UPS gives funny voltages - why?

Suggests the output is connected directly to the mains.

This is not unusual; the output is symmetrical about earth for safety (as the biggest shock you can get is 58 volts). Most isolation transformers are wired this way.

It sounds like the lack of load is doing strange things to the regulation, and probably the waveform. Many supplies that are derived electronically exhibit this effect - and remember that uneven waveforms will play havoc with a meter because it won't know which bit it's supposed to be measuring.

Look at it on a scope and see what's actually coming out.

the chances are when its not conected to an ac suply the output is floating with respect to ground, so any voltages relative to gnd are due to leakage, with a load conected there is more balanced leakage.

Colin =^.^=

Backup is line powered and is just passing thru the relationship that your AC line has.

As someone else said, ground is floating and the load leakages are pretty nicely balanced, and lower impedance than your Fluke.

Here the output is completely floating, but you can see that the leakages in the backup are not particularly balanced. The 10 MOhm impedance of the Fluke is significant here; it has pulled each one down a bit so that the last 2 numbers no longer add up to the first. If you had a second Fluke so that you could actually make those 2 measurements simultaneously, you would get numbers that add up right.

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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On 27 May 2005 01:18:10 -0700, "larry moe 'n curly" put finger to keyboard and composed:

The PC PSU has RF suppression (?) capacitors between A-E and N-E. If the earth pin is disconnected, then its potential floats to a point midway between A and N.

- Franc Zabkar