UPS comm cable

A

ambo

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Most UPS's come with the funky little RS-232 connector on the back and Doz and Linux have funky little apps designed to give your computer a graceful shutdown just before the UPS gives up during an extended power outage.

But i've googled and i can't make sense of all the different types of cables that exist and which one is the right one for my various UPS's...

Has anyone got this sucessfully setup?
 
mine is a regular serial to serial connector, came with the UPS, uses WinStar 2000 software.
 
I have my UPS set-up on the Comm Port, using a program called Winpower.
It has support for all OS.
Not the most functional software, but it does shut my XP machine down.
Winpower by default shuts the PC down within 10 minutes or if the Battery drops to 20%, then it shuts down within 10 seconds.
It would also depend on the UPS that you are using. The cheap 600VA ones I am using are only good enough for a few minutes and only have a Comm Port for communication.
But it works.
 
andres101 said:
which brand UPS?
Click to expand...
Well we've actually got a whole variety here that we want to ultimately all connect to their PC's:
  • Mecer
  • Netstar - that looks identical to the:
  • Meissner
  • OmniPower - fully online
  • Power Saver - 2000VA
  • Horizon
  • and 2 American Power Conv's

But from my google search - it appears many of those are just re-badged versions of other brands.
And i'm struggling to identify the original manufacturer
 
I have Meissner and QP1000 Units and one Cellguard. All 600Va cheap stuff.
However, only the former two can use the Winpower Software. Looking at the two former models they just look like re-badged UPS Units, like you suggested in your selection.
The Cellguard Model from Sahara does not work with Winpower.

I have my machines all talking through the network except the Cellguard which will become a UPS for my Till later when I get it back as it is poked and in for RMA.
But with different UPS Units and different software it may be impossible to get them all to talk to each other?

I suppose none of this answers your questions ambo?
Good Luck with all that cabling. :)
Perhaps the industry should start to standardise the cables to USB or something functional.
The new Motherboards aren't even coming out with comm Ports at the back any more. Some give you a PCI connector to plug onto the Motherboard, but I see the trend is away from Comm Ports?
 
Last edited:
ambo said:
Most UPS's come with the funky little RS-232 connector on the back and Doz and Linux have funky little apps designed to give your computer a graceful shutdown just before the UPS gives up during an extended power outage.

But i've googled and i can't make sense of all the different types of cables that exist and which one is the right one for my various UPS's...

Has anyone got this sucessfully setup?
Click to expand...

Are you SURE that you can't just use a basic serial cable? You do say it has a RS-232 connection, unless I'm missing something.....
 
I have just purchased an el cheapo UPS and connected it via a normal serial connecter. I tried to install the Winpower software but it keeps rejected the serial number. I tried via Power Option in WinXp but am now stuck. The UPS appears to be working and PC is OK, but can't monitor anything! Any Help?
 
TonyA said:
I tried via Power Option in WinXp but am now stuck. The UPS appears to be working and PC is OK, but can't monitor anything! Any Help?
Click to expand...

what do you mean you are stuck, it has to work if you select the UPS as GENERIC?
 
Thanks for coming back so soon. I've selected generic etc but how do I know if the things working? No icon other Power Options from control panel and that says AC Power. I don't know if the UPS and Windows are even talking to each other!:)
 
TonyA said:
I've selected generic etc but how do I know if the things working? No icon other Power Options from control panel and that says AC Power. I don't know if the UPS and Windows are even talking to each other!:)
Click to expand...
Thats pretty much where i got to - used a standard serial cable and when i booted the machine it found new hardware.
But when i pulled the plug on the UPS windows didn't even seem to notice...
 
Have you played around by selecting different COM ports, and when you select CUSTOM did you play around with the signal polarity as well?
 
Hi,
I tried different ports, but bit reluctant to try changing polarity! Presently trying to establish if there are specific port settings eg baud rate, stop bit, parity etc. Is yours working?
 
Mine worked first time both with the supplied software and XP's UPS power settings (after fiddling with the polarity). This really isn't rocket science to get it working so I'm wondering...Question: is your serial port enabled and set up correctly in the BIOS?
 
Yep checked that and it seems to work under windows. I suspect it is actually the serial cable. Its just a stock standard serial cable (male to female). I think I should purchased the cable with UPS. Software (WINPOWER) was free download from site. UPS is a Blazer Stepwave 600VA.
I cannot find any details about polarity for this specific UPS but most seem to be Neg, Neg, Pos under windows settings.
Thanks for your interest in my problem so far
 
It should be called a NULL MODEM SERIAL CABLE or Z MODEM SERIAL CABLE and it is not costly at all.

However, I don't want to use WinPower or any other 3rd party software with Windows XP, I want use the built in battery mode detector that Windows have and you can find it in the Power Management in the Control Panel where you tell Windows that you have connected an UPS. However, here, to enable Windows interact with the UPS, you need to know the PIN negetive and positive configurations. For my earlier UPS, which was an Apollo, I figured it out by myself and Windows could detect the AC loss and could hibernate itself automatically.

Now, with my new Blazer UPS, I can't figure out the PIN configuration neither they have any documentation for this on their site nor they responded to my query.

Thank you in advance if anyone can tell me the correct PIN configuration for this UPS.
 
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