UPS headaches

[Limitedheadroom]

Just checked again, emails still coming through if I turn on that option.

 

[DrKK]

OK, well that means your UPS service is not on. There should be some error message in the system footer. You also might want to reboot, start with a clean slate. Occasionally, the ups service can get very confused--especially if you were trying to start it with improper settings before.

 

[Limitedheadroom]

I rebooted and tried that command in the command line and still get nothing, either with the service showing as on or off.

This is what I get as soon as I looked at the log, before starting the service.

Sep 27 00:55:14 ChassNAS ugen0.3: <INNO TECH> at usbus0
Sep 27 00:55:23 ChassNAS ugen0.3: <INNO TECH> at usbus0 (disconnected)
Sep 27 00:55:25 ChassNAS ugen0.3: <INNO TECH> at usbus0
Sep 27 00:55:35 ChassNAS ugen0.3: <INNO TECH> at usbus0 (disconnected)
Sep 27 00:55:36 ChassNAS ugen0.3: <INNO TECH> at usbus0

Every few seconds it connects and disconnects, as you said, this shouldn't happen. I would be inclined to think the UPS didn't work, except that I've had it working connected to my mac with the supplied driver.

 

[DrKK]

OK, so what you have here, is an indication that the device is not consistently detected by the USB bus. This would explain a lot.

Is there a possibility that your USB cable is shot?

 

[Limitedheadroom]

It was worth a go. I've tried 4 different USB cables now, one of them brand new. All the same though, connecting and disconnecting every few seconds.

 

[DrKK]

It was worth a go. I've tried 4 different USB cables now, one of them brand new. All the same though, connecting and disconnecting every few seconds.

OK, well, I think you have your answer. Now, I am no expert on these things, so anyone else is welcome to chime in to correct my logic here. But I would say:

It has nothing at all, seemingly, to do with your FreeNAS settings. Your UPS device disconnects from the USB bus over and over again, having nothing to do with any attempts to actually communicate with it (the service isn't even on). And, you have tried various cables. So, as far as I can tell, the problem must be one of these:

1. The UPS itself has a problem with its USB port (seems unlikely, based upon your previous experience)
2. The motherboard USB port has some kind of problem, or is unable to deliver the voltage/current necessary for the UPS. This might be caused by a bad 5V rail on the power supply, but that seems like a longshot to me.

So I don't know what to tell you. I would borrow another UPS with a USB interface from a friend, and just plug it in, and see if it, too, drops in and out of USB connection, so as to start narrowing down the source of the problem.

 

[DrKK]

For the record, I only buy UPS's which are explicitly supported as stated on the nut compatibility list, just so I can rule out most problems if I were to have issues.

 

[Limitedheadroom]

Yeah, I see the sense in that, but at less than half the price of an APC one of equivalent spec I thought it had to be worth a shot.

Thanks for your help, I'll see if I can borrow another for testing purposes and see how I get on.

 

[DrKK]

Yeah, I see the sense in that, but at less than half the price of an APC one of equivalent spec I thought it had to be worth a shot.

Thanks for your help, I'll see if I can borrow another for testing purposes and see how I get on.

Another thing to think about, sir, you don't *NEED* to have the UPS communicating with the FreeNAS. The UPS will pick up when the power drops, no matter what. I have 8 UPS's in my house, and 7 of them are not communicating at all with any devices.

Of course, the difference is, you will not be informed when the power goes out, and, if the power goes out, *AND* the UPS runs out of juice, then you will have a cold power loss situation. But your UPS will still work. If money is enough of an issue that you needed to save $20 or $30 on buying this UPS, then I think you're 100% fine just running the UPS as an isolated, uncontrolled, UPS. You don't *NEED* to have FreeNAS communicating with the UPS in order for the UPS to provide backup power. There's just no way to tell FreeNAS to power down if the UPS runs out of juice.

 

[Limitedheadroom]

True. This UPS saved me around £50 on the cost of an equivalent spec from APC here in the UK, I guess that's around $70, so a fair saving. Still it's big enough to run my macpro with three big screens and several external hard drives for a few minutes. The freenas box uses a lot less power so I could get a smaller spec UPS for that.


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