APC BackUps ES-500 - Linksys EA3500 - LuCI graphs

This describes how to connect an APC BackUps ES-500 via the USB port on a Linksys EA3500 router. This includes collecting the data, and displaying graphs. This page is closely related to APC SmartUps SU-700 - Linksys EA3500 - LuCI graphs, which is worth reviewing as well, especially if you run into difficulties.

Note that the collected data will be lost after a reboot of the router. To save the data, you need to put it on an external device, like a USB flash drive. Connecting both the UPS and a flash drive to a USB hub, which is then connected to the router, works fine for me.

Plug in UPS, and connect the cable from the UPS to the router USB port. This is a custom cable that comes with the UPS.
in the router command line or LuCI web pages, install packages: apcupsd, collectd-mod-apcups and kmod-usb-hid

for command line, the commands are:

opkg update
opkg install kmod-usb-hid
opkg install apcupsd
opkg install collectd-mod-apcups

On the router command line, verify that the USB HID driver is installed and working with command and response:
```
# ls -la /dev/usb
crw-------    1 root     root      180,  96 Jul 13 14:34 hiddev0
```
If you don't see a line for hiddev#, then something is wrong with the install of kmod-usb-hid.
Resolve this, before proceeding.

The next step is to customize the apcupsd config file.
Details of the options can be found at http://www.apcupsd.org/manual/manual.html, in the section “Configuration Directive Reference”.
On the router command line, go to the /etc/apcupsd directory, and edit it
```
# cd /etc/apcupsd
# vi
```
use the dd command to delete all the lines in the file
use the i command to set the VI editor into “insert” mode.

Copy and paste this text into the editor:

## apcupsd.conf v1.1 ##
UPSNAME myups
UPSCABLE usb
UPSTYPE usb
DEVICE /dev/usb/hid/hiddev[0-15]
LOCKFILE /var/lock
ONBATTERYDELAY 6
BATTERYLEVEL 5
MINUTES 3
TIMEOUT 0
ANNOY 300
ANNOYDELAY 60
NOLOGON disable
KILLDELAY 0
NETSERVER on
NISIP 0.0.0.0
NISPORT 3551
EVENTSFILE /var/log/apcupsd.events
# max kilobytes
EVENTSFILEMAX 10
UPSCLASS standalone
UPSMODE disable
# ===== Configuration statements to control apcupsd system logging ========
# Time interval in seconds between writing the STATUS file; 0 disables
STATTIME 0
# Location of STATUS file (written to only if STATTIME is non-zero)
STATFILE /var/log/apcupsd.status
LOGSTATS off
# Time interval in seconds between writing the DATA records to
# the log file. 0 disables.
DATATIME 0

type :wq into the editor, to write the new apcupsd.conf, and quit the edit session
restart the apcupsd deamon process:
```
 
# /etc/init.d apcupsd restart
```

Enter the apcaccess command into the command line, and you should get output like this:

# apcaccess
root@g70outside:~# apcaccess 
APC      : 001,034,0829
DATE     : 2017-07-15 12:29:26 -0700  
HOSTNAME : myrouter
VERSION  : 3.14.14 (31 May 2016) unknown
UPSNAME  : myups
CABLE    : USB Cable
DRIVER   : USB UPS Driver
UPSMODE  : Stand Alone
STARTTIME: 2017-07-13 14:34:46 -0700  
MODEL    : Back-UPS ES 500 
STATUS   : ONLINE 
...

Note the STATUS : ONLINE
If you don't have “ONLINE”, then something is wrong
Restart the LuCI statistics data collection:
```
# /etc/init.d/luci_statistics restart
```
In the router web interface, go to Statistics, Graphs, APC UPS
You should see the graphs, with data starting on the right side.
If not, wait a minute, refresh your browser and you should start to see data being written.

Troubleshooting

If you don't have APC UPS graphs at this point, here are some things to check:

There should be a tab for APC UPS on the General Plugins page at:

http://192.168.1.1:88/cgi-bin/luci/admin/statistics/collectd/general

/var/etc/collectd.conf should have a section for apcups:
```
LoadPlugin apcups
 <Plugin apcups>
  Host localhost
  Port "3551"
 </Plugin>
```
If it does not, you can regenerate /var/etc/collectd.conf with this command:
```
/usr/bin/stat-genconfig > /var/etc/collectd.conf
```

If you still don't have APC UPS graphs, you may not have the patches that added luci-statistics support for the apcups plugin: https://github.com/openwrt/luci/pull/1227. The best fix for this is to upgrade to a version that does.