[Apcupsd-users] Continual stream of battattach, battdetach, changeme and powerout events from BX1600MI

[Andy S. <an...@st...>]

Hi,

I've never used apcupsd before. I've just set up a brand new
Back-UPS BX1600MI which appears outwards to operate normally (no
audible/visual alarms etc.), but generates a continual stream of
events:

Feb 07 23:54:29 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Battery reattached.
Feb 07 23:55:25 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Power failure.
Feb 07 23:55:26 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Power is back. UPS running on mains.
Feb 07 23:55:26 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Battery disconnected.
Feb 07 23:55:27 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Battery reattached.
Feb 07 23:56:06 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Power failure.
Feb 07 23:56:07 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Power is back. UPS running on mains.
Feb 07 23:56:07 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Battery disconnected.
Feb 07 23:56:08 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Battery reattached.
Feb 07 23:56:58 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Power failure.
Feb 07 23:56:58 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Battery disconnected.
Feb 07 23:56:58 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Power is back. UPS running on mains.
Feb 07 23:56:59 specialbrew.localnet apcupsd[12017]: Battery reattached.

etc

This is attached by the provided USB cable to a Debian 10 (buster)
host. apcupsd is installed from the Debian package, version
3.14.14-2.

$ apcupsd --version
apcupsd 3.14.14 (31 May 2016) debian

Is this behaviour normal?

When I run "apcaccess status" things generally appear normal (STATUS
: ONLINE), but by putting that command in one of the event scripts I
was able to catch output that showed the UPS to report it has no
battery briefly:

apcupsd[12017]: Battery disconnected.
apccontrol[3154]: APC      : 001,036,0909
apccontrol[3154]: DATE     : 2024-02-07 23:40:05 +0000
apccontrol[3154]: HOSTNAME : specialbrew.localnet
apccontrol[3154]: VERSION  : 3.14.14 (31 May 2016) debian
apccontrol[3154]: UPSNAME  : bx1600mi
apccontrol[3154]: CABLE    : USB Cable
apccontrol[3154]: DRIVER   : USB UPS Driver
apccontrol[3154]: UPSMODE  : Stand Alone
apccontrol[3154]: STARTTIME: 2024-02-07 16:33:21 +0000
apccontrol[3154]: MODEL    : Back-UPS BX1600MI
apccontrol[3154]: STATUS   : ONLINE NOBATT
apccontrol[3154]: LINEV    : 237.0 Volts
apccontrol[3154]: LOADPCT  : 28.0 Percent
apccontrol[3154]: BCHARGE  : 99.0 Percent
apccontrol[3154]: TIMELEFT : 17.6 Minutes
apccontrol[3154]: MBATTCHG : 5 Percent
apccontrol[3154]: MINTIMEL : 3 Minutes
apccontrol[3154]: MAXTIME  : 0 Seconds
apccontrol[3154]: SENSE    : Medium
apccontrol[3154]: LOTRANS  : 145.0 Volts
apccontrol[3154]: HITRANS  : 295.0 Volts
apccontrol[3154]: ALARMDEL : No alarm
apccontrol[3154]: BATTV    : 27.3 Volts
apccontrol[3154]: LASTXFER : Low line voltage
apccontrol[3154]: NUMXFERS : 199
apccontrol[3154]: XONBATT  : 2024-02-07 23:40:05 +0000
apccontrol[3154]: TONBATT  : 0 Seconds
apccontrol[3154]: CUMONBATT: 103 Seconds
apccontrol[3154]: XOFFBATT : 2024-02-07 23:40:05 +0000
apccontrol[3154]: SELFTEST : OK
apccontrol[3154]: STATFLAG : 0x01000008
apccontrol[3154]: SERIALNO : 9B2339A15993
apccontrol[3154]: BATTDATE : 2001-01-01
apccontrol[3154]: NOMINV   : 230 Volts
apccontrol[3154]: NOMBATTV : 24.0 Volts
apccontrol[3154]: NOMPOWER : 900 Watts
apccontrol[3154]: END APC  : 2024-02-07 23:40:06 +0000

(This being "apcaccess status | logger" from the apccontrol script
on the battdetach event.)

Most of the time even executing this on the event isn't fast enough
and the STATUS just reads "ONLINE".

The BCHARGE reads 99% because I had earlier unplugged it to test
things.

Here is my apcupsd.conf:

$ grep -vE '^(#|$)' /etc/apcupsd/apcupsd.conf 
UPSNAME bx1600mi
UPSCABLE usb
UPSTYPE usb
DEVICE
LOCKFILE /run/lock
SCRIPTDIR /etc/apcupsd
PWRFAILDIR /etc/apcupsd
NOLOGINDIR /etc
ONBATTERYDELAY 6
BATTERYLEVEL 5
MINUTES 3
TIMEOUT 0
ANNOY 0
ANNOYDELAY 60
NOLOGON disable
KILLDELAY 0
NETSERVER on
NISIP 127.0.0.1
NISPORT 3551
EVENTSFILE /var/log/apcupsd.events
EVENTSFILEMAX 10
UPSCLASS standalone
UPSMODE disable
STATTIME 0
STATFILE /var/log/apcupsd.status
LOGSTATS off
DATATIME 0

Have I configured something incorrectly here, or this model is known
to not work with apcupsd, or it is faulty?

Thanks,
Andy