Maker: Build your own UPS with UPSide

[Zenaan Harkness]

OpenHW UPS - great way to further build the makerspace and openhw
communities - since relatively simple circuits, great flow-on into
larger UPSs and open source electric cars and off-grid power setups.

Nice!

Thanks for the links...



On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 10:53:50PM -0400, grarpamp wrote:
> https://gitlab.com/esr/upside
> http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=7839
> 
> upside: Design and implementation of an open-hardware,
> open-software Uninterruptible Power Supply unit.
> 
> 
> On 2018-02-08 I published a blog rant titled UPSes suck and need to be
> disrupted complaining about the deficiencies of crappy Uninterruptible
> Power Supply designs that perform poorly and pile hidden costs on
> their users in order to minimize vendors' NRE and BOM costs. I
> suggested that this whole product category needs to be disrupted by an
> open-hardware design that addresses the many deficiencies of existing
> hardware. UPSes are not complicated devices; there is no good excuse
> for the state of the commmercial art to be as inadequate as it is.
> 
> The response on my blog and G+ was intense, almost overwhelming. It
> seems many UPS users are unhappy with what the vendors are pushing.
> 
> This project is an attempt to do something about that. Our goal is to
> define a set of requirements and develop a specification for a
> high-quality UPS that can be built from off-the-shelf parts in any
> reasonably well-equipped makerspace or home electronics shop. Our
> final deliverable should be PCB designs, a full parts list, assembly
> instructions, and full manuals for the hardware and software.
> 
> We welcome contributors: people with interest in UPSes who have
> expertise in battery technology, power-switching electronics, writing
> device-control firmware, relevant standards such as USB and the DMTF
> battery-management profile.
> 
> We also welcome participation from established UPS and electronics
> vendors. We know that consumer electronics is a cutthroat low-margin
> business in which it's tough to support a real R&D team or make
> possibly-risky product bets. Help us, and then let us help you!
> 
> To get a handle on the state of the project it is probably best to
> begin by browsing the wiki that hosts our design documents.
> 
> You should also read the process document to learn how to contribute
> effectively.