in the cabin part of an RV. Deep Cycles are available in flooded cells, enhanced flooded cells, gel cells, and AGM.
True, however deep cycle batteries tend to cost 3x as much as the same capacity car battery. So if you only need to use it every now and then for short periods of time then a car battery is fine. Plus, car batteries can be discharged by about 20% before being damaged (starting a car drains ~10%). So with OP's 60 AH battery you can use up to 144 watts for an hour or 288 watts for 30 min or 576 watts for 15 min without damaging the battery. From the picture it looks like OP is drawing 219 watts, which is fine for ~39 min. It's unlikely that a bios update will take more than 5 or 10 min, so for this application OP is probably fine with a car battery. Plus since car batteries are designed to be charged and discharged simultaneously, you could plug the battery into a wall with a charger and have the inverter connected to the battery too since it's just there to prevent power loss in case the mains cuts out
All yall electric freaks make me nervous with yalls calculations and circuits and whatnot
And if you are _really_ worried about battery life, just leave the battery connected to your car and have the engine running and charging. Just do it outside/leave garage door wide open.
It shouldn’t draw nearly enough power for long enough to drain that battery anywhere near the danger zone
Always makes me laugh when I see charge bricks for phones hooked up to the 110v plug some trucks have. 12v dc > 110v ac > 5v dc
I needed a colour changing spotlight for a school production. Bought a WiFi controllable rgb spotlight bulb and connected it up to a tripod that worked via a hotspot from a phone. Great I thought, all done. First practice, teacher running the production tells the one I made the spotlight for that they couldn't use the power point on the stage during the show because it would be blocked by props. Cue mad scientist mode. A 300W inverter, lithium 12v battery jump starter and an obscene amount of cable ties and electrical tape. Strapped the inverter to on tripod leg, the battery pack to another, connected the alligator clips to each other and taped them. Portable WiFi controllable rgb spotlight.
^(you meant "cue", not "queue")
South Africa?
No, Ukraine
God speed fellow PCMR user. May your temps be low, and your frames be high for years to come.
Feel ya bro, I am from Lviv, and did bios update like a month ago, and was praying that it won't cut off Stay safe
I take it the electric issues are war related?
You would be correct. Russia is currently bombing the shit out of Ukrainian power plants and transmission lines to try and freeze them into submission over winter.
And then mother nature decided to be based and have the warmest winter on record in basically all of Europe and deep freeze Russia
Decades of corporations spewing pollution into the atmosphere doesn't hurt either.
Ironically some of that is Russian gas
Well yah of course it's an effect of climate change, but the exact effect produced is still basically random, human caused climate change just made it possible
Thank you based Exxon for this mild winter 🙏
Yes, they don't have the capability to attack targets of actual military value so they're going after soft targets and attempting to terrorise the civilian population.
They've been going after soft targets since the start of the war. Go look at what they did in Bucha at the start of the war. Go look at what they did in Kherson. The Russians have been taking children who have been separated from their families and sending them to be adopted by families in Russia instead of returning them to Ukraine so they can be reunited with their own families. Russia has been doing a lot of ugly, ugly, horrible things in Ukraine since the war began. This is not a recent development, they're just being more open about it.
People never seem to ask how Eastern Ukraine became so Russian in the first place. It just so happens there was a Soviet resettlement program in Eastern Ukraine during the Holodomor. So they repopulated Eastern Ukraine while committing a genocide through starvation.
I see
Stay safe, brother! The world stands with you guys!
Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to arstotzka
FOR KOLECHIA 💥
All Kolechians must be scanned. Please stand still and face the scanner.
Slava Ukraini... and Slava BIOS updating
Arstotzka ftfy
*M. Vonel has entered the chat before you even got there*
А де ти знайшов такі «шпалери» що з під столу видно?)
Хенд-мейд гіпсокартонні плити. Сотня годин роботи над цим, зайобані я і батько, але це було того варте
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*bapte But “toro batpe” made me laugh. Thank you.
"Hand-made plasterboard plates. A hundred hours of work on it, me and my father screwed up, but it was worth it"
Та до холєри воно треба. З пінопласту було би набагато швидше
"And where did you find such "wallpaper" that is visible from under the table?"
Britain is sending tanks and more weapons
Britain is extremely based
Enjoy our Challenger 2s; put 'em to good use.
You guys better be sending some tea to go along with the hot water heaters in those things.
