[Nut-upsuser] New UPS supported in 2.0.4

[Charles Lepple]

On Mar 27, 2014, at 7:47 PM, Julian Nguyen wrote:

> I need to get a USB based UPS for a system which is running NUT 2.0.4 (a Debian Etch system).  Does anyone know of a UPS that I can buy today that is supported by 2.0.4?  Unfortunately upgrading the OS (and NUT) isn’t an option.  Previously, we used the Powerware 5110 (which used the bcmxcp_usb driver) and that worked fine, however that UPS has been discontinued and is no longer available, and I am having trouble finding a suitable replacement.  So far I’ve tried the Eaton 5S UPS using various NUT 2.0.4 USB drivers to no avail.

Even though you mentioned that upgrading NUT isn't an option, I have to put in a plug for upgrading-- there are a lot more devices supported in newer versions of NUT. In particular, the newhidups driver in 2.0.4 only supports a handful of models by MGE, APC and Belkin, and the only other USB drivers are bcmxcp_usb and tripplite_usb. The latter only supports Tripp Lite's early USB models with a sketchy built-in USB-to-serial adapter, and even though I wrote that driver, I can't recommend using it on a production system. (Tripp Lite's newer HID PDC-complaint UPSes are much better, and the company provided an extensive test report running those models against NUT 2.6.x.)

Building a new .deb package shouldn't be too difficult, or you could build from source. Feel free to ask here if that turns out to be the most promising way forward.

Another option is to look for a used UPS online. If you are considering APC, this is probably the way to go, since their newest models use a proprietary MicroLink protocol, and the USB HID PDC support is somewhat crippled. There are a few APC-specific workarounds in later versions of NUT, which I think means that the older versions of NUT won't talk to newer APC hardware. Unfortunately, I don't know how far back you would have to go to find a non-MicroLink UPS.

If you find a used UPS online, you may be able to save on shipping by asking the seller not to include the batteries, and buy replacements locally.

Another option is to find a serial UPS and a decent USB-to-serial adapter. I have had some luck with Keyspan PDA adapters (USA-19, I think) but you will need to play around with the firmware files in Debian.

-- 
Charles Lepple
clepple at gmail