[PLUG] Enclousures and power

[Karol Kulaga]

UPS's typically lose battery power even if "off" and unplugged - I've seen
this with all my APC UPS's from the peasant commercial ones to the behemoth
Smart UPS 1400 and some of the crappier ones I've had. I'm not sure exactly
what causes the drain, but the battery discharges relatively quickly.

You can turn an ups off, (i.e. no voltage to devices but it stays fully
charged) - I don't want to be overly generic but my smart ups 700 and 1400
have serial ports that I have tested this with, and I'm sure that this is a
common feature by sending a command to it via serial. Newer models use USB,
so you get a bit of extra fun with those. 
Heh, I can drive up to Canada with my 1400 quietly humming away in the back
powering my tower. /geek.
I'd post specs, but different UPS's have different commands and the such.  

Actually, I might have a bunch of X10 devices if anyone is interested (like
10 or so, including the serial controller) Never tried them under Linux. I'd
have to find them. 

Good luck.

-----Original Message-----
From: plug-admin at lists.pdxlinux.org [mailto:plug-admin at lists.pdxlinux.org]
On Behalf Of Zot O'Connor
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 8:56 PM
To: PLUG LIST
Subject: [PLUG] Enclousures and power

On Mon, 2003-11-10 at 16:47, Jeme A Brelin wrote:

> oh, perhaps one could put a firewire enclosure in a UPS that is serially
> controlled (USB or otherwise) so you could actually power up the enclosure
> and do the save/restore all automatically.

Well there are two other options:

1)  Use a serial controlled switch.  There are ($$$) switches for server
rooms that can be controlled remotely. T urning a UPS on and off may not
be a smart thing to do.  I am not sure they are built to take many
cycles. Sides, will a UPS turn off right away, or will it drain?  I
wonder....

2)  Some USB, and therefore it should be that some Firewire, devices get
power off the pins.  That is the main difference between 4 and 6 pins. 
I do not know of any firewire enclosures that do this, but I have heard
of USB hard drives that will power off the port.  Given the ability to
shut off that power, you have what you need.

3)  Making a relay that runs off the com switch or parallel port is
pretty strait forwards.  Run the power through the relay, and switch off
the com port will get you there as well.

4)  You can do this all with X10 for about $40 (get the right sale, and
it should be less).  Most of the computer controllers have 1 switched
outlet on them (almost always Port 1).  Hook a serial line up, grab any
of the X10 programs, and walla!

-- 
Zot O'Connor

http://www.ZotConsulting.com
http://www.WhiteKnightHackers.com


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