On 7/29/2014 1:32 PM, Arnaud Quette wrote:
Hi Ted
there was a drift from the initial topic.
worth a new thread!
2014-07-27 9:13 GMT+02:00 Ted Mittelstaedt <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>:
On 7/26/2014 12:18 PM, Arnaud Quette wrote:
Hi Eric,
sorry for the lag, summer time...
I'm first seconding Charles comments
2014-07-09 12:31 GMT+02:00 Eric S. Raymond <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>>:
I think the time for me to get involved in NUT
documentation has come
again.
welcome back
Late last week I had to buy a UPS under time pressure. The
Eaton unit
that thus project gifted me with in 2006(?) died during a
severe
thunderstorm watch, so it was off to MicroCenter to get a
replacement
pronto.
I wound up buying an APC BN700MC. It was what they had in the
performance range I needed. The removable battery door was
pleasing.
Based on the experience, I have updated the UPS HOWTO:
http://www.catb.org/esr/ldp/UPS-HOWTO.html
The bad news, however, is that (a) this is not a
NUT-supported device,
I've logged an entry for the APC Modbus:
https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/issues/139
and (b) the (poorly documented) NUT process for discovering and
customizing a driver failed at the first step. Running
upsstart
gave a driver fail message containing no clues as to how to
recover.
yup, definitely room for enhancement!
I've got some ideas, beside from the obvious need to improve the
documentation, that I'll like to discuss.
This is definitely USB and probably a fairly generic hidups
device.
There is no good reason for customizing a driver profile to be
so difficult.
well, I'm unsure since I'm just opening this "APC Modbus Pandora
box"
but if I understand correctly, your new unit is a microlink one.
MAYBE.
HIS UPS is a BackUPS not a SmartUPS. Originally the APC BackUPS DID NOT
SUPPORT any Smart protocol (the original UPSLink protocol)
But over the years it's been observed that APC has somewhat "fudged" on
the BackUPS UPSes. Newer ones did appear to implement the UPSlink
protocol over USB.
Microlink protocol is officially only for APC SmartUPSes. Officially,
what your supposed to get with a BackUPS is dumb signalling only. But,
with the newer BackUPSes that have USB output, some seemed to act like
SmartUPSes even though they were not.
APC has very much blurred the line on the model BN UPSes. These are the
APC UPSes that look like an oversized power strip. That's the one
that he has. They seem to have dropped monitoring ports completely
on these UPSes that are under 700VA in size. They used to make
monitoring ports
on these UPSes all the way down to 350VA. But the current models,
only the 700VA unit like the one he bought, still support the
monitoring port. That port is the special wide RJ45 that has 10
conductors not 8.
It is selectable between serial and USB depending on what cable is used
with it.
though the serial version should be Modbus only,
There is no "serial only" APC UPS that supports Modbus, in fact no
APC smart UPS since the Microlink protocol was implemented has been
"serial only", all have been dual-use Serial and USB.
I can't say at first if
the USB ones implement if full Modbus over HID or any other mean.
I would need traces to give more info.
The BackUPSes with USB ports might implement full UPSlink over HID.
Or they might implement Microlink over HID
Or they might implement nothing like either of that.
But they definitely don't implement Modbus.
It is best I think to refer to BackUPS and SmartUPS in the
documentation. Please do not refer to APC UPSes in a generic
fashion. And please don't assume that any APC BackUPS implements any
particular
protocol over USB or Serial unless you have directly tested it. APC
BackUPS upses are the "cheap, poor relations" and are for consumers and
penny-pinching businesses that are too cheap to spend a couple
hundred bucks on decent gear. Purchasers who want full
functionality should be
encouraged to buy an APC SmartUPS.
thanks for these details, still too blurry for the little time I
currently have!
my aim there is not to understand APC offering. I don't have time nor
interest in that!
my aim is simply to have people happy, which generally means supporting
their unit, so developing code. period.
So, if someone (maybe you):
1) can clarify APC situation WRT protocols (both serial and USB ;
microlink / UPSLink / whatever-nameLink)
OK here's the general rule of thumb FOR SMARTUPS ONLY:
APC models with a model # starting with SUA - UPSLink
APC models with a model # starting with SMT - Microlink
APC models with a model # starting with SMT dated 2014
or later - Microlink & Modbus
A firmware update exists that can make SOME Microlink-only into
Microlink & Modbus
Here's the general rule of thumb for BACKUPS:
Backups with Serial Port - dumb signalling.
Backups with Serial & USB port - dumb signalling on serial,
HID UPS signalling on USB
2) and has access to unit(s) to provide sniff
I have a number of different APC UPSes. I can setup a test Linux server
that you would have root access to with both serial and USB ports
plugged into whatever version of APC UPS you want to play with.
Ted
I can check to develop some generic code in "blind mode" (no access to
devices), for modbus or else, that also supports APC.
cheers,
Arno
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