Need help understanding how UPS's work

[quarterback]

I've had a concept already about how they work, and there's info here as well:  http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question28.htm but I'm still a little confused about some specifics.


I've got a UPS that just went 'down'.

[Ed_McCarron]

With the price of a cheap inverter, its probably not worth playing with.

Every UPS I've worked with trickle charges the batteries constantly when mains power is there.

[quarterback]

With the price of a cheap inverter, its probably not worth playing with.

Yeah.  Even as I was typing (and organizing my thoughts) I realized that what I was thinking was probably not going to work and/or not worth the effort.

I've got a little inverter that works, but since I was digging into the UPS, I thought it might be able to add to my setup... but I don't think so.

Oh well.  Thanks for indulging my flight of fancy

[RayB]

I usually call them, give them some details about my package and then a few hours later this big brown truck parks out front and a guy comes to my door...