USB to serial adapter

[Anonymous user]

Hi, Hope someone can help. Last year we bought an APC Sc1000 SMART-UPS which shipped with a serial to USB cable (part no: 940-0272A). Upon launching Powerchute business edition 8.0.1.609 I cannot seem to establish a connection? Our other 15 or so Smart-UPS devices have a USB interface as opposed to a serial interface and work fine with said agent.

I have read that USB to serial may not work with some models (although the cable shipped with the device)? I have also reinstalled PCBE and disabled auto detect and specified Smart-UPS and com port 8 but no joy.

Serial number of Smart-UPS in question is 5S1139T13368. I have read that serial to serial (940-0024) should work. Would APC really ship a USB to serial cable if it wasn't compatible?

Michael

[BillP]

Well, to begin, 9.1 PowerChute Business Edition is the latest version. Not sure if you want to use that instead of 8.0.1.

Also, the USB to serial adapter requires a driver by Prolific - have you installed this? Do you see the device listed in device manager (assuming this is Windows)? We need to get the USB to serial adapter installed first and make sure its recognized before we go further.

[Anonymous user]

The prolific driver has been installed both from the supplied cd and from Prolific website using PCI VEN and ID. The port shows up as Com port 8,9 or 10 depending on what USB port is used which is why i configured PCBE to use com port 8. Can Powerchute 9.1 ne downloaded freely? I assumed it was licenced software.

[BillP]

Yup - 9.1 five node is free.

[Anonymous user]

Cheers - I'll try 9.1 now

[BillP]

And just to confirm you have USB to serial adapter->940-0024 (which also comes with UPS)->UPS - correct?

[Anonymous user]

Not correct - We were supplied with USB to serial->940-0272A

[BillP]

An SC1000 (Smart UPS SC1000) should ship with the USB to serial adapter (SKU AP9827 or part # 940-0272A) AND the 940-0024 incase you wanted to use serial communications with it.

Thus, you need to convert the DB-9 serial connection on the back of the UPS to USB.

Here is the rear of the UPS:

So, connect the included 940-0024 to the DB-9 serial port on the back of the UPS shown above, then connect the DB-9 end of the 940-0272A to the other end, then connect USB to your computer.

This 940-0272A is just a USB to serial adapter and does not do any of the signaling - just converting.

[Anonymous user]

Not sure we have that? its a male to female db9 you say?

[BillP]

It should've been included in your lit kit with the UPS. Part # is printed on one of the connectors. Make sure it is this one because a non-standard cable could turn the UPS off since there is a special pinout on this cable.

Looks like this (yes M to F) ->

[Anonymous user]

What dya know - I found it in our server room sitting i a box amongst other bits! Now it'll work. I obviously did away with this 18 months ago as i thought the USB to serial would work alone - I had read that the cable uses a special pin out. Now smart signalling should work.

[BillP]

Let us know if you have any further issues

[BillP]

Alrighty. Let me know what happens there. You can also verify everything still shows in Device Manager.

[Anonymous user]

It doesn't work!?

I have installed the Prolific to USB serial (currently using com port 6). I then installed PCBE agent 9.0.2, during installation it can't detect UPS presence so i choose DB9 and then it asks if i want to detect all ports (which fails). I then choose Smart-UPS as type and Com port 6 (fails), the basic signalling detects a BAck-UPS device.

It all fails miserably! Should i source a laptop with serial port and connect a standard DB9 cable to the 940-0024 cable and re-test?

[BillP]

It might be helpful to also braindead the UPS and try again with the laptop. If you do that, it will just be UPS->940-0024->Laptop serial port (nothing else needed).

Braindeading the UPS resets the UPS communications which incase something is wrong on the UPS end, it should reset it. To do that, you need to disconnect everything (including serial cable), and then turn off and disconnect any load. Then, turn off the UPS and unplug it. For this UPS, then you have to disconnect the battery on it and you can hold down the off button for 10-15 seconds so we can discharge the UPS completely and ultimately do the braindead. Alternatively, you can leave the battery disconnected for 8-10 minutes and it will happen as well.

[Anonymous user]

So we disconnect everything and then drain any residual power from the device. Shouls i use the USB to serial cable afterwards then?

[BillP]

Well if you are going to use the laptop with a serial port on it just to be able to test another computer via serial only, I'd do that first (UPS->940-0024->laptop serial port. If you don't have that computer available or I misunderstood and it does not have a serial port on it, then do UPS->940-0024->940-0272A->Computer again.

[Anonymous user]

Hi - Just managed to test the UPS following the 'braindead' procedure but no joy! I need to test using a laptop with serial port connection i imagine.

[Anonymous user]

Hmmmmm, i still cannot seem to establish a connection? I may try and re-install PCBE 9.1 from scratch as i turned off auto detect when re-installing 8.0.1and then updated to version 9.1

[BillP]

Hi ICT, 

have you managed to get the PCBE working with your SC1000?

I  got recently new old stock SC1500 and I have the same issue. Tried everything like you did and nothing helped so far.

[BillP]

Hi,

That UPS has a serial port for communications with PCBE. You will need APC serial cable 940-0024 or 940-1524. If your computer does not have a serial port you will need a USB to serial converter.

As for PCBE, what version are you installing, and do you have a terminal emulator available to test comm with? I user PuTTY to test serial comm. 

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi Bill,

thanks for the response. I have connected the SC1500 to Windows 10 (with PCBE 10.0.1 x64) and also to Unraid using 940-0024 and COM-port on my motherboard.

The initial problem was cased by the Prolific 2303 cable, which came with the device. It did not function with any OS. I also tried the newer versions of Prolific adapters and they also work just fine.

The SC1500 shows wrong temperature in the PCBE (only 2 degrees Celcius). I thought that update of the FW (e.g. to the available PowerNet MIB v4.3.2) would help, but neither Firmware Upgrade Wizard v4.2.0 nor v4.1.1 does find the device on COM port. I stopped the APC service and also tried that by complete uninstalling PCBE. Nothing helped.  Is there another way to upgrade the FW?

Thanks in advance