I was dropping off junk at the waste transfer station and scarfed a UPS out of the pile of old TV's and VCR's. It was in good physical condition and as I expected, the battery was toast. A new RBC-2 battery restored it to working condition. Then I tried to get it to talk to some software. And I am having no luck.

The unit is branded as a Nexxtech Model 6118507 650VA imported into Canada for Orbyx Electronics LLC. Nexxtech is a house brand for 'The Source' ex-Radio Shack in Canada. It has a red LCD display on the front and has the same physical layout as some of the smaller APC BackUPS and CyberPower units. However trying the powerpanel and APC specific drivers was fruitless. The unit is 6" high x 4" wide by 12" deep. It has 3 UPS outlets plus 3 surge protected outlets and a USB port.

I am running Fedora 14 2.6.35.14-96.fc14.x86_64 with nut-2.6.2-1.fc14.x86_64.rpm from the Fedora repo

I strongly suspect that this unit was made in China ( by MEC??) and branded in various different ways (the 'Fry's Electronics' report is a but of a giveaway! especially as there are no Fry's in Canada). A thread on this list from 2006 had the same reported data Vendor/Product id but a different branding. Unfortunately that thread had no resolution.

Due to the fact that this unit does not seem to report itself correctly there is a possibility that it cannot be made 'intelligent'. But I'd like to try, first.

I have installed nut and done the usual things. The unit is almost 'there', but not quite. I have trolled through the FAQ and the list but nothing (except that one thread) seem to deal with this.

Details:

dmesg
[ 13.690421] usb 4-4: New USB device found, idVendor=0001, idProduct=0000 #This is clearly bogus, and is what was reported in the 2006 thread [ 13.690667] usb 4-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[   13.690909] usb 4-4: Product: MEC0002
[   13.691164] usb 4-4: Manufacturer: MEC
[ 13.722779] generic-usb 0003:0001:0000.0003: hiddev97,hidraw2: USB HID v1.00 Device [MEC MEC0002] on usb-0000:00:06.0-4/input0


lsusb -vv
# not much more info than dmesg, and it fails to discover the manufacturer!

Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0001:0000 Fry's Electronics
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               1.00
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceSubClass         0
  bDeviceProtocol         0
  bMaxPacketSize0         8
  idVendor           0x0001 Fry's Electronics
  idProduct          0x0000
  bcdDevice            1.00
  iManufacturer           1
  iProduct                2
  iSerial                 0
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength           34
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0
    bmAttributes         0x80
      (Bus Powered)
    MaxPower              100mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass         3 Human Interface Device
      bInterfaceSubClass      0 No Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol      0 None
      iInterface              0
        HID Device Descriptor:
          bLength                 9
          bDescriptorType        33
          bcdHID               1.00
          bCountryCode            0 Not supported
          bNumDescriptors         1
          bDescriptorType        34 Report
          wDescriptorLength     624
         Report Descriptors:
           ** UNAVAILABLE **
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            3
          Transfer Type            Interrupt
          Synch Type               None
        Package Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0008  1x 8 bytes
        bInterval              10
Device Status:     0x0000
  (Bus Powered)


Check on the install by restarting the daemon:
It's all down to the driver.

# service ups restart
Stopping UPS monitor:                                      [  OK  ]
Stopping upsd:                                             [  OK  ]
Shutting down UPS driver controller:                       [FAILED]
Starting UPS driver controller:                            [FAILED]
Starting upsd:                                             [  OK  ]
Starting UPS monitor:                                      [  OK  ]

Using usbhid-ups  (tried others, without result)


# cat ups.conf
<snip>
 [nexxtech]
        driver = usbhid-ups
        vendorid = 0001
        productid = 0000
        port = /dev/bus/usb/004/004
#       port = AUTO             #per the documentation these made
#       port = /dev/usb/hiddev0 # no difference
        desc = "Nexxtech UPS"



Made sure the user/group settings are correct.
# cat upsd.user
<snip>
        [nut]
                password = nutpass
                upsmon master

# cat upsmon.conf
<snip>
MONITOR nexxtech@localhost 1 nut nutpass master
<snip>


And this is what I get for my pains (same with user 'nut'):

# usbhid-ups -DD -u root -x vendorid=0001 -a nexxtech
Network UPS Tools - Generic HID driver 0.35 (2.6.2)
USB communication driver 0.31
   0.000000     debug level is '2'
   0.001663     upsdrv_initups...
   0.084295     Checking device (0001/0000) (004/004)
   2.088358     - VendorID: 0001
   2.088416     - ProductID: 0000
   2.088442     - Manufacturer: unknown
   2.088467     - Product: unknown
   2.088491     - Serial Number: unknown
   2.088516     - Bus: 004
   2.088541     Trying to match device
   2.088614     Device does not match - skipping

I have NO idea why the Device does not match... but then I am not sure what is is attempting to match. The installation is fine: upsd reports periodically that it cannot communicate with the unit..


So what is the driver trying to match against? And can I amend any settings to make it match? Can I provide any more info.

Geoff


--
             R. Geoffrey Newbury                        
           Barrister and Solicitor
      Suite 106, 150 Lakeshore Road West
         Mississauga, Ontario, L5H 3R2

        o905-271-9600 f905-271-1638
          [email protected]

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