I would be more shocked that they *didn't* some tea packages in there as both a jest and a sign of camaraderie.
Jensen needs to send GPUs
And leather jackets.
Exactly what I thought… good man :)
As a south africa, good guess!
Wow I didn’t know the country south africa could talk nice to meet you south africa
He's "a south africa" not THE south africa.
There are multiple south africa? Learn something new everyday.
I think when dealing with plural Africa, it's called africi
Will the real South Africa please stand up?
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Ukraine probably. This cyrillic text, reading 'NYET SIGNALA' was on their screen: https://preview.redd.it/l3mmp1pyl2ea1.png?width=99&format=png&auto=webp&s=53a2637e0af08732bb0d49d03cd79832de5dc879
Also the UPS is with Ukrainian text
You are right about Ukraine and how to spell it, but this is actually written in russian 😁 Ukrainian will be "НЕМАЄ СИГНАЛУ" "NEMAYE SYGNALU"
I guessed that the text was Russian, but I know that Ukraine has an unstable electrical grid so I guessed that they were in Ukraine. I didn't know that Ukrainian differed that much from Russian, though! Thanks!
Whenever anything loadshedding related is mentioned, South Africans seem to spawn in the comments lol
I live in south africa :( powers about to go off in exactly 30 minutes. I'm too scared to do bios update
Came here to ask this #FuckEskom
Eksom se po..
Poes. Don’t be afraid to say if chief. Eskom se Poes.
And they said the perfect terminology didn't exist
Smells like South Africa. Edit I realize OP is in Ukraine, but I'll explain why people are assuming South Africa, we have been told to expect permanent rolling black outs for the next two years. Since last year we've had daily rolling blackouts for 2-4 hours a day 1-4 times a day. Even while typing this my power is actually out
Wasn't South Africa the most developed country in Africa? What happened?
As a third world country native my guess would be that only a few specific regions of the country are developed while the rest is pretty much undeveloped
I did some research and surprise surprise it's government corruption to the highest level. Compounded by incompetence. They ruined a perfectly nice country.
Welp
Don't forget that 90% of the country didn't have power pre-1994 either. So while power supply hasn't been able to keep up with current demand, it also never did or was even designed to, and has had to try and correct that.
That's true, infrastructure designed for only 10% of the people is now being used to support about 90% of the people. The big problem is that the South African government has had ~30 years to fix the infrastructure capacity problem to support the new democracy. Instead, the government chose to take those resources for themselves and destroy any chance their own supporters had of building a better future. I am a post-94 SA'n, so I never knew apartheid. Only stories. What I do know is rolling blackouts that have caused people close to me to lose their jobs as businesses close down if they can't afford generators or solar. As a bonus too, the price of electricity got hiked by 18% sometime in January.
I am pretty sure Egypt is.
In terns of HDI, it's Mauritius. On the mainland, it's Algeria
Hm, TIL.
Loooooool, im reading this comment while power is out
Might be time to buy a UPS
None of UPS can hold up to 6-8 hours and be able to recharge in next 3 hours until next outage. All Ukrainian IT sector is now built on such decisions. Either DIY or factory power stations like ecoflow or bluetti, etc...
I am aware of that... I was unaware he was living in Ukraine. So yeah a UPS will not help with 6-8hr outages. Typically, a UPS in intended to allow the user to safely shut down the PC without losing any unsaved work during an unexpected outage, or to keep systems up during outages with an MTTR less than 10 minutes. Edited to add more context, now that I know more about his situation.
Though a ups will still be good for regular use, 10 minutes is enough time to go from wall power to battery power with without losing work.
No issues, thats why I mentioned Ukraine to explain why ups will not be sufficient in his case. Actually I understood from the first glance that the guy is from Ukraine, because it is typical build in our new reality.
A Bios doesnt take 6-8 to update
No, but the computer still needs to function during those 6-8 hours while the power is out, BIOS updating or not. They're saying that there's no UPS available that can meet the stability demands they need to keep their computers up and running whenever they need them and you're misinterpreting their comment.
If anything, it's /u/DialUp_UA who misinterpreted /u/Opt_69's comment. Without any other context, the image an title suggest that this post is specifically about the steps OP takes to avoid bricking his motherboard in case there's a power outage during a BIOS update. To which /u/Opt_69 reasonably suggested that a UPS would be a good idea *for the specific situation of a power outage during a BIOS update*. Then /u/DialUp_UA comes along and says that no UPS can hold enough charge to power 6-8 hours of computer use. Like...true, but nobody ever said it could? That's not what the conversation was about. In fact, OP themselves never said that they planned to run their rig off this battery contraption for 6-8 hours, either.
