[Nut-upsdev] Re: NUT: Belkin Universal driver - modification to -k behaviour

[Peter Selinger]

Daniel O'Connor wrote:
> 
> On Wednesday 17 May 2006 07:04, j T wrote:
> > Do all UPSs bring the load straight back online as soon as the utility
> > power is restored, or is this a peculiarity of the Belkin Universals?
> 
> Usually only fairly dumb UPSs turn the load on straight away. The
> smart ones can be configured to do it, or to wait until the battery
> is charged a certain amount.

The Belkin Universal UPS is definitely in the "fairly dumb" category,
as witnessed by the fact that the only way to put it into the "shut
off, await power" state is to let the battery run out.

Therefore, the battery is *guaranteed* to be empty by the time power
comes back on, making it acutely necessary to wait for the battery to
reach a certain level.

Unfortunately, the Belkin UPS also cannot be configured to stay off
until a certain battery level is reached, hence the need to put a
workaround very early on in the startup script. 

None of the internal timers can be put to this use, because to set the
timers, the driver needs to be running, which means the computer must
already be booting, a catch-22. Setting the timers before powering
down also will not work, as the timers will run regardless of AC
power.

To summarize, the belkinunv driver is for people who are already stuck
with one of these dumb Belkin units (like myself). I do not recommend
anybody who has the choice to actually buy a Belkin device. 

-- Peter