Is the AP8659 current "squelch threshold" configurable?

[boilerlt1]

I'm using an AP8659 PDU with rpu2g v7.1.3 to power a number of low-power-consumption devices like 1-liter and small form-factor PCs, Raspberry Pi's, etc...

According to the FAQ document (https://www.apc.com/us/en/faqs/FA156074/), when an outlet has a draw below 0.5A of current, the PDU will squelch that value to 0A and reports power consumption of 0W for the outlet.  The document further states that these PDU's don't have an accuracy defined below a 0.5A threshold.  This makes perfect sense for what I imagine are 99.9% of the deployments for these PDUs, where they're powering a dozen enterprise-class servers or beefy network hardware in a data center.

As the FAQ predicts, the PDU status screen doesn't show any power consumption for outlets which draw below 0.5A.  For example, an outlet which powers a 24-port managed PoE switch shows 54W of energy usage.  But the next outlet down, which powers a Lenovo M720q, shows 0W.

Which brings me to my question--is there a setting I can toggle to remove the <0.5A squelch, and get a power consumption measurement below that threshold?  Or would I need to monitor the individual outlet consumption using another mechanism?

[Teken · Accepted solution]

You’ll need to use a third party energy monitor / plug outlet. There are dozens of these energy monitors that span using WiFi, BLE, Z-Wave, ZigBee.

It should be noted almost every cheap consumer grade energy meter has a wide amount of error. Due to the fact they do not incorporate a method to set (define) and track the input line voltage! 🤦‍♂️👎

Regardless, they still offer some value as they can give you better insight and statistical metrics vs the APC PDU! 

Better units track and chart the minimum, maximum, average wattage. Along with current draw, power factor, and long term KWH consumption. Important things to note is not all of the products allow you to reset the above values if needed!

As there will be times you want to start from zero / clean slate. But the unit doesn’t allow you to reset or choose what parameters need to be zeroed out.

More advanced units obviously allow control of the outlet along with setting alerts, scheduling, and local API. Other units allow third party firmware to be loaded so you can have complete local control and programming to your specific use case! 👍

Lastly, it’s imperative that you read all the reviews of the target device. As many of them have very poor reliability and some just stop working and in the extreme turn off the outlet at random times! 🤦‍♂️😡