The UPS Howto

Harvey J. Stein, hjstein@bfr.co.il, Berger Financial Research, Ltd.

v2.42, 18 November 1997

This document will help you connect an uninterruptable power supply to a Linux box... if you're lucky... Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 by Harvey J. Stein. You may use this document as you see fit, as long as it remains intact. In particular, this notice (along with the contributions below) must remain untouched.

1. Introduction

1.1 Contributors
1.2 Important disclaimer
1.3 Other documents

2. Important note on obsolete information

3. Smart and dumb UPSs.

4. Software

5. Do it yourself guide

5.1 What you need to do (summary)
5.2 How it's supposed to work
5.3 How to set things up
5.4 User Enhancements

6. Hardware notes

6.1 How to make a cable
6.2 Reverse-engineering cables and hacking powerd.c
6.3 Serial port pin assignments
6.4 Ioctl to RS232 correspondence

7. What to do when you're really stuck

8. Info on selected UPSs

8.1 General Experiences.
8.2 Advice 1200 A
8.3 Trust Energy Protector 400/650
8.4 Trust UPS 400-A
8.5 Sustainer S-40a
8.6 Systel
8.7 Deltec Power, Fiskars Power Systems and Exide.
8.8 Beaver model UB500 UPS
8.9 Sendom
8.10 Best
8.11 GPS1000 from ACCODATA
8.12 TrippLite BC750LAN (Standby UPS)
8.13 APC