.TH mge\-utalk 8 "Mon Jan 16 2006" "" "Network UPS Tools (NUT)"
.SH NAME
mge\(hyutalk \- Driver for MGE UPS SYSTEMS UTalk protocol hardware
.SH NOTE
This man page only documents the hardware\(hyspecific features of the
mge\(hyutalk driver.  For information about the core driver, see
\fBnutupsdrv\fR(8).

.SH SUPPORTED HARDWARE
mge\(hyutalk supports the following legacy units, using the MGE UTalk
protocol:

    Pulsar ESV+,
    Pulsar ES+,
    Pulsar EL,
    Pulsar EX,
    Pulsar EXtreme,
    Comet EXtreme,
    Comet (Utalk Serial Card, ref 66060),
    Galaxy (Utalk Serial Card, ref 66060).

This driver also support some newer models with backward UTalk compatibility,
such as Pulsar Evolution and Pulsar EXtreme C. As these models also support
the SHUT protocol, prefer mge-shut for serial communication, or use the USB
port, if available, with the usbhid-ups driver.

.SH EXTRA ARGUMENTS

This driver supports the following optional settings in the
\fBups.conf\fR(5):

.IP "lowbatt=\fIvalue\fR"
Low battery level below which LB is raised, in % (default 30%)

.IP "ondelay=\fIvalue\fR"
Set delay before startup, in minutes (default 1 minute)

.IP "offdelay=\fIvalue\fR"
Delay before shutdown, in seconds (default 120 seconds)

.IP "oldmac"
Set this flag if you are running Linux on an Oldworld Macintosh box
(all beige Apple Macintosh). This might also be needed for other
OSs (like *BSD) running on PowerMac.

.SH IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS

Not all MGE UPS models provide all possible information, settings and commands.
mge\(hyutalk checks on startup which variables and commands are available from
the UPS, and re\(hyreads these regularly. Thus, startup is a bit slow,
but this should not matter much.

mge\(hyutalk.h defines a struct array that tells the driver how to read
variables from the UPS and publish them as NUT data.

"ups.status" variable is not included in this array, since it
contains information that requires several calls to the UPS and more
advanced analysis of the reponses. The function get_ups_status does
this job.

Note that MGE enumerates the status "bits" from right to left,
i.e., if buf[] contains the reponse to command "Ss" (read system
status), then buf[0] contains "bit" Ss.1.7 (General alarm), while
buf[7] contains "bit" Ss.1.0 (Load unprotected). 

enable_ups_comm() is called before each attempt to read/write data
from/to the UPS to re synchronise the communication.

.SH KNOWN ISSUES
.SS "Repetitive stale status \(hy Loss of communication"

Older models, such as ES/ESV ones, might report repetitive "data stale"
errors. This is due to the fact that these models doesn't support too
much polling. To solve this problem, add "pollinterval=20" in ups.conf,
and change the value of MAXAGE to 25 in upsd.conf, and DEADTIME to 25
in upsmon.conf.

.SH TODO LIST

.IP "Sort out OFF/OL issues"
OFF is set according to Ls.2.7, but maybe this interpretation is in
conflict with the NUT interpretation of the OFF flag?

.IP "Add PowerShare / PowerSave support (selectable plug number for commands)"
ON/OFF/REBOOT commands can act either on outlet 1, 2 or main (1 + 2). This
features depends on the UPS model. This would also allow to support
UM\(hySwitch (smart outlet).

.IP "Enhance the model name exposure"
A table, named Si1_models_names, has been created to format finelly the
UPSs model names, but it is not yet being used.

.SH AUTHORS
Arnaud Quette, Hans Ekkehard Plesser, Martin Loyer, Patrick Agrain,
Nicholas Reilly, Dave Abbott, Marek Kralewski

.SH SEE ALSO

.SS The core driver:
\fBnutupsdrv\fR(8)

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