SUA3000RMXL3U serial communications

[MarkC_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/30/2015

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Installing a AP9619 NMC in this unit using the serial communications to configure the IP address.  The serial configuration required to communicate was 9600 baud.  This was a surprise as I expected 2400.  Is that correct for this particular UPS?  I believe it is a 2007 unit that had never been used!

[Terry_Kennedy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/30/2015

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I would also expect 2400. I would suggest updating its firmware to the latest and then doing a "reset to factory defaults" so that you are starting your configuration from a known point. A 2007 unit should have a serial number of xx07wwnnnnnnnn, where xx can be anything (origin, I believe) and ww is the week of manufacture.

[MarkC_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/30/2015

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On 7/30/2015 5:08 PM, Terry said:

I would suggest updating its firmware to the latest and then doing a "reset to factory defaults" so that you are starting your configuration from a known point.

It is a 2006 unit.  Are you suggesting that both the NMC and the SUA firmware be updated - or the SUA only?  I have already reset to factory defaults from the NMC once I was able to reconfigure the IP to my system.  I have not tried the serial connection since however as all the functions needed are thru the NMC software.  Interesting that the "console" worked OK at 9600 baud - did seem to "hesitate" more than normal when sending commands.

Thanks,

Mark

[Terry_Kennedy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/30/2015

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I meant the NMC. The older cards have some trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time, particularly right after a restart or when they are doing compute-intensive tasks like enabling SSL.

You can add " -baud 2400" (without the quotes - space dash baud space 2400) after your password when logging into the serial console if you want to change the baud rate.

Normally I would expect to see this in your config.ini file:

[LocalConsole]
BaudRate=2400

Some versions of the firmware shipped with different baud rates (IIRC, the AP9210/1 MasterSwitch units used a higher baud rate). But if you have the correct firmware installed (it sees the UPS, correct?) I wouldn't think that would be an issue. But if it is out-of-date (latest official is 3.7.3 / 3.7.2 from here, info on my unsupported unofficial 3.9.0 / 3.7.2 is available near the end of this thread) you may as well update it, assuming the card is an AP9617/8/9. If it is an AP9630/1, 6.2.1 is available from here.

[MarkC_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/31/2015

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Terry;

Appreciate your help.  The unit is working great.  I'll let you know about any firmware upgrade if/when it happens!

Mark

[MarkC_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/31/2015

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Terry;

Interesting information about the AP9619 firmware upgrade that you have developed.  As I'm using older model Smart UPSs for emergency off-grid inverters, the ability to download operating data continuously from the UPS is of great help in estimating battery VA usage (and therfore when to alarm).  The data is best manipulated in a (excel) spreadsheet.  There is a "hitch" in that after the "user inactivity" timer goes out (max of 10 minutes), the NMC wants to re-log in - regardless of how often data is downloaded (say every 5 minutes).  Has your upgrade (AP9619) worked around this issue?  The excel function is "web query" under macros menu.

Mark

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Angela on APC forums on 7/31/2015

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SUA model UPSs themselves have a baud rate of 2400 by default. The AP9617/18/19 NMCs specifically also shipped with a default baud rate of 2400 but it can be changed to 9600, 19,200, and 38,600. NMC2 works similarly except it defaults to 9600 but can be changed to 2400, and then 19,200, 38,400 but now all the way up to 57,600 too.

[Terry_Kennedy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/31/2015

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The firmware re-packaging instrunctions I developed just use the stock APC firmware (from different devices) so I wouldn't expect the timeout to change.

APC put the timeout there because the older units have a maximum of one session, and someone logging in and forgetting about it would make the card inaccessible by others.

I've never used the Excel web query functionality. If it knows how to log in, it "should" know how to log out and back in for subsequent queries.

I use SNMP for obtaining that data in a low-overhead manner (and then graphing it with MRTG). I can provide examples if you like. However, I do not have this integrated with Excel, so some additional work would be needed.

[MarkC_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/31/2015

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Angela;

I did a reset to factory defaults (except TCP/IP addresses), so potentially all is fixed.

thanks

[MarkC_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/31/2015

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Terry;

I see the reasoning, it would have been nice however to have the option of "never" on auto-logout - for non-traditional users,  These are great inverters - I think better than what the "solar" products offer in configurability, flexibility, networking, data available, etc.  The only question left for me is at what continuous wattage (on battery) do they show cooling problems.  My guess on these larger wattage units, it's close to the nameplate.

Excel doesn't really know how to log in (maybe a nested macro of some type might do it?).  Login has to be done manually during the initiation of the web query.  I'm trying to also get Open Office Calc to work, but it does not have nearly the same functionality as Excel - have to pre-login, then access the URL - and have not been able to continuously update as excel does.  However, the excel/Calc spreadsheets are highly functional to do the "energy" calculations that I need to do to determine battery usage - and can include VBA routines to alert of overload.  The NMC2 card does work with excel and have been successful in monitering for overnight usage - just trying to get the NMC1 to work!

I'm just not up to the knowledge level to use SNMP - yet - to tackle that method. 

Thanks,

Mark

[Terry_Kennedy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/31/2015

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There's a discussion of SNMP and the Excel data collection here. Here are Google search results for "net-snmp windows" (that's the name of the package that includes snmpget).

[MarkC_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 7/31/2015

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Made the full circle!  The thread you referenced is one that I started on the subject of NMC data collection before I was able to get excel to work.  This one "morphed" back to the same!  Thanks again for the references on SNMP.  Hopefully net-snmp windows will help.  I got as far as beginning to understand the OID concept - and will get back to it after I get my data logging system working (with my computer being 200 feet remote from the SUA3000).

[MarkC_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 8/26/2015

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Unrelated - can you tell me what DC voltage the SUA5000RMT5U operates at - apppears to be 24 nominal but not sure.

Thanks,

Mark

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Angela on APC forums on 8/26/2015

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It will be either 24vDC (and float at 27vDC) or 48VDC and float at about 55vDC. I was pretty sure a 5000VA system would have a 48V system...

I don't have one of these models to check unfortunately.

[MarkC_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 8/26/2015

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The battery (anderson) connectors are grey => 24 volt, but it takes two sets.  Usually 48 volt are blue, but maybe they are internally connected series.  Actually either is OK, but 48 is preferred as my solar system is 48 volts.  I'm also assumming I can use the SURT003 split phase transformer with it to get 110 volt split phase power.

Thanks,

Mark

[MarkC_apc · Accepted solution]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 9/1/2015

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The SUA5000RMT5U has four grey Andersen connectors in the battery compartment(s).  The internal wiring connects two sets of these connectors in series before routed to the inverter.  There is space for four of the battery "units" - which appear to be two 12V/18AH batteries glued together - wired in series for 24 volts each.  Long story short - it does appear the unit operates at 48 volts (2-24 volt Battery units in series).  When fully populated with the four battery units, the total VA should be 8*12*18 = 1748 VA.

Does this seem correct?  I have the UPS, but no battery packs to confirm - but the wiring does seem to confirm this.

Mark