Special Use with Notebook

[jwka_apc]

Hi,

I am using a APC in combination with a Notebook (!) running an home automation server. Installed is PowerChute Personal 3.0. Attached to the UPS, there are other Devides like NAS, Router, Telephoneserver etc.

The notebook running the home automation is used to control (shut down, switch off etc.) all the attached devices (including itself).

Now, in case of power outage and when the UPS reaches end of capacity, PowerChute will shut down the Notebook, even though it has another 40 minutes (or even more) power on its own batteries. This beahviour (shutting down the PC at end of capacity of UPS) seems logical for "regular" PC's but is not the best option with Notebooks (i.e. it will disconnect itself from the UPS after x minutes running on UPS, to grant more time for the other devices to survive).

Therefor, in my case, I would like to only get the information:

- running on power

- running on UPS @ x% of capacity

but NEVER shut down the notebook. Unfortunaltely, this seems not to be possible with PowerChute.


Is there any way to solely get the information "running on ups now" without ANY action but with information on what level - percentage - the UPS is working on?

This would be very helpful because then I can have my own logic to maintain shutdowns of attached devices.

Hope this is understandable ...

Thanks for any hints!

jwka

[BillP]

Hi Wege,

The best way that I could think of is for you to remove PowerChute Personal Edition, disconnect the USB cable of the UPS and then configure that Native UPS/Battery setting of the Operating System. Without our software and cable, your laptop won't know that there was a change of state that happened. When the UPS is running on battery, it would still detect it as AC power. When the UPS dies or turns itself off that would be the only time that the laptop would be using its own internal battery.

With the laptop internal battery being used, the Native Power Options would be the one that would shutdown/hibernate the laptop.

[jwka_apc]

Hi JonPro,

thanks for the quick re.

Sorry, but that is not exactly what I need ... maybe my description was not verbose enough or misleading, so, I try to be more detailled:

The UPS is used by a number of items that are "unintelligent", like a NAS, an external HD, Modem/Router, Security Switches etc. and - last but not least, the Notebook.

It basically helps to survive 75% of all power outages with no problems and all devices will simply not even recognize that there had been a problem.

Now, the trick is to handle the other 25%. Lets's assume that in another 90% of these 25%, there is no need to shut down the Notebook, because it's batteries are still good enoght to survive even a total outage of 2 hours. However, there are a few devices that should be shut down before the UPS dies. That could be done by the notebook running the home automation software that is capable to do that job.

To allow the notebook to do that job propperly, it would simply need to know WHEN an outage happens (all run on UPS now) and how "good" the batteries of the UPS still are. This might be different depending on daytime and other parameters because different items will consume power differently depending on, let's say "environmental" situations.

So, the Notebook could - after, say 20 Minutes, first disconnect itself from the UPS to allow other devices to surge longer from the UPS. After another 10 Minutes, the NAS could be shut down and a number of messages could be sent out (i.e. through internet or telephone or wireless), and there after other devices would be shut down to even longer allow for the most vital things - the comms - to survive as long as possible.

Only in the worst case (in sum maybe after 2 hours), the notebook would switch itself off (going to hibernate which is good).

For doing that kind of control, I need to know about state and health of the UPS, BUT NOT switch off the PC.

Basically, the UPS delivers all that information to the USB port of the PC I guess! Theoretically I could even monitor the USB comms or communicate directly with UPS if I would know the protocol etc.

Thanks for your help!

jwka

[voidstar_apc]

Hi Wege,

If you're using native UPS support (UPS connected without PowerChute installed), you could probably detect the UPS status using Windows' [Power Management APIs|http://stackoverflow.com/questions/233446/monitor-battery-charge-with-win32-api]. Via USB, the UPS speaks the standard [USB Power HID|http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/pdcv10.pdf]. You can also use 3rd party software like APCUPSd to poll the UPS and provide control over the shutdown behavior.

[jwka_apc · Accepted solution]

Hi voidstar,

thanks for the hint. I will have a look into it.

Seems that the open source project "apcupsd" that deals with the APC ups' is the best choice and looks quite good what one can make with it.

Thanks again all for the input!
jwka