400 Using Commands to Communicate with the Fortress

This section explains how to communicate with the Fortress in RS232 mode. See Section 300 to start two-way communication. If you plan to use CheckUPS II software, see the online manual on the CheckUPS CD for more information about UPS monitoring and control.

401 Passwords

Before you can enter some commands, you must enter a password, 'Mere are two levels of passwords: User and Service. To enter the User password, type the following at the => prompt: pw 377 <ENTER>. After you enter the password, the prompt will change to "User=>." The Service password is for more advanced parameter programming and for service functions. Before you change parameters, you should make sure you understand the effects of the change; if you are not sure, call Best Power for help. To enter the Service password, type pw 2639 <ENTER>. The prompt will change to "Serv=>".

402 Commands

You can only enter commands if the Fortress is in the RS232 Communication Mode and you are not using CheckUPS II. To enter a command, simply type it in and press [ENTER]. You can type the command in uppercase or lowercase, and you can use the whole command or the short form, or you can abbreviate the command as long as you include the letters in the short form. You can also enter more than one command at once if you put a semicolon between commands. The table on the next few pages shows each command, its short form, the password required (if any), and what the command does.

403 Help Commands

You can use some commands to help you learn more about how the Fortress works. These commands are alarmshelp, alarmstatus, and commands.

AlarmsHelp and AlarmStatus Commands

The alarmshelp and alarmstatus commands display a list of alarms with their letters and codes, the current status of the alarm (active or off), and the relay setting. See the sample list below:

Commands

When you enter commands, the terminal will display a list of commands.

Note: The following commands in the displayed list are not implemented for Fortress: alarmlog, chargermode, clearlogs, help, inverterlog, and logs. If you use the help command, you will be referred to the Fortress User Guide; if you use the other commands, you will receive the message "Command not implemented." The command list also shows commands that you cannot use without a password higher than the Service password. See Section 402 for a list of valid commands and the passwords you need to use them.

404 Status Commands

The alarmstatus command shows the same alarm information that the alarmshelp command does. See the sample above. The status and contstatus commands display several Fortress parameter values, active alarins, and other status information. The next page shows an example of a status display.

System status report for L1520VA [Unit ID - parameter 15] (Serial Number) Friday, July 12, 1996 - 12:32:41



Front panel: L - - | 30

Last battery power run duration: 25 seconds

Active alarms:
(None)

In the status display, the table shows the values of many Fortress parameters and the status of Fortress operation.

Line Status: "V In" and "V Out" show the input and output voltage, "Freq" shows the output frequency, and "PF" shows the power factor. See parameters 1, 2, 8, and 18 in Section 501 for more information.

Load Status: "I Out" shows the output current, "VA Out" shows the output volt-amperes, "Watts" shows the output watts, and "FullLoad%" shows the percent of the Fortress' power your equipment (or load) is using. See parameters 4, 5, 17, and 16 in Section 501 for more information.

UPS Status: "Mode" shows whether the unit is running on line (utility power) or battery. "Tap" shows whether the UPS is using boost (to increase a low input voltage), buck (to decrease a high input voltage), or bypass (to condition input voltage that is at acceptable levels). "V Batt" shows the battery voltage, and "Runtime" shows how long the unit can run on battery power; see parameters 7 and 9 in Section 501 for more information.

Totals: "SysHrs" shows the total nurnber of hours the Fortress has operated. "InvMin" shows the number of minutes the Fortress has operated on inverter (battery power) since it started. "#PwrOut" shows how many power outages have taken place since you started the Fortress, and "#OvrLds" shows how many times the Fortress has been overloaded since you started the Fortress. See parameters 22, 23, 20, and 21 in Section 501 for more information.

Front Panel: This part of the status report approximates what you will see on the Fortress front panel. In the example, "L" means the green light (the "line" light) is on, which shows that the Fortress is running on utility power. The two dashes behind the line mean that the yellow light and red light are not on. If they were, you would see a "B" (meaning the Fortress was running on battery power) and an "A" (meaning Fortress is sounding an alarm). "30" is the number shown on display; since the green (L) light is on, this is the percent of the UPS' total power that your equipment is using. See the Fortress User Guide for more information about the display.

Last Battery Power Run Duration: This entry shows how long the UPS ran on battery power last time there was a power outage or severe power problem.

Active Alarms: The last part of the status report shows which alarms are active. If the UPS is not sounding any alarms, the report will show "(None)" as it does in the example.




The contstatus command shows the same report as the status command, but it continuously updates the information until you press a key.

405 Parameter Commands

This section describes the commands you can use to display and program parameters.

When you use the commands described below, you must often specify a parameter. To do this, you can enter the parameter number or its name. The Parameter Table in Section 501 shows the name you can use for each parameter; you can also use the short form shown in the table, or you can enter an abbreviation of the name as long as you include the letters in the short form. (You can also abbreviate commands; see Section 402.)

