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Date:      Wed, 29 Jan 1997 21:34:26 -0600 (CST)
From:      "Gil Kloepfer Jr." <gil@gc2.kloepfer.org>
To:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Submitted UPS monitor software to PR system
Message-ID:  <199701300334.VAA07917@limbic.gc2.kloepfer.org>

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At Jordan's suggestion, I submitted my contribution (?) to the FreeBSD
project of a Tripp Lite UPS monitor daemon to the PR system.  The ID
number is misc/2617 and contains a shar of the C code, Makefile, and
manual page.

This is really a first shot at a means of managing a UPS under
FreeBSD (at least for me it is anyhow).  I realize ideally it should
be able to handle other UPS monitoring port specs, and be configurable
as to its action.  I'm more than willing to take on the responsibility
for some of this.  Unfortunately I don't have a lot of UPS monitoring
port specs to work with.

I developed this from scratch, even though I was aware of some linux
work going on in this regard.  It didn't appear from my reading
that it did exactly what I wanted, and I didn't want to be discouraged
from getting this done (I had a set of batteries melt along with frying
my UPS not long ago).  Basically I tested all the functions I could on
the UPS itself, and created a simulator to test the those that would
take too long (low battery).  I can probably do the same for UPSs that
use opto-isolators, relays, and LEDs for control...so to add new
UPSs, I may be able to develop from the spec and have some nice soul
test it.

The shutdown mechanism is not as elegant as one may desire, but I felt
that a "graceful" UPS shutdown was an alternative to pulling the plug
while everything was running.  Creating elaborate kernel code to
perform this function may have been the literally "correct" way to
do it, but it would have been highly hardware-dependent and horrible
to maintain (as well as overkill under the circumstances).

The cable involves some strange (ab)uses of the modem control signals
and TxD from a serial port.  It needs one resistor for pull-up wired
between two pins.  The cable is trivially made.

Constructive feedback is welcome, of course.  Hopefully this will be
useful for someone.

---
Gil Kloepfer
gil@gc2.kloepfer.org
http://www.gc2.kloepfer.org/



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