10.4: Control UPS via Energy Saver preferences panel

Aug 24, '05 08:41:30AM

Contributed by: fitzage

Tiger only hintI am not sure what types of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) this works with, but I know it works with my two APC Back-UPS ES 725 devices and OS 10.4.2. I decided to finally hook them into the computer, so my computers will know to shut down if the UPS is on low power -- I hadn't hooked them up since I moved and upgraded to Tiger.

I downloaded the APC software, but before I installed it, I noticed a battery icon in the menu bar which linked to the Energy Saver control panel. There was now a new option, in addition to Power Adapter, called UPS. This gave me the standard Energy Saver settings, plus three options from which I can mix and match:

  1. Shut computer down after running on battery power for x minutes.
  2. Shut computer down when only x minutes are left on battery.
  3. Shut computer down when only x percentage is left on battery.
It also includes a UPS battery meter. The APC software has only two options, and you have to choose one or the other -- Tiger's built-in UPS support seems much more robust.

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