[Nut-upsdev] Re: Changes to megatec.c

[Arjen de Korte]

>> I have to disagree here. You won't be the only one with a PowerWalker
>> 600, so it's just a matter of time that we can expect the reports about
>> erroneous battery charge levels flooding the support mailing list. And
>> we mechanically repeat the same solution over and over again, that people
>> need to change some settings in 'ups.conf' to correct the values.
> The same can be said for not having default values at all.

>From a user perspective, it is very different. In the present situation,
if the output is wrong, the perceived problem is that the error is in the
driver, while in the proposed solution the user knows he/she did something
wrong and can rectify the problem themselves.

Currently, specifying 'battvolt' is entirely optional. If you don't
specify it, you can either get the correct values (if your UPS happens to
be supported by the existing table), incorrect values (if the values that
it needs are conflicting with existing ones) or none at all (if it outputs
something that can't be matched in the table).

What I'm suggesting, makes the output predictable. If users don't specify
the 'battvolt' option, they get a warning message that in order to see the
battery voltage and -charge, the 'battvolt' option must be specified,
which can be found in the megatec manpage. If they do specify it, they
won't be bothered by the warning message and will get whatever can be
calculated from the provided values. If these are wrong, they know they
did something wrong and need to change their input.

Best regards, Arjen