u/Miha3ls

The number of low-voltage devices we use has increased dramatically over the last few years.

They're everywhere now. At home and in the studio.

But almost all of them are still powered the same way: a small AC adapter plugged into the mains for every single device.

And I think there are two problems with this.

First is power reliability.

Low-voltage electronics can be sensitive to surges, dropouts, brownouts and momentary outages. Their little AC adapters don't guarantee a truly continuous DC supply. A tiny interruption can be enough to reboot a router, controller, instrument or other device.

And these devices increasingly depend on each other.

Your camera may depend on the network switch. The switch depends on the router. The router depends on the ONT. A smart-home controller depends on all of them.

So one tiny power interruption can bring down a whole chain of equipment.

Then there's the physical mess.

Every device comes with another power brick. Before long you have 10 or 15 adapters, you've run out of sockets, you're adding power strips, sometimes strips into strips, and the whole installation starts getting ridiculous.

A traditional UPS isn't really designed around this problem either.

It typically takes DC energy stored in a battery, converts it up to 120/230V AC, and then every little adapter connected to it converts that AC straight back down to 5V, 9V or 12V DC.

So we're converting DC to AC, then to DC just to keep DC devices running.

There can also be a short transfer period when some UPS types switch to battery. Depending on the UPS and the adapter, that can still be enough for sensitive equipment to reboot.

So I've been wondering:

Would there be a real need for a high-quality UPS designed specifically for low-voltage devices?

I could find some of these UPS but they are small, can only power a couple of devices and don't seem to be of great quality. Battery is small and not replaceable.

Something that provides continuous battery-backed DC power directly to the equipment and replaces the pile of individual adapters with one central power system.

My thinking is that it should be modular, so you can add more outputs as your setup grows.

For example, modules for 5V USB-C devices and modules for 3V / 5V / 6V / 9V / 12V devices.

And every individual output could be monitored and controlled, so you could see:

- what each device is consuming

- whether it's online

- how much battery runtime you have

- which devices should stay powered longest during an outage

- and remotely power-cycle a single device if it freezes

Basically, one proper low-voltage power and backup system instead of an AC UPS + power strips + a pile of adapters.

I'm interested in whether this is something people actually need, not just whether it's technically interesting.

So I'd love to know:

1. Would you find a high-quality low-voltage UPS like this useful? Why or why not?

2. How many low-voltage devices would you typically want to protect? 4? 8? 12? 16? More?

3. What devices would you connect to it?

4. Assuming it was a genuinely well-designed, reliable, high-quality product with a replaceable LiFePO4 battery, modular outputs, monitoring and remote control, how much would you realistically be willing to pay for it?

And please be critical. If your answer is "I don't need this at all"* or *"I already solve this for $50", that's just as useful to hear.

The number of low-voltage devices we use has increased dramatically over the last few years.

They're everywhere now. At home, in businesses, labs, music studios and live setups, IT infrastructure, clinics, smart homes, security installations, etc.

Routers, fibre ONTs, switches, access points, cameras, Raspberry Pis, mini PCs, smart-home hubs, controllers and countless other devices all run on something like 5V, 9V or 12V DC.

But almost all of them are still powered the same way: a small AC adapter plugged into the mains for every single device.

And I think there are two problems with this.

First is power reliability.

Low-voltage electronics can be sensitive to surges, dropouts, brownouts and momentary outages. Their little AC adapters don't guarantee a truly continuous DC supply. A tiny interruption can be enough to reboot a router, ONT, controller, camera system or other device.

And these devices increasingly depend on each other.

Your camera may depend on the network switch. The switch depends on the router. The router depends on the ONT. A smart-home controller depends on all of them.

So one tiny power interruption can bring down a whole chain of equipment.

Then there's the physical mess.

Every device comes with another power brick. Before long you have 10 or 15 adapters, you've run out of sockets, you're adding power strips, sometimes strips into strips, and the whole installation starts getting ridiculous.

A traditional UPS isn't really designed around this problem either.

It typically takes DC energy stored in a battery, converts it up to 120/230V AC, and then every little adapter connected to it converts that AC straight back down to 5V, 9V or 12V DC.

So we're converting DC to AC, then to DC just to keep DC devices running.

There can also be a short transfer period when some UPS types switch to battery. Depending on the UPS and the adapter, that can still be enough for sensitive equipment to reboot.

So I've been wondering:

Would there be a real need for a high-quality UPS designed specifically for low-voltage devices?

I could find some of these UPS but they are small, can only power a couple of devices and don't seem to be of great quality. Battery is small and not replaceable.

Something that provides continuous battery-backed DC power directly to the equipment and replaces the pile of individual adapters with one central power system.

My thinking is that it should be modular, so you can add more outputs as your setup grows.

For example, modules for 5V USB-C devices and modules for 3V / 5V / 6V / 9V / 12V devices.

And every individual output could be monitored and controlled, so you could see:

- what each device is consuming

- whether it's online

- how much battery runtime you have

- which devices should stay powered longest during an outage

- and remotely power-cycle a single device if it freezes

Basically, one proper low-voltage power and backup system instead of an AC UPS + power strips + a pile of adapters.

I'm interested in whether this is something people actually need, not just whether it's technically interesting.

So I'd love to know:

1. Would you find a high-quality low-voltage UPS like this useful? Why or why not?

2. How many low-voltage devices would you typically want to protect?

4? 8? 12? 16? More?

3. What devices would you connect to it?

4. Assuming it was a genuinely well-designed, reliable, high-quality product with a replaceable LiFePO4 battery, modular outputs, monitoring and remote control, how much would you realistically be willing to pay for it?

And please be critical. If your answer is "I don't need this at all"* or *"I already solve this for $50", that's just as useful to hear.

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I just discovered something concerning with FedEx international shipping and I’m curious if others have experienced this.

A company overseas created a FedEx shipment originating from a U.S. residential address. The overseas company had its own FedEx account and created the label remotely. The person at the U.S. pickup address was not involved in the shipment creation process at all. FedEx simply showed up and picked up the package.

Later, the person at the pickup address received a real FedEx invoice for hundreds of dollars marked:

• Payor: Shipper
• Account Number: None

The invoice was directly addressed to the pickup address/name in the U.S.

This raises a serious question:

How is it possible that someone overseas can create a shipment from a U.S. address and potentially leave the pickup party financially liable without explicit authorization or account verification from that person?

From what I can tell:

• No FedEx account belonging to the U.S. person was used
• No signature or billing authorization was provided by the U.S. person
• The overseas company initiated everything remotely
• FedEx appears to have defaulted liability to the named shipper/pickup address

If this is really how the system works, it seems like a major billing/security gap. In theory, someone could create shipments from arbitrary addresses and if account billing fails or is not properly attached, the physical pickup party becomes liable.

Has anyone else encountered this?
Would love to hear from people familiar with FedEx billing or logistics compliance.