Re: [Apcupsd-users] Trouble installing apcupsd driver on Windows 7

[Ted M. <te...@mi...>]

The problem IMHO is people treat USB like it's Ethernet.   It's not. 
USB was designed for low-speed, simple devices and it is an example
of something that has been badly abused.  Everything about it is stupid.
The connector is stupid, 50% of the time it's upside down and you have
to flip the connector to plug it in.  There is absolutely no security
mechanism whatsoever.  A USB device is either a client or a host, no
autoselection.  The cable signal is susceptible to interference and
short distance limits.  There are 3 different sizes of ports and the
port with the highest insertion life rating has the lowest mechanical
strength.  WTF is that all about?

The connector is abused for both a power plug port and a data port - 
didn't we all see the Star Wars movies where artoo plugs his data 
contact into a power port and nearly gets fried?  And that movie 
predates USB!!  It's like they asked a group of telephone sanitizers to 
design the USB port!!!!

With serial ports there was only ever 1 UART design and you had a 
reference chip that every clone out there could be measured against.
With USB you have a bunch of manufacturers doing the best they can to
cheapen and bury the port function as an afterthought on to some
all-in-one chip.

And as for USB serial dongles where do I effing begin!  Heck a few
months back I sat down to write an article on how bad the top 2
chipsets are and the sordid story came out to pages and pages - you
can read it here:

http://www.portlandiacloudservices.com/usb-to-rs232-serial-port-adapters-clones-counterfeits/

I had to shake my head reading Daniel's description of running his
observatory on USB.  Here we have a million dollar installation 
controlled by USB!  Unbelievable.  With the industrial customer that I
consult for we run PLC's off serial ports.  We buy 4 port serial port 
cards for PC's if we have to control a lot of devices.  Oxford devices
for Windows systems, MOSChip devices for Linux systems.  The drivers
are rock solid for those pairings and we have never had a problem.

USB is for the mice and keyboards.

Ted

On 2/23/2016 10:53 AM, Mark Foley wrote:
> On Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:10:45 Jernej Simon?i?<jernej's-s...@et...>  wrote:
>
>> As long as ModBus mode isn't used, there shouldn't be any difference
>> between 3.14.12 and 3.14.13 driver ...
>
> Good points, but it still doesn't hurt to have the latest version.  The 3.14.13
> site also says, "Other [in addition to MODBUS] ... changes include ... many
> bug fixes and cleanups to the code base." And the release notes say, "Windows
> USB driver has been updated with additional USB identifiers ...".
>
> General "Bug fixes" and any USB driver updating would indicate to me that a
> newer version should be tried. This might not fix Daniel's problem, but it's
> certainly good practice generally.
>
> I've recently installed PowerChute 3.0 and have not run into the problems you
> mentioned ... yet. Probably hasn't yet been running the month-ish you mentioned.
>
> I threw the PowerChute suggestion out there because if Daniel does not need
> client/server or email notification, he might find PowerChute works better than
> his constant COMMLOST issue with apcupsd.
>
> --Mark
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:10:45 +0100
> From: Jernej Simon?i?	<jernej's-s...@et...>
> Organization: E-mailaholics International
> To: "Mark Foley on [apcupsd-users]"<apc...@li...>
> Subject: Re: [Apcupsd-users] Trouble installing apcupsd driver on Windows 7
>
> On Tuesday, February 23, 2016, 16:25:07, Mark Foley wrote:
>
>> 1) Get the latest apcupsd 3.14.13 from 02 February 2015. Yours is 3.14.12 from
>> 29 March 2014. It's always best to use the latest software when debugging such
>> things. The release notes indicate updates to the Windows USB driver specifically.
>
> As long as ModBus mode isn't used, there shouldn't be any difference
> between 3.14.12 and 3.14.13 driver (the driver on Windows uses
> Microsoft's own WinUSB interface, and the only thing changed between
> .12 and .13 is the .inf file, which now lists modbus hardware IDs).
>
>> Why, if I may ask, are you using apcupsd on Windows? The APC Powerchute software
>> works pretty well and you would likely not have this issue (or would you? might be
>> worth a test). I am using Powerchute on all office workstations, but apcupsd on
>> the Windows database servers because a) powerchute does not have a means of
>> controlling more than one computer connected to a UPS and b) powerchute does not
>> have a mechanism to send email notices when power events occur.
>
> In my experience, PowerChute works for about a month, then it becomes
> impossible to log in to the admin interface (it'll still shut down the
> computer, but good luck trying to change anything), plus it requires
> Java, which I'd prefer to avoid unless absolutely necessary.
>