Correctly configuring UPS

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Correctly configuring UPS

Postby xboxboy » Apr 19th, '19, 07:56

I plugged in this Uninterruptable Power Supply (5e1100) http://powerquality.eaton.com/Products-services/Backup-Power-UPS/5E.aspx?cx=22&GUID=641AF1B4-D5C1-435C-AFB2-E4A35D3283F7

Which according to the NUT project should be run by the USBHID driver: https://networkupstools.org/docs/man/usbhid-ups.html according to the chart from https://networkupstools.org/stable-hcl.html

Initially (I'm running Plazma on Mageia 6) a battery indicator appeared in the tool tray, if I clicked on it, one of the options was to display the charge percentage, which I did, it displayed 0%. I left it for a few hours, it was upto 69% later. I rebooted in the morning, but it displayed 0% again.

I then tried to setup the UPS through the MCC, but I've had little luck there.

Can someone please walk me through how to install/configure this correctly?

TIA
xboxboy
 
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Joined: Jun 2nd, '13, 06:41

Re: Correctly configuring UPS

Postby xboxboy » Apr 19th, '19, 08:44

Done some further digging:

Code: Select all
upower -i /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/ups_hiddev1
  native-path:          /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-3/2-3:1.0/usbmisc/hiddev1
  vendor:               Eaton
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Thu 01 Jan 1970 09:30:00 ACST (1555656169 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  ups
    present:             yes
    state:               empty
    warning-level:       none
    percentage:          0%
    icon-name:          'battery-empty-symbolic'


Even though it's been charging for the last week 10+hrs a day. Could I have a faulty battery?

[EDIT] Mmmm... Looking at that date we have an issue. I've tried restarting the upower daemon with "systemctl restart upower.service" but there was no change.
xboxboy
 
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Joined: Jun 2nd, '13, 06:41

Re: Correctly configuring UPS

Postby jiml8 » Apr 19th, '19, 19:01

I have an APC Back-UPS that backs up my NAS. Now, my NAS runs FreeBSD, not Linux. It does, however, use the usbhid-ups driver, which I believe is the FreeBSD variant of the one you are using.

It has NEVER worked right; the NUT system on FreeBSD insists that the UPS is completely static. Voltage never changes, load level never changes, charge percentage never changes. I have fiddled with it for awhile on a couple of different occasions but that NAS is an appliance...it lacks the tools I would need to diagnose this and, frankly, it has always been a low priority to sort out.

Now, on those rare occasions where the house has lost power and the NAS has been supported by that battery, everything did work the way it was supposed to...except the time this happened when the battery was old and no longer had any capacity. The system knew it was on battery, and did shut itself down before the battery died - except that time when the battery died before the system could shut down.

What you lose with this nonfunctional code is the ability to test the battery at intervals to ensure it is still in good shape. This is a non-trivial loss, but not much else to say...

I suggest you manually test the battery by putting a load on the UPS then unplugging it from the wall. If it holds for an appropriate period of time, just keep on going. If not, then change the battery.
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Re: Correctly configuring UPS

Postby xboxboy » Apr 21st, '19, 10:27

Thanks Jim.

I reckon you're right. Three times now the battery indicator in the system tray has shown a percentage level, but not consistently. Some boots it's there, others it's not. Seems the software/driver is really glitchy.

I do have another UPS I lent out, I'll try to get that back I think. In the mean time, do I simply use the KDE power management stuff to try and shut it down cleanly if the mains power is lost?
Is it possible to configure this so it can shut down another PC I have running off the same UPS?
xboxboy
 
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Re: Correctly configuring UPS

Postby jiml8 » Apr 21st, '19, 23:19

I have a Back-UPS backing my workstation also. Different Back-UPS than the one that is on my NAS.

My workstation, of course, is Mageia. And for the UPS I use the apcupsd...and it works properly. I have full control over the NAS and the system tests it once a week to establish that the battery is good.

Just something to think about...

As for how to tell another computer that is on the NAS to shut down, I suppose you would do this via your LAN. I suspect a tool for this exists somewhere, but I can't tell you more than that; I've never needed that capability.
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