At times when a power failure occurs and you need to perform some critical action a Uninteruptable Power Supply(UPS) is added to the test station.
This may be to put the test station in a safe mode( removing excitation or setting excitation to safe values, logging of last data and closing file handles, terminating the application.)
Things to check
- Wattage that needs to be backup.
- Time Duration required to place your system into safe mode.
- Time Duration UPS will provide.
- Number of outlet.
- Size /mountable hardware
- Some form of indication by UPS or other means that it detect a power loss(so the test station can respond to condition).
Some requirement can not have any interruption of power for the complete system(This can be a very BIG UPS) it all depends on the requirement of your project.
Here is one possible test station UPS setup.(Always refer to your UPS manual for correct hookup and operation)
Test Engineers Resource 