NUT dashboard widget

dem

Some older CyberPower units report bogus data for items such as output voltage. One of mine says this:

input.voltage: 121.0
input.voltage.nominal: 120
output.voltage: 137.0

On an even older one I recall the battery voltage being nonsensical as well.

It would be nice to be able to keep such incorrect values from being shown as they can be annoying.

dennypage

@dem said in NUT dashboard widget:

On an even older one I recall the battery voltage being nonsensical as well.

The widget (and status page) can only report what it sees reported by upsc. A nonsensical value indicates either a bad value coming out of the UPS, or broken interpretation by the driver. I'm afraid I cannot fix that.

dem

Then perhaps an option not to show the new "extended" information. Fortunately the UPS I'm currently using with pfSense shows the output voltage correctly, but I don't need to be reminded that I never bother with self-tests.

Lately the power utility has been regularly testing the UPS for me anyway.

dennypage

@dem said in NUT dashboard widget:

I don't need to be reminded that I never bother with self-tests.

I think it is good to be reminded, however I would expect that if you can ignore self tests for the UPS you can also ignore the last test info.

A UPS is critical infrastructure. You want to know if there are issues with it. The last test date and test result are important. This and the battery date are the big reasons that I am updating the widget. The colorization is a nice to have.

FrankZappa

@dennypage Wow! Didn't expect it that fast. Love it! Is there any way to display when and why UPS went to battery last time?

Thanks for making this.

FrankZappa

@FrankZappa Also, I really like the colors to make it pop in the dashboard. If the battery is not charged to 100% does the bar graph change to yellow, and maybe once it gets down to 50% can it turn red? Just thought it would look cool (not that I want my battery to ever get down to 50%). Thanks

FrankZappa

@FrankZappa Mine is showing the wrong battery date and I don't have the last test. Other than that, it looks great.

dennypage

@FrankZappa said in NUT dashboard widget:

Wow! Didn't expect it that fast. Love it!

Glad you like it. I had some time...

@FrankZappa said in NUT dashboard widget:

Is there any way to display when and why UPS went to battery last time?

I don't believe this is reported. I have a fairly high end APC, and I don't have it. Best alternative is enabling notifications and then you'll get a real-time notification of transfers.

@FrankZappa said in NUT dashboard widget:

I really like the colors to make it pop in the dashboard. If the battery is not charged to 100% does the bar graph change to yellow, and maybe once it gets down to 50% can it turn red?

The battery bar is red below 50%, yellow below 75%, otherwise green. Same for the summary icon, which shows plug, battery (with levels), and unknown. Even if the UPS is on line, if the UPS reports that the battery needs replacing, or if the UPS is overloaded, the plug icon will remain red.

The load bar is green below 95%, yellow below 99%, and red above.

@FrankZappa said in NUT dashboard widget:

Mine is showing the wrong battery date and I don't have the last test.

The 2001/09/25 date kinda looks like a "never been set" value. Look for "battery.date" in Services / UPS / UPS Status. This is what is reported to/by NUT. What do you see there?

For test info, look for "ups.test.date" and/or "ups.test.result" in Services / UPS /UPS Status. Are these being reported by the UPS to NUT?

FrankZappa

@dennypage Thanks dennypage. Here's a screenshot of everything I have.

tgl

I'm not sure what "battery.date" is really meant to be, but it reads as 2001/09/25 on my APC UPSes too. Maybe it identifies the age of the design? Anyway, these fields seem considerably more plausible as the real age of the one I'm looking at:

battery.mfr.date: 2022/04/13
ups.mfr.date: 2022/04/13

tgl

@dennypage said in NUT dashboard widget:

For test info, look for "ups.test.date" and/or "ups.test.result" in Services / UPS /UPS Status. Are these being reported by the UPS to NUT?

A field like "ups.test.date" could only get populated accurately if the UPS contains an RTC. I've owned a lot of UPSes over the years, and never seen any indication that they have settable clocks. The date fields they do output all look like burned-in-at-the-factory values.

dennypage

@FrankZappa So, your battery date really does show as 2001/09/25. I believe this means that it was not set at the factory. Looks like the apcupsd widget was reporting the UPS manufacture date rather than the battery install date.

To set the battery date, you can (hopefully) use upsrw.

Use

upsrw -l UPSNAME

to see what variables you can write in the UPS. The variable you are looking for is "battery.date".

Your "ups.test.result" shows that no self test has been run on the UPS. For higher end APC UPSs, this is done by automatic timer. For lower end UPSs, you have to trigger it manually. If you do that, you will have to write the test date yourself--look for variable "ups.test.date" in the upsrw output.

dennypage

@tgl said in NUT dashboard widget:

I'm not sure what "battery.date" is really meant to be, but it reads as 2001/09/25 on my APC UPSes too.

See note above. It just means that it wasn't set at factory or at the point of initial install (which requires a UPS that has time capability).

If the UPS doesn't have time capability, then you are responsible for maintaining this field by hand when you initially install and/or change batteries.

If your UPS has a network management card, this would be handled automatically. My current APC is like this.

dennypage

@FrankZappa Forgot to mention. To run a self-test, would use upscmd. To see a list of commands the UPS will accept, use:

upscmd -l UPSNAME

Most likely, the command will be:

upscmd UPSNAME test.battery.start

tgl

@dennypage said in NUT dashboard widget:

See note above. It just means that it wasn't set at factory or at the point of initial install (which requires a UPS that has time capability).

On mine, it's not settable period. "upsrw -l" claims to be able to set "battery.mfr.date", but not any other kind of date.

dennypage

@tgl What brand/model?

FWIW, "ups.mfr.date" is a standard field, but I don't recall ever seeing "battery.mfr.date"

tgl

@dennypage
APC Back-UPS Pro BR1500MS2

dennypage

@tgl Please post Services / UPS / Status.

tgl

@dennypage said in NUT dashboard widget:

@tgl Please post Services / UPS / Status.

I don't actually have NUT installed on my router (yet); this UPS is connected to a Linux server. "upsc" reports what I suppose you want:

battery.charge: 100
battery.charge.low: 10
battery.charge.warning: 50
battery.date: 2001/09/25
battery.mfr.date: 2022/04/13
battery.runtime: 4152
battery.runtime.low: 120
battery.type: PbAc
battery.voltage: 27.3
battery.voltage.nominal: 24.0
device.mfr: American Power Conversion
device.model: Back-UPS RS 1500MS2
device.serial: 0B2216N04901  
device.type: ups
driver.name: usbhid-ups
driver.parameter.offdelay: 50
driver.parameter.ondelay: 60
driver.parameter.pollfreq: 100
driver.parameter.pollinterval: 10
driver.parameter.port: auto
driver.parameter.synchronous: auto
driver.version: 2.8.0
driver.version.data: APC HID 0.98
driver.version.internal: 0.47
driver.version.usb: libusb-1.0.23 (API: 0x1000107)
input.sensitivity: medium
input.transfer.high: 147
input.transfer.low: 88
input.voltage: 124.0
input.voltage.nominal: 120
ups.beeper.status: disabled
ups.delay.shutdown: 50
ups.firmware: 969.e2 .D
ups.firmware.aux: e2     
ups.load: 10
ups.mfr: American Power Conversion
ups.mfr.date: 2022/04/13
ups.model: Back-UPS RS 1500MS2
ups.productid: 0002
ups.realpower.nominal: 900
ups.serial: 0B2216N04901  
ups.status: OL
ups.test.result: No test initiated
ups.timer.reboot: 0
ups.timer.shutdown: -1
ups.vendorid: 051d

dennypage

@tgl two quick questions:

Output of upsrw -l
Version of NUT