D-Link Forums
The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-323 => Topic started by: rcblackwell on January 02, 2009, 07:21:37 AM
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I'd like to attach my APC UPS to the DNS323 however I'd like to retain print capability. Can I connect a USB HUB to the DNS323 then connect the printer and UPS to the HUB?
Bob
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You ever try this? I'm curious if it'll work.
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I have connected the printer and UPS with a hub and it prints. This has been working for 2 weeks. I no longer have the clear print cue box.
I do not know how the dns will respond to the ups . I will try upluging the ups from AC next week and see if it responds to low battery signal. It does show UPS status as 100% and online.
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I am curious to know, how did you install the UPS software, or you didn't? is there a special version for the DNS 323?
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I have connected the printer and UPS with a hub and it prints. This has been working for 2 weeks. I no longer have the clear print cue box.
I do not know how the dns will respond to the ups . I will try upluging the ups from AC next week and see if it responds to low battery signal. It does show UPS status as 100% and online.
Do you get the ups and printer UI on the status page?
Gary
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I am curious to know, how did you install the UPS software, or you didn't? is there a special version for the DNS 323?
You don't install any software, the DNS-323 has UPS support (NUT) in the firmware - just plug the UPS in and hope it's recognized.
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I just turned off my nas to put my ups inline (had other reason to turn off the nas - see my bit torrent issues in a recent post) between the nas and the wallsocket.
I am not suppose to plug the ups into another outlet strip, but I did. Anyone know why? probably due to overloading the strip.
I also plugged in a cheap usb 2.0 hub I bought at target as part of a travel package for electronics for something like $2.50.
I booted the nas and it recognized the apc ups right away:
Manufacturer: APC
Product: USB2.0 HubBack-UPS ES 550 FW:840.B2.D USB FW:B2
Battery Charge: N/A
Status : N/A
Not sure why the battery charge and status is NA (not available). Anyone?
I'll plug a printer into the hub to see what happens later tonight. Finger's crossed.
Gary
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Yeah for the N/A status that may be why its not intended use both device UPS and Printer. It seems it may display weird in the UI as its not designed to work with both simultaneously but if its seems to work OK maybe this can be added in the next firmware so it will display properly.
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How about you go one step at a time.
UPS directly connected - does it work? does it show the UPS status correctly
UPS connected through USB hub - does it work? what differences do you see from the direct connect scenario?
UPS + Printer connected through USB hub - etc.
If you do it this way you'll have a better idea of where the problem was introduced.
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Yeah for the N/A status that may be why its not intended use both device UPS and Printer. It seems it may display weird in the UI as its not designed to work with both simultaneously but if its seems to work OK maybe this can be added in the next firmware so it will display properly.
I just got home from work tonight and checked the status of the UPS:
Manufacturer: APC
Product: USB2.0 HubBack-UPS ES 550 FW:840.B2.D USB FW:B2
Battery Charge: 95 %
Status : On Line
Mind you I only have the ups plugged in via the hub. I don't have the printer connected.
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How about you go one step at a time.
UPS directly connected - does it work? does it show the UPS status correctly
UPS connected through USB hub - does it work? what differences do you see from the direct connect scenario?
UPS + Printer connected through USB hub - etc.
If you do it this way you'll have a better idea of where the problem was introduced.
Very methodical and I agree. Looks like there is no issue... wait until I plug a printer in :)....
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Just an update... I just plugged in my new brother ql-570 label printer into my dns-323. I first plugged it into my laptop to load the drivers.
Brother printer info: http://www.brother-usa.com/LabelPrinter/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=QL570&cid=YahooPPC&jkId=8a8ae4cc1be37c9a011be579c0596971&jt=1&jadid=10643134021&js=4&jk=ql-570&jsid=10686&jmt=1&utm_source=YSM&utm_medium=PPC&utm_term=QL_570&utm_content=QL-570&utm_campaign=Model_Campaign
I navigated to the status page and I noticed the UPS status section was still there. So far so good.
However, I noticed there is no printer section. A real bummer since, if I remember correctly, you can clear the queue with a press of a button.
I then browsed my nas and clicked on the lp icon and installed my printer driver (I installed it on the laptop first so the drivers will exist when I did this). I then was able to print labels with no issues.
I did not try out the ups, but I'm assuming it'll work. I'll try it later (pulling the plug) after I finish downloading my torrents.
So it looks like adding a UPS and a printer to the DNS-323 via a hub will work. I just need to verify the UPS part by unplugging my UPS and seeing if my NAS will shut down.
The only tweak that's needed is that the GUI should display the printer part in the status page, but I think that is more of a feature request since the original intent was you only have a printer or a UPS hooked up to that port. Would it be possible to add this "feature" to the next firmware as it does not seem to be a difficult change.
Gary
UPDATE: I just logged into my nas box today and noticed the UPS section has the [clear print queue(s)] button and the "Battery Charge: xx%" and "Status: On-Line" lines are gone... Looks like this:
Manufacturer: APC
Product: USB2.0 HubBack-UPS ES 550 FW:840.B2.D USB FW:B2
[clear print queue(s)]
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I have connected the printer and UPS with a hub and it prints. This has been working for 2 weeks. I no longer have the clear print cue box.
I do not know how the dns will respond to the ups . I will try upluging the ups from AC next week and see if it responds to low battery signal. It does show UPS status as 100% and online.
Have you tried unplugging it yet?
