APC UPS

[NOT_Bill_Gates]

I have an APC BackUPS Pro ES550. It is supposedly compatible with BSD, but for the life of me I cannot get it to communicate with my NAS. I know when it boots up that the hardware recognizes the make & model and it knows which particular USB slot it is plugged into. There are a number of UPS driver options and clearly it must not like the way I tried to set it up. I have tried different settings. Can anyone out there in cyberland give me a clue? (other than going out and buying a new UPS which plays nicer with my FreeNAS box!?!) Sadly, I have 3 of those same APC BackUPS 550 ES models.

 

[joeschmuck]

Post a screen shot of your UPS configuration. Also in the shell window try typing "upsc -l" and hopefully you will see your UPS listed. Also try different USB ports, some work better than others.

 

[DrKK]

Plug the UPS into a USB 2.0 port. Make sure you have the right port. What error message do you get in the footer from the UPS service?

 

[jde]

What driver are you trying to use? From the NUT compatability list it looks like it should use the apcsmart usbhid-ups driver. Have you followed the manual for identifying the usb port? http://doc.freenas.org/9.3/freenas_services.html#ups

 

[NOT_Bill_Gates]

Firstly, thanks to everyone who so far has tried to help. Sorry I am slow in getting my response. Here are two screenshots including one of the terminal showing some of the error messages and one just showing how it is configured in Services. Yes, I do know which USB port it is on and I have not tried using all of them, but am willing to give it a go. Yes, I read the manual and know how to identify the correct USB port (my bios also identifies it for me). I have tried all of the available APC options that say Backups Pro or similar, most of which do use the usbhid-ups driver. It has seemed to connect sometimes for awhile, but it always seems to lose its connection and begin to give these error messages. I tried the apcsmart driver also even though I know that mine is not a "smart" APC UPS. Still no go. I will try using different USB ports and report back if it helps. Once again, many thanks for the community for trying to help me.

 

[NOT_Bill_Gates]

When I switched from one of my only two USB 2.0 ports (all the rest are 3.0) to the other and then changed my settings in the USB Service to reflect it, this is what initially happened:

 

[NOT_Bill_Gates]

And then, is this normal? It says that the UPS data is stale, has difficulty communicating with it, and then later says it is no longer stale. Is there some setting I can change or driver change or something I should be doing differently (there's probably LOTS I should/could be doing differently. Still learning . . .

 

[joeschmuck]

There are several threads on Stale data of UPS, do a google search and you might find an answer but I don't recall a real fix, hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[NOT_Bill_Gates]

Thanks for everyone attempting to help me. I still do not know what the issue is, but I decided to try NAS4free instead and the newest version, based on a newer BSD kernel, 10.2, did recognize the UPS and even reported back to me the exact model number, battery load and percent charged. I really can appreciate the time & work involved in creating FreeNAS and the many possibilities for add-ins, but I would have to say that I prefer the simplicity and the GUI for NAS4free. I hope that doesn't get me kicked out of FreeNAS forums to say so, but like any other OS decisions, it sometimes comes down to a matter of personal preference.

What I do have an appreciation for is the beauty, friendliness, and depth of knowledge of the FreeNAS Community Forum. Kudos and thanks to you all!

Gil Bates (i.e., Not Bill Gates)

 

[jgreco]

We can kick you out if you'd like us to kick you out.

 

[jde]

If you ever want to give freenas another look, you might check back when freenas 10 comes out. It may have the improved UPS support you described finding in nas4free.

 

[NOT_Bill_Gates]

I sure would be willing to try again. I don't know if it better UPS support or better USB support that is needed. I used some of the earlier FreeNAS builds (before iX Systems took over) and certainly am a fan.