Nut upsdev - May 2008 - More info about Unitek UPS not working with Megatec driver

Hi again,

I tested several times using the Megatec driver from nut 2.2.2 to no avail, as 
it definitely never "sees" the UPS. Always getting :

# drivers/megatec -DDD -a Alpha
Network UPS Tools 2.2.2 - Megatec protocol driver 1.5.14 [megatec]
Carlos Rodrigues (c) 2003-2008

debug level is '3'
Starting UPS detection process...
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => FAILED [timeout]
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => FAILED [timeout]
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => FAILED [timeout]
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => FAILED [timeout]
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => FAILED [timeout]
5 out of 5 detection attempts failed (minimum failures: 2).
Megatec protocol UPS not detected.



To help check what my UPS gives, here is the output of several commands and 
UPS answers manually passed using "minicom" set to use /dev/ttyS0 at
2400
8N1 :

I
#UNITEK          Alpha500iC A0

Q1
(235.9 235.9 235.9 012 50.0 13.8 32.0 00001000

F
#230.0   6  12.0 50.0


Here is the sample output of "upsc" using the old
"fentonups" driver which I
had patched:

root at totor:/etc# upsc alpha at localhost
battery.charge: 100.0
battery.voltage: 13.8
driver.name: fentonups
driver.parameter.lowbattvolt: 11.5
driver.parameter.port: /dev/ttyS0
driver.version: 2.0.5
driver.version.internal: 1.22
input.frequency: 50.0
input.transfer.high: 288
input.transfer.low: 172
input.voltage: 237.5
output.voltage: 237.5
ups.load: 014
ups.mfr: UNITEK
ups.model: Alpha 500 iC
ups.status: OL


Hope this can be of any help...

Best regards.

-- 
Michel Bouissou <michel at bouissou.net> OpenPGP ID 0xEB04D09C

Hi there,

I wanted to try to debug what was happening between the nut 2.2.2 Megatec 
driver and my UPS, so I installed a serial port sniffer software, 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/slsnif/

Then I fired up slsnif and started the Megatec driver, but 
specifying "/dev/ttyp0" instead of "/dev/ttyS0" in ups.conf
(ttyp0 being
intercepted by the sniffer and then routed out to ttyS0)

To my huge surprise the Megatec driver said :

# drivers/megatec -DDD -a Alpha
Network UPS Tools 2.2.2 - Megatec protocol driver 1.5.14 [megatec]
Carlos Rodrigues (c) 2003-2008

debug level is '3'
Starting UPS detection process...
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => OK [(238.3 238.3 238.3 013 50.0 13.8 32.0 00001000]
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => OK [(238.3 238.3 238.3 012 50.0 13.8 32.0 00001000]
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => OK [(238.3 238.3 238.3 012 50.0 13.8 32.0 00001000]
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => OK [(238.3 238.3 238.3 013 50.0 13.8 32.0 00001000]
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => OK [(238.3 238.3 238.3 013 50.0 13.8 32.0 00001000]
0 out of 5 detection attempts failed (minimum failures: 2).
Cancelling any pending shutdown or battery test.
Asking for UPS information [I]...
I => OK [#UNITEK          Alpha500iC A0        ]
Megatec protocol UPS detected [UNITEK Alpha500iC A0].
Parameter [ignoreoff]: [false]
Asking for UPS power ratings [F]...
F => OK [#230.0   6  12.0 50.0]
12.0V battery, interval [9.7V, 13.7V].
Done setting up the UPS.
Asking for UPS status [Q1]...
Q1 => OK [(236.7 236.7 236.7 013 50.0 13.8 32.0 00001000]
Calculated battery charge: 100.0%

Fatal error: unable to create listener socket

bind /var/state/ups/megatec-Alpha failed: Permission denied

Exiting.


Okay, I don't care about the end, that's a permission issue, but this
shows
that :

- The serial dialog being somewhat "remixed" by the serial sniffer,
the
Megatec driver is happy and finds my UPS.

- When trying to talk to the serial port by itself, the Megatec driver 
miserably fails. I have double-checked that there is no permission issue with 
the serial port itself, of course...

So in some manner the "sniffer" fixes nut's driver (in)ability to
properly use
the computers' serial port.

This is completely reproductible and 100% consistent everytime.

Uh, Uh... Any clue ?

-- 
Michel Bouissou <michel at bouissou.net> OpenPGP ID 0xEB04D09C