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apcupsd w/ Back UPS 1300, serial connection not recognized

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Hello,

 

I'm having similar problems to khager in this thread: http://goo.gl/cYjw8

 

I am unable to get either version of apcupsd to recognize the connection.  I am using a RJ45/serial cable that came with the UPS.  COM1 is enabled in BIOS with Auto settings and ttys0 is present, but I receive the following errors:

 

With 3.14.8

 

Serial Port: YES

Cable Type: smart

 

Syslog error:

May 26 18:14:09 Tower apcupsd[7855]: apcupsd FATAL ERROR in linux-usb.c at line 609 Cannot find UPS device -- For a link to detailed USB trouble shooting information, please see <http://www.apcupsd.com/support.html>.  (Errors)
May 26 18:14:09 Tower apcupsd[7855]: apcupsd error shutdown completed (Errors)
May 26 18:14:33 Tower apcupsd[8547]: apcupsd FATAL ERROR in smartsetup.c at line 171 PANIC! Cannot communicate with UPS via serial port. Please make sure the port specified on the DEVICE directive is correct, and that your cable specification on the UPSCABLE directive is correct.  (Errors)
May 26 18:14:33 Tower apcupsd[8547]: apcupsd error shutdown completed (Errors)

 

With 3.14.3:

 

Serial Port: YES

Cable type: smart

 

Syslog error:

 

May 26 18:09:35 Tower apcupsd[1965]: apcupsd FATAL ERROR in smartsetup.c at line 70 Cannot open UPS port /dev/usb/hiddev0: No such file or directory  (Errors)
May 26 18:09:35 Tower apcupsd[1965]: apcupsd error shutdown completed (Errors)

 

Not sure if this was ever resolved.  As a last resort, I could purchase another smart cable with a UPS connection, but would like to use this cable if possible.

 

Thanks!

Hello,

 

I'm having similar problems to khager in this thread: http://goo.gl/cYjw8

 

I am unable to get either version of apcupsd to recognize the connection.  I am using a RJ45/serial cable that came with the UPS.  COM1 is enabled in BIOS with Auto settings and ttys0 is present, but I receive the following errors:

 

With 3.14.8

 

Serial Port: YES

Cable Type: smart

 

Syslog error:

May 26 18:14:09 Tower apcupsd[7855]: apcupsd FATAL ERROR in linux-usb.c at line 609 Cannot find UPS device -- For a link to detailed USB trouble shooting information, please see <http://www.apcupsd.com/support.html>.  (Errors)
May 26 18:14:09 Tower apcupsd[7855]: apcupsd error shutdown completed (Errors)
May 26 18:14:33 Tower apcupsd[8547]: apcupsd FATAL ERROR in smartsetup.c at line 171 PANIC! Cannot communicate with UPS via serial port. Please make sure the port specified on the DEVICE directive is correct, and that your cable specification on the UPSCABLE directive is correct.  (Errors)
May 26 18:14:33 Tower apcupsd[8547]: apcupsd error shutdown completed (Errors)

 

With 3.14.3:

 

Serial Port: YES

Cable type: smart

 

Syslog error:

 

May 26 18:09:35 Tower apcupsd[1965]: apcupsd FATAL ERROR in smartsetup.c at line 70 Cannot open UPS port /dev/usb/hiddev0: No such file or directory  (Errors)
May 26 18:09:35 Tower apcupsd[1965]: apcupsd error shutdown completed (Errors)

 

Not sure if this was ever resolved.  As a last resort, I could purchase another smart cable with a UPS connection, but would like to use this cable if possible.

 

Thanks!

What version of unRAID are you using?
  • Author

Hi Joe -

 

sorry, missed this detail: v4.7

  • Author

Was wondering if there were any suggestions I could try, or am I out of luck and will have to resort to buying a new cable?

 

It's strange that although I specified serial, it seems to still be looking for a USB connection.

 

Thank you.

Arcane

 

I used these setting and the 1300 works great for me. Please note the CAPITALS. I have no idea if this makes a difference, but I used then to follow the convention in the instructions.

 

 

Use Serial Port?(YES/NO/network_master:port): NO

Cable Type:(smart/usb/dumb/ether): usb

Battery Level: 10

Minutes Remaining: 5

Total Seconds Outage: 300

Power Down UPS after shutdown?(YES/NO): YES

 

Give these a try (if you have not already). It should work.

 

bkasten

 

  • Author

I used these setting and the 1300 works great for me. Please note the CAPITALS. I have no idea if this makes a difference, but I used then to follow the convention in the instructions.

 

 

Use Serial Port?(YES/NO/network_master:port): NO

Cable Type:(smart/usb/dumb/ether): usb

 

bkasten

 

 

Hi bkasten.  I noticed that in your settings, you are specifying use with a USB cable.  Are you using an RJ45 to USB connection with your UPS?  Or an RJ45 with a serial connection?

 

Thanks for the guidance.

I used these setting and the 1300 works great for me. Please note the CAPITALS. I have no idea if this makes a difference, but I used then to follow the convention in the instructions.

 

 

Use Serial Port?(YES/NO/network_master:port): NO

Cable Type:(smart/usb/dumb/ether): usb

 

bkasten

 

 

 

Hi bkasten.  I noticed that in your settings, you are specifying use with a USB cable.  Are you using an RJ45 to USB connection with your UPS?  Or an RJ45 with a serial connection?

 

Thanks for the guidance.

 

Mine (I have two, one for unRAID and one for my desktop) came with a usb/RJ45 cable. I have disabled the serial connection on my unRAID since it is not in use. I 'think' I disabled it...pretty sure I disabled it... never mind. I have nothing hooked up to the serial port. I just assumed that the cable WAS a usb, wired to a rj45 jack on the UPS side.

