[Nut-upsuser] NUT 'upsstats' Battery Meter Question

[Jeff Rickman]

Hello Jim,

Thank you for the helpful hints. I did some experimenting as you suggested and here's what I found in my installations.

For my Eaton (ex-MGE Powerware) E5115 UPS boxes I added this line to the respective UPS section in "ups.conf":

override.battery.voltage.nominal = 36

Now the battery meter in 'upsstats' shows voltage levels and 'zones' that make sense.

I noticed a curious by-product of that change to a E5115 UPS monitor that was reporting "Replace Battery" even though the attache UPS has had it's batteries replaced and charged within the past few days. Once I added that override line and restarted the NUT daemons that "Replace Battery" warning in 'upsstats' disappeared. Previously nothing seemed to change/update that "Replace Battery" message.

My E5115 UPS boxes use the 'bcmxcp_usb' driver.

I also used the override for an APC Smart-UPS 1000 that does not have a SmartCard. That UPS would report a nominal voltage of 48 volts even though it can only support 2x 12 volt battery blocks inside the case. After the override addition that chart looks good for batteries that are just a few months old.

This APC Smart-UPS 1000 uses the 'usbhid-ups' driver. Perhaps one day I will purchase an APC SmartCard.

The override adjustment makes no difference to the battery meter display in 'upsstats' for an Eaton Ellipse ES1500 UPS using the 'usbhid-ups' driver. That UPS does not report any voltage levels, just the UPS' own idea of battery charge percentage and 'upsstats' shows a meter for that percentage.

/Jeff/


On Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:06:30 +0100
Jim Klimov <jimklimov+nut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello Jeff,
> 
>   `upsstats` by itself only relays and renders the information provided by
> a NUT data server (upsd) and the NUT driver for the device. So you can
> revise the specific reported values with e.g. `upsc` command-line client to
> be sure.
> 
>   What I think happens here is that the driver uses a
> `battery.voltage.low/nominal/high` group of readings which does not match
> the hardware circumstances well for some reason. These readings can be
> provided by a device (and then a 3x12=36V nominal would be reasonable), it
> can be imposed in your driver configuration with
> `override.battery.voltage.... = ...` lines, and in some but not all drivers
> the ranges can be guessed from other information served by the device, as a
> fallback.
> 
>   Use of overrides is fairly popular, so check if that would help you (and
> that you don't have it misleadingly misconfigured already by copy-paste of
> an `ups.conf` device section from the internet).
> 
>   While at it, check the manual pages for the driver you use - if it
> supports a `runtimecal` option. It often comes up in this context, to give
> the driver a better grasp at battery discharge dynamics so it can issue the
> critical-situation alarms at power loss if the device/protocol lacks the
> ability on its own.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> Jim Klimov
> 
> 
> Jim
> 
> 
> On Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 12:57 AM Jeff <jrickman at myamigos.us> wrote:
> 
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am using Nut 2.8.0 (2.8.0-7 packages) Debian 'Bookworm' in it's Devuan
> > form 'Daedalus'.
> >
> > When I look at my Eaton (ex-MGE Powerware) E5115 UPS boxes in NUT
> > 'upsstats" I am confused by the battery readings.
> >
> > Under the 'System' column I can click on the link and obtain a GUI with a
> > few meters.
> >
> > The NUT 'upsstats' battery voltage meter for these E5115 UPS boxes is
> > almost in the lower level RED zone which is just under 40 volts. The GREEN
> > zone seems to be 48 to 55 volts with a RED zone above that.
> >
> > Here's the confusing part: These Eaton E5115 UPS boxes only have 3x 12v
> > 9Ah sealed lead-acid AGM battery blocks inside them. I verified that after
> > I recently changed out some aged batteries from those boxes. There is no
> > room for any more battery blocks in the case.
> >
> > NUT 'upsstats' reports the battery voltage as 40.25 volts for 1 of the UPS
> > boxes and 39.02 volts for the other UPS box. Those voltages seem reasonable
> > (and similar to past results for other battery blocks) for NEW 12v sealed
> > lead-acid AGM battery blocks.
> >
> > When I look at the 'Data tree' link from the NUT 'upsstats' tool I can see
> > the organized list of data from the UPS. There does not appear to be any
> > upper or lower battery charge limits in that data.
> >
> > So, how does NUT 'upsstats' figure out it's upper and lower limits and
> > where it places it's RED zones? Can these meters be adjusted in some way?
> >
> > /Jeff/
> >
> > --
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Nut-upsuser mailing list
> > Nut-upsuser at alioth-lists.debian.net
> > https://alioth-lists.debian.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nut-upsuser
> >


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