mgeutalk - Driver for MGE UPS SYSTEMS UTalk protocol hardware

This man page only documents the hardwarespecific features of the mgeutalk driver. For information about the core driver, see nutupsdrv(8).

mgeutalk supports the following legacy units, using the MGE UTalk protocol:

Pulsar ESV+, Pulsar ES+, Pulsar EL, Pulsar EX, Pulsar EXtreme, Comet EXtreme, Comet (Utalk Serial Card, ref 66060), Galaxy (Utalk Serial Card, ref 66060).

This driver also support some newer models with backward UTalk compatibility, such as Pulsar Evolution and Pulsar EXtreme C. As these models also support the SHUT protocol, prefer mge-shut for serial communication, or use the USB port, if available, with the newhidups driver.

This driver supports the following optional settings in the ups.conf(5):

lowbatt=value

Low battery level below which LB is raised, in % (default 30%)

ondelay=value

Set delay before startup, in minutes (default 1 minute)

offdelay=value

Delay before shutdown, in seconds (default 120 seconds)

oldmac

Set this flag if you are running Linux on an Oldworld Macintosh box (all beige Apple Macintosh). This might also be needed for other OSs (like *BSD) running on PowerMac.

Not all MGE UPS models provide all possible information, settings and commands. mgeutalk checks on startup which variables and commands are available from the UPS, and rereads these regularly. Thus, startup is a bit slow, but this should not matter much.

mgeutalk.h defines a struct array that tells the driver how to read variables from the UPS and publish them as NUT data.

"ups.status" variable is not included in this array, since it contains information that requires several calls to the UPS and more advanced analysis of the reponses. The function get_ups_status does this job.

Note that MGE enumerates the status "bits" from right to left, i.e., if buf[] contains the reponse to command "Ss" (read system status), then buf[0] contains "bit" Ss.1.7 (General alarm), while buf[7] contains "bit" Ss.1.0 (Load unprotected).

enable_ups_comm() is called before each attempt to read/write data from/to the UPS to re synchronise the communication.

Repetitive stale status Loss of communication

Sort out OFF/OL issues

OFF is set according to Ls.2.7, but maybe this interpretation is in conflict with the NUT interpretation of the OFF flag?

Add PowerShare / PowerSave support (selectable plug number for commands)

ON/OFF/REBOOT commands can act either on outlet 1, 2 or main (1 + 2). This features depends on the UPS model. This would also allow to support UMSwitch (smart outlet).

Enhance the model name exposure

A table, named Si1_models_names, has been created to format finelly the UPSs model names, but it is not yet being used.

Arnaud Quette, Hans Ekkehard Plesser, Martin Loyer, Patrick Agrain, Nicholas Reilly, Dave Abbott, Marek Kralewski

The core driver:

Internet resources: