[Nut-upsdev] UPS integration into NUT

[Charles Lepple]

On Jul 8, 2015, at 9:17 AM, Brandt, Dieter <dieter.brandt at aegps.com> wrote:

> we are developer and producer of UPS devices. Now we would like to integrate a small UPS via USB connection to  NAS systems. We heart from third party that we need a special driver for NAS systems to work fine and to display also the company name and UPS device name in the web page / software of NAS.

Each NAS vendor has their own timeline for integrating new versions of NUT into their software stack. Is there a specific NAS system you are interested in?

> Currently we have a UPS with USB and our own VID (0x2B2D) and PID (0xFFFF). It should be compatible to NUT.

When you say it should be compatible, do you mean that the UPS implements a protocol that NUT already supports?

There are several USB UPS standards, including one formal standard (USB HID Power Device Class [PDC]) and several de facto serial-over-USB standards. I see one AEG listing on the current compatibility list: http://www.networkupstools.org/ddl/AEG_Power_Solutions/ - is it the same Blazer/PhoenixTec protocol? What UPS control software do you recommend to your customers?

If it is one of the supported protocols, often it is just a matter of adding your USB VID/PID to the tables in the existing NUT drivers.

> What have we to do to integrate our UPS device into NUT as well as NAS devices now?  What are the steps?
> Who can help us?
> Who can do this?
> What does it cost?

The NUT project is currently supported by volunteers (with some help from Eaton). It costs nothing but time, although you could also hire a third-party contractor to help with the integration.

> What could be the timeline for integration?

With volunteers, we do not commit to timelines. An informal goal is to put together a formal NUT release once or twice a year, but since the source code is available under the terms of the GPL, your company could also provide source and binaries for an interim NUT release that supports your products.

> IMPORTANT NOTICE. This email and any attachments are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use or disseminate the information.


Although I realize that the footer of your email is probably a company standard, I feel compelled to point out that the best support in NUT comes from UPS protocols that can be published and freely distributed. There is plenty of room for innovation in the algorithms running on the UPS embedded controller, but to be compatible with an open-source project like NUT, the protocol cannot be considered confidential or proprietary. If it is impractical to publish your current protocol documentation, I would recommend looking at HID PDC: http://www.usb.org/developers/hidpage/pdcv10.pdf

-- 
Charles Lepple
clepple at gmail



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/nut-upsdev/attachments/20150709/dfa68f01/attachment.html>