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NAME

       blazer_ser,  blazer_usb  -  Driver  for  Megatec/Q1 protocol serial/USB
       based UPS equipment

NOTE

       This man page only documents  the  hardware-specific  features  of  the
       blazer driver. For information about the core driver, see nutupsdrv(8).

SUPPORTED HARDWARE

       The blazer driver is known to work  with  various  UPSes  from  Blazer,
       Energy  Sistem,  Fenton  Technologies,  Mustek and many others. The NUT
       compatibility table lists all the known supported models. Keep in mind,
       however,  that other models not listed there may also be supported, but
       haven't been tested.

       All devices with a serial interface (use  the  blazer_ser  driver)  and
       many with a USB interface (use the blazer_usb driver) are supported.

EXTRA ARGUMENTS

       You may need to override or provide defaults for some values, depending
       on the make and model of your UPS. The following are the ones that most
       likely will need changing (see ups.conf(5)):

       default.battery.voltage.high = value

              Maximum  battery  voltage  that  is reached after about 12 to 24
              hours charging.  If you want the driver to report a guesstimated
              battery.charge, you need to specify this (see BATTERY CHARGE).

       default.battery.voltage.low = value

              Minimum  battery voltage just before the UPS automatically shuts
              down.   If  you  want  the  driver  to  report  a   guesstimated
              battery.charge, you need to specify this (see BATTERY CHARGE).

       default.battery.voltage.nominal = value

       override.battery.voltage.nominal = value

              Some  devices  show  a wrong nominal battery voltage (or none at
              all), so you may need to override or set a default value.

       override.battery.packs = value

              Some devices report a part of the  total  battery  voltage.  For
              instance,  if  battery.voltage.nominal is 24 V, but it reports a
              battery.voltage of around 2 V, the number  of  battery.packs  to
              correct  this  reading  would  be 12. The driver will attempt to
              detect this automatically, but if this fails  somehow,  you  may
              want to override this value.

       ondelay = value

              Time  to wait before switching on the UPS (minutes). Note that a
              value below 3 minutes, may cause earlier  firmware  versions  to
              not switch on automatically, so it defaults to 3 minutes.

       offdelay = value

              Time  to wait before shutting down the UPS (seconds). This value
              is truncated to units of 6 seconds (less than 60 seconds) or  60
              seconds (more than 60 seconds). Defaults to 30 seconds.

       norating

              Some   UPSes  will  lock  up  if  you  attempt  to  read  rating
              information from them.  Setting this flag will make  the  driver
              skip this step.

       novendor

              Some   UPSes  will  lock  up  if  you  attempt  to  read  vendor
              information from them.  Setting this flag will make  the  driver
              skip this step.

       runtimecal = value,value,value,value

              Parameter  used in the (optional) runtime estimation. This takes
              two runtimes  at  different  loads.  Typically,  this  uses  the
              runtime at full load and the runtime at half load. For instance,
              if your UPS has a rated runtime of 240 seconds at full load  and
              720 seconds at half load, you would enter

                  runtimecal = 270,100,720,50

              The  first  load should always be higher than the second. If you
              have values  available  for  loads  other  than  100  and  50  %
              respectively,  you can use those too, but keep them spaced apart
              as far as reasonably possible. Just don't get too  close  to  no
              load  (prediction  of  runtime depends more on idle load for the
              battery then).

       chargetime = value

              The time needed to fully recharge the battery after being  fully
              discharged.  If  not  specified,  the  driver  defaults to 43200
              seconds (12 hours). Only used if runtimecal is also specified.

       idleload= value

              Minimum battery load used by the driver to estimate the runtime.
              If  not  specified,  the  driver  defaults to 10 %. Only used if
              runtimecal is also specified.

SERIAL INTERFACE ONLY

       cablepower = string

              By default the driver will set DTR and clear  RTS  (normal).  If
              you  find that your UPS isn't detected or the communication with
              the UPS is unreliable, you may try if  clear  DTR  and  set  RTS
              (reverse),  set  DTR  and RTS (both) or clear DTR and RTS (none)
              improves this situation.

USB INTERFACE ONLY

       vendorid = regex

       productid = regex

       vendor = regex

       product = regex

       serial = regex

              Select a specific UPS, in case there is more than one  connected
              via  USB.  Each  option specifies an extended regular expression
              (see   regex(7))   that   must   match    the    UPS's    entire
              vendor/product/serial string (minus any surrounding whitespace),
              or  the  whole  4-digit  hexadecimal  code  for   vendorid   and
              productid. Try -DD for finding out the strings to match.

