[Nut-upsuser] I can't make changes to ups.delay.shutdown to stick

[Charles Lepple]

On Jun 3, 2014, at 1:28 AM, Mick wrote:

> On Saturday 05 Apr 2014 16:28:24 Charles Lepple wrote:
>> On Apr 5, 2014, at 10:39 AM, Charles Lepple wrote:
>>> On Apr 5, 2014, at 8:52 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> The upsrw command was designed for changing variables that are
>>>>> typically stored in non-volatile memory on the UPS. Unfortunately,
>>>>> your UPS doesn't seem to do that.
>>>> 
>>>> Well, if it doesn't do that, how come upsc reports the changed value? 
>>>> It is only after I reboot the PC (not the UPS) or restart the driver
>>>> that the default value of 20s is shown again.
>>> 
>>> I'd have to check the code, but I'm fairly certain that writing a
>>> variable invalidates at least part of the HID cache in the driver.
>>> 
>>> However, it is possible that something in the driver initialization is
>>> resetting that variable. Are there any extra settings in ups.conf? Can
>>> you please send a driver log with -DDDD, gzipped and attached (so as not
>>> to wrap the lines)? Same length of time as before is good.
>> 
>> Mick, hold that thought.
>> 
>>  1.006824	Path: UPS.PowerSummary.DelayBeforeShutdown, Type: Feature,
>> ReportID: 0x0f, Offset: 0, Size: 24, Value: 60
>>  1.010820	Path: UPS.PowerSummary.DelayBeforeStartup, Type: Feature,
>> ReportID: 0x11, Offset: 0, Size: 24, Value: 0
>> 
>> Arnaud, is HU_FLAG_ABSENT the right flag here? That seems to indicate that
>> the variable is not actually implemented on the UPS:
>> 
>> drivers/idowell-hid.c:99:
>>        { "ups.delay.start", ST_FLAG_RW | ST_FLAG_STRING, 10,
>> "UPS.PowerSummary.DelayBeforeStartup", NULL, DEFAULT_ONDELAY,
>> HU_FLAG_ABSENT, NULL}, { "ups.delay.shutdown", ST_FLAG_RW |
>> ST_FLAG_STRING, 10, "UPS.PowerSummary.DelayBeforeShutdown", NULL,
>> DEFAULT_OFFDELAY, HU_FLAG_ABSENT, NULL},
>> 
>> It is not clear how this value is being used.
> 
> Was there ever a conclusion to this thread?  I didn't get any other messages.
> 
I asked Arnaud about this off-list, and didn't get a complete reply. He said the code looked right. Not sure if I understand this part of the usbhid-ups code yet, but I'll give it a shot.

Some of the variables (those with HU_FLAG_ABSENT) are apparently not stored on the UPS itself-- they are sent to the UPS when the shutdown command is executed. Sending the value starts the timer, in some cases, but I think the ups.delay.start value should be safe to send at the time when it is set.

You mentioned at the time that you couldn't test the shutdown sequence. Next maintenance window, can you shut down via NUT (e.g. "upsmon -c fsd"), and see if your UPS uses that delay value? (Same sort of logs as before, in case there is a problem.)

I'll admit I haven't tweaked these values on my PDC HID UPS-- the default percentage-based thresholds were sufficient. Unfortunately, that UPS has a fried charger circuit, so I can't test that now.

-- 
Charles Lepple
clepple at gmail