[Nut-upsuser] Info on Cyber Power CP1500AVRLCDa

[Phil Chadwick]

stefanos at karandreas.gr wrote:
> 
> Do you have by any chance the CyberPower CP1300EPFCLCD? I would 
> personally be interested
> in the variables it supports as I am thinking of buying that model to 
> replace an APC BX1400
> and I would like to know if it supports changing battery.charge.low etc.
> 
> I have also read 1-2 reviews for the specific model that mention that it 
> loses USB
> connectivity when switching to battery and back which would be 
> disastrous for NUT.
> Any feedback you have on that or the CyberPower model(s) would be most 
> helpful!

Hi,

I have a CyberPower CP1500EPFCLCD.

I live in a rural location and experience frequent power failures.

I run a nut server on a FreeBSD host named "sherman".  It has a USB
connection to the CP1500EPFCLCD, using the usbhid-ups driver.  I don't use
nut clients, preferring to use one-shot root privileged ssh keys to execute
remote commands (i.e. shutdown) on the "network peers" of the nut server.

The CP1500EPFCLCD has firmware "issues", and I expect that there's a very
good chance that the CP1300EPFCLCD is the same.

The USB connection experiences a transient disconnect when power drops.
Here is one of many identical examples from /var/log/messages.  However,
nut seems to handle the USB disconnects without problems:

    May 23 04:01:31 sherman squid[31854]: Squid Parent: (squid-1) process 31856 started
    May 23 10:12:31 sherman kernel: ugen2.2: <CPS CP1500EPFCLCD> at usbus2 (disconnected)
    May 23 10:12:32 sherman kernel: ugen2.2: <CPS CP1500EPFCLCD> at usbus2
    May 23 10:12:38 sherman nut-notify[33055]: UPS cp1500 onbatt
    May 23 10:12:44 sherman nut-notify[33097]: UPS cp1500 five-minute-warning-timer
    May 23 10:16:43 sherman nut-notify[33141]: UPS cp1500 one-minute-warning-timer
    May 23 10:17:43 sherman nut-notify[33185]: UPS cp1500 shutdown-timer
    May 23 10:17:43 sherman upsmon[1225]: Executing automatic power-fail shutdown
    May 23 10:17:43 sherman upsmon[1225]: Auto logout and shutdown proceeding
    May 23 10:17:44 sherman nut-shutdown[33227]: nut power-fail network shutdown sequence commencing
    May 23 10:17:44 sherman nut-shutdownpeers[33237]: nut shutdown peers alert: shutting down strand
    May 23 10:17:47 sherman nut-shutdownpeers[33249]: nut shutdown peers alert: shutting down fable
    May 23 10:17:49 sherman nut-shutdownpeers[33259]: nut shutdown peers alert: shutting down mith
    May 23 10:17:58 sherman nut-shutdownpeers[33269]: nut shutdown peers alert: shutting down orac
    May 23 10:18:00 sherman nut-shutdownpeers[33279]: nut shutdown peers alert: shutting down pi3b
    May 23 10:18:02 sherman nut-shutdownpeers[33289]: nut shutdown peers alert: skipping pi4 (not up)
    May 23 10:18:03 sherman shutdown[33295]: power-down by root

The major firmware issue I tripped over is with "ups.delay.start".  See:

  https://alioth-lists.debian.net/pipermail/nut-upsuser/2018-October/011253.html

The nut manual says set ups.delay.start (default 30) as the interval to wait
before restarting the load (seconds) [AFTER UPS power returns].  The
CyberPower CP1500EPFCLCD UPS restarts ups.delay.start seconds after the UPS
is shutdown REGARDLESS of the wall power status.  i.e. regardless of mains
status:

  - ondelay=0,  UPS powers on the load when mains return
  - ondelay=-1, UPS never powers on the load, even when mains return
  - ondelay=xx, UPS powers on the load after xx (roughly) seconds
                after UPS shutdown is executed.

