Re: Green Cell UPS PowerProof 600VA with RN104

HolgerGT86 · ‎2022-01-20

Hello community,

I bought a Green Cell UPS PowerProof 600VA as backup power for my NetGear ReadyNAS RN104.

The ReadyNAS is running at firmware level 6.10.6.

The UPS is USB connected (I tested RN104 front and back USB connectors).

I powered down the RN104
I connected the UPS to a RN104 USB port (front or back ... doesn't matter)
I powered on the RN104
the RN104 detected the UPS but the Admin - System - Overview page showed yellow status: UPS warning

When I go to the Admin - System - Power page, the UPS is listed, but as soon as I try to change a setting, the RN104 is removing the UPS from the Power page. The RN104 log documents that the RN104 failed to communicate to the UPS.

I did some reseach and understand that the ReadyNAS OS is using NUT to manage the UPS.

The NUT website does NOT list the Green Cell UPS 600VA as a supported device. Nevertheless, for Windows machines, the UPS manual advices to download a device driver from megatec. To me it looks like the Green Cell UPS 600VA is behaving like a megatec UPSilon 2000. The megatec UPSilon 2000 is listed as supported on the NUT website.

I logged into the ReadyNAS OS as root and tried to select the blazer_usb device driver by updating the /etc/nut/usb.conf file. When I update the usb.conf file with

[MY_UPS]

driver = blazer_usb

port = auto

norating

novendor

protocol = megatec

and then run 'upsdrvctl start' it reports, besides other messages, "Supported UPS detected with megatec protocol".

Nevertheless, the RN104 is not accepting the UPS. After rebooting the RN104 the /etc/nut/nut.conf and /etc/nut/ups.conf files are empty or back at default. After reboot the ups.conf includes:

[MY_UPS]

driver = nutdrv_atcl_usb

port = auto

#dashboard: ups_model =

#dashboard: ups_mfr =

serial =

vendorid = 0001

productid = 0000

The nut.conf includes

MODE=standalone

---

Can you please help me to understand what's going wrong here?

Is there a way to diagnose which manufacturer and model are being reported back by the UPS?

Is there a way to modify the /etc/nut config files so that they are not getting reset to default at RN104 reboot?

Many thanks for looking into this issue.

Regards,

Holger

HolgerGT86 · ‎2022-01-20

adding a 2nd file showing the messages:

HolgerGT86 · ‎2022-01-21

Hello all,

no need to reply anymore as I'll return the UPS.

Just in case someone wants to investigate further, here is what I found so far.

The Green Cell UPS AV600 is returning the following values:

---

Jan 21 13:50:55 PrivateNAS kernel: usb 1-1: new low-speed USB device number 2 using orion-ehci

Jan 21 13:50:55 PrivateNAS kernel: usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0001, idProduct=0000

Jan 21 13:50:55 PrivateNAS kernel: usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0

Jan 21 13:50:55 PrivateNAS kernel: usb 1-1: Product: MEC0003

Jan 21 13:50:55 PrivateNAS kernel: usb 1-1: Manufacturer: MEC

Jan 21 13:50:55 PrivateNAS kernel: hid-generic 0003:0001:0000.0001: hiddev0: USB HID v1.00 Device [MEC MEC0003] on usb-d0050000.usb-1/input0

---

I updated the /etc/nut/ups.conf file with the following stanza:

root@PrivateNAS:/etc/nut# cat ups.conf

[GreenCell]

driver = "blazer_usb"

port = "auto"

desc = "GreenCell USV 600VA"

langid_fix = 0x409

vendor = "MEC"

product = "MEC0003"

---

... and restarted the driver/ services:

root@PrivateNAS:/etc/nut# upsdrvctl start

Network UPS Tools - UPS driver controller 2.7.4

Network UPS Tools - Megatec/Q1 protocol USB driver 0.12 (2.7.4)

Duplicate driver instance detected! Terminating other driver!

Supported UPS detected with megatec protocol

Vendor information unavailable

No values provided for battery high/low voltages in ups.conf

Using 'guestimation' (low: 10.400000, high: 13.000000)!

Battery runtime will not be calculated (runtimecal not set)

root@PrivateNAS:/etc/nut# service nut-server stop

root@PrivateNAS:/etc/nut# service nut-server start

---

Now the RN104 was able to "talk" to the UPS one time:

root@PrivateNAS:/etc/nut# upsc GreenCell@localhost

battery.charge: 46

battery.voltage: 11.60

battery.voltage.high: 13.00

battery.voltage.low: 10.40

battery.voltage.nominal: 12.0

device.type: ups

driver.name: blazer_usb

driver.parameter.langid_fix: 0x409

driver.parameter.pollinterval: 2

driver.parameter.port: auto

driver.parameter.product: MEC0003

driver.parameter.synchronous: no

driver.parameter.vendor: MEC

driver.version: 2.7.4

driver.version.internal: 0.12

input.current.nominal: 2.0

input.frequency: 50.0

input.frequency.nominal: 50

input.voltage: 234.6

input.voltage.fault: 234.6

input.voltage.nominal: 230

output.voltage: 234.6

ups.beeper.status: enabled

ups.delay.shutdown: 30

ups.delay.start: 180

ups.load: 6

ups.productid: 0000

ups.status: OL

ups.type: offline / line interactive

ups.vendorid: 0001

root@PrivateNAS:/etc/nut#

---

Nevertheless, after rebooting the RN104 everything was cleared out again.

For me the issue is that the vendor ID MEC and the product ID MEC0003 are not know to the NUT driver.

Both IDs are not listed in

/usr/share/nut/driver.list

# Network UPS Tools - 2.7.4 - Hardware Compatibility List

---

I'm closing this thread as I decided to spend no more time on this situation.

Take care about yourselves and stay healthy.

Holger

byGrims · ‎2022-04-27

Hi Holger GT86 and every one else here at the forum,

I've just bought the same Green Cell UPS.

When making the changes to the ups.conf file I got the same problem as you after reboot. The file got back to some kind of default.

I solved this by making the file immutable (write protect) after editing it with the following command:

# chattr +i ups.conf

And then the file stays the same.

If you later want to make changes to the file you just make mutable again with the following command:

# chattr -i ups.conf

Best regards

#bygrims

HolgerGT86 · ‎2022-04-28

Hello #byGrims,

many thanks for sharing! For me it's too late as I sent the UPS back, but it will help the community.

Good luck with the UPS.

Holger