The display, contdisplay, parameters and paramkeywords commands let you display parameters. The program command changes parameter values.

Display

The display (or d) command lets you display specific parameters on your computer or terminal. For example, if you enter display 0, display time or d t, your computer or terminal will display parameter 0 (below). Notice that you must leave a space between the command and the parameter number or name.


00 Time 14:42:21


If you enter more than one parameter name or number after this command, your computer or terminal will display those parameters. For example, if you enter d time 38 10, the display will show parameters 0, 38, and 10:


00 Time 14:42:21
38 LowRuntime 5
10 Date 08/30/96


Notice that you can mix names and numbers, and you can list the parameters in any order.

If you have already displayed a parameter, you can display the next parameter by entering display alone.

Contdisplay

The contdisplay (or cd) command works like the display command, but it constantly updates the parameter values displayed until you press a key.

Parameters

Like the display command, the parameters (or p) command will display a parameter if you enter a parameter number or name after the command. For example, If you enter parameter 0, parameter time, or p t, your terminal or computer will display something like the sample on the next page.


00 Time 14:42:21


However, the parameters command works differently when you enter it alone or when you enter more than one parameter after the command. When you enter parameters (or p) alone, your computer or terminal displays all of the user-level and service-level parameters shown in Section 501.

To display a range of parameters, enter the starting and ending parameters after the command. Instead of showing just the parameters you list (as the display command does), the parameters command will display all of the parameters in between. For example, if you enter parameter 0 5, parameter time vaout, or p t va, your computer or terminal will display parameters 0 through 5:


00 Time 14:42:21
01 V In 118.2
02 V Out 118.2
03 *L - A 00
04 I Out 11.8
05 VA Out 345

Paramkeywords

The paramkeywords (or pk) command works like the parameters command, but it also displays the keyword or name of each parameter you display. (The keyword is the name shown in Section 501.) For example, if you enter paramkeywords time vaout (or pk t va), your computer or terminal will display a list like this example:


00 Time 14:43:59 Time
01 V In 118.2 acVoltsIn
02 V Out 118.8 acVoltsout
03 *L - A | 00 DiSplay
04 I Out 11.8 acampsiOut
05 VA Out 345 VAout


Notice that some letters are capitalized in the keywords on the right. These letters make up the short form of the parameter name (or keyword).

To display all of the user and service parameters and their keywords, enter paramkeywords (or pk) alone.

Program

Before you can program or change some parameters, you must enter the User or Service password. (See Section 40 1.) Some parameters cannot be changed; see Section 5 0 1.

The program (or pr) command lets you program parameters. Simply type program, the parameter number or name, and the new value.

Example: If you enter program time 09:30:00, the time will be changed to 9:30 a.m. If you then display the parameter using the command display time, you will see a display similar to this:

00 Time 09:30:00

406 The Format Commands

The three format commands tell the Fortress to send system status and metering information in a fixed format. You can incorporate this information into your computer system's software without any text or punctuation. There are three commands: format (f), formatconfig (fc), and formatparam (fp).

For the format (f) command, the data string is made up of

• two carriage returns and a line feed,
• 80 ASCII characters that represent 40 hexadecimal bytes of information, and
• two more carriage returns and a line feed.

The characters in the string represent the data shown in the table on the next two pages. For an example
of the string, see page 19.

For the formatconfig (fc) command, the data string is made up of

• a carriage return and a line feed,
• the data string defined in the following table, and
• another carriage return and a line feed.

• NOTE: The header and the first 70 characters in the string are always present; if the information required for one of these characters is not available, the characters will be filled with a question mark (?). After character 70, all characters are optional. This means that if the information is not available, the characters are not included in the string; however, backslashes will appear between fields of information even if there is no information in a particular field.
  

The table on the next two pages shows the fc-string fields in the order in which they appear. The table does not identify the character position because this depends on the length of some fields and the number of fields that are present. For an example of the string with the fields identified, see page 19.

For the formatparam (fp) command, the data string is made up of

• a carriage return and a line feed,
• the data string defined in the following table, and
• another carriage return and a line feed.

• NOTE: The header and the first 124 characters in the string are always present; if the information required for one of these characters is not available, the characters will be filled with a question mark (?), All characters after character 124 are optional. This means that if the information is not available, the characters are not included in the string; however, backslashes will still appear between fields of information even if there is no information in a particular field.
  

The table on the next two pages shows the fp-string fields in the order in which they. appear. The table does not identify the character position because this depends on the length of some fields and the number of fields that are present. For an example of the fp string with the fields identified, see page 19.

Examples:
Below you will find examples of the strings sent in response to the format (f) command, the
formatconfig (fc) command, and the formatparam (fp) command. In these examples, some parts of the
string are shaded to show you the fields or groups of information. The shading is not part of the data
string.

The format (f) command):




The formatconfig (fc) command:




The formatparam (fp) command: