Experience with UPSes on USB?

[Dan Jenkins]

Ted Roche wrote:

>  I've set up a couple of UPSes using DB9 serial ports and the Network
>  UPS Tools (http://www.networkupstools.lrg) pretty successfully. I've
>  got a client with a small machine he wants UPS'd, and wondered if
>  anyone had experience with the USB-based interfaces - there's one on
>  sale cheap at Best Buy this week. The NUT package claims to support
>  them using the "experimental" hidusb drivers. "Battery backup" and
>  "experimental" don't seem like phrases I want to combine in a
>  production business system...

I've never had a problem with them. I use APC UPSes generally, but I 
have had
others work as well. I use the apcupsd software. Just plug them in, check
/dev/usb/hid to identify the USB device (I only use command line, so I 
have no
idea what the graphical interface looks like) and edit 
/etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf.
Make sure these are the options:
UPSCABLE usb
UPSTYPE usb
DEVICE /dev/usb/hid/hiddev0 --- Note: This depends on what USB devices 
you have connected obviously

For the record, I have used this under Mandrake Linux 8.x, 9.x and 10.x.
Never had any issues with any of them, nor with any APC UPS. I've also used
some other brands, though I don't recollect which ones at this time. I don't
recall any issues with them either. All of these systems are in 
production environments.

-- 
Dan Jenkins (dan at rastech.com)
Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, USA --- 1-603-206-9951
*** Technical Support for over a Quarter Century