UPS Orvaldi 1000GE with NUT / Linux

Power lines I recently got an Orvaldi 1000GE (or 1000 GE) [PL] [EN-by-google] to test it. This model – in my area – is externally equipped with:

2x Schuko (european) output sockets
1x IEC 60320 C-13 (PC, female) output socket
non-detachable input cable with Schuko plug
2x RJ-45 for some kind of protection for network I guess
1x semi-RS-232/serial DB-9 female socket for control

First thing I did was to plug some load on the output (UPS testing classic: a lamp), connect it to charge, and turned it on. I also connected it to a Linux host with a red RS-232 cable (included in the package). And installed nut on Linux.

While the toolkit was installing I did some physical testing after a while – checked the UPS reaction a few times by plugging and unplugging input power to see how it copes with it. Yes, surely I should not do this until it’s fully charged (Read The Fine Manual 🙂 ). Unfortunately some switch-on actions caused it to just shut off instead of switching to battery. But having it charged for some time (an hour or two) I did not manage to get this awkward behaviour any more. The randomness of on-line to on-battery transition failures was most probably caused by unstable battery voltage just at the edge of usefulness. So I guess this was just normal and my worries about faulty or simply poor device were gone.

Having nut installed I decided to check it with masterguard and blazer_ser drivers. Unfortunately none of them worked. Instead the genericups driver reported changes on the non-data RS-232 lines (tested with upstype values with working on-line and on-battery signalling: 4, 7, 10, 16, 21, 22 ). This has been tested with bundled cable, a straight serial DB-9 extender cord did not work.

Basically it seems like this is a “dumb” UPS, which in fact disappointed me, since a few years ago I managed to get a different (smaller) Orvaldi model to work with fentonups (now: masterguard) reporting load and other numerical data with a simple hack in nut source (now there is novendor option for that). It’s also worth to mention that the UPS ships with a driver CD – there’s a rpm package, and inside there are 3 binaries and a html file suggesting that it is in fact “dumb” – RS-232 lines only.

Summary:

Orvaldi 1000GE UPS is a “dumb” (non-smart) UPS with RS-232 (serial) DB-9 connector and dedicated cable. It supports signalling on-line (OL), on-battery (OB), battery-low (BL) and shutdown (SD) command only.

Possibly all Orvaldi UPS devices in this family may be “dumb“: Orvaldi 1000GE, Orvaldi 1400GE, Orvaldi 2000GE and Orvaldi 3000GE.

Nut driver: genericups with upstype=7

Full RS-232 -to-USB adapters working with Linux that can be used:

Digitus USB-to-serial converter (chipset: FT232RL, lsusb string: “0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC“)
Prolific USB-to-serial adapter (chipset: PL2303, lsusb string: “067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port“)

UPS Ever Duo II Pro with NUT / Linux (rootprompt.apatsch.net)
UPS Ever Duo II Pro with NUT / Linux – bad idea (rootprompt.apatsch.net)

Marcin's rootprompt blog – /dev/web0