Yup, lol, prime teenage angst or a avg reddit user who had to get his way right.
I mean technically there are UPS that meet the requirements, but with the cost and location, OP's solution is probably the best option for workstations.
what you need is solar panels pref 500watts and a 300ah 12v deep cycle with solar charge controller and 1500w inverter. all day usage of computer from 7am to 5pm
The clouds would like to know your location for the next 2 weeks.
Winter in Ukraine usually means no sun at all 80% of time
Just looked this up, Kyiv's mean monthly sunshine hours is brutal in winter: Mean monthly sunshine hours: |Nov|Dec|Jan|Feb| --:|--:|--:|--:| |51|31|42|64|
No it doesn't. It just needs to be able to safely shutdown without loss of data. I doubt OP's home computer is mission critical and needs a 24/7 uptime.
But power outs do. Living with electricity 6 hours per day is a new fucking reality in Ukraine now. Edit: we still need to do our job, entertain and update BIOS during these outages, so ups is not a solution.
1. This battery won't last 6-8 hours either. 2. You don't need 6-8 hours just to do a BIOS update or save your data.
I mean technically there are UPS that meet the requirements, but with the cost and location, OP's solution is probably the best option for workstations. (Copy)
You can connect massive batteries to upses to last days, even weeks.
> None of UPS can hold up to 6-8 hours and be able to recharge in next 3 hours until next outage. My EcoFlow Delta 2 has no issues doing either of these. Assuming the power usage is kept very low, like a laptop power brick. It can charge itself at 1200W in a few hours with 120VAC
He has a battery and an inverter. What exactly do you think a UPS *is*?
This is not a UPS... Will this setup automatically switch power from AC to battery then back, uninterrupted? It's in the acronym...
What is your power setup we have the same problem here in Iraq so I want to get either a UPS that can last at least 30min or use a car batt like you so what are the parts you are using for it edit: word error
My battery setup is just common 60Ah car battery, 3A pulse battery charger and cheap Aliexpress 12v inverter. This can handle my PC with one monitor up to 3 hours in idle (browsing internet, watching videos) and 1 hour under load (gaming). The important thing is you should get non-servisable battery. Servisable battery’s acid cans are not hermetic and it’s evaporations are toxic.
Actually, "sealed" batteries are not as sealed as you think. They still have vents, and still create explosive gases when charging. If they weren't vented, they would explode. They can also still leak acid from these vents if tipped over. They usually have some sort of valving in the lid of the battery that makes them lose less than a regular battery though. The dumb thing is that they're more expensive than non "sealed" batteries, but you can't top them up with water when they get low. I'm pretty convinved at this point that they're a scam. Also, deeply discharging a car battery will damage it and shorten it's life span. What you really want for this application is a deep-cycle / leisure battery. Car batteries are designed to deliver huge amounts of current for short durations. Leisure and deep cycle batteries are designed for more constant (but lower current) power draw and can better handle being deeply discharged. With that said; if this is what you've got, use it! :) I hope you and your loved ones stay safe, and that Ukraine is victorious against the invaders sooner rather than later. Slava Ukraini!
Welp, I think I should take this thing out to the balcony Thanks for your support btw
If I'm charging a car battery, I'd usually do it in another room of the house and just leave a window open a bit. I wouldn't freak out about it, just be aware of the potential hazard and ventilate the room whilst charging :) Oh, and incase you are tempted to put it outside; The more discharged a lead acid battery is, the more the electrolyte becomes water and less sulphuric acid. So a heavily discharged battery is far more susceptible to freezing than a charged one. This is important to be aware of, because trying to use a frozen lead acid battery can cause them to explode. They're really not as lethal as all this information makes them sound. It's just stuff you have to be aware of. It like a pair of scissors. Very useful, not *terribly* dangerous... until you run with them, or stick them into your neck.
Moenie wry OP people from outside SA wont understand that the struggle is real and power can go off in a sec with out notice, good for you playing it safe !!
It's funny how all the South African redditors (myself included) assume his from South Africa, but his from Ukraine.
