Recomendations for PDU that wont break bank

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whitey

Moderator
Jun 30, 2014
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Afternoon all, just spent an hour on cable mgmt and stepped back to admire my handy-work but was immediately 'self-shamed' by my current power distribution. It's lame I know but it is essentially a pwr strip w/ all my gear hooked to it. Need to eventually add a good UPS but for now I wanna focus on a rack mount PDU. Requirements/feature set desires are the following:

1U rack mountable
Metered PDU (basic 'this is what all ports are pulling across entire PDU is fine w/ me on a LCD display or whatever, sure per-port would be nice but I'm not looking to break the bank)
Not a must but highly desired is hooded nema plugs instead of the wall-wart style...all you pwr/DC environmental guys can laugh and tell me the technical name.
$100 or less
Ohh it's gotta be normal plug-type, again laugh pwr guys, I forgot my elec/DC coding talk since I've been remote work from home for 5 yrs and don't go into our enterprise datacenters too much anymore (lights out DC's)

That's it, I'm easy, saw these...am I on the right track or better recommendations/suggestions? First one look more up my alley but over pricepoint grrrr. Last one looks to be C19 type plug...I suck.

APC Switched Rack PDU AP7900, Outlets 8 120V 12A tested includes rack ears

APC AP9563 10 Outlets Basic Rack PDU 1U/20A/120V Surge Protector

Tripp Lite PDU12IEC 100/240V 16A Rackmount 1U Power Distribution Unit NEW!!!
 
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pyro_

Active Member
Oct 4, 2013
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If you are patient you can find some good deals on the ap7900 units. I think I payed around 70-80$ each for mine. Also have a trip-lite switched pdu that has worked well and was cheap to get from a local electronics recycler
 
Blinky 42

Blinky 42

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Aug 6, 2015
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The build quality on the APC's are generally better but they are more expensive. We used to have dozens of the basic Tripp-Lite PDU1215 & PDU1220 units but the outlets would come loose over time if plugging things in often (like on a lab bench) or had heavy cords / wall warts on them. We switched over to APC7900's for switched or the AP9563 you found for basic horizontal PDU's.
 
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canta

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2014
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I suggest to get APC7900.

I think, got 2 for $70 and $50...

the issue was resetting password since not having APC serial cable, I had to make my own that based on the net.

updating firmware was easy but slow.
 
Blinky 42

Blinky 42

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Aug 6, 2015
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Right - the variations depends on the exact model & vendor but common features that you can get include
- Current/power/voltage monitoring for the entire PDU, usually by phase for multi-phase units
- Current/power monitoring per-outlet (like the ones @Patrick has to do his power testing for new hardware)
- Ability to turn on/off each outlet, and sometimes set up staggered power on or delay/sequence between outlets.
- Environment monitoring (temp/humidity - often with an extra sensor you plug in somewhere)

The AP7900's mentioned elsewhere do just load for all devices as one number and let you turn on/off each outlet (with or without delay).
 
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canta

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Nov 26, 2014
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Blinky 42 said:
Right - the variations depends on the exact model & vendor but common features that you can get include
- Current/power/voltage monitoring for the entire PDU, usually by phase for multi-phase units
- Current/power monitoring per-outlet (like the ones @Patrick has to do his power testing for new hardware)
- Ability to turn on/off each outlet, and sometimes set up staggered power on or delay/sequence between outlets.
- Environment monitoring (temp/humidity - often with an extra sensor you plug in somewhere)

The AP7900's mentioned elsewhere do just load for all devices as one number and let you turn on/off each outlet (with or without delay).
Click to expand...
AP7900 came measure main load status (not each port) and more extra than on/off with delay/without:
* SNMP
* telnet/ssh to control/monitor/autoscripting
* notification that based on enabled triggers via snmp/smtp(email)
* can sett minimal and maximum trigger voltage alarm
* can set automatic cold restart (turn off and turn back on PDU)
* can make a group outlets, ex. network gears outlet that can be on or off at the sametimes or via snmp/telnet/ssh.

PDU is just make our life easy and most important for me is how watts or amps the whole systems are pulling.
 
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seang86s

Member
Feb 19, 2013
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I have a few of these. Dataprobe iBootBar.

Dataprobe iBootBar IBB-2N15 Remote Control Power Strip 2 x NEMA 30 Amp

One unique feature it has is the ability to ping an address and if it becomes inaccessible, it can cycle power to an outlet. It has a basic web interface for monitoring and basic functions but most configuration has to be done via telnet. This particular model plugs into two different outlets so each group of four outlets can run off different circuits. There is a version with just one plug so all 8 outlets run off one circuit. If you daisy chain multiple iBootBars via an rj11 cable, you can control multiple units from one "master".
 
Patrick

Patrick

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Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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nephri said:
Managed means "on" / "off" or you can manage it for other things that it ?
What is the interrest ?
Click to expand...
It does things like graphs power usage (current, max over a time period), temperature and humidity sensing with the add-on and such.

Important things if you want to review hardware in the lab. I have heard of companies using APC units to meter power usage in a colo. I have not heard of anyone using a Kill-A-Watt.
 
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