[Nut-upsuser] can't connect to an Eaton Powerware 9155 over a usb-serial adapter

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday, July 28, 2011 11:11:26 AM Athanasios Silis did opine:

> hello everyone,
> I've been testing the NUT solution as opposed to the undocumented
> LanSafe application to control my Eaton UPS.
> 
> I am on a Slackware 13.37 system with a 2.6.37.6 kernel. NUT version is
> 2.4.3 .
> I installed the tarball by compiling it directly on my system (as a
> slackbuild package).
> The UPS is an Eaton Powerware 9155, but I don't know how to obtain the
> manufacturing date. The unit was bought sometime in 2006-2007 though.
> 
> The unit has a serial interface to communicate with a pc, and I am using
> a usb-serial converter to connect it there. dmesg shows:
> 
> usb 6-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
> usb 6-2: New USB device found, idVendor=067b, idProduct=2303
> usb 6-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
> usb 6-2: Product: USB-Serial Controller
> usb 6-2: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
> pl2303 6-2:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
> usb 6-2: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
> 
Boom, magic words contained above, Prolific etc.  Change them to Future 
Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC (FTDI) && 
watch the problems become the normal ones.  Prolifics like to throw away 
the first byte of a packet, confuses the heck out of the rest of the 
system.

> This converter appears to the system as /dev/ttyUSB0. But I presume for
> all practical purposes I should assume that this is just another serial
> port (correct me if that's wrong).
> 
> My ups.conf looks line:
> 
>  [DSAups]
>         driver = bcmxcp
>         port = /dev/ttyUSB0
>         desc = "Eaton Powerware 9155"
> 
> I have ALSO attempted to run the drivers: bcmxcp-usb, upscode2,
> usbhid-ups (just in case the /dev/ttyUSB0 is actually a USB look-alike
> port rather than serial look-alike one) to no avail.
> 
> the debug output is the following:
> 
> root at samothraki:/usr/libexec/nut# ./bcmxcp -DDDDD -a DSAups
> Network UPS Tools - BCMXCP UPS driver 0.23 (2.4.3)
> RS-232 communication subdriver 0.17
>    0.000000     send_to_all: SETINFO driver.parameter.port
> "/dev/ttyUSB0" 0.000035     debug level is '5'
>    0.008369     Attempting to autodect baudrate
>    1.603672     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>    2.604114     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>    3.604528     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>    3.604547     No response from UPS on /dev/ttyUSB0 with baudrate 1200
>    5.199170     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>    6.200268     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>    7.201363     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>    7.201386     No response from UPS on /dev/ttyUSB0 with baudrate 2400
>    8.796693     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>    9.797796     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>   10.798900     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>   10.798924     No response from UPS on /dev/ttyUSB0 with baudrate 4800
>   12.394722     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>   13.395824     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>   14.396925     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>   14.396949     No response from UPS on /dev/ttyUSB0 with baudrate 9600
>   15.052002     Communications with UPS lost: checksum error!
>   15.084000     Communications with UPS lost: Not the right sequence
> received fe!!!
> 
>   16.084278     Receive error (PW_COMMAND_START_BYTE): 0!!!
> 
>   16.084306     No response from UPS on /dev/ttyUSB0 with baudrate 19200
>   16.084312     Can't connect to the UPS on port /dev/ttyUSB0!
> 
> root at samothraki:/usr/libexec/nut#
> 
This is typical of the errors you get while using the drain bamaged pl2303.  
Go get an FDTI interface.
> 
> Looks fairly dead to me as if theere was smth wrong with the cables. So
> I installed a windows server 2008 virtual machine (on virtualbox) and
> attached the /dev/ttyUSB0 to the virtual machine. There I installed the
> LanSafe application provided by Eaton and voila, the system was
> working.
> 
> So there is something else going on here, directly on the host, which I
> can't understand.
> Any ideas?
> 
> Thank you in advance for your help
> Nass


Cheers, gene
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