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

[Kris Jordan]

Arnaud Quette wrote, On 5/14/2012 5:08 AM:
>
> 2012/5/13 Kris Jordan<nut.kj at sagebrushnetworks.com>:
>> 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) .

Thanks, so I can expect it might start working better in the future. I'm 
planning on just holding onto the unit and getting something else for now.

Since I had an easy time getting a USB HID Tripp-Lite working with NUT, 
I'll probably be going over to them for now. They have an overwhelming 
array of desktop/workstation grade units with USB HID, line-interactive, 
even pure sine-wave.

Hopefully I don't end up with a model that beeps loudly during automatic 
self-test! I had to physically remove its beeper.

On APC units I can disable the alarm in NVRAM, and it stays off in every 
situation I've tested; on battery, no battery, low battery, bad battery. 
What is typical for current Eaton units? I just mentioned that I was 
able to use lansafe to disable the alarm (permanently checked-off), but 
it forgot as soon as I switched the UPS off.

Lansafe, am I right to assume this is legacy software that IPP is replacing?

Thanks!