On 01/21/2018 05:53 AM, Charles Lepple wrote:> My understanding was that many of the older Best Power units were downstream of generators, and as such, full-blown power outages of both mains and generator power were not expected. > > That said, it might be that the "bestfcom" driver predates when we were actively collecting specific model names for the Hardware Compatibility List and the Device Dump Library. Does the manual linked below describe your model? > > http://unifiedpowerusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ferrups-users-guide.pdf > > If you hook up a terminal emulator to the comms port (1200 baud, 8/N/1 unless stickers and/or configuration DIP switches indicate otherwise), and type "f" <return>, do you get a status line like one of the following? > > https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/blob/v2.7.4/drivers/bestfcom.c#L226-L244Of course, I got Eaton Powerware's RS-232 cable for FE700VA/etc. but don't know what 'hook up a terminal emulator'... no Slackware GNU/Linux BASH command 'f,' or do I run (or install/compile) a certain program to enable/access that?> Let us know how it goes, and we can update the various compatibility lists: > > http://buildbot.networkupstools.org/~buildbot/docker-debian-jessie/docs/latest/stable-hcl.html#footnotesCertainly, once I figure this out...
On Feb 12, 2018, at 11:53 PM, David Melik wrote:> > On 01/21/2018 05:53 AM, Charles Lepple wrote: >> If you hook up a terminal emulator to the comms port (1200 baud, 8/N/1 unless stickers and/or configuration DIP switches indicate otherwise), and type "f" <return>, do you get a status line like one of the following? >> >> https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/blob/v2.7.4/drivers/bestfcom.c#L226-L244 > > Of course, I got Eaton Powerware's RS-232 cable for FE700VA/etc. but don't know what 'hook up a terminal emulator'... no Slackware GNU/Linux BASH command 'f,' or do I run (or install/compile) a certain program to enable/access that?minicom or screen should work - after you configure the serial port settings, they will show everything sent by the UPS, and you can enter the "f" command in that session. For initial setup, you can run "minicom -s" and it takes you right to the configuration screen. You will probably want to clear out some of the modem init strings if they are present - the UPS will likely not understand them.
On 02/12/2018 11:53 PM, David Melik wrote:> > Of course, I got Eaton Powerware's RS-232 cable for FE700VA/etc. but > don't know what 'hook up a terminal emulator'... no Slackware > GNU/Linux BASH command 'f,' or do I run (or install/compile) a certain > program to enable/access that?The classic terminal emulator is 'cu': http://www.airs.com/ian/uucp.html RedHat and Fedora have a package for it. I rolled my own with special features to handle file transfers to mini-computers that can't turn off echo... There are other packages like minicom, kermit, etc, that support more advanced file transfer over serial lines.? But the file transfer features are irrelevant to talking to a UPS.? Serial communication can be quickly jury rigged in an apocalypse - unlike ethernet, USB, and other modern (and much faster) wire protocols.? Keep such software archived.? Note that even if computers no longer come with UARTs, you can still do serial communication with digital input/output and a timer interrupt.? (I found 3 DI samples per bit time works reliably.) I have a real wyse60 CRT terminal if you are interested.? :-) Once you connect to the serial port with your terminal emulator at the proper baud rate, it is like a shell prompt - except the UPS has only a few one letter commands.
On 02/13/2018 03:49 AM, Charles Lepple wrote:> On Feb 12, 2018, at 11:53 PM, David Melik wrote: > > On 01/21/2018 05:53 AM, Charles Lepple wrote: >>> If you hook up a terminal emulator to the comms port (1200 baud, 8/N/1 unless stickers and/or configuration DIP switches indicate otherwise), and type "f" <return>, do you get a status line like one of the following? >>> >>> https://github.com/networkupstools/nut/blob/v2.7.4/drivers/bestfcom.c#L226-L244 >> Of course, I got Eaton Powerware's RS-232 cable for FE700VA/etc. but don't know what 'hook up a terminal emulator'... no Slackware GNU/Linux BASH command 'f,' or do I run (or install/compile) a certain program to enable/access that? > minicom or screen should work - after you configure the serial port settings, they will show everything sent by the UPS, and you can enter the "f" command in that session. > > For initial setup, you can run "minicom -s" and it takes you right to the configuration screen. You will probably want to clear out some of the modem init strings if they are present - the UPS will likely not understand them.Minicom listed a blank modem init string, and 'f' did nothing.? I didn't see how to do anything similar in screen.