I'll use it to - obviously - shutdown the HE hub and other devices if power outage is detected.
It has an USB port for communication that I can connect, e.g., to a Raspberry Pi and run programs like Network UPS Tools and, from there, make it available to HE using TPC/IP and, finally, develop a driver to handle the communication with the UPS.
However, I'd like to know if it is possible to connect an USB device directly to HE that it is not a radio device. With this direct connection it would, of course, suppress the "man in the middle" (RPi) and other software layers.
I did some digging and I could not find anything about it.
Is it possible?
UPDATE: the Amazon UPS that I have is an OEM from this:
Great plan. I am looking at wanting to do the same and was thinking about a NUT server, but hadn't thought of this option. I was going to buy a Eaton UPS as they have good support for NUT.
If it's not possible to connect the UPS directly, this could be a great opportunity to finally put in practice an idea that I had some time ago: the Raspberry Pi Companion for HE (RPiC4HE).
The "companion" will be a RPi configured with Docker (great suggestion of @dman2306 - thanks!) with different user selectable images for a variety of HE complementary functions, e.g. NUT, WebCore, mail client and so on.
The problem - there's always one, isn't it? - is that my development backlog is always growing. But I'll get there, believe me!
There's no built in UPS daemon in the version of busybox the hub is running.
I'll see if it's something that can be added easily. Not making any promises, as usual.
The UPS I bought is a very entry level UPS and don't have native LAN connection, only USB. What should I expect from a 40 euro (~48 USD) device? And from Amazon!
Since the UPS don't have a LAN connection, one way of doing it would be to install all components but the HE driver in a RPi (my RPi HE Companion project) and from there send data through a LAN connection to the HE driver.
Let's see what @gopher.ny pull from his sleeve ...
Let's see what @gopher.ny came up with. If he can enable a NUT native to HE, we have a solution.
If not, I need to stop being lazy and finally develop the first implementation of the Raspberry Pi Companion for HE (RPiC4HE - this mneumonic still troubles me ... it doesn't sound well). The ideia is that it would be, as much as possible, a "plug-and-play" solution, where the user selects a Docker image (in this case, a NUT server) and add it to the RPiC4HE.
I'm almost sure that I'll need to learn another programming language, probably Phyton, to develop the web UI for the configuration particularities of each Docker image. And it will take months ...
Anyway, let's hope - and pray! - that @gopher.ny finds a viable solution for this.
Any additional thoughts about connecting a USB-enabled UPS to HE?
I see on the networking page that there are buttons for installing drivers for various USB devices (Wi-Fi, cellular connectors, etc.) so Iām thinking this should be possible.
Iāve tried to find some Java code that would work but they all need additional libraries.
I know I could use a RPi for this but Iād like to do it directly if possible.
Iām working in a Docker image (RPi) + integration app + driver (HE) to allow to have an UPS functionality.
Itās inside an old idea that I have to have a RPi working as something that I call āRPi HE Companionā, where would be possible to add functionalities to HE using - ta daaa - a RPi!
So far I can get UPS data in a RPi and Iām implementing the first version of the integration app + driver to get those data in the HE.
It will take some time to have it working as I want but Iām stubborn and Iāll have it!
- shutdown the HE hub and other devices if power outage is detected.
