JNIOR Built-in UPS

A controller depends on the availability of good clean and stable power. Unfortunately with the JNIOR any small interruption or glitch in the power source results in a reboot. Applications need to be written to handle unscheduled restarts.

Things like air conditioner compressors can cause momentary dips in local power. The amperage of the power circuit and distance from the subpanel come into play here. The voltage available at the end of wiring that operates near its rated current or is lengthy tends to be easily affected by current surges. The voltage drops very briefly. That minor drop can be significant enough to reboot a JNIOR located on that circuit.

The solution was to place all critical systems on an Uninterruptible Power Source (UPS).

How the 412DMX UPS works

The 412DMX model of JNIOR is made with this new internal power circuit. This JNIOR incorporates “ride-thru” power supply technology. Regardless of the selection of buzzwords that we use to describe it, the basic function is to store enough energy to keep the JNIOR powered through a momentary loss of external power. The implementation will flash the blue power LED to indicate the loss of external power. If power is restored before the stored energy runs out then the JNIOR continues unaffected.

The loss of external power and restoration are logged in the system log (jniorsys.log).

Info on the JNIOR’s power holds and if it’s currently available can be viewed from the stats command.

Here is a video of a prototype when this was first tested. Here you can see the power supply get removed, but the JNIOR stays on for a short duration before powering off.