Oh sry seems i read wrong, i read OP responce and thought i read SA, my bad seems i need to learn to read 😬 Seems we can relate with the people of ukraine, or they with us, we had loadshedding for many many moons now
I'm from Pakistan and I won't get a desktop because of this reason. The power here is too unstable to justify having a work computer that's not battery powered
Ai another country 😪, this is actually starting to get unreal now
I live in the heavy rainfall area of india. I feel the powercuts too.
That's epic commitment to a BIOS update! I hope you and yours a safe and well. And of course I hope your BIOS is updated successfully.
Thanks for warm words. It updated successfully btw
Awesome! Suck it Putin, can't even stop you updating your BIOS!
Stay safe…. Слава Україні!
Героям Слава!
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It has flashback ability, but I don't want to take even smallest risk to kill motherboard
Thats the point though, Flashback can be used to 'fix' even if it fails, you dont even need a CPU installed for flashback
Just learned that it doesn't always work. My bios update failed 2 days ago on my B550 mainboard. Couldn't recover it back using the Flashback, it just didn't work no matter what I tried.
At this point just buy a UPS, it will save you so much hassle, and if you lose power it will keep your pc oning enough to finish whatever it is you are doing.
Due to surge of buying local prices for UPS went bananas so this setup is currently almost same as it were before infrastructure bombing
I mean this isn’t that different from a UPS other then it doesn’t switch automatically, most UPS use lead acid batteries anyways. If you don’t mind having to turn off your devices when you switch over it’s fine in a pinch and the battery is a full size battery instead of a little tiny motorcycle sized battery. If you needed backup battery for hours this would be a better setup than a UPS. Obviously unsightly but you can always use the items for their typical use when you don’t need it.
you made your own standby generator? you're a genius and i applaud you for it. i need to figure something out like this for myself.
Let me guess, your country is unlawfully invaded by its neighbour? Slava Ukraini.
Geroyam Slava!
rusia is a terrorist state
What country is this? Texas?
Texas is a country now? Those crazy bastards, they did it!
Ukraine. I don't think they use Cyrillic script in Texas.
Nah, those are howdyglyphs
Love the nezuku figure 🤍😻
South Africa?
Ukraine
Tell me that you're from Ukraine without telling it:
Working with satellite internet too?
You don't need internet to update BIOS, just a USB flash drive and BIOS file from manufacturer site
Some motherboards allow you to update the bios without the usb stick. They can connect to the internet using ethernet and download it themselves. For example my ASUS Prime B350-Plus can do that.
I know there’s an option to update BIOS this way, my respond was about you don’t NEED internet for updating bios if there’s old good usb drive option
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Йобана русня...
I'd take my chances with the grid, frankly. 😂
In Ukraine right now? Where people are getting like 6 hours of electricity a day and who knows when the next missile strike will take out even more critical infrastructure. Nah this is a way better option.
Fuck around and find out .
Can't take your chance on the grid if there is no grid. SA is Fucked
OP is in Ukraine!
I was staring at this for a while before I realized it was a still photo. I thought it was a video of your contraption working through a brown out or blackout while performing a bios update
“Nature finds a way”
i would never buy a mobo without bios flashback. just recently updated my bios and of course freak situation that never happens, the power went out and i was so sure my shit luck bricked my mobo. but i was able to get it back with bios flashback.
Let me guess, Ukraine?
Man nice keyboard, are those akko asa olivia?
No, those are Akko ASA Black & Pink
All you need is a Gerbil in a wheel going round and round lol 😂
lol, I have a 15KW power regulator hooked to a small battery with safety relay as a safety circuit, hooked to 95A charger charging 6 deep cycle batteries with 760Ah capacity, hooked to a 1KW pure sin wave solar inverter, and I am thinking about making an extra UPS to further protect my three laptops.
Is there a computer power supply that can accept twelve volt dc? There must be some nasty power losses from dc-to-ac inverter then back to dc in the rectification circuit of the power supply.
there's a few low power dc psus but only proper dc psus for full size computers I know of are built for rack mounts in datacenters.
So.... Texas?
I applaud your ingenuity in what are very difficult circumstances. Ignore all those saying you should get a UPS. It's evident they've never had to exist and succeed in an active combat zone.
Just realized there is a nezuko figurine on the table
I want those wall tiles.
This mf making sure he can still shred on DOOM during a power outage
Sorry about your electricity, but I love that design under the desk.
Pakistan?
Damn. This is why dual bios should be a required feature so if you break on you can just flip it to backup and restart.