[solved] APC UPS connection issues with UPS settings & NUT plugin

[Gooserhino]

Hello All,

 

Recently purchased a brand new APC UPS (BGM1500b) and am having issues connecting with both the built in UPS settings as well as the NUT plugin.  Batteries are brand new and have passed a self-test.  Using Unraid version 6.9.2.

 

When connecting via the built in UPS settings I have the same error as detailed in this post

with the UPS reporting "On Battery" status once it has reached 100% charge even though it is currently online.  I have tried every variation of USB cable and type available in UPS settings and can only get unraid to recognize the UPS with cable and type both set to USB.  When connecting to a windows machine the UPS status is reported correctly in powerchute software.

 

After failing to get the built in UPS management to function properly I setup the NUT plugin and have issues with the UPS disconnecting after a day or two.  I continue to get "Poll UPS failed - Data stale" errors with NUT that can only be corrected by pulling the USB and reinserting.  Error is persistent regardless of USB port on my server and I have verified there are no USB power saving settings in my bios.  I have also tried adjusting config values for MAXAGE, DEADTIME, and POLLINTERVAL to no avail.

 

At this point I'm at a loss on a path forward and would appreciate any help that can be provided.

Edited October 24, 2021 by Gooserhino
Solved

[grunter]

I too had trouble with a new APC UPS and UnRaid.  I purchased an APC "Easy" UPS but could not get it to work using both the built in APC utility and the NUT plugin.  This model seems to use a different connection scheme with a USB connector at each end of the cable.  I installed my old APC Smart-UPS 650 and it automatically connected to the build in UPS feature and works flawlessly (its just a bit small and only gives me a few minutes run-time).  This model used a USB cable at the PC end and the special 10-pin RJ plug at the UPS end.  (I call an RJ plug because it looks like an RJ45 plug but has 10 pins instead of 8 pins).  This appears to be a proprietary APC cable.  I regret purchasing that Easy UPS and it seems from this forum that the Eaton range of UPS's may be a better device.

Edited October 19, 2021 by grunter

[Gooserhino]

I seem to have found a way to resolve my issues with NUT by using a scheduled script to reset the USB once NUT reports "data stale."  Using the user script plugin here

and this USB reset script here. https://askubuntu.com/questions/645/how-do-you-reset-a-usb-device-from-the-command-line

I used the command below in the user script plugin to call the usbreset script and execute by searching for the bus and device IDs of my UPS.  To configure for a different UPS replace [American Power Conversion] with whatever your UPS is labeled as when using "lsusb" in the unraid terminal.  Finally adjust the schedule setting in the user scripts plugin to however long it typically takes until NUT starts reporting "data stale" errors.  https://crontab.guru/ is helpful for determining custom scheduling times.

 

#!/bin/bash
echo $(lsusb | grep "American Power Conversion"); APC=$( lsusb | grep "American Power Conversion" | perl -nE "/\D+(\d+)\D+(\d+).+/; print qq(\$1/\$2)")
/path/to/usbreset/script /dev/bus/usb/$APC

 

[Shadow Blitz]

Hello Gooserhino, I have the same issue as you had.

I did try following your steps as I have perl installed though the nerd pack plugin and have the user scripts plugin installed.

I created the usbreset script from the above post (the first big block of code that is on the site you linked)

the usbreset script is located at /mnt/user/appdata/userscripts/usbreset on my server. and I chmod it with 777 and +x. then I created a script titled 'upsreset' and put your code into it but replaced '/path/to/usbreset/script' with '/mnt/user/appdata/userscripts/usbreset' and when I try and run it. I get this failed result.

 

Script location: /tmp/user.scripts/tmpScripts/upsreset/script
Note that closing this window will abort the execution of this script
Bus 002 Device 006: ID 051d:0002 American Power Conversion Uninterruptible Power Supply
/mnt/user/appdata/userscripts/usbreset: line 1: /bin: Is a directory
/mnt/user/appdata/userscripts/usbreset: line 12: syntax error near unexpected token `('
/mnt/user/appdata/userscripts/usbreset: line 12: `int main(int argc, char **argv)'

 

Any help would be appreciated. As I can't afford to buy a new UPS at this time and I would like to get this one to work in a way that I can have it set and forgotten and be reliable.

 

Just for people who want to know, here is the details of my UPS.
American Power Conversion Back-UPS BX1600MI FW:294201G -302201G

 

Thank you.

[Batman]

The error is because calling the c-code as a script won't do anything, because it's trying to interpret it as a shell script.

 

I discovered that a version of "usbreset" is already present on Unraid, or at least it's built-in to version 6.10.2. Using that, I wrote a script I can schedule to check if the UPS is communicating and reset the USB connection if it isn't:

 

#!/bin/bash
# Test communication with UPS
if upscmd -l ups > /dev/nul; then
    echo The UPS is connected.
else
    echo Error: Communication with the UPS has failed!
    if usbreset "Back-UPS BGM1500  FW:000000G0-313200S9"; then
        echo USB reset completed successfully.
    else
        echo Error: USB reset failed!
    fi
fi

 

[Batman]

For some reason, the name of my UPS (using usbreset) changed to "Back-UPS BGM1500B  FW31316S12-31320S10", so the script above stopped working. Since that doesn't seem to be a stable way to reference it, and I couldn't figure out how or if I could use wildcards with usbreset, I modified the script to use lsusb like Gooserhino's:

 

#!/bin/bash
# Test communication with UPS
if upscmd -l ups > /dev/nul; then
    echo The UPS is connected.
else
    echo Error: Communication with the UPS has failed!
    # Get USB path for the UPS
    APC=$( lsusb | grep "American Power Conversion" | perl -nE "/\D+(\d+)\D+(\d+).+/; print qq(\$1/\$2)")
    # Test for a USB conection
    if [ -z "$APC" ]; then
        echo Error: No USB UPS detected!
    else
        echo Resetting the USB connection...
        # Reset the USB connection
        if usbreset $APC; then
            echo USB reset completed successfully.
        else
            echo Error: USB reset failed!
        fi
    fi
fi

 

[edmendes]

Hi! Great job!

 

On 8/20/2022 at 2:02 PM, Batman said:

American Power Conversion

But, where I can find this, for my UPS?

 

Thanks!

[Batman]

2 hours ago, edmendes said:

Hi! Great job!

 

But, where I can find this, for my UPS?

 

Thanks!

 

In the terminal, use lsusb. It will list the USB devices connected to your server:

 

root@BatRAID:~# lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8001 Intel Corp. Integrated Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8009 Intel Corp. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 011: ID 051d:0003 American Power Conversion UPS
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0930:6545 Toshiba Corp. Kingston DataTraveler 102/2.0 / HEMA Flash Drive 2 GB / PNY Attache 4GB Stick
Bus 003 Device 009: ID 0c45:0133 Microdia USB Keyboard
Bus 003 Device 010: ID 1a86:55d4 QinHeng Electronics 800 Z-Wave Stick
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

 

Find the one that corresponds to your UPS, and use that. You don't have to use the whole thing, but it does need to be long enough that it will be the only one that matches.