[Nut-upsuser] NUT for Windows + Eaton/PW 5110

[Arnaud Quette]

Hi Kris,

I'm completing Fred's answer on the "Back-story" side...


2012/5/13 Kris Jordan <nut.kj at sagebrushnetworks.com>:
> Nut for Windows 2.6.3-3 + Eaton/PW 5110 (103004256-5591).
>
> I had to manually install libusb driver and I'm using bcmxcp_usb.
>
> upsd.exe is reporting to me "Out of memory". It will run, but once anything
> connects to the daemon, it dies with that message.
>
> I don't have much experience with NUT yet so I'm not sure what the next
> course of action is. I do have NUT for Windows working with a Tripp-Lite
> unit (USB HID style).
>
> Thank you!
>
> ---
> Back-story:
>
> I've been lead to believe that Eaton is a good Tier 2 UPS vendor (APC being
> Tier 1). This microlink business with APC has been driving me away from
> them. So I got what I thought would be a good alternative to my usual APC RS
> 500's for desktop systems at our remote clients. It is an Eaton 5110 500VA
> (103004256-5591).
>
> I also thought it would be a good brand because of what looked like great
> support from NUT (green status across the board).
>
> I've been rather disappointed.
>
> * It runs rather hot, ~25F more (128F on the side).
> * Lack of battery info (runtime, charge capacity)
> * Can't disable alarm permanently
> * And more
>
> I know line-interactive units run warmer than standby so I use the RS 500
> units I have for comparison.
>
> Eaton's Intelligent power protector simply reports the battery as
> "charging", but it never finishes. And it reported the charge capacity as
> 13% and it was stuck at that. Also no runtime.
>
> Eaton replaced the unit. The replacement runs 5F cooler, so not much
> improvement there, it probably just has a bit more spacing between the
> transformer and the side. IPP still reports it as charging, but no longer a
> charge capacity at all, still no runtime.
>
> I'm also finding no way to disable the alarm. Supporting remote clients
> requires I can monitor the UPS stats by software without annoyance to the
> Clients from constant beeping! I can disable the alarm even on lowly APC ES
> units.
>
> Looks like the bcmxcp_usb isn't going to get me what I need, but I'm not
> sure until I can see the output of upsc.

things that helps to understand Eaton position:
- Eaton is composed of many acquired brands: Powerware, Best, Sola,
Deltec, Phoenixtec, MGE, Fiskars, ...
- the XCP protocol is from Powerware (previously called BCM, for Best
Communication M???, AFAICT)
- the SHUT and USB/HID protocols are from MGE, the division I came with,
- before joining Eaton, I was working for MGE, concentrating my driver
development efforts on MGE protocols (SHUT, USB/HID and SNMP),
- XCP protocol is legacy, even if some units still sold on the market
are using this protocol,
- XCP is being replaced by SHUT (serial) and USB/HID,
- NUT efforts in XCP support are (and will remain) higher than in IPP,
- I've started to work on bcmxcp, but this needs almost a complete rewrite,
- so bcmxcp is far from being as complete as mge-shut or usbhid-ups
for Eaton devices...

Note that it's not a justification, but more an explanation of the
support / features differences between drivers supporting Eaton
hardware.

also note that I have an incomplete patch for bcmxcp that:
- simplify the driver (remove redundancies),
- add beeper.{disable,enable}, bypass.{start,stop}, load.on commands,
- add battery.runtime.low setting,
- checks for available commands and settings (incomplete).

but I won't be able to complete this for 2.6.4, considering the actual
late and the remaining TODO lists (and not only on NUT release) .

Arnaud
-- 
Linux / Unix Expert R&D - Eaton - http://powerquality.eaton.com
Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project Leader - http://www.networkupstools.org/
Debian Developer - http://www.debian.org
Free Software Developer - http://arnaud.quette.free.fr/