> I'd like to thank everyone who replied to this thread. I think the
> end result is going to be good. This turns out to be a really simple
> userspace problem for me. (So I guess it's a little off-topic here,
> huh? I'll keep it short.)
>
> First, the use of a UPS, while it does seem to be a good idea, is
> not really practical in this case. Too many systems involved. This is a
> real low budget, mexican maquiladora operation. And besides, the boss
> says no way.
If you want to get *really* low budget, but still get (some of) the
benfits of a (real) UPS, you might consider getting an el cheapo UPS
that doesn't have a serial line to report status to the workstation.
Normally these are designed to run *attended* boxes, so that if the power
goes out the human operator can bring things down. That's the theory,
anyway.
Then, you can play an Evil Trick. Get an old 2400 baud external modem.
(If you can't find one for free, you didn't really look. I've got two
that people were happy to get rid of.) Set up powerd or whatever to
monitor the modem. Plug the modem into a surge suppressor, not the UPS.
When the power goes down, so does the modem. Then powerd sees that and
shuts down the box safely.
This isn't perfect, of course. There's no way for the computer to know
if the UPS is charged or not. If the battery is drained by a previous
outage there may not be time to safely shut down. Real UPS's can report
this and the computer can refuse to fully boot until the battery is
charged again.
Still, it's *really* low budget...
Sincerely,
Ray Ingles (248) 377-7735 ray.ingles@fanucrobotics.com
The above opinions are probably not those of FANUC Robotics. Yet.