Looks like Officeworks are clearing these out. The ticket originally displayed $80-odd, reduced to $39 and reduced further to $29.63. Only two on the shelf at the Werribee OW store; one remaining.
Full product details on the Belkin website http://www.belkin.com/au/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id…
One way to find out, cut the power to it and see what happens..
These belkins automatically shut down after 30 minutes regardless of load. I have one on my router which is 10W, and its really annoying because it turns itself off even though it still has plenty of juice left. You can turn it back on manually, but it will do the same thing 30 minutes later. rinse repeat.
Only 6 plugs, and they are spaced close together even when there's that much space. So a big adapter would kill the slot next to it.
The ones on COTD a few days ago for $19.95 were better. Apart from the battery power, but it's only 400VA.
I wouldn't buy one, but for those that would, hopefully it's not just your store selling them, since yours only has one left.
What were the specs on the ones from COTD?
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/73786
There's no battery power but there are individual switches for 8 plugs, 2 USB charging ports, surge protection for coax, network and phone cables.
Mine just arrived today actually.
The 400VA battery power on the Belkin can supply 240W of backup power, which is not a lot. A standard PC comes with a 500W+ power supply (not that it will always be using the full load), but you'll also need a monitor, modems/routers, and other stuff that also need powering. It's no substitute for a UPS.
Why would you need to keep the monitor etc running? Basically only the pc should be on the battery backup plug, plenty enough time to notify the pc/serverfor clean shutdown.
I'm running the Belkin 600va it's a nice unit and it works with my Ubuntu based n40l NAS.
You can't compare that COTD "powerboard" to the Belkin device.
The Belkin IS a UPS.
It a cheap solution and protectionto get over brown outs and power dropouts, which of course your powerboard wont.
I have several PC's that run 24/7 and a couple have these Belkins on them.
If you think the sockets are too close together, just use another powerboard and plug it into the Belkin UPS socket.
Why would you need to keep the monitor etc running? Basically only the pc should be on the battery backup plug, plenty enough time to notify the pc/serverfor clean shutdown.
If you want to manually shut down well… it helps to see what you're doing.
Say you're playing a game or something. I'd rather save and close everything myself than have it auto shut down.
Also, a brown out will kill your internet connection if your modem/router is not connected to a UPS. That would mean it kills your download, disconnects you from a game you were playing, and then you have to wait for the modem to boot and cycle itself back into connection with your ISP. If you play games, a DC will probably mean a loss.
The Belkin 600VA unit you bought I believe is the one that's replacing this discontinued model. I've seen that for sale a number of times for $25 btw.
You can't compare that COTD "powerboard" to the Belkin device.
The Belkin IS a UPS.
If 400 VA is enough for you, then sure. That's 250w. My PC with SLI cards and an OC'd CPU has an 850w PSU.
It a cheap solution and protectionto get over brown outs and power dropouts, which of course your powerboard wont.
I have a UPS (a real one) connected to my power board, so for me it's redundant.
Also I have doubts that all 6 plugs on this Belkin are battery powered.
If you think the sockets are too close together, just use another powerboard and plug it into the Belkin UPS socket.
So many boards.. what a ghetto solution.
Only 3 of the ports are UPS on these. These are fine for their intended purpose. For the 0.01% of the population who want to keep playing a high powered PC game during a power cut then you can pay for a proper server grade UPS.
If 400 VA is enough for you, then sure. That's 250w. My PC with SLI cards and an OC'd CPU has an 850w PSU.
The maximum power draw of your PSU when all rails are completely loaded to max is irrelevant.
just run a heap of adapters off it… at least that seems reasonable to me I have no idea if that would blow the system
yea - can't seems to find it on their website..
says out of stock so it won't show when searching through OW's site - http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/b2c/display/%28layout=5…
Officeworks has had these cheap for ages, two different sizes too.
Checked my local OW which have always had these. No where in sight now. Where they use to live is just filled with other power boards.
Bought the last 3 from Castle Hill moments ago.
They aren't very powerful but perfect for small items such as HP Micro Server. Or a low power PC
edit: looks available elsewhere ^^^
I got one so I can still make a coffee when our power goes out…
2 left at OW Brisbane CBD 40 minutes ago. I have one, runs 2x Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ for about 15 min before automatic shutdown.
Fitzroy has about 2 left as well. None in the city stores.
None in ACT Tuggeranong or Fyshwick stores :(.