I have reported this issues to CyberPower support, but got no satisfactory
resolution.  It's a serious problem...

This bug makes using "battery.charge.low" pretty much impossible, because
with a low battery you need to re-charge the battery AFTER wall power
returns and BEFORE restarting the load to power up the clients -- lest
you go into an infinite shutdown/reboot loop.  The faulty handling of 
ups.delay.start prevents the battery from re-charging to a workable level
after discharge (unless you set ondelay=-1, which means you can't power
up automatically).

To work around this problem, I run /usr/local/bin/nut-shutdown 5 minutes
after wall power drops.  It shuts down all the network peers using a
one-shot ssh key.  BIOS configurations allow everything to reboot when the
UPS supplies power immediately the wall power returns.  With my 300W load, 
the 5 minute delay ensures that the battery reserve is sufficient for a
restart, and avoids bouncing around any battery low condition.

I also regret not having an ability to delay load supply on each of the UPS
power outputs, and will look for that feature next time I buy a UPS.  The
fact is that I really need to bring up my network, firewall, and DHCP server
BEFORE the rest of the general computer systems, and the CP1500EPFCLCD can't
do that.  My small home network won't boot up properly unless the power is
sequenced to requirements (I really do need the DHCP server up first).  So I
find myself writing rc scripts to delay booting on some clients after a
power failure...

################################################################################

Here are the variables the CP1500EPFCLCD "supports":

[sherman.136] $ upscmd -l cp1500
Instant commands supported on UPS [cp1500]:

beeper.disable - Disable the UPS beeper
beeper.enable - Enable the UPS beeper
beeper.mute - Temporarily mute the UPS beeper
beeper.off - Obsolete (use beeper.disable or beeper.mute)
beeper.on - Obsolete (use beeper.enable)
load.off - Turn off the load immediately
load.off.delay - Turn off the load with a delay (seconds)
load.on - Turn on the load immediately
load.on.delay - Turn on the load with a delay (seconds)
shutdown.return - Turn off the load and return when power is back
shutdown.stayoff - Turn off the load and remain off
shutdown.stop - Stop a shutdown in progress
test.battery.start.deep - Start a deep battery test
test.battery.start.quick - Start a quick battery test
test.battery.stop - Stop the battery test

[sherman.137] $ upsc cp1500
battery.charge: 100
battery.charge.low: 33
battery.charge.warning: 20
battery.mfr.date: CPS
battery.runtime: 1560
battery.runtime.low: 300
battery.type: PbAcid
battery.voltage: 24.0
battery.voltage.nominal: 24
device.mfr: CPS
device.model: CP1500EPFCLCD
device.serial: CTLKT2000131
device.type: ups
driver.name: usbhid-ups
driver.parameter.lowbatt: 33
driver.parameter.offdelay: 90
driver.parameter.ondelay: 0
driver.parameter.pollfreq: 30
driver.parameter.pollinterval: 2
driver.parameter.port: auto
driver.parameter.synchronous: no
driver.version: 2.7.4
driver.version.data: CyberPower HID 0.4
driver.version.internal: 0.41
input.transfer.high: 260
input.transfer.low: 170
input.voltage: 227.0
input.voltage.nominal: 230
output.voltage: 260.0
ups.beeper.status: enabled
ups.delay.shutdown: 90
ups.delay.start: 0
ups.load: 32
ups.mfr: CPS
ups.model: CP1500EPFCLCD
ups.productid: 0501
ups.realpower.nominal: 900
ups.serial: CTLKT2000131
ups.status: OL
ups.test.result: No test initiated
ups.timer.shutdown: -60
ups.timer.start: -60
ups.vendorid: 0764

################################################################################

I'm happy to publish the detailed configuration if anyone would like
to see it.

Cheers,


-- 
Phil

My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot.
        -- Ashleigh Brilliant (1933--), U.S. writer