Communication to UPS

[Anonymous user]

I have a BP700UC. I am aware that there are several parameter that can be read/set using Powerchute Personal Edition from Windows. Unfortunately the versions for Mac are old and don't allow this.

Is there any documentation on the communication protocol between the UPS and the PC? If documented it is likely I could use the terminal to talk to the UPS and read/set these values.

[BillP]

Great, keep us updated.

[Anonymous user]

I have a BP700UC. I am aware that there are several parameter that can be read/set using Powerchute Personal Edition from Windows. Unfortunately the versions for Mac are old and don't allow this.

Is there any documentation on the communication protocol between the UPS and the PC? If documented it is likely I could use the terminal to talk to the UPS and read/set these values.

[Anonymous user]

Don't quite understand. The settings in the UPS are nothing more than values in a PROM or similar chip. All I want to do is read the current values and change one of them. A nice GUI would be great but nothing from APC for a Mac.

Before GUI's this type of thing was done from a terminal. I have a terminal app on my Mac and can access Unix shell scripts directly to do many "primitive" things. All I need is the documentation.

[voidstar_apc]

Despite documentation for UPSLink being widely available on the internet, APC's policy is that the UPSLink communication protocol is proprietary.

[BillP]

Hello Robert.

bobsenior wrote:
Is there any documentation on the communication protocol between the UPS and the PC? If documented it is likely I could use the terminal to talk to the UPS and read/set these values.

Unfortunately you do really need to use the PCPE software on a Windows based machine to adjust the settings on your battery Back-UPS. Back-UPS wouldn't work as well with terminal programs such as HyperTerminal or PuTTy..

[Anonymous user]

Thanks. I was told in another thread that the BP700UC sensitivity was adjustable via Powerchute using Win. I know that the "Smart" UPS's are adjustable. Can you verify that the BP700UC is also.

[BillP]

Robert,

Please see the attached image on this post. This is a screenshot of PowerChute Personal Edition(PCPE) running on a Windows XP machine. Using this software you can plug in your BP700UC and set the Sensitivity settings to either High, Medium or Low.

[BillP]

You are welcome Robert, please do let us know if you were able to adjust the settings of your UPS once you get a hold of a Windows machine.

- JonPro

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

I had thought about running Win XP on my Intel Mac using boot camp but the price is out of site for Win. The next version of Mac OSX "Snow Leopard" is $29.95 (full version not an upgrade).

I guess I'll just wait for my son to visit. Even though he runs XP I still talk to him 😉