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.

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.
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  • Last modified: 2020/09/20 20:19
  • by vgaetera