D. Lee Jackson

Words and Music

Shadow Warrior Shareware Music, Plus UPS Fun Part 3

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I have received quite a bit of help over the past day concerning the shareware MIDI tracks I wrote for the original Shadow Warrior game. I’d been looking for them for some while now, and all of a sudden they’ve shown up today! My thanks go out to those who have gone to the trouble and contributed their recordings—I do appreciate it.

If you would like to hear them, please go to my Music page and scroll down. You’ll find plenty of links for your listening pleasure.

Additionally, the saga of the replacement Uninterruptible Power Supply is reaching a peak. The unit arrived today, appropriately enough via UPS (no FedEx jokes for me, *sigh*), and it is now plugged into the wall outlet and charging its battery. I really do hope I don’t trip a breaker—there are a lot of things plugged in in my little corner of the house, and a blown circuit breaker is the next-to-last thing I need (the last thing being something happening to the computer once everything is switched on (heaven forbid)).

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to use the Contact page. Thank you again for reading!

Fun With UPS Power Units, Part Two

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The advice that I received (thanks!) basically said to go as big as I could when it comes to Uninterruptible Power Supplies. One adviser said he rarely gets three minutes out of a unit rated for twenty. No stamina jokes, please.

So, yesterday I sat down and started researching the cost of said UPS units. Turns out that they start at almost $300, and that’s for a 1500 VA/1050 Watt unit. They also change the number of outlets from what I had (10) to a lesser amount (8), but all of them are both battery and surge protected.

Now, while the change to an all-battery-backed unit might sound good, you’ve got to understand what else I’ve had plugged into the non-battery-backed side of the dead unit. Since I’m a music composer/producer as well as an aspiring author, I have previously laid down some serious money on mix-quality audio monitors—specifically, on a pair of Adam A3X desktop units and an Adam Sub7 subwoofer. These aren’t lightweights when it comes to power draw, and to be honest I don’t need them backed up by a battery.

In short, I’m going to have to move things around a bit and risk letting a bit of 60Hz hum into the system (I’m no electrical engineer, nor can I afford one to come in and set things up so that they share a common path to ground). The computer and video monitors will have to go to the new UPS, along with a couple of low-power synths, while the Adam monitors will have to move over to a new heavy-duty surge/noise protector. Total cash outlay: more than $350.

I just hope my circuit breaker box can handle everything once I’m done.

Questions? Comments? Guidance? Please feel free to use the Contact page. Thanks!

We’ll FedEx Your UPS

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My wife finally managed to help get me going and transfer a new music-centric computer system from our kitchen table to its rightful spot by my computer desk. Took most of the day today. We gathered around the system to see if it would boot in its new location. Step one: turn on the Uninterruptible Power Supply.

Instant fail. The battery backup side of things refused to initiate.

After directing a few choice words at the blasted thing, I started doing my research. Is it under warranty? Not any more—I bought it in 2011. Is the battery dead? Possibly, but replacing it might not help (see below). Is it capable of handling what I’m going to be throwing at it?

Probably not. It’s a 900 watt UPS, and the power supply in my system is a 1000 watt box—specifically, a Corsair RM1000 with Active Power Factor Correction. Translation: it requires an Active PFC-compatible UPS with pure sine wave output.

This is the part where I ask you, my learned readers, for help. I can’t determine what amount of power output I need with the UPS. The dead one was good for up to 900 watts, but I don’t know if that will even work with a 1000 watt power supply, much less the other stuff in it—hence the possible fail with replacing the batteries.

Anyway, here are the system’s contents, aside from the Corsair RM1000:

  • ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer/USB 3.1 motherboard
  • GeForce GTX 970 reference video card
  • 32GB DDR4 RAM
  • Intel Core i7 5930K Hex-Core 3.5GHz
  • Two 1-terabyte SSDs and one 2-terabyte HDD
  • Blu-ray burner

Now, based on the above, do I actually need a UPS that puts out a minimum of 1000 watts? I fear that I do, but I don’t want to waste money if I can avoid it. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Just use the Contact page to drop me a line.

Thank you!