[Nut-upsuser] Gentoo Ultra USB UPS

[Jonathan Dion]

Hi Barry

On 8/2/06, Barry Fawthrop <barry at ttienterprises.org> wrote:
> Hi Jonathan
> I will try all options
> Where do I find a current subdriver to use as a template / example and
> then how would I "attach" it so that NUT can use it ?
>
> I'm willing to do all I can for the NUT community
> what everI get I'll share
>

Nice answer ! Way to go, man ^_^

The better is that you read
http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/nut/trunk/docs/hid-subdrivers.txt?op=file&rev=0&sc=0,
especially the last part, "writing a subdriver"

About your sentence : "what ever I get I'll share", take care. I you
get something from PowerCom, be sure that you have the right to share
it.
NUT will refuse anything that is not legal.


For a new subdriver, there is hum... three main things

- The usage table : convert hardware path like 00020010 into name
  (that is what you need from PowerCom, or else what one'll have to
create by reverse engineering)

- The hid2nut table : convert the name in the usage table into
internal NUT namming scheme. That is say to nut that to access to its
battery.charge, NUT should use UPS.BatteryCurrentCharge for instance,
where UPS.BatteryCurrentCharge is either defined in the standard of
HID Power Device Class or in the usage table of the subdriver. Once
the usage table is made, it is easy to make.

- The shutdown function. How to order the UPS to shutdown. Here too,
let's hope PowerCom will provide us with information about it, or
else, hard reverse engineering needed to find that ...

There are some others little things, but that is the three main
things. Look at the code of *-hid.c/h in the driver directory to have
sample.

> I do know this
> the UPS constantly gives the following
> (1) Input Voltage     120
> (2) Output Voltage   120
> (3) Input Hertz          60
> (4) Output Hertz        60
> (5) Battery %          should be 100
> (6) Current Load     not sure about 23 %
>

I hope we won't need to know that your current load is about 23%
because PowerCom will be kind enough to give us the information we
need. Else, you or someone that have the same UPS than you would have
some hard time to make the usage table ;-)

> Thanks for all you help
>

My pleasure.

Whatever is the case, Nut will do its best to help you. We hope we'll
soon have a new subdriver ^_^

> Yours
> Barry

Cheer,

Jonathan Dion