Just an empty shelf with the ticket stating the price OP has posted.
Interesting. If you fully charged one and there's a blackout, connect the plug back to itself will give you unending power supply… ?
By golly, methinks suking has just discovered perpetual motion!
Be wary when buying discounted UPSs, got burned by a Dick Smith deal once. The batteries in UPSs are lead-acid batteries, and if they go flat before they are sold, the battery "sulphates" and permanently loses capacity.
The ones DSE was selling had a tiny "sell by" sticker with a date on the box, and the date was months before the purchase date. Didn't notice that until the first blackout, when the device died within a minute. Had long since lost the docket, so couldn't take it back for a refund.
Price of a replacement battery was roughly the same as was paid for the UPS.
that's why you need to test it before a blackout!
how one can do that ?
Omg…..
time travel to the stone age …
Unplug the UPS from the wall socket?
Contact the power company and arrange for a blackout in your local area?
cut the cord with some scissors?
I have one of these and it does what I wanted it to. When a blackout hits it stops the PC from shutting down and causing potential problems with hard drive errors and the likes. Not much good if you're out and about when this happens but as I have no life and rarely leave the house it suits me fine. ;)
Does this work with Macs? i.e. I would like to use it to shut down a Mac mini server in a controlled way if the power goes off. No wish to really keep it on for a long time (although being able to survive power flashes would be great). So I would like it be able to shutdown the Mac via USB (if it has that).
Yes they are Mac compatible - displays as such on the box. Replaced this with my old surge board. Despite the fact it has a few flaws (particulary design-wise), it'll keep my iMac running briefly in the event of a power outage. For $30 you can't go wrong.
None at Glen Waverley store. Just three 600VA left.
3 left at Parramatta. I'm contemplating buying a second one…
Typical Battery Life: 2-4 years
Is that common to these sort of devices?
I don't believe they are charging / discharging all the time …
Normal lead-acid batteries used for long-term back-up applications have a large empty area (but still filled with acid) in the bottom of the battery, so the degradation products of the battery have somewhere to collect. Once they fill this area and get to the point of shorting between the bottoms of the electrodes, the battery then fails.
Small batteries have only a tiny collection area, so they fill faster, and the battery fails faster.
Yes. Even batteries in $1,000+ UPS last two to five years.
Thanks for the explanations!
Some bugger came in and bought the last 3 at South Melbourne, none left now. I prefer my CyberPower 850va unit anyway but they are a lot more $$.
sydshouldbe all gone by now
I just picked one up for $22 at OW Preston, three left on the shelf.
None at frankston, mornington or keysborough Vic, may try others this side of the city on the weekend
You can ring their general enquiry number and find out which stores near you have stock - saves you running around. Ask for stock check for item "BEF6S400". Probably a good idea to then ring the actual store to confirm it is indeed in stock.
I purchased 2 today from my local OfficeWorks (one for my MicroServer and router, the other for my PC). They were reduced to $22.22 each.
Received mine. Works fine - can unplug it from the wall and the battery kicks in to keep the PC alive without any problem.
But can't get the supplied driver to work under Windows 7 64 bit. Have run the installer as administrator, downloaded other versions from the Belkin site, turned off virus checkers, etc. etc.
Whatever I do, it just stops at the dialog box "Please wait, Belkin Automatic Power Management Software is being configured for your system. This may take a moment…" and then just locks up with the swirling "not responding" icon.
Any ideas, anyone ?
Worked for me just fine, win2k8r2, so basically should be just like win7x64. You should get an icon for it in your tray.
Many thanks for the info. Went on Belkin's online help chat, they escalated my enquiry and asked me for a phone number. A few hours later received a call to my mobile from the USA. Terrible line quality, so was asked to call the customer service line which I will do from Skype at 2 cents or so per minute.
If anyone is interested, I called head office on Friday night and was told the following stock level for Vic:
Campbellfield 2
Cranbourne 7
Elsternwick 2
Maribyrnong 3
Narre Warren 2
Got to Cranbourne today and they had only one that I could see, but they also had one 600VA in stock for $40.88 so I got that instead.
Belkin have pretty much dropped support for theses. I have one. You can add it to windows to set it to power down when there is a power loss but not sure how reliable it is.
I am using it on my unraid server and i cannot get it to work on linux atm
always good as a surge protector and will run a computer for a few minutes. also cheaper than some surge protectors.