power monitor module for computer

Thread Starter

bug13

Joined Feb 13, 2012
2,002
Hi guys

I am looking for a power monitor module for computer. The function of such module is like a UPS, but it doesn't have batteries, charging circuit or inverter. It has only voltage monitoring circuit, and have the ability to send a command to a computer to shut it down when the battery is low.

  • It that something like that I can buy?
  • If yes, what do they call? Where I can but if from?

Thanks guys!!
 

Thread Starter

bug13

Joined Feb 13, 2012
2,002
Could you elaborate on this idea?
Let's say a UPS consist of batteries, batteries charging circuit, inverter, batteries fuel gauge, a mean to communicate the remaining energy in batteries to host computer.

What I am looking for is some sort of module with two of these functions: 1)to monitor batteries status, and 2)communicate the batteries status to the host computer. by usb/serial/erthernet, with some sort of (hopefully standard UPS) protocol that a windows machine can understand. Windows/or an app can shutdown the host computer before the batteries is totally flat.

The reason for this is I have a panel PC, which is power by 12V, and backup by 12V SLA battery. I need some mean to shut it down properly in case of power lose and backup battery is dead.
 

AnalogKid

Joined Aug 1, 2013
10,986
Manu UPS units use SNMP to inform the host processor of UPS status. This requires a processor in the UPS running the SNMP protocol and an app or driver in the host system interpreting and acting on the UPS information. Not a cheap development cycle.

ak
 

Reloadron

Joined Jan 15, 2015
7,501
Hi guys

I am looking for a power monitor module for computer. The function of such module is like a UPS, but it doesn't have batteries, charging circuit or inverter. It has only voltage monitoring circuit, and have the ability to send a command to a computer to shut it down when the battery is low.

  • It that something like that I can buy?
  • If yes, what do they call? Where I can but if from?

Thanks guys!!
OK, so what this comes down to is a computer powered by a 12 volt battery source and anytime the battery (source) voltage drops below a preset level of for example 12.00 volts you want to initiate a shutdown of the computer. There is the method as AnalogKid mentions which can get expensive and complicated. There really isn't an easy way but there is a quick and dirty method. Either way you will need to write a chunk of code. You could use a small piece of hardware like this to monitor battery voltage. Since it is limited to a 10 volt input you would divide the 12 volts by two so the monitor would effectively see only a 0 to 6 volts. The module I linked to is a 10 bit device so at the analog input 0 to 20 volts (since we divided by two) is equal to 0 to 1023 bits. That gives you 1024 quantization steps. There are dozens of other small inexpensive data acquisition modules out there like the one I linked to and most provide code samples in popular languages like Visual Basic and C languages.

Microsoft does offer Visual Studio Express as a free download to give you something to program with.

There are other ways to go about what you are looking to do. Pretty much a matter of budget and work involved.I don't know of a simple turn key off the shelf solution that you can buy.

Ron
 
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