[Nut-upsuser] Supporting a DIY UPS with minimal effort but maximum gain

Jim Klimov jimklimov+nut at gmail.com
Thu May 16 13:59:21 BST 2024 

I agree with earlier posters, such documentation can help future tinkerers.
There is probably more than just one to hold the hand and walk through the
ordeals :)

Perhaps a new page at https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/wiki can be a
good location...

Jim


On Thu, May 16, 2024 at 1:29 PM Bill Gee <bgee at campercaver.net> wrote:

> Hi Kelly -
>
> As an Arduino nerd, I am interested in this!  I am sure others on the
> list would be interested.  If nothing else, it would be nice to have
> some documentation in the archives.
>
> I assume you set it up as an online system rather than a standby system.
>   Right?  If true, then the choice of inverter is fairly critical.  It
> has to be bomb-proof reliable.
>
> What did you choose for battery voltage?  What is the power capacity of
> the inverter?
>
> Which Arduino did you use?  All of my Arduino projects use the Pro Mini,
> though it would be quite easy to get some other model for this.
>
> Thanks -
> ===============
> Bill Gee
>
> On 5/15/24 20:11, Kelly Byrd wrote:
> > I put together my own DIY UPS,  it's a RV charger/converter, an
> > inverter, and some batteries. I use an Arduino and the HIDPowerDevice
> > library (https://github.com/abratchik/HIDPowerDevice
> > <https://github.com/abratchik/HIDPowerDevice>) to get it to talk to
> NUT.
> > Been working great for months!
> >
> > The Arduino is connected to two modules:
> > * AC detection circuit to measure mains power on/off
> > * Voltage divider and an external ADC to get a reasonably good DC
> > voltage level for the battery which I turn into the a charge percentage.
> >
> > This uses the USBHID driver in NUT and "just works" as long as you're
> > using NUT 2.8.2 or later. I used the example code in the HIDPowerDevice
> > library as a starting point for running on my Arduino.
> >
> > I can share more specifics about the Arduino side of things off list if
> > you want, the NUT side of things is pretty boring and normal.
> >
> > On Wed, May 15, 2024 at 3:27 PM Kiril Zyapkov via Nut-upsuser
> > <nut-upsuser at alioth-lists.debian.net
> > <mailto:nut-upsuser at alioth-lists.debian.net>> wrote:
> >
> >     Hello,
> >
> >     I found out about NUT just days ago while searching for a solution
> >     for my home setup. After some digging through the interwebs, I come
> >     to you with questions.
> >
> >     I'm putting together a DIY 12V UPS, very similar to what this guy
> did:
> >
> >     [1]
> >
> https://baldpenguin.blogspot.com/2015/10/diy-12v-ups-for-home-network-equipment.html
> <
> https://baldpenguin.blogspot.com/2015/10/diy-12v-ups-for-home-network-equipment.html
> >
> >
> >     The objective is to keep a bunch of mini PCs and network gear online
> >     for as long as the battery lasts and then provide a mechanism for a
> >     graceful shutdown of my NAS and other appliances for which cutting
> >     power would not be healthy. The project above is missing the
> >     "connected" part. I want to get mine to play with NUT nicely. Other
> >     prior art is this project:
> >
> >     [2] https://github.com/xm381/Raspberry-Pi-UPS
> >     <https://github.com/xm381/Raspberry-Pi-UPS>
> >
> >     Mentioned in a previous thread here:
> >
> >     [3]
> >
> https://alioth-lists.debian.net/pipermail/nut-upsuser/2018-August/011198.html
> <
> https://alioth-lists.debian.net/pipermail/nut-upsuser/2018-August/011198.html
> >
> >
> >     A valid approach -- emulates an existing protocol on an arduino.
> >
> >     Are there other similar projects that you know of? I found plenty of
> >     "DIY UPS" projects, but none were "smart".
> >
> >     I am able to put together firmware for some micro which will take
> >     care of measuring voltages, currents, possibly also turn on/off
> >     loads, serial or USB or IP are options. Not sure yet what hardware
> >     features I'll put together, but this depends somewhat on the
> >     approach for getting this thing integrated with NUT. PSUs and
> >     batteries are already on the way, and my junk drawers have most
> >     other parts I may need.
> >
> >     So, options found so far:
> >
> >     * Use genericups. Least favorite option, very limited features
> >
> >     * Use the same approach as [2]. If I were to go that route -- which
> >     is the best protocol to pick for emulation? I'm looking for
> >     something simple, extensible/flexible and well-documented.
> >
> >     But what I really wish was possible was the ability to describe my
> >     device in some format, feed it to a generic driver in NUT and
> >     profit. I see some efforts have been made in this direction, most
> >     notably:
> >
> >     [4]
> >     https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/wiki/Data-Mapping-File-(DMF)
> >     <https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/wiki/Data-Mapping-File-(DMF)
> >
> >
> >     What is the state there? Is it usable for USB HID? Or, how hard
> >     would it be to make it usable? Even a modbus description will do --
> >     implementing the modbus server (yes, server, I'm being
> >     politically-correct) over serial or even TCP is easy, if only there
> >     was a way to dump a CSV with register descriptions in some magical
> >     driver...
> >
> >     And yet another approach which comes to mind is to implement my
> >     driver as an external executable. This may be completely unfeasible
> >     and stupid, and please let me know if it is. But, from what I
> >     gather, drivers run in their own process and talk to the daemon via
> >     a UNIX socket. Why not make it possible for the driver to be just
> >     any executable, built/deployed outside of the NUT codebase? The
> >     socket protocol seems simple enough, and this will allow for ...
> >     creativity. It could be implemented in any language (including
> >     scripting languages) and need not depend on anything NUT-specific,
> >     other than maybe some common CLI interface and/or configuration.
> >
> >     I'm hoping the NUT masters will have some insight. Thanks for
> >     working on this!
> >
> >     Cheers,
> >     Kiril
> >     _______________________________________________
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> >     Nut-upsuser at alioth-lists.debian.net
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> >
> >
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