Gary
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I have a canon printer and a UPS installed and working through an AC powered USB hub. works just fine and both are recognized and both show up in the printer name box as a weird combined name like "APC Canon UPS i5200" Important part is that it prints fine and shows the UPS status just fine with no loading of additional drivers or monkeying around with firmware v1.06. try an AC powered hub if your particular setup isn't working well.
mike
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I have a canon printer and a UPS installed and working through an AC powered USB hub. works just fine and both are recognized and both show up in the printer name box as a weird combined name like "APC Canon UPS i5200" Important part is that it prints fine and shows the UPS status just fine with no loading of additional drivers or monkeying around with firmware v1.06. try an AC powered hub if your particular setup isn't working well.
mike
So it prints fine, and shows the UPS status fine - BUT - does it shutdown fine?
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So it prints fine, and shows the UPS status fine - BUT - does it shutdown fine?
how long does it take to shut down after power goes off? Power Went off last night but nas was still on. Had fiance shut it off manually.
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That would depend on your UPS, the capacity, the load & the condition of the battery - as I understand it, it's a default NUT (network UPS tools) installation, which looks for two things, the UPS status must be on battery and the battery status must be low - if both are true, that triggers the shutown.
Essentially UPS runtime depends on the load - assuming a battery in good condition, a large UPS with a small load will run for a long time, or a large UPS with a large load will run a short time - you get the idea.
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That would depend on your UPS, the capacity, the load & the condition of the battery - as I understand it, it's a default NUT (network UPS tools) installation, which looks for two things, the UPS status must be on battery and the battery status must be low - if both are true, that triggers the shutown.
Essentially UPS runtime depends on the load - assuming a battery in good condition, a large UPS with a small load will run for a long time, or a large UPS with a large load will run a short time - you get the idea.
The reason I ask is that I want to test the shut down feature of the ups, but I don't want to wait. Sounds like I have to wait until the battery goes low to see whether or not it shuts down. Or i can run the battery down first then plug the nas into the ups and pull the plug...
I have an apc 550 if that matters.
Gary
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Unfortunately there are APC550's and then there are different APC550's - in fact I am right now distinctly less than happy with APC over the way they have chosen to change their software, but that's another story.
APC has several different product lines - SmartUPS & BackUPS are the most common, they do not use the same communication protocols, and in fact, there appear to be differences in the communication protocols used by different versions of the different lines as well - so that software that works with one SmartUPS will not necessarily work with another.
For safety's sake - I would power the DNS-323 and the PC from a power source other than the UPS (the wall outlet if you have stable utility power), find a load at least 80% of the UPS' capacity - if it's a 350VA UPS something like a 200W lamp (lower can work, it will just take longer to reach a low battery), connect it to the UPS and then unplug the UPS and let it run on battery whilst monitoring the DNS-323 status page.
What you should see is the status change from online to on battery, and then the battery status should reduce - this may or may not be reported, depending on the UPS, the SmartUPS should report it, I don't think the BackUPS do - and at some point the UPS will send the low battery alert, which should cause the DNS-323 to power off.
Ideally the DNS-323 should shutdown a minute or so before the UPS turns off - if the UPS turns off before the DNS-323 does (or the UPS turns off and the DNS-323 doesn't) then you know the test failed.
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Unfortunately there are APC550's and then there are different APC550's - in fact I am right now distinctly less than happy with APC over the way they have chosen to change their software, but that's another story.
APC has several different product lines - SmartUPS & BackUPS are the most common, they do not use the same communication protocols, and in fact, there appear to be differences in the communication protocols used by different versions of the different lines as well - so that software that works with one SmartUPS will not necessarily work with another.
For safety's sake - I would power the DNS-323 and the PC from a power source other than the UPS (the wall outlet if you have stable utility power), find a load at least 80% of the UPS' capacity - if it's a 350VA UPS something like a 200W lamp (lower can work, it will just take longer to reach a low battery), connect it to the UPS and then unplug the UPS and let it run on battery whilst monitoring the DNS-323 status page.
What you should see is the status change from online to on battery, and then the battery status should reduce - this may or may not be reported, depending on the UPS, the SmartUPS should report it, I don't think the BackUPS do - and at some point the UPS will send the low battery alert, which should cause the DNS-323 to power off.
Ideally the DNS-323 should shutdown a minute or so before the UPS turns off - if the UPS turns off before the DNS-323 does (or the UPS turns off and the DNS-323 doesn't) then you know the test failed.
I'll give it a try this weekend....
Thanks fordem!
Gary
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This discussion was very interesting but ended without a conclusion.
Can someone please confirm that if you connect a USB hub to a 323 you can attach both a UPS and a printer and that the UPS will still do its job of shutting down the NAS.
FYI, there's another discussion over here (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=3861.msg21719) which also hasn't reached a conclusion.
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I'd be VERY interested to see how these experiments came out! I'd love to have UPS capability added to the DNS-323. I have it plugged into the UPS, but I didn't want to sacrifice the printer capability to add monitoring. :)
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Come on guys - get your hands dirty - surely you already have a USB hub, either lying around unused or maybe one that could be temporarily appropriated for testing. Even if you don't they're cheap.
Run your own tests.
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Come on guys - get your hands dirty - surely you already have a USB hub, either lying around unused or maybe one that could be temporarily appropriated for testing. Even if you don't they're cheap.
Run your own tests.
Well gee, if you don't want to test for us, just say so. ::)