[Nut-upsuser] APC BX ...MI series

[Jim Klimov]

Hello,

  Just wanted to clarify: what sort of issues did you have with the APC?

  Since last year there have been several posts such as
https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/issues/2347 about BX****MI (3-4
digits for wattage) series built (or flashed with firmware?) roughly in
2023-2024 as frequently reporting low-battery/replace-battery/all-good
events in a short timeframe, both with NUT and apcupsd. The event itself
might have taken a couple of seconds, but happens irregularly from a few
times a day to many times an hour, spamming the logs or alert systems.

  For those samples, we've figured this is some sort of automatic
calibration or similar behavior of the inverter, diligently represented by
its firmware protocol as the basic underlying events and not the
"calibrating" event. At least, this chain of events often goes hand in hand
with "On-Line + Discharging" status combo, which seemed to mean calibration
on earlier models.

  A recently merged NUT solution for this in PR
https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/pull/2565 was a set of new driver
configuration options, as detailed in the "NEWS" file:
* `lbrb_log_delay_sec=N` setting to delay propagation of `LB` or `LB+RB`
state (buggy with APC BXnnnnMI devices circa 2023-2024).
* This may work better with flags like `onlinedischarge_calibration` and
`lbrb_log_delay_without_calibrating` for some devices.

  The "lbrb*" options are recent (would be in NUT v2.8.3 release
eventually), the "onlinedischarge_calibration" is from v2.8.1 (the
OL+DISCHRG combo means several things for different vendors, so there are
options for how NUT should treat them).

  Depending on how exactly your device misbehaves, just spewing OL+DISCHRG
once in awhile, or the bigger alert sequence with battery replacement, you
may be in luck for the former just needing to install NUT v2.8.1 from some
packages (maybe using Debian/Ubuntu derived "experimental" repo or switch
to a newer OS release), or for the latter - build your own custom NUT. A
way to go about this is documented at
https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/wiki/Building-NUT-for-in%E2%80%90place-upgrades-or-non%E2%80%90disruptive-tests
with reference to the needed prerequisites on different platforms.

Hope this helps,
Jim Klimov




On Mon, Aug 19, 2024 at 9:22 AM Peter Bell <peter at bellfamily.org.uk> wrote:

> I'm a long-time user of APC UPSs and apcupsd, but have been experiencing
> issues with recent APC units, although I have three BackUPS CS650 units
> which have had very little issue..
>
> I've recently replaced the APC 1200 unit on my fileserver (running
> Slackware) with a CyberPower UPS and that appears to be well supported
> by NUT.
>
> However, I have an APC BX950MI unit which is currently being replaced
> under warranty.  This unit has never worked well with apcupsd.
> I understand that changes have recently been incorporated into NUT to
> handle the BX units.  I have installed NUT onto a Raspberry Pi, running
> PiOS (Bookworm), but NUT pulled from the PiOS repository is only at
> v2.8.0, not the latest.  This works okay with the CS650 APC but I fear
> that it doesn't include the latest BX series fixes.
> What do I need to do to to get the BX950 working satisfactorily with
> NUT?  Will an update of the usbhid-ups driver work or do I need the
> complete NUT v2.8.2 from somewhere?
>
> How can I go about this?
>
> All advice gratefully received.
>
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