For those that may follow, I'll just reiterate what is mentioned in a couple places above in this thread:
do not use the latest NMC (v3, SKU 9641). Only the v2 9631 works with this automation. Not sure about older boards.
if you purchase the NMC second hand, which I believe is the only way currently, then make sure you upgrade its firmware. Currently, that's v7.1.2. Go to the About/Network page of the NMC web interface and you can see the firmware version there. Pretty simple process to upgrade, if warranted.
Thanks for the many awesome folks who helped me get this setup.
older work fine too at least the 9630 does.. something strange about the telnet on the newer 9641. And actually thats the latest firmware but older version (at least 3) work ok too. You must have had a real old version on the card.
You can find them used on the cheap, just use new batteries. I have an entire stack of rack mount 750's on a shelf as well as a 1500 tower.... They're fine.
I have been using your app for a while. I didn't see this before.
I have APC UPS with the ability to set it in bypass mode so that the battery can be changed without powering off the attached devices. I have the battery removed right now and the unit in bypass. That state has generated one critical alarm and one Warning. Those are not reflected in your app. Is there anything I can provide you for data to allow you to capture these so that the unit is not "ALL IS GOOD" ....
Youll have to manually telnet in and issue various status commsnds and shiw me the results . Not sure it is critical as u know the ups is in bypass mode asbu set it manually.
Thanks to this community and @kahn-hubitat’s great driver, I now have an SMT1500 and a few SMT750 doing their good deeds day and night. Mostly I just wanted to pause and express gratitude for the everyone’s help in getting me to this point.
Also - as someone who deals with two homes and travels a lot — and therefore is often dealing with remote access via vpn, how are folks remotely activating/deactivating the switchable power outlets on the back of these devices? I can use a browser to get to the NMC directly, but I’m wondering if there is any more elegant way to actuate those switches from HE directly?
If you are able, these are the two NMC controls I’m keen to integrate into HE with my priority being the first set over the second, but both would be amazing.
Thanks for clarifying. I’ve never used telnet, but I do know how to find and read documentation so it appears that for the APC SmartUPS line, the two commands are “UPS -c” and “UPS -o#”where # is the outlet number on the back of the unit.
Here’s the corresponding documentation on the Telnet command. Let me know if I can do any other legwork!
Note: personally, I only care about -c and -o, but maybe there are others that are interested in the other parts.
@kahn-hubitat no rush, but want to make sure the above provides you what you needed?
Separately, now that I have multiple devices using this driver (SMT1500 and a couple little brother SMT750s), I’ve noticed an odd edge case with the UPSStatus attribute. Sometimes the cap case varies across devices (e.g., OnLine vs. Online) and sometimes there is a stray comma (Online vs. Online,). I’m guessing this is due to different firmware versions. I haven’t checked yet because it’s straightforward to solve for these variations via rule machine.
Still, figured other folks might want to know rather than learn the hard way
it should already handle the various onlines so i need in the output of a telnet window whilch is not working.. its more likely a telnet issue as getting data back from telnet can be flakey..
Anyway, here is a new version in github that implments the sleep, reboot, startcalibration and outlet control commands (UPS -o)
again it can be flakey based on how fast telnet responds or sometimes never responds.
for this reason i implmented a lastCommandResult attribute (see below) so if you are writing rules you will need to delay after issueing a command and check that attribute (its reset to NA before each command is executed)
Caveats: you will get failures if you try to turn an outlet group on if already on or off if already off. You will also get failures on some of the smaller ie 750 ups trying to do outlet group 2 as many only have one outlet group.
and also some firmwares do NOT have the ups -o command (see below) which will also cause failures.
Thanks for this — I haven’t yet got the driver replicating the NMC’s outlet control, but I believe it is because of APC firmware issues, exactly as you warned. I’ll need to take more time when I’m back in town to sort this out. Will revert. Appreciate the changes regardless!
For those who may be interested in output outlet control, in my testing (SMT750 and SMT1500), I had to be on firmware v9.2 or greater for the UPS and v7.1.8 for the NMC. Below those releases, it wouldn't work for me. Can't swear it wouldn't work in any earlier versions, but this was my experience.
@kahn-hubitat, ofc this is your gig (I'm just visiting ) , but perhaps you want to add these requirements as well as your well-made admonitions about edge cases to the OP?
Regardless, thanks again.
P.S. Do you want the telnet traces to look at that issue with status semantics? I'm happy to get it, only thing is I'm a total telnet noob so would need some guidance on how-to.
found in one of my ups firmware it was coming back with
Online, (small l with a comma) I already handled the case with the large
L and a comma, but this was new.
really not a big deal but my rule to say the ups was backonline when it upsStatus changed and was not OnBattery was firing at times and alerting me for no reason.
for everyone using this:
apc has released a new firmware as of sept this year version 7.,2.2. for all 9630 and 9631 net cards.. It works fine with my app.. Just updated about 10 ups's
Thanks for sharing that. FWIW I find APC's documentation to be impenetrable to the human idea, and this one is no exception. Do you have a POV on the redeeming attributes of this release that you'd be willing to share?
just download the excutable and run unzip the file. then run the executable. it creates a directory and inside that is anothre executable you run in windowsw..
make sure through the web interface/ configuration/netowrk/summary you have enabled ftp in the ups .
then when running the app put in the ip address of your ups username and password and change it to ftp and hit start update.
so it appears that for the APC SmartUPS line, the two commands are “UPS -c” and “UPS -o#”where # is the outlet number on the back of the unit.
) , but perhaps you want to add these requirements as well as your well-made admonitions about edge cases to the OP?
