help with power loss detection

[SeekingWisdom]

new to Apex with Current AOS 5.04L_7A18

I have plugged the power for EB8 into wall outlet (will be UPS in the futures but for my testing the wall outlet simulates the UPS). I plugged the 12V adapter into a switched power strip so I can turn it on/off/on to simulate a power outage (will be wall outlet in final configuration).

Under the misc power/monitor I changed it to "enabled"

I have the following code for one of my switched outputs:

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Time 10:00 to23:00 Then ON
If Power Apex Off 000 Then OFF
Min Time 003:00 ThenOFF

I know the "if time" works because I have watched the output go on/off based on time. I know the Min Time 003 is working because if I use the apex.local switch for that output to switch to off and then back to auto it does not come back on for 3 minutes. However, if I turn off/on the power strip for the 12v adapter it does not turn off the output (it was on when I simulated the power outage).

What I want to happen is for the outlet to go off for a minimum of the "min time" if I loose power (currently set to 3 for testing purposes).

I am using "if power apex off 000 then off" because I read in an article that this will not trigger on a reset of the apex which I would not consider to be a loss of power. I actually also tried it with a non-zero value but that didn't seem to make an difference. Here is the article I got this from:

https://forum.neptunesystems.com/sho...r-Apex-Off-XXX

Any help to understand this would be appreciated.

[SeekingWisdom]

I contacted support on this issue and will post the results for anyone that has a question similar to mine.

First you need to have the setup I am going to describe below. I don't intend to explain further except to say that if you use a different configuration than what I describe you can introduce additional variation depending on the programming you use.

Configuration:
plug 12v adapter with one end into the apex controller and the other into the wall
plug EB8 into output of appropriate UPS and the UPS into the wall (if you don't have UPS you can also plug into the wall)

Given the above configuration you can simulate power outages two different ways.
1) unplug the 12v adapter from the wall
2) unplug the 12v adapter connection from the Apex controller

The results you get will vary depend on how you simulate a power outage. My belief is that unplugging the 12v adapter from the wall is a better simulation of a power outage because your configuration is static (i.e. plugs won't move unless you move them). In reality the best simulation would be to throw the breaker but if you have other things that need power it is more convenient to just unplug the 12v adapter from the wall.

When you unplug the 12v adapter from the Apex controller it detects the power outage almost immediately.

When you unplug the 12v adapter from the wall you will experience a delay of 0 to 20 seconds before the power outage is detected.

The explanation for why this happens is that the 12v adapter (I am using the 12v adapter from Triad that Apex recommends) is a switching supply. The switching supply has output capacitance to smooth out the output. This capacitance will "hold" up the output level for a period of time depending on what type of loading you have on the Aquabus power (modules you have plugged in, etc). In my case I get a delay of 20s because I have no modules plugged into the Aquabus with the exception of the Apex controller). I was told that the 20s I was seeing is probably as much as you would experience.

The delay of 20s means that I will not see power outages shorter than 20s in length. I rarely see a power outage longer than 20s. Typically I see more on/off/on glitching of short duration. However, since I am plugging the EB8 into the UPS, the 20s delay doesn't impact me because my UPS can power my entire system for longer than 20 seconds after which the programming will turn off designated outputs to prolong up-time.

The reason my system wasn't detecting the power outages was because I was "generating" short duration outages (shorter than 20s by unplugging the 12v adapter from the wall).

I hope this will be of benefit to others on the forum.