Nut upsdev - Apr 2007 - questions re. patching bcmxcp.c and choosing variable names

I've patched bcmxcp.c such that it can power cycle the outlet load
segments independently on a Powerware PW5125 UPS.  I presume that it will
work for any XCP protocol UPS with 2 load segments.

Should these instant commands be called
outlet.1.shutdown.return
outlet.2.shutdown.return
?

Where do the descriptions displayed by upscmd -l come from?  Presently it
shows
 outlet.1.shutdown.return - Unavailable
 outlet.2.shutdown.return - Unavailable

And just in case there is someone out there who has documentation of the
XCP protocol.  What is the 4th byte of the 0x8A command for?  I tinkered
with values until it worked, but it would be nice to know if sending 0x00
means something unpleasant that hasn't yet become apparent...

And since I'm so green that I don't know what a patch in diff -u format
means, would someone be kind enough to explain how to submit this patch
(or point me to a succinct description).

Hi Oliver!
> I've patched bcmxcp.c such that it can power cycle the outlet load
> segments independently on a Powerware PW5125 UPS.  I presume that it will
> work for any XCP protocol UPS with 2 load segments.
Just to make sure I understand what this does, would this do the same as
sending

   load.off
   load.on

for just one output?
> Should these instant commands be called
> outlet.1.shutdown.return
> outlet.2.shutdown.return
> ?
Preferably not. This naming convention is too similar to
'shutdown.return'
which is totally different. I would prefer something like 'load.n.off',
'load.n.on' and 'load.n.cycle', assuming that you would also be
able to
switch off one output.
> Where do the descriptions displayed by upscmd -l come from?  Presently it
> shows
>  outlet.1.shutdown.return - Unavailable
>  outlet.2.shutdown.return - Unavailable
This is described in docs/new-names.txt (which tells you that this is in
data/cmdvartab), which you really should have read first, before making up
new variables. It also tells you to contact the Development Team, which
you have done now.
> And just in case there is someone out there who has documentation of the
> XCP protocol.  What is the 4th byte of the 0x8A command for?  I tinkered
> with values until it worked, but it would be nice to know if sending 0x00
> means something unpleasant that hasn't yet become apparent...
>
> And since I'm so green that I don't know what a patch in diff -u
format
> means, would someone be kind enough to explain how to submit this patch
> (or point me to a succinct description).
Usually, a 'diff -uN orignalfile.c modifiedfile.c' would yield something
useable. For other options, you may want to look at 'man diff'.

Best regards, Arjen
-- 
Eindhoven - The Netherlands
Key fingerprint - 66 4E 03 2C 9D B5 CB 9B  7A FE 7E C1 EE 88 BC 57

Hi Oliver,

fre 2007-04-06 klockan 00:39 -0400 skrev Oliver Wilcock:
> I've patched bcmxcp.c such that it can power cycle the outlet load
> segments independently on a Powerware PW5125 UPS.  I presume that it will
> work for any XCP protocol UPS with 2 load segments.
No only after rev A. And it is overkill on ups'es with one load segment.
This can be handled by asking the ups for the commands it can handle,
put this in a struct a use this to build the right numbers of instant
commands.

For the moment i have a more intricate problem in the driver to solve.
This would not be any problem if i only have to support one rev of 
the firmware.
> 
> Should these instant commands be called
> outlet.1.shutdown.return
> outlet.2.shutdown.return
> ?
> 
> Where do the descriptions displayed by upscmd -l come from?  Presently it
> shows
>  outlet.1.shutdown.return - Unavailable
>  outlet.2.shutdown.return - Unavailable
> 
Look at the mail from Arjen about the naming. The command is not a
load-off command. It is 'Delayed Load Power Off & Restart Command'.

So it going to shut down the outlet in t time and restart the outlet:

1. When the Utility Input is within an acceptable range, AND

2. After the Utility Stabilization delay (from the Extended Limits
block), AND

3. After a UPS-dependent internal start-up delay
        
> And just in case there is someone out there who has documentation of the
> XCP protocol.  What is the 4th byte of the 0x8A command for?  I tinkered
> with values until it worked, but it would be nice to know if sending 0x00
> means something unpleasant that hasn't yet become apparent...
> 
Then command used in the driver is.

0xAB (start) 0x02 (lenght) 0x8A (cmnd) 0xXX (time) 0xXX (Csum)

You may set a longer delay by entering one more field:

0xAB (start) 0x03 (lenght) 0x8A (cmnd) 0xXX (time) 0xXX (time) 0xXX
(Csum)

(sorry for the linebreak) This give you up to 65,534 seconds delay 
instead of 255 seconds.Then you may set it on a outlet
 
0xAB (start) 0x04 (lenght) 0x8A (cmnd) 0xXX (time) 0xXX (time) 0xXX
(outlet) 0xXX (Csum)

Where outlet is 1-64 or you may set it to 255 to shut off all outlet.
Observe the time is in 2 bytes (0 - 65535 seconds).

So the command should handle the input of time and outlet to control

It would be better to use the 0x91 (on) 0x93 (off) command with the
length of 0x04.

Referred to 'PW_UPS_ON_TIME' and 'PW_UPS_OFF_TIME' in the
bcmxcp.h
 
This is more a Load.n.off Load.n.on and it looks like this.

(off)
0xAB (start) 0x04 (lenght) 0x93 (cmnd) 0xXX (time) 0xXX (time) 0xXX
(outlet) 0xXX (Csum)

(on)
0xAB (start) 0x04 (lenght) 0x91 (cmnd) 0xXX (time) 0xXX (time) 0xXX
(outlet) 0xXX (Csum)

But the time is in Minutes and LS byte first.
> And since I'm so green that I don't know what a patch in diff -u
format
> means, would someone be kind enough to explain how to submit this patch
> (or point me to a succinct description).
> 
You can send me the patch, I check it out and if I like it it goes into
the driver.

Regards
Kjell

On 4/6/07, Oliver Wilcock <oliver@owch.ca> wrote:
> And since I'm so green that I don't know what a patch in diff -u
format
> means, would someone be kind enough to explain how to submit this patch
> (or point me to a succinct description).
As Arjen explained, "diff" is the command name that compares the two
files, and usually you want to pass it "-uN" for comparing individual
files.

If you make a copy of the entire directory before you start, you can
run "diff -Naur nut-2.x.y-orig nut-2.x.y" and it will recurse through
the directory ("-r") looking for changed files as well as newly added
files ("-a").

Also, if you check out the source from SVN, running "svn diff" is
equivalent to running "diff -Naur" between the source checked out of
SVN, and your local modifications. This is probably the easiest way to
stay in sync, because you can always run "svn update" if someone makes
a change before your patch gets checked in.

-- 
- Charles Lepple