APC UPS won't talk to me

says this product is discontinued. It also says there's a DB-9 RS-232 port for signaling a power outage. Usually these sorts of signals tell the attached system to "power down gracefully" with the aid of software running on the system. Solaris used to use Powerchute with APC backups to do this sort of shutdown. According to the Wikipedia page, the RS-232 pin-outs are non-standard and proprietary to APC. APC makes a version of Powerchute for MacOS X:

If you're up to "rolling your own", then that leaves you to reverse engineer the interface, then write a program that, when installed, runs on bootup (rather than just when someone logs in) and listens to the USB-Serial adapter for a signal that the power has gone out, then runs a graceful shutdown script.

Seems like a lot to go through for a laptop. If this was going on a server system, I could see where this would be nice hackware project. Don't know what APC would do to you if they found you reverse engineering their product, but that's your problem.

Have fun.

So you know the cable is OK via APC support .AND. that loopback works OK. Loopback working OK also indicates that at least that part of the converter is working properly. So, take a small step of faith and assume the whole converter can work OK (ie: nothing wrong with it). Therefore, it is the software: either the USB driver (most likely) or the application.

Yes, I know. "Discontinued" does not mean obsolete. New models are introduced every month so as to keep that cash rollin' in. The "old" models still provide a service. (In my case for $0.)

According to e-mail correspondence with APC tech support, there is no Powerchute version compatible with the BP650S UPS model. They recommend using the built-in UPS monitoring features in Mac OS X.

Not worth it, if that's the answer.

I hope someone chimes in this discussion that they experienced this issue and found a way to make it work with the built-in OS's UPS monitoring features...

Thanks.

If data is going out and coming in, that means the USB driver works. Yes?

It's not a stand-alone app. It's part of the System Preferences of Mac OS X.

And Googling a bit, I've seen no evidence that the UPS monitoring feature has been an issue with other models of UPS.

So, I suspect it's a non-standard spec of the APC UPS communication spec for this model. Worst case.

N.

That's what the Wikipedia article on Powerchute said. The serial pinouts are non-standard and the signals coming out are proprietary.

Start by buying a break-out box to test the signals in the RS-232 interface to see what they do when the power is cut. Then see what the USB converter does with that. If it doesn't see anything, you'll have to craft your own converter.

Given you're lack of maker-ethic (e.g. you won't "figure it out for yourself"), my guess is you'll have to either pay someone else to do it or wait until someone with identical UPS and Macintosh get it running or retire the unit to paperweight duty until your wife says to clean up your mess. Either way, unless you figure it out and get it working, it's not going to be doing much of anything right now.

UPSes don't normally speak serial. More often, they simply connect two pins together, treating the serial port as a general-purpose I/O port. This won't work with a USB-to-serial converter, as there is no serial data to convert.

"notme" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org...

FAIK APC UPS communication should be started by sending a question mark to it.

petrus bitbyter

APC used to have an adapter cable. My guess is that a "standard" USB-to-RS-232 cable is not likely to work.

As another person said, I don't see the point for a notebook, even a desktop replacement. I assume the Mac has some system for automatic shutdown as the batteries are drained. (Windows does.) So, simply set it and the computer will shut down gracefully is power is lost.

try: Y

But the BackUPS don't use APC's Smart protocol.

Why would you want to monitor a UPS with a laptop? That connection between PC and UPS is designed to monitor the UPS's performance (depending on the UPS model) and for the UPS to signal the PC to shut down before the battery level is depleated. You already have that capability in your laptop.

On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:12:01 -0700, William Sommerwerck wrote (in article ):

I hope that's not so.

In my communications with APC tech support they have not yet mentioned this requirement in my setup. Not that they're infallible, but I'd think that they would point out this obvious mistake in reply to my first e-mail describing my setup.

The laptop is just a convenient test mule. The system that will benefit from the UPS' communication (hopefully) is a desktop system..

On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:52:56 -0700, VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG wrote (in article ):

If I had an APC Smart-UPS with both RS232 and a Smart Slot, the serial port on the Smart-UPS would have a better chance of working with my USB-serial adapter?

Thanks.

that they

describing

Well, they did it to me. I was told I needed a special cable, but it didn't work. Turned out that when I directly connected the standard cable to the computer (running W2K), the machine immediately recognized the UPC.

On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:45:10 -0700, petrus bitbyter wrote (in article ):

For troubleshooting purposes, what settings should the terminal program use? - VT100 or PC-ANSI? - High bit stripped? - Drop DTR on exit? - Auto line-feed?

Thanks.

Depends on if the converter supports the handshake lines. Some of them do.

On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:07:40 -0700, William Sommerwerck wrote (in article ):

I tried both (with & without special cable). No joy.

Thanks.

On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:07:40 -0700, William Sommerwerck wrote (in article ):

APC Tech Support's final solution: Plug the UPS into a PC and see if it recognizes it.

Being a Mac guy, don't know much about the Win world. Is there UPS communication & recognition features built into Win XP? Or do I need to have APC management software installed?

Thanks.

If it's in W2K, it should also be in XP.

The supplied cable has a J connector on one end, USB on the other. A few seconds after both ends are plugged in, the OS recognizes that a UPS (strictly speaking, an SPS) is connected and opens the Power Options Properties tab. Couldn't be simpler.

There is no need to use APC's PowerChute, unless it has a specific feature no in the Windows OS.

To add in: Many of the basic APC UPS's don't use true serial communications. They just use some of the control lines to signify power out, low battery, and to signal the UPS to do a shutdown. I don't know if it will work correctly through a USB-to-serial adapter.

My work computer has a BP650M with a self-made cable. It's just a standard 9-pin serial cable, but the UPS end is slightly rewired, and I think there is also a resistor. It's just using the stock Win2K support.