NUT and driver for PowerWalker VFI3000RT won't start

Lanes

I am trying to configure a PowerWalker VFI3000RT to work with NUT, running on pfSense 2.2.3, but I am unable to get it running. I have been at this for several hours now, and I am really not getting anywhere nearer a solution.

I am getting the following errors and notifications when running /usr/local/etc/rc.d/nut.sh start. Any advice?

starting blazer_usb
Network UPS Tools - UPS driver controller 2.7.2
Network UPS Tools - Megatec/Q1 protocol USB driver 0.11 (2.7.2)
Supported UPS detected with megatec protocol
[2.2.3-RELEASE][user@domain]: ugen0.2: <ppc>at usbus0 (disconnected)
Permissions problem: Input/output error
Driver failed to start (exit status=1)
blazerR_usb failed to start
[2.2.3-RELEASE][user@domain]:uhid0: at uhub1, port 5 addr1 (disconnected)
[2.2.3-RELEASE][user@domain]:ugen0.2: <ppc>at usbus0
[2.2.3-RELEASE][user@domain]:uhid0: <ppc 0="" 1="" usb="" ups,="" class="" 0,="" rev="" 2.00="" 0.03,="" addr="">on usbus0</ppc></ppc></ppc>

tha_toadman

Try this:

UPS Monitoring: Local UPS
Local UPS Model: APC Back-UPS USB
Local UPS Port: auto (USB)

Lanes

No luck… At least the UPS is not longer disconnected and reconnected as with the blazer driver, but this driver seems not to want to work with my device at all. Not sure how to run the driver with the productid option as mentioned in the below message.

starting usbhid-ups
Network UPS Tools - UPS driver controller 2.7.2
Network UPS Tools - Generic HID driver 0.38 (2.7.2)
USB communication driver 0.32
This Liebert device (06da:0005) is not (or perhaps not yet) supported by usbhid-ups. Please make sure you have up-to-date version of NUT. If this does not fix the problem, try running the driver with the '-x productid=0005' option. Please report your results to the NUT user's mailing list nut-upsuser@lists.alioth.debian.org.

No matching HID UPS found
Driver failed to start (exit status=1)
usbhid-ups failed to start/nut-upsuser@lists.alioth.debian.org

tha_toadman

I had trouble with mine too when I initially connected it. I use a CyberPower and one would think that you would simply select it from the model drop-down menu. After posting here, I was told to use the APC model and sure enough, it started working for me.

As for your situation, I would say look under Advanced features and open the usb.conf options block. Add the line:

-x productid=0005;

Click 'Change' when your done and see what happens.

Lanes

I will try a bit more with the APC driver, but I managed to get something of a connection to the UPS with the blazer driver, using the following settings in ups.conf:


pollinterval=15
vendorid=06da;
productid=0005;
subdriver=phoenix

This works for about 1 second, but then I see a 'data stale!' error in the web config, and I see the USB device disconnecting and reconnecting from the console. When trying to do a restart of the NUT service I see a bit more stuff:

starting blazer_usb
Network UPS Tools - UPS driver controller 2.7.2
Network UPS Tools - Megatec/Q1 protocol USB driver 0.11 (2.7.2)
Supported UPS detected with megatec protocol
Vendor information unavailable
No values provided for battery high/low voltages in ups.conf

Using 'guestimation' (low: 62.400000, high: 78.000000)!
Battery runtime will not be calculated (runtimecal not set)
starting upsd
Network UPS Tools upsd 2.7.2
fopen /var/db/nut/upsd.pid: No such file or directory
listening on ::1 port 3493
listening on 127.0.0.1 port 3493
Connected to UPS [UPS]: blazer_usb-UPS
starting upsmon
Network UPS Tools upsmon 2.7.2
kill: No such process
UPS: UPS@localhost (master) (power value 1)
Using power down flag file /etc/killpower
[2.2.3-RELEASE][user@domain]:ugen0.2: <ppc>at usbus0 (disconnected)
[2.2.3-RELEASE][user@domain]:uhid0: at uhub1, port 5 addr1 (disconnected)
[2.2.3-RELEASE][user@domain]:ugen0.2: <ppc>at usbus0
[2.2.3-RELEASE][user@domain]:uhid0: <ppc 0="" 1="" usb="" ups,="" class="" 0,="" rev="" 2.00="" 0.03,="" addr="">on usbus0</ppc></ppc></ppc>

Lanes

So I tried the APC driver again, but left the vendor and product id's in place. It appears to function now, but I am really not seeing much information from the web interface. The single second I had the blazer driver I had this green bar for the battery at least, now it just says "on battery".

The console menu throws the same error as the blazer:
fopen /var/db/but/upsd.pid: No such file or directory

I will need to research what this file is, and why it is missing.

Lanes

I actually got it working with he blazer driver now. I am not exactly sure why… It could be that I changed the status of the UPS on the device itself from standby to online..., and that it required to be properly powered on?

I am however still seeing some strange usb disconnects, and I need to start NUT twice to get it running. Will be interesting to see if this is stable or not.