Today we are going to be unboxing and testing the Cyberpower BR700ELCD-UK UPS Battery backup and surge protection.

Why use an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)?

In our use case, we needed a UPS to work with our Raspberry Pi 4, mains-powered USB Hub, 2 x USB hard drives, and a USB SSD drive. We also needed it to fit in our Network cupboard which had limited space.

It came off the back of having one of our USB hard drives corrupt after we experienced a power cut in our offices. Data loss and corruption are very common with sensitive equipment like data storage devices.

“We always recommend using a UPS if you are storing or backing up any form of data”.

Our Mission

We went on a search for a UPS that was going to fit our requirements and was not going to break the bank (Our budget was under £100).

We came across the Cyberpower BR700ELCD-UK on Amazon and thought it was within budget and had enough sockets that supported the UPS feature. We decided to take the plunge.

See below for our full testing process and our results.

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Note: The USA compatible Cyberpower UPS above is not the same product. However, it has exactly the same features and it is from the same company.

Our Verdict

We have used this product to date for 3 months now and it has saved our systems going down on two occasions.

It effectively kept our Raspberry Pi 4, Readynas server, mains-powered USB hub, 3 hard drives, and a USB CCTV camera running until the power was restored.

Pros

• Good price (Very affordable if on a budget)
• All 6 sockets have Surge and Spike Protection
• Compact Size
• USB Charging Port
• Phone/Fax/Modem/DSL/Network Protection
• LCD Status Display
• Wall Mount Installation
• Windows Auto Shutdown Software

Cons

• Only three sockets supported for UPS backup
• Unit is heavier than avg power supply
• No Official Linux Support for auto shutdown

How we tested the UPS

We tested this device using our Raspberry Pi 4 and a USB-powered hub. Which was powering 3 USB hard drives. We also had a USB CCTV Camera attached which was in active use.

We monitored the connection between the Raspberry Pi and the network using a Laptop and the ping utility. As we had a USB CCTV camera attached we also could see in real-time if the CCTV was continuing to work on the backup battery (UPS mode).

To simulate a power cut we switched the mains socket off from the wall.

Our Test Results

In all our test runs it successfully kept our Raspberry Pi 4 running.

It stated it had over 110 minutes of backup power. Which is plenty of time to recover from a power outage.

On average, where our office is located the power only goes down for a few minutes at a time at most.

Our CCTV camera continued to function giving us a live feed.

If you have any questions please let us know below in the comments or in the comment section on our YouTube channel.

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