RN516 and control of attached APC UPS.

Normally it just works. Did the APC come with a normal USB cable, or did you need to adapt a serial cable?

StephenB wrote:
Normally it just works. Did the APC come with a normal USB cable, or did you need to adapt a serial cable?

Hi Stephen
I did use the cable that came and yes it does work (as mentioned in the post), but NOT completely as I wanted (as mentioned in the post)

Could you be more specific about where you would expect to be able to 'control' the UPS.
From the admin page? If so where?
From a PC? How?

Just looked back over the above and it MAY appear rude ... that wasn't and isn't the intention :)
I am trying to get the control and testing facilities available via 'PowerChute' or something equivalent.
BJ

I use cyberlink, so I haven't done anything with powerchute.

The NAS interface lets you set the power down threshold but that is it. You can also export the NAS monitoring to another ReadyNAS or a PC (for cases where the UPS is shared). That export uses NUT (http://www.networkupstools.org/)

You might be able to connect the UPS to the PC, and install both NUT and PowerChute there. That might allow the NAS to monitor the PC. It requires that the PC be always on though (and of course you also need a switch that is also protected by the UPS whenever you are using network monitoring).

StephenB wrote:

I use cyberlink, so I haven't done anything with powerchute. The NAS interface lets you set the power down threshold but that is it. You can also export the NAS monitoring to another ReadyNAS or a PC (for cases where the UPS is shared). That export uses NUT (http://www.networkupstools.org/) You might be able to connect the UPS to the PC, and install both NUT and PowerChute there. That might allow the NAS to monitor the PC. It requires that the PC be always on though (and of course you also need a switch that is also protected by the UPS whenever you are using network monitoring).

Thanks. My NAS is located in a garage room and my PC is a long way away. Anyway, I already have a UPS on my main PC anyway.
Looks like 2 things (apart from backup/security) that I wanted in particular with this NAS box have been a non starter.
Controlling the UPS (this post) and acting as a printer server (another post launched today).

Thanks again for the contribution.
BJ

What settings on the UPS did you want to change?

StephenB wrote:
What settings on the UPS did you want to change?

With my current old UPS which I am keeping, there are meters, graphs and historical data, logging what happened when etc.
Voltage levels, frequency temperature, plus more are all easily viewable for the input and the output side.
Sensitivity levels are adjustable and testing can be requested to see how the system performs.
From memory I get about 12 to 13 minutes when the battery is new and 3 minutes when the battery is old (about 3 years).
The battery has been replaced at least twice, as once it did not last the 3 (expected) years.
If you are going to rely on a UPS you have to have confidence that it will do it's job when you need it. otherwise why bother.
I setup over 20 events that can happen (mostly left to the default value, I admit) and configured 7 options for each of them.
Event examples are 'load warning', 'load severity', 'Battery needs replace' etc.
Options examples are 'shutdown', 'email', 'alarm', 'command' etc.

Apart from the confidence building having this data gives, I suppose most of it is not absolutely necessary.
I would like to be able to test how long the battery would go for (and not rely on the information displayed, which I am led to believe is not necessarily correct).

Okay ... I'm tired... I will forgo all of the things I was expecting (which are on my current very old UPS), and do my own tests by pulling out the plug to see what happens.
Yes .... different mains to NAS, cut supply to UPS and see if it shuts it down, and time it.
I'll manage BUT in IT one normally expects to get more facilities rather than less, especially as it would seem that the facilities are probably there but only for a PC connection.
.... nope do NOT want the UPS connected to a PC. It is in the garage with the NAS, a router and printer and an obsolete Pentium 3 taking up valuable space.
BJ

BaJohn wrote:
...I'll manage BUT in IT one normally expects to get more facilities rather than less, especially as it would seem that the facilities are probably there but only for a PC connection. .... nope do NOT want the UPS connected to a PC. It is in the garage with the NAS, a router and printer and an obsolete Pentium 3 taking up valuable space. BJ

I wasn't meaning to imply the services weren't valuable, I just wanted more info. I think this is a good feature request, though since it is specific to one UPS brand perhaps a third-party app would be would be the right way to do it.

StephenB wrote:

BaJohn wrote: ...I'll manage BUT in IT one normally expects to get more facilities rather than less, especially as it would seem that the facilities are probably there but only for a PC connection. .... nope do NOT want the UPS connected to a PC. It is in the garage with the NAS, a router and printer and an obsolete Pentium 3 taking up valuable space. BJ I wasn't meaning to imply the services weren't valuable, I just wanted more info. I think this is a good feature request, though since it is specific to one UPS brand perhaps a third-party app would be would be the right way to do it.

Of interest, one facility on my other UPS is that when on battery power only, the signal to shutdown can be sent to the PC/equipment/router etc after a defined number of minutes.
I set mine to 1 minute, but could be 2, 3 etc. The ReadyNAS equivalent option is between 10 and 80 % (and Auto which I believe is 60%) for the 'Shutdown Threshold'. If I set this to 80% say, then when the battery gets old it MAY not hold at 80%. There is NO INDICATION (as far as I can see) that the shutdown threshold via ReadyNAS is ONLY when the UPS is on battery power. So if there was a problem and the battery was 'low', on reboot of the ReadyNAS would it go and shutdown (even with mains good), just because the level is below the threshold. I think what I am asking is "Does the ReadyNAS know that the UPS is 'recovering' and wait for the level to go ABOVE the threshold before implementing the test for being below the threshold?". Hope this makes sense. I cannot trust something until I understand how it works in general, so that I can get it to work for me, as I want it!

It was my impression that "auto" meant that the NAS shuts down when it receives a critical power event. There are some more details here: http://www.networkupstools.org/docs/use ... 01s06.html

Here are the steps that occur when a critical power event happens: The UPS goes on battery The UPS reaches low battery (a "critical" UPS), that is to say upsc displays: ups.status: OB LB The exact behavior depends on the specific device, and is related to: battery.charge and battery.charge.low battery.runtime and battery.runtime.low

Note this is my impression, I have not seen details. Also, I believe the thresholds are only applied when the UPS is on battery, so if it is charging the thresholds are not applied (and shutdown shouldn't ever be triggered).

I agree overall that some more details on this would be useful in a knowledge base article.

StephenB wrote:
... so if it is charging the thresholds are not applied (and shutdown shouldn't ever be triggered).

Isn't it always on charge (when the mains is okay), as in trickle charge. My old UPS is!