[PLUG] APCUSB utility can't see UPS

[EJ Vincent]

Hi Josh,

You touched upon several issues in your email, so here's my wack at what 
I think you need to do.  While I have no experience using the BX1500G, I 
have configured apcupsd with BE750G (on Ubuntu 10.10) which uses a 
similar RJ45<->USB plug.  I agree the gnome panel doesn't provide much 
information.  Regardless, you can (and should) adjust your unit's 
configuration solely from apcupsd.conf (for me 
/etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf)-- I set UPSCABLE to usb, UPSTYPE to usb, and 
commented out DEVICE-- not a required option as it will autodetect.  
(Naturally any changes you make to this file should be accompanied with 
a restart of the service).   You can ask your unit for data by invoking 
`apcaccess`.  Here's a sample of mine:

...
CABLE    : USB Cable
MODEL    : Back-UPS ES 750
UPSMODE  : Stand Alone
STARTTIME: 2011-01-21 19:30:19 -0500
STATUS   : ONLINE
LINEV    : 124.0 Volts
LOADPCT  :  57.0 Percent Load Capacity
...

You said you're having problems identifying the device? Here's a sample 
of (my) dmesg output identifying the device upon startup:
generic-usb 0003:051D:0002.0001: hiddev96,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Device 
[American Power Conversion Back-UPS ES 750 FW:841.I3 .D USB FW:I3 ] on 
usb-0000:00:1a.1-2/input0

Alternatively, lshw can output system bus information, so you could 
locate the unit that way (not as fun mind you):
...
         *-usb:1
              description: USB Controller
              product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 
[8086:2938]
              vendor: Intel Corporation [8086]
              physical id: 1a.1
              bus info: pci at 0000:00:1a.1
              version: 02
              width: 32 bits
              clock: 33MHz
              capabilities: uhci bus_master cap_list
              configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0
              resources: irq:21 ioport:e100(size=32)
...

To take this a step further, if you have apache2 setup, you can install 
the apcupsd-cgi addon, which will show you (imho) more meaningful graphs 
via a web interface.  Hope this pushes you in the right direction.

Best,
-EJ

On 1/29/2011 8:33 PM, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> I have installed my shiny new APC BX1500G UPS and it is all working
> fine, except for getting the Linux APCUSB utility to see it. The LCD
> display on the UPS says that my line voltage is 120, but for the load
> all it shows is a bar graph without numbers. I was hoping that the open
> source APC utility would provide more details, but it can't see the unit
> at all.
>
> It connects by an RJ45 plug in the back of the unit, with the supplied
> cable terminating in a standard USB plug on the other end. The error
> message is "NISERR unknown at localhost NIS network connection not
> responding."
>
> > From the command line "cat /proc/bus/usb/devices" sees the device. And
> the power icon in the gnome panel sees it and correctly reports the
> make, model and even serial number. So I know it is properly connected.
> The problem is that I'd like to know what the load is, how long to
> empty at the current load, and I'd like to be able to adjust the
> shutdown preferences, none of which are available from the Gnome panel
> Power Statistics window. The Power Statistics window also shows nothing
> for the performance tabs - the graphs are vacant with the message
> "there is no data to display."
>
> I've read through the manual at:
>
> http://www.apcupsd.org/manual/manual.html#quick-start-for-beginners
>
> But I haven't found any clues yet.
>
> Is anyone using APCUSB? Is there a secret to getting it find the UPS?
> _______________________________________________
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> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
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-- 
EJ Vincent
Web Development
Journal of Atomic and Nuclear Engineering
ej at ejane.org