 

This is the report form unMenu:

 

(from /sbin/apcaccess status)

 

APC      : 001,040,1039

DATE    : Sun May 29 22:40:26 CDT 2011

HOSTNAME : Tower

RELEASE  : 3.14.3

VERSION  : 3.14.3 (20 January 2008) slackware

UPSNAME  : Tower

CABLE    : USB Cable

MODEL    : Back-UPS BX1300G

UPSMODE  : Stand Alone

STARTTIME: Sat May 14 12:56:30 CDT 2011

STATUS  : ONLINE

LINEV    : 123.0 Volts

LOADPCT  :  16.0 Percent Load Capacity

BCHARGE  : 100.0 Percent

TIMELEFT :  31.8 Minutes

MBATTCHG : 10 Percent

MINTIMEL : 5 Minutes

MAXTIME  : 300 Seconds

SENSE    : Medium

LOTRANS  : 088.0 Volts

HITRANS  : 139.0 Volts

ALARMDEL : Always

BATTV    : 27.0 Volts

LASTXFER : Low line voltage

NUMXFERS : 2

XONBATT  : Sun May 29 10:46:40 CDT 2011

TONBATT  : 0 seconds

CUMONBATT: 10 seconds

XOFFBATT : Sun May 29 10:46:42 CDT 2011

LASTSTEST: Sat May 28 09:18:40 CDT 2011

SELFTEST : NO

STATFLAG : 0x07000008 Status Flag

MANDATE  : 2010-12-11

SERIALNO : 3B1050X58519 

BATTDATE : 2001-09-25

NOMINV  : 120 Volts

NOMBATTV :  24.0 Volts

NOMPOWER : 780 Watts

FIRMWARE : 864.L5 .D USB FW:L5

APCMODEL : Back-UPS BX1300G

END APC  : Sun May 29 22:40:43 CDT 2011

 

===============================

 

Note: bold for effect.

 

I hope this helps.

 

bkasten

  • Author

Ah... I have an RJ45 to serial cable only with the unit. 

 

It looks like the serial option doesn't work with this particular unit.  Seems like I will have to purchase a APC USB/RJ45 cable.

 

I'll refer back to your settings when I pick one up.  Thank you.

Interesting.

 

Sorry, I had assumed that yours shipped with a usb cable as well. I had not considered that these were shipping with serial.

 

Even still, if this is the cable that shipped with the unit, you should be able to get it to work, without making an extra purchase. Serial/USB should not matter for this use. All you want is the communication.

 

What settings have you tried?

 

Not knowing what you have tried I would suggest:

 

Use Serial Port?(YES/NO/network_master:port): YES

Cable Type:(smart/usb/dumb/ether): dumb

 

If that does not work, I would try changing 'dumb' to 'smart' and try that.

 

Another thought that just came to me, is your serial port active on your MB? I know I have disabled mine.

 

If you have already tried these, then I am running out of ideas.

  • Author

I tried setting it to YES for serial and smart for cable type (since I believe there is a specific pinout for these cables).  The serial port is enabled in BIOS, and I have confirmed that UnRAID detects it.  Oddly, when the UPS tries to start up, it spits out an error about USB even though I am not using those settings in the config.  These symptoms are exactly the same as khager experienced, but I'm not certain if there was ever any resolution.

 

I'll try again with a dumb cable, but my hopes are not high.

 

Thanks again!

I tried setting it to YES for serial and smart for cable type (since I believe there is a specific pinout for these cables).  The serial port is enabled in BIOS, and I have confirmed that UnRAID detects it.  Oddly, when the UPS tries to start up, it spits out an error about USB even though I am not using those settings in the config.  These symptoms are exactly the same as khager experienced, but I'm not certain if there was ever any resolution.

 

I'll try again with a dumb cable, but my hopes are not high.

 

Thanks again!

 

Hmmmm... Errors in the syslog about usb even when set to serial? Makes me think that it is not picking up the setting you are specifying. You may need to edit the config file manually, and repack it. I know that for my Linux workstation I had to manually edit the config file to usb/dumb before it would work, and then from there, it worked flawlessly.

 

Once they work correctly, these are real bacon-savers! Just today, I had a two second cut-out of power. Before this year, very unusual, but lately they have been happening a lot. From my syslog:

 

May 29 10:46:40 Tower apcupsd[1701]: Power failure.

May 29 10:46:42 Tower apcupsd[1701]: Power is back. UPS running on mains.

 

I hope you get this working. It is nice to have the reports. If not, it will work in any event, but just not tell you.

  • Author

 

 

Hmmmm... Errors in the syslog about usb even when set to serial? Makes me think that it is not picking up the setting you are specifying. You may need to edit the config file manually, and repack it. I know that for my Linux workstation I had to manually edit the config file to usb/dumb before it would work, and then from there, it worked flawlessly.

 

 

Yah, khagen and I both received errors about USB ports even though we set it to serial.  I would be glad to try and edit the files myself and repack.  Can you provide instructions on how to do this?

OK, this is where I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

 

I am assuming you are familiar with Linux in general?

 

Are you familiar with 'vi'?

 

If you are, PM me, I will tell you what needs to be edited. These edits would not be permanent, and you would lose them on reboot. You could use them to test if we are on the right track.

 

As far as how to make any changes permanent, I will defer to others that are more experienced with unRAID, and the conventions of the product.

 

I have the confidence to mess with my own system, and suffer the consequences of messing it up, but I am a little un-nerved with putting anything out on the board that would cause others to get in over their depth.

 

Bruce

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