Nut upsuser - Jun 2006 - MGE ellipse 1200 config and documentation

Hi,

I have recently purchased MGE ellipse 1200 UPS for my home system. Obviously, 
the choice of this particular brand was mainly dictated by MGE's 
long-standing support for Linux and NUT project. The fact that the box was 
clearly the prettiest looking one on the block did help also ;-). I have had 
NUT tools installed and configured in no time, as I did it numerous times 
before -- kudos to developers for a brilliant piece of software! Everything 
worked fine but now I wanted to tune configuration a bit and that's where
the
surprise came. I was well prepared to the fact that printed documentation 
that came with the box was pretty much useless. What I was not prepared was 
the quality of MGE's web site (English-language version). Guys, if you want 
my advice: FIX IT IMMEDIATELY. Not only the design is awful and it is full of 
broken links pointing nowhere, but even the minuscule amount of extra 
documentation that can be found there is written in mostly incomprehensible 
language (it is supposed to be English I guess), outdated, incomplete and 
plain wrong in places. This creates a VERY bad image of the company. I 
understand MGE is mainly targeting on kind of industrial market, but they do 
sell at least some consumer grade products, don't they? Now, as a consumer I
am rather angry at the moment and definitely won't recommend MGE's
products
to any of my less-techie friends. Ok, getting off the flame mode: I would 
appreciate if someone from MGE reading this list would take his/her time and 
tell me what are the "programmable outlets" aka Powershare (TM)
feature is
and how to actually program it with NUT, if possible? There is absolutely 
nothing about it to be found anywhere in the documentation. It would also be 
nice if I could get some comments on the meaning of the MGE-specific items 
from the driver output listed below.

Thanks,
Ivan

Some specs:

System: ALTLinux Sisyphus (www.altlinux.com), kernel 2.6.16
$ rpm -qa|grep nut-|sort
nut-2.0.2-alt3
nut-devel-2.0.2-alt3
nut-driver-2.0.2-alt3
nut-server-2.0.2-alt3
UPS Driver: mge-shut (cable attached to RS-232 port)

$ upsc ellipse@localhost
battery.charge: 100
battery.charge.low: 30
battery.runtime: 01715
driver.name: mge-shut
driver.parameter.port: /dev/ttyS0
driver.version: 2.0.2
driver.version.internal: 0.64
outlet.0.desc: Main Outlet
outlet.0.id: 1
outlet.0.switchable: 0
outlet.1.autoswitch.charge.low: 0
outlet.1.desc: PowerShare Outlet 1
outlet.1.id: 2
outlet.1.switch: 1
outlet.1.switchable: 1
output.voltage: 120
ups.delay.shutdown: -1
ups.delay.start: -1
ups.load: 12
ups.mfr: MGE UPS SYSTEMS
ups.model: ellipse 1200
ups.power.nominal: 1200
ups.serial: unknown
ups.status: OL CHRG

-- 
Ivan Adzhubey

Hi Ivan,

2006/6/9, Ivan Adzhubey
<iadzhubey@rics.bwh.harvard.edu>:
> Hi,
>
> I have recently purchased MGE ellipse 1200 UPS for my home system.
Obviously,
> the choice of this particular brand was mainly dictated by MGE's
> long-standing support for Linux and NUT project. The fact that the box was
> clearly the prettiest looking one on the block did help also ;-).
thanks in the name of MGE
> I have had
> NUT tools installed and configured in no time, as I did it numerous times
> before -- kudos to developers for a brilliant piece of software!
and another thanks for the NUT Team and contributors...
> Everything
> worked fine but now I wanted to tune configuration a bit and that's
where the
> surprise came. I was well prepared to the fact that printed documentation
> that came with the box was pretty much useless. What I was not prepared was
> the quality of MGE's web site (English-language version). Guys, if you
want
> my advice: FIX IT IMMEDIATELY. Not only the design is awful and it is full
of
> broken links pointing nowhere, but even the minuscule amount of extra
> documentation that can be found there is written in mostly incomprehensible
> language (it is supposed to be English I guess), outdated, incomplete and
> plain wrong in places.
I think you're talking about opensource.mgeups.com (or am I wrong?)
you're fully right, and more generally this site and the nut one needs
some (a lot of) care.
There are lots of things planned, but the ongoing NUT documentation
(and the Common Power Management effort) are drawing lots of time and
will change lots of things.
> This creates a VERY bad image of the company. I
> understand MGE is mainly targeting on kind of industrial market, but they
do
> sell at least some consumer grade products, don't they? Now, as a
consumer I
> am rather angry at the moment and definitely won't recommend MGE's
products
> to any of my less-techie friends.
that's why we created the Personal Solution Pac: something that
automatically detect and configure hardware and software so that
things just work...
http://www.mgeups.com/products/pdt230/software/sp97/solpaclinux.htm
> Ok, getting off the flame mode:
not a flame, but a good feedback ;-)
> I would
> appreciate if someone from MGE reading this list would take his/her time
and
> tell me what are the "programmable outlets" aka Powershare (TM)
feature is
> and how to actually program it with NUT, if possible? There is absolutely
> nothing about it to be found anywhere in the documentation. It would also
be
> nice if I could get some comments on the meaning of the MGE-specific items
> from the driver output listed below.
there is a bit of documentation here:

In fact, when I created this feature, I was waiting for feedback from
other developers to see if there was some changes needed for other
manufacturers.
PowerShare allows to manage load shedding on outlets. You can so power
off optional hardware (scanner, printer, secondary servers, ...)
plugged on that outlet to get some runtime back in case of long power
failure...

But low end models, such as Ellipse, aren't much complete on that subject.
You don't have outlet.x.autoswitch.charge.low, but only the capability
to power off / on instantly the given outlet. This can be enough for
upssched'ing things.

I hope this answer your question.
Thanks again for the feedback.
Arnaud Quette
-- 
Linux / Unix Expert - MGE UPS SYSTEMS - R&D Dpt
Network UPS Tools (NUT) Project Leader - http://www.networkupstools.org/
Debian Developer - http://people.debian.org/~aquette/
OpenSource Developer - http://arnaud.quette.free.fr/