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Eric S Raymond Taking To Working On An Open Hardware / Open-Source UPS

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  • Eric S Raymond Taking To Working On An Open Hardware / Open-Source UPS

    Phoronix: Eric S Raymond Taking To Working On An Open Hardware / Open-Source UPS

    Controversial open-source figure Eric S. Raymond is hoping to begin work on an open-source, open hardware design for an uninterruptible power supply (UPS)...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    Ok nice. Not a bad idea. Who doesn't have an EET? Mine is only an associates, but I'm sure even I could help out on this one. Cool beans man.

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    • #3
      USB monitoring? If you're building it yourself, just throw a $2 esp8266 in it and use WiFi connectivity. You can base the firmware on the Sonoff POW open source Tasmota firmware. I don't understand why UPS manufacturers are stuck using 20-year old connectivity.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by macemoneta View Post
        USB monitoring? If you're building it yourself, just throw a $2 esp8266 in it and use WiFi connectivity. You can base the firmware on the Sonoff POW open source Tasmota firmware. I don't understand why UPS manufacturers are stuck using 20-year old connectivity.
        Wifi is a terrible idea. Think of how often the standards change. You can take a USB keyboard or mouse or other accessory from twenty years ago, and it's still plug-n-play today. Wifi on the other hand, not so much. I threw out a perfectly good working printer a few years back, because the only connectivity it supported was Wireless "B", which is completely useless today. I've put more than a couple of wifi routers in the dump as well, simply because the wifi standards have changed. Everything else about the device worked fine and met my needs, except for the wifi, which went obsolete very quickly. Not to mention that most datacenter environments don't even have wifi. Why should a clean-slate open source UPS design be relegated to the basement of a home hobbyist?

        I'd prefer a more future minded connectivity option, something that we know will be around for many years to come. USB and Ethernet are about the only two interfaces that meet that criteria.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by macemoneta View Post
          USB monitoring? If you're building it yourself, just throw a $2 esp8266 in it and use WiFi connectivity. You can base the firmware on the Sonoff POW open source Tasmota firmware. I don't understand why UPS manufacturers are stuck using 20-year old connectivity.
          I don't see the usecase for wifi/networking in a UPS...
          IMO it just adds another source of failure, since you'd need to ensure the availability of your network when power goes out. In most cases a UPS is used so that a computer has time to perform the adequate shutdown procedure, minimizing data loss.
          This implies a direct connection to the PC.

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          • #6
            A great thinking man that Raymond.

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            • #7
              Next step : Open source bulbs.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by macemoneta View Post
                USB monitoring? If you're building it yourself, just throw a $2 esp8266 in it and use WiFi connectivity. You can base the firmware on the Sonoff POW open source Tasmota firmware. I don't understand why UPS manufacturers are stuck using 20-year old connectivity.
                That's the great thing with creating a open source design like this. You want yours to have WiFi? Feel free to modify the design. (It may be better for your use case, but not everyone's.) I do however think it's unfair to complain about "20-year old connectivity". According to Wikipedia, USB dates from 1996, WiFi from 1998, so both are about 20 years old (though there have been revisions since then). WiFi is still the standard for general purpose wired connections, and is better than wireless protocols for certain applications.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Serafean View Post

                  I don't see the usecase for wifi/networking in a UPS...
                  IMO it just adds another source of failure, since you'd need to ensure the availability of your network when power goes out. In most cases a UPS is used so that a computer has time to perform the adequate shutdown procedure, minimizing data loss.
                  This implies a direct connection to the PC.
                  My UPS is powering my network components. Another is powering my networked TV. None of which can respond to a USB interface. The monitoring is done on a central device which has its own battery backup.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by torsionbar28 View Post

                    Wifi is a terrible idea. Think of how often the standards change. You can take a USB keyboard or mouse or other accessory from twenty years ago, and it's still plug-n-play today. Wifi on the other hand, not so much. I threw out a perfectly good working printer a few years back, because the only connectivity it supported was Wireless "B", which is completely useless today. I've put more than a couple of wifi routers in the dump as well, simply because the wifi standards have changed. Everything else about the device worked fine and met my needs, except for the wifi, which went obsolete very quickly. Not to mention that most datacenter environments don't even have wifi. Why should a clean-slate open source UPS design be relegated to the basement of a home hobbyist?

                    I'd prefer a more future minded connectivity option, something that we know will be around for many years to come. USB and Ethernet are about the only two interfaces that meet that criteria.
                    All the IoT devices I've recently purchased use WiFi - 802.11b/g/n - provided by an esp8266. It's ubiquitously deployed in over 100,000,000 IoT devices (and billions of non-IoT devices), so 802.11b/g/n isn't going anywhere. Notice that your brand-spanking new WiFi still supports it.

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