              Examples:

                  -x vendor="Foo.Corporation.*"

                  -x vendorid=051d (APC)

                  -x product=".*(Smart|Back)-?UPS.*"

       bus = regex

              Select  a  UPS  on  a  specific  USB bus or group of busses. The
              argument is a regular expression that must match  the  bus  name
              where the UPS is connected (e.g. bus="002", bus="00[2-3]").

       subdriver = string

              Select  a  serial-over-USB  subdriver  to use. You have a choice
              between phoenix ippon, cypress  and  krauler.  When  using  this
              option,  it  is  mandatory  to  also  specify  the  vendorid and
              productid. Note that since nut-2.4.2 the ippon subdriver is used
              where  previously the phoenix was selected. If this doesn't work
              for you, add the following to the  ups.conf(5)  entry  for  your
              UPS:
                  vendorid  = 06da
                  productid = 0003
                  subdriver = phoenix

UPS COMMANDS

       This driver supports some instant commands (see upscmd(8)):

       beeper.toggle

              Toggle the UPS beeper. (Not available on some hardware.)

       load.on

              Turn on the load immediately.

       load.off

              Turn off the load immediately (see KNOWN PROBLEMS).

       shutdown.return [value]

              Turn off the load and return when power is back. Uses the timers
              defined by ondelay and offdelay.

       shutdown.stayoff [value]

              Turn off the load and remain off (see KNOWN PROBLEMS). Uses  the
              timer defined by offdelay.

       shutdown.stop

              Stop a shutdown in progress.

       test.battery.start.deep

              Perform a long battery test (Not available on some hardware.)

       test.battery.start.quick

              Perform a (10 second) battery test.

       test.battery.start value

              Perform   a  battery  test  for  the  duration  of  num  seconds
              (truncated to units of 60 seconds).

       test.battery.stop

              Stop a running battery test (not available on some hardware.)

BATTERY CHARGE

       Due  to  popular  demand,  this  driver  will  report  a   guesstimated
       battery.charge and optionally battery.runtime, provided you specified a
       couple of the EXTRA PARAMETERS listed above.

       If you specify both  battery.voltage.high  and  battery.voltage.low  in
       ups.conf(5),  but don't enter runtimecal, it will guesstimate the state
       of charge by looking at the battery voltage alone. This is not reliable
       under  load,  as  this  only  gives reasonably accurate readings if you
       disconnect the load, let the battery rest for a couple of  minutes  and
       then  measure  the  open cell voltage. This just isn't practical if the
       power went out and the UPS is providing power for your systems.

                            battery.voltage - battery.voltage.low
       battery.charge =  ------------------------------------------ x 100 %
                         battery.voltage.high - battery.voltage.low

       There is a way to get better readings without  disconnecting  the  load
       but  this  requires to keep track on how much (and how fast) current is
       going in- and out of the battery. If you specified the runtimecal,  the
       driver  will attempt to do this. Note however, that this heavily relies
       on the values you enter and that the UPS must be  able  to  report  the
       load  as  well. There are quite a couple of devices that report 0 % (or
       any other fixed value) at all  times,  in  which  case  this  obviously
       doesn't work.

       The  driver  also  has  no  way  of  determining the degradation of the
       battery capacity over time, so you'll have to deal with  this  yourself
       (by  adjusting  the  values  in  runtimecal.  Also note that the driver
       guesses the initial state of charge based on the  battery  voltage,  so
       this  may  be  less than 100 %, even when you are certain that they are
       full. There is just no way to reliably measure this between 0 and 100 %
       full charge.

       This  is  better  than  nothing  (but not by much). If any of the above
       calculations is giving you incorrect readings, you are the one that put
       in the values in ups.conf(5), so don't complain with the author. If you
       need something better,  buy  a  UPS  that  reports  battery.charge  and
       battery.runtime all by itself without the help of a NUT driver.

KNOWN PROBLEMS

       Some  UPS  commands  aren't supported by all models. In most cases, the
       driver will send a message to the system log when  the  user  tries  to
       execute  an  unsupported command. Unfortunately, some models don't even
       provide a way for the driver to check  for  this,  so  the  unsupported
       commands will silently fail.

       Both  the  load.off  and shutdown.stayoff instant commands are meant to
       turn the load off indefinitely. However, some UPS  models  don't  allow
       this.

       Some  models report a bogus value for the beeper status (will always be
       enabled or disabled). So, the beeper.toggle command may appear to  have
       no  effect  in  the  status reported by the driver when, in fact, it is
       working fine.

       The temperature and load value is known to be bogus in some models.

AUTHORS

       Arjen de Korte <adkorte-guest at alioth.debian.org>  Alexander  Gordeev
       <lasaine at lvk.cs.msu.su>

SEE ALSO

       nutupsdrv(8), upsc(8), upscmd(8), upsrw(8)

   Internet resources:
       The NUT (Network UPS Tools) home page: http://www.networkupstools.org/

                                Mon